11/11/07                                                              2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

“THERE’S GONNA BE SOMETHING MORE”

Rev. James Singleton

Admittedly, this is one tough passage to understand and relate to. How do we identify with these people who were freaking out because they thought the second coming of Christ had already happened and they were left behind? I suppose there are people in the world who might think that is the case and there may even be people who have read the Left Behind series and are worried about just such a scenario, but I doubt any of them are here this morning. So where is this passage relevant to us?  

Let’s start with the Thessalonians. The Apostle Paul has learned that someone is preaching to the people in the church he founded in Thessalonica that the second coming of Christ has already taken place. Panic among the people has set in because if the second coming of Christ has already taken place and they were not among those lifted up to heaven on clouds of glory, then that must mean they were not included.  

If they were not included, then there is no longer any hope for them. For if Christ has already come in finality, and they missed it, then there is no longer anything to look forward to in this world.  The ending of the story has come and they were written out of it. These were Christians who were scared because they suddenly believed that their future was no longer something to look forward to.

They looked at the hard world around them and at their struggling lives and panicked at the thought that the future no longer promised them the coming of Jesus. A future without Jesus meant a future that was never going to be any better than the present. The future no longer held promise or hope. 

We are all here in worship because we believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world and of our lives. With that belief come certain expectations. Because of our belief we expect our lives to be better as a result. We have hopes and dreams that stem from our faith.

But every once in a while we can get frustrated and wonder, “Have we missed something?” Where is all the good that my faith tells me is going to happen because when I look around at the world and at my life I see a whole lot of bad going on? There are times when we too are tempted to look at the future and wonder if it will bring to us something better. 

In a country music song called “Something More” by Sugarland part of the lyrics go like this:

            Monday, hard to wake up

            Fill my coffee cup, I’m out the door

            Yeah, the freeway’s standing still today

            It’s gonna make me late, and that’s for sure

            Never gonna make it there by nine

            There’s gotta be something more

            Gotta be more than this

            I need a little less hard time

            I need a little more bliss

            I’m gonna take my chances

            Find what I’m looking for

            There’s gotta be something more

Have you ever wondered to yourself, is this it? Is this all there is? Is this as good as life and the world gets? “I need a little less hard time/I need a little more bliss/ There’s gotta be something more.” And if we are Christian, we can’t help but wonder at times, “If Christ has come, which is what Christmas claims, then why aren’t things better?” 

There are plenty of reasons why it is difficult for us to maintain our hope in the coming of something better. 

How do we maintain hope when we hear about the constant and steady pollution of the earth, global warming, the extinction of animals and plants at an alarming rate, and drought and famine on several continents including our own?

How do we maintain hope when every day we hear news reports about Iran building nuclear weapons, super viruses that are resistant to antibiotics, galaxy-gobbling black holes, and terrorists who are as elusive as goblins?

How do we maintain hope when we live in a world where a man leaves his girlfriend’s child in the Florida everglades to be eaten by alligators; a man rapes a three year old baby and films it; a mother buys her child guns and the child takes those guns to school and shots his teachers and classmates? 

How do we maintain hope in a God who answers prayers when the prayers we have prayed for our health, our dreams, our marriage or our children seem to have gone unanswered?

Where we can connect with the Thessalonians is in our concern that the future may not hold something more for us. Whether we believe that Christ has come a second time and left us behind (like they did) or we believe that Christ has come once and has forgotten about us (like we are tempted to do), the result is the same—the future can look bleak.

The answer Paul gave to his first century Christians is just as true for we 21^st century Christians. He reminds them and us that we live in a time when life is not complete and our salvation is still being worked out. The world is infected with chaos, insanity and lawlessness. There is always something afoot that shakes and rattles our faith in God and hope in the future.

Having said that, Paul reminds us that we live in an in-between time. We live between the first and second coming of Christ and we must not confuse the time in which we live with the time that is to come. The second coming of Christ has neither happened (as the Thessalonians thought) nor is it irrelevant (as we are prone to think).  

Paul calls upon Christians in this in-between time to do something that is very hard to do and that is to stand firm and hold fast to the traditions of our faith. What are the traditions of our faith?  

They are that Jesus Christ is Lord of the world and Savior of our lives even though right now things are still seemingly in the grip of chaos.  

The second coming of Christ has always been a central belief of Christianity because at its root is hope. We are never without hope so long as we believe the world is being conquered by a victorious Christ. We are never without hope so long as we believe that no matter how bad things are now, Christ comes to us in conquering love and saving grace.  

Belief in the second coming of Christ is the ultimate reason why we can never give up on tomorrow. And I’m not just talking about the tomorrow of who knows when, but I’m also talking about tomorrow. God is not finished creating in this world and Christ is not finished saving our lives.  

But until the day does come when all is complete our calling is to live in this time of waiting and hoping by holding fast and standing firm in our belief that both the immediate and distant future is worth living toward. Christianity is synonymous with anticipation of something good or, rather, someone good coming our way. 

In the third century, St. Cyprian wrote to a friend, Donatus:
"This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see. Brigands on the high road, pirates on the seas, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please the applauding crowds, under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world.

"Yet in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians ... and I am one of them."

The joy that Christians have and the power to overcome the present  spring from our tenacious hope in the future. Even though the present may not be what we want, we have the Spirit and Promise of Christ forever coming to us that enables us to overcome the craziness of the here and now.

·        We may weep now, but there will be a time when every tear from our eyes will be wiped away.

·        Death may cast its dark shadow over our hearts now, but there will be a time when death will be no more;

·        We may suffer today, but there will be a time when suffering and pain will cease to exist.

All of these present things that cause us such consternation will eventually become former things that have passed away.  And even though that time has not yet arrived, the hope we have in that time is enough for us to stand firm and hold fast in the present.

Jesus never told his disciples that there was nothing to be afraid of. We all encounter plenty of things that scare us to death, or try to. What Jesus said was, “Do not be afraid.”

Our tradition proclaims that God, not fearful things, has the last word. The things that make us afraid are short lived. It is Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever.  

The last scene of John Bunyan's classic allegorical novel, The Pilgrim's Progress, finds the chief character, Christian, the arch-type of a person who has long struggled to lead a life of faith, coming to the end of his symbolic journey. The final leg requires that he cross a great river, flooding and fearsome. He’s terrified. Together with his friend Hopeful, they wade into the waters with trepidation.  

Bunyan wrote the scene this way: "Christian began to sink in deep Waters ... ‘the Billows go over my head, all his waves go over me...’ he cries." Hopeful replies with what may be among the most grace-filled words in all of literature; ‘Be of good cheer, my Brother, I feel the bottom, and it is good...

We may feel like we are going under in a sea of chaos, but there is a bottom and it is good. That bottom is the power of hope.

·        Hope that, in the face of nuclear threats or global warming, this world will not end in either a bang or a whimper but in glory.

·        Hope that despite all that has gone wrong in our personal lives, all things can work out for the good for those who believe in Christ.

·        Hope that whether our immediate future brings us life or death neither can separate us from the love and salvation of God.

The belief in the second coming of Christ may not be something that occupies much of our concern. But without it, what do we have to look forward to? If Christ is no longer coming to us, then who knows what fate awaits us? It was that fear that panicked the Thessalonians.  

But if Christ is our future, then we can live in the present with eternal comfort and good hope. We can live with the hope that we can endure all things in the here and now because when we look to the coming attractions we believe with all our heart that there’s gonna be something more.

AMEN