Left Behind?
In October a new movie Left
Behind came out starring Nicolas Cage. Even if, like me, you didn’t see the movie, I imagine most of you
have heard of the very popular Left
Behind novels on which it’s based. They imagine a world in which Jesus returns
and calls to heaven 140 million people, leaving behind billions of stupefied,
confused, and grief-stricken others. In the HBO show of the same name, a mother
loses her baby, who disappears. A boy's father seems to have vanished as he
pushes a shopping cart. Cars collide as drivers go missing. Chaos strikes in
the fictional Mapleton, New York -- and throughout the world.
If you haven’t heard about Left Behind, I’m sure you will have heard something about the
rapture during which it is said that God’s chosen will be snatched up to heaven.
For some Christians this has become a core belief, and they ask whether you
will be one of the lucky ones, or whether you will be left behind to endure a
time of tribulation. Usually, Episcopalians are not considered good candidates.
The main passage on which this idea is based is the first reading
we just heard – the one from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. Let’s take a
look at that together.
It seems that Paul is
responding to questions about what happens to those who have died before Jesus’
Second Coming. This must have been quite
a problem for the early church because they expected Jesus to return at any
moment. Now some of their number were dying – did that mean that they would
miss Jesus’ coming and the resurrection of all believers?
Paul tells them not to worry. “We do not want you to be
uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may
not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have
died.” In other words,
“Don’t worry - God will include all those who have died.”
“For this we declare to you by the word of
the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,
will by no means precede those who have died.” We’re in this together regardless of whether
or not we are physically alive when Jesus comes again.
“For the Lord himself, with a cry of
command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will
descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are
alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet
the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.” This is a picture, a metaphor. We know
that because it draws from three important images. The first is Moses coming down the mountain
after he’s been given the law – a trumpet sounds and a loud voice is heard
before he descends form Sinai. The second is from Daniel in which the saints –
the people of the Most High - are vindicated over their pagan enemies by being
raised up to sit with God. The third and final picture is that of an emperor
visiting a colony where the people would go out into the countryside to greet
him and then accompany him into the city.
The Greek word
translated meet is one used for a
gathering of visiting dignitaries, so the people of God will go out to greet
Jesus as he comes from heaven. Given that they figured heaven was in the sky,
it makes sense that people would meet him in the air. But the word for air used
here is not one for the stratosphere but for the air we breathe. So the image
is not of people suddenly being lifted off their feet or “snatched up” and
jet-propelled into heaven, but rather of God’s faithful people going out to
meet him in a wonderful and wondrous celebration.[1]
The idea of the
so-called Rapture is quite a new one. It was invented in the 1830s by John
Nelson Darby, an Anglo-Irish theologian with a fundamentalist bent. Darby read
Revelation as being a literal description of the end-times and created a
theology based on how he understood it. His ideas were later popularized by
Cyrus Scofield who published a reference Bible in 1908 on which generations of
American preachers cut their teeth. Although it’s poor theology, it has become
part of the thinking of many Christians because it’s very useful to revivalist
preachers.
When you want to
make people feel that they should immediately repent and commit their lives to
God it’s very helpful to have a theology which suggests that if they don’t they
are in eternal peril. The theory of the end times of which the Rapture is an
integral part suggests, correctly, that we don’t know when it will happen. So
we need to be prepared at all times and in a place of communion with God lest
we be left behind. None of us wants to be abandoned in an unruly and terrifying
world, so the fear of being unprepared may lead us to long for a new
conviction, a revival, in our spiritual life. Which spells success for the
revivalist preacher.
The gospel
reading today lends itself to that same interpretation. Be prepared because you
don’t know when Jesus is going to come and find you out! Better not be found
napping or without enough oil because then the doors might be locked against
you for ever. Wake up! Wake up!
I imagine that if
Jesus were telling this parable today he might tell it rather differently. He might
tell us that the five foolish bridesmaids had brought too much with them. They
brought two or even three suitcases, not to mention their ipads and ipods. So
when the bridegroom was delayed, they started going through their things and
checking Facebook, playing games at the same time as sending selfies to their
friends and looking for that special pair of pink shoes that they’re sure they
packed and they wished they’d put on. So
when the bridegroom came, they weren’t ready. They weren’t ready because they
had to put their shoes on, repack their suitcases and finish their games and by
the time they’d done all that it was too late.
This week I saw
an ad on CNN which shows a man in an airport focused on his ipad. We’re told
that he’s worrying about his insurance. While he’s doing that, another man sits
down nearby and attempts to start a conversation, but then leaves because he
can’t get the worried man’s attention. The advertisement tells us that worrying
about his insurance just cost him a big business deal. Then the scenario replays. This time, he consults
a friendly insurance agent so by the time he sits down at the airport he has
taken care of all his worries. This time he starts the conversation and, yes,
you guessed it, gets the big business deal.
Now you may not
be worried about what insurance you have or where you put your pink shoes, but
I’m prepared to bet that there are things that take your attention away from
the moment. Things that stop you from being fully present in your life. Most of
us are only half here much of the time. We’re either tied up in the past
nursing old resentments, grieving for what was or what might have been; or
we’re planning and worrying about the future. It’s as though we’ve been given
100 units of energy everyday but instead of having them to use here and now, 25
of them are spent thinking about what might have been and another 25 on what
may happen and so we only have 50% of our energy available for the moment.
All the great
spiritual teachers of our time agree that living in the moment is one of the
most important goals of spiritual practice. In the moment, we have what we
need. In the moment, God can break through into our lives with a sudden glimpse
of the holy. It only takes a holy instant to transform our lives – to change
our understanding of God and the universe for ever. But if we are distracted by
many things we may not notice that instant and it will be gone. God does not
give up on us, so there will be other opportunities – but who wants to miss the
first?
Centering Prayer
and meditation are practices which help us to live in the moment. Because when
you are sitting in silence, opening to the presence of God, you are creating a
time when you consciously choose to be present to Spirit. During this time you
let go of all the thoughts and feelings which crowd into your mind– you don’t
get involved. It’s tempting to allow the
activity of your mind to pull you away from your central focus, but when that
happens you just gently pull your attention back and continue to sit in
silence, in the presence of God. It isn’t easy and it isn’t just emptying your
mind. It is a practice, like going to the spiritual gym, which builds up your
ability to be present in the moment and open to the movement of the Spirit
within and around you. It also increases your serenity and your ability to be
centered in your life rather than reacting to everything that happens around
you.
This week I
visited with a woman in her late 90s who wanted to talk with me about dying.
She is a lively person who is annoyed by her increasing need to sleep and her
body’s reluctance to continue the active life she is used to. Unfortunately she
did not develop a meditation practice when she was younger. If she had, it
would help her to be far more comfortable with herself in the moment and not so
concerned about how she will die. Waiting to start centering prayer until we
need it does not work. We have the opportunity to cultivate inner quiet and
inner listening today. It’s like a muscle – you can’t expect it to work when
you need it if you haven’t used and exercised it – if you haven’t trained it.
Although God goes
on giving us opportunities to turn towards God, the older we get and the more
we have ignored, the harder it gets to spot them. So there does come a point
where turning towards God is almost impossible. There does come a point when
our minds are so distracted by the effects of old age that we cannot easily
begin to practice mindfulness. We can no longer begin a meditation practice. So
the time to begin is now.
And that is I
think what this parable is pointing to. I do not believe that God intends us to
be fearful or wants us to turn to her out of fear. I am not a revivalist
preacher threatening that unless you turn to Jesus you will be left
behind! But we do live in a space-time continuum and as we know time flies – can
you believe it’s nearly Thanksgiving already? So we need to be aware of that.
We have opportunities today to deepen our spiritual walk, to serve our world,
to open to the unexpected moments when the holy breaks through.
If you are like
the traditional bridesmaids and you need to have more oil in order to be ready
for those moments now is the time to get it. If you are like the modern
bridesmaids and need to cut loose of your baggage so that you can be present to
the moment when it happens, now is the time to do it.
One thing John
Nelson Darby had right is that we don’t know. We can’t predict Jesus’ Second
Coming. We don’t know if it will be a cosmic event in our physical lifetimes or
a personal event after we die. Neither do we know how long we will live – we
can’t predict our own deaths. We don’t know and so there is no room for
complacency. Now is the time to do whatever it is you know in your heart of
hearts that you need to do. Now is all that we have; the past has gone, the
future is yet to be revealed.
When Jesus the Bridegroom
comes we want to be ready to go out and meet him, whether he comes in our
hearts or in our world. Now is the time of preparation.
Now.
posted by Caroline Hall at
6:53 AM
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