Daily Bread

But 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. 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. 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 for ever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

It was 1991, and I am in a pentecostal church in Albany in South West Australia, as the preacher, standing on the platform, whips up enthusiasm in his congregation. "I believe that Jesus Christ is coming in my lifetime! Do you believe it?" The crowd cheer and answered an affirmative, "Yes!" and I stand, bewildered, a little unsure, and vaguely nod. Maybe Jesus will return in my lifetime, maybe he won't?

Forward wind 25 years and I am sitting in the hall of a great house. It's a clergy conference and the eminent Bible scholar Jürgen Moltmann is standing on a platform. He quietly preaches, "Jesus is in the process of coming because you can meet Jesus in the here and now." My mind was officially blown.

The Australian preacher and the Bible scholar were both talking about the parousia (a Greek word pronounced par-oo-see-ah) which means "coming" or "presence", and the term is used to label the event of Jesus' triumphant return — what we have dubbed the 'second coming'.

It is clear that in one respect (at least when he wrote this letter to the church in Thessalonica) the Apostle Paul had got it wrong, in that he expected this triumphant return to be imminent and in his lifetime. However, like many other aspects of doctrine (including the Holy Trinity), hindsight is a wonderful thing! What Paul did get right is that Jesus would be returning but that this return would be a process. It is true to say that Jesus has come (past tense), is coming (present tense), and will fully come (future tense).

There is so much more to say about this, but getting back to our Bible reading, what Paul was addressing here was the question about those who have died before Jesus 'fully' comes, and he wanted to assure his readers that they would have a place in the fully renewed and restored creation heralded by the kingdom of heaven having arrived fully. To describe this, Paul used a short nod to the apocalyptic writings and metaphors with which he was so familiar with its archangels, trumpets, and clouds, but the point was that the dead could not possibly stay dead because this was a future where there was only abundance and fullness of life.

As Christians we look back to the coming of Jesus, we live in the present where the Spirit of Jesus fills us, and we look forward to a time when God's kingdom will have come fully. We live in the now and not yet, but rest assured, those who have gone before us, we will meet again, because the future is, by definition, life.

Holy God
Thank you that I
can meet you in
the here and now,
and that your
presence is with me.
Thank you that you are
in the process of
coming to your creation
in and through your church.
I look forward
to that time when
the whole world will
be renewed and restored,
including those who
have gone before me,
and your kingdom
will have arrived
in all its fullness.