Friday Faithfuls 2 - 1 Thessalonians

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

This week's selection is 100% based on the season.  I did not grow up in a liturgical tradition; Advent wasn't on my radar at all.  When I married a Methodist, Advent became part of my vocabulary, but I still thought it was all about preparing for the baby.  It wasn't until I read Madeleine L'Engle's book The Irrational Season that I discovered that Advent is an eschatological season, preparing for the coming of the Messiah...both the first and second comings. 

You will hear people argue that the word 'rapture' doesn't occur anywhere in Scripture, so people who are looking for such a thing are clearly misguided.

But I would say that the word 'Advent' doesn't appear in Scripture, either (at least, it is not listed in my Exhaustive NIV Concordance).  Advent is a word we have used to describe a scriptural concept:  the expectation of and preparation for the coming of Messiah.  Likewise, 'rapture' is a word used to refer to a concept Paul clearly details:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever. -- 1 Thess. 4:16-17, NIV 84

However, I would also point out that the scholars of the day completely missed the first coming of Messiah.  They had studied the scriptures and the prophecies and they really believed they had it figured out;  they knew what was going to happen.  So when it didn't happen the way they expected...they missed it.  I'm not so sure this 'catching up' is a 'missable' event, in that sense, but I do think that we tend to interpret prophecy according to what we know.   Problem is, there is a lot of stuff we don't know that affects that interpretation; things that make sense in hindsight but were totally unexpected at the moment. I believe Paul wrote the truth...we will be all caught up, in some fashion.  But it might be in a way that we don't expect now...that, in hindsight millenia from now, we will see was exactly right.

And...even the unexpectedness of it is repeated in prophecies.  Jesus said it would be unexpected; Paul says it will be unexpected.  We just think we have figured out what the unexpected aspects of it will be.  But...I bet we don't.  Not entirely.  I kinda think the second coming of Messiah will be the same sort of surprise as the first one.  Not exactly what we...expected.

So maybe the theme statement of Advent should be the phrase that was the motto for our children's ministry at church for years:

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.