Warning! In Case Of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned
Sermon
BUMPER STICKER RELIGION
Seven Messages Unstuck From Bumper Stickers
During recent weeks we have been using some religious
statements that are found on bumper stickers. We are using those
sayings as the occasion to agree, disagree, correct, add,
subtract, to understand more deeply our faith. Today we tackle a
really big one. It says, "Warning! In Case Of Rapture This Car
Will Be Unmanned." And immediately when I shared the words of
this bumper sticker with my wife she said, "I know a correction:
this car will be unwomanned or unpersonned."
I think it may be helpful to talk about something we do not
talk a lot about in the church. There are some things you need to
know. There is some language we use that we are not familiar
with, for instance the word rapture. The word rapture refers to
the belief associated with the second coming of Jesus. It is a
belief that believers will be caught up into the clouds and
transported directly to heaven. If you cannot quite understand
what that is all about, all you have to do is watch Star Trek,
when they say, "Beam me up, Scotty." That is a kind of rapture, a
transporting up. Paul uses that language in 2 Thessalonians: "We
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air."
Then there is the whole doctrine of the second coming in which
the rapture is a part in at least some people's belief. It is the
belief that Christ will physically return to earth at the end of
the present age and set everything straight. Now let me share
with you that as I was growing up I was not excited, enthused or
enamored in any way about the idea of a second coming. It scared
me to death. I literally had dreams and nightmares about it. I do
not really believe my parents or anyone else in the world knew
that it bothered me. I had dreams at night that the Lord returned
and returned with a cosmic kind of fireworks display that scared
me to death. So as a result as I was growing up, in my study in
Sunday school and church and later in seminary, I put that whole
thing on the back burner. I believe we cannot do that. I think we
have to take a fresh look at this whole doctrine of the second
coming.
I would like to do it by doing it in three main chunks. I
really have to simplify but at least trust me that when I
simplify that I do know it is a little more complex than this. I
will paint the big picture.
Let us look first at what the New Testament has to say on this
matter of the second coming. You cannot read the gospels, the
letters of Paul, some other epistles, the Book of Revelation
without realizing that the overwhelming message of the New
Testament is that of the imminent return of Jesus and the
imminent embarking of God's reign on earth. Now not all of that
written by the different writers agree in all the details and
with their descriptions. But the overwhelming message is that
Jesus will return and God's kingdom will be restored within the
lifetime of those who lived with, saw, and heard Jesus.
The other thing you notice when you read these stories about
the second coming is that the language describes this event in
very poetic, enigmatic, and sometimes troubling imagery called
apocalyptic. It was in existence before Jesus was here on earth;
he used some of that language to talk about himself. It is a
language that is troubling, it is not easy to understand, and
sometimes it is even difficult to accept.
One other important thing that we should note is that
obviously the imminent return of Jesus did not take place in the
lifetime of the early believers. Therefore the church was left
with a problem of how to respond to the reality of something that
Jesus said was going to take place, something that Paul said was
going to take place and something that the writer of Revelation
of John said was going to take place, but did not take place in
the lifetime of Paul and John.
It is interesting that there has been a whole variety of
responses down through the ages in dealing with this failure of
the imminent return of Jesus. One response was that God's kingdom
was equated with the church. Therefore the people believed that
as the church gained in control and influence, God's kingdom thus
made inroads in the world. That is the way that God would bring
about his kingdom.
Sometimes the church forgot or completely ignored the teaching
of the second coming. Since the teaching was mistaken
in the sense that it did not happen exactly as predicted,
therefore one could say that you could put it aside and just
ignore it.
The other response was that from time to time there would be
groups of believers that would rediscover the doctrine of the
second coming in the New Testament. They would lift up that
message and emphasize it. These were called Millenial Groups.
They knew that there was something that was missing in the
interpretation of the Christian faith and they tried to bring
that truth to the fore. They reinterpreted the second coming to
speak to their situation. It is interesting that the conditions
about which Jesus speaks in the book of Mark could have been
understood as applying to the various situations down through the
ages in which believers found themselves. Wars and rumors of wars
and all the other things that happened have been conditions that
believers in any age could look at and say that the time is right
for Jesus to return.
Another response of some people was a more secular outlook
that developed over the years that as human beings made progress,
that progress was equated with the spread of God's kingdom. That
view was particularly prevalent at the end of last century and
beginning of this century. Then we saw that so-called kingdom
human progress is not always steadily in the right direction. It
is hard to make a case that we are steadily progressing toward
God's kingdom.
In some cases there was another response that is woven through
all the responses and that is the belief that Jesus had already
returned in the life of the Spirit. If you read the Gospel of
John, you find that this is a belief that in some sense God's
return in Jesus might be understood to be through the Spirit.
Now after we said all of this about what is in the New
Testament and examined some responses to the message of the
second coming down through the age, the real question is: Where
are we now? We cannot ignore or mute the teaching about the
second coming. It is too much a part of the New Testament. It is
too much a part of our historic creeds. It is too much a part of
our liturgy to cross it out and just go with what remains. So the
question this morning is: What does the
message of the second coming have to do with us today? Let me
share with you a few of the main themes.
The doctrine of the second coming teaches that God will bring
to completion in Christ what God has begun in Christ. I think all
of us realize that even with all that God accomplished in Christ
there is still unfinished business in our world. And God has been
working through the Spirit with us to bring that work to
consummation. The doctrine of the second coming says there is a
goal out there, there is a point at which God will bring it all
to fruition.
Now God is the initiating agent of human redemption. God
initiates. Humans respond. This being clearly understood, and
this has to be clearly understood, I point out that our Christian
faith teaches that humans have an important part to play in the
whole matter of God's purpose for creation. God shares
responsibility for his creation with human beings. All the talk
about the second coming should never take away our responsibility
in the here and the now for caring for all of creation and
sharing God's message, the message of redemption.
Further, we do not need to know the details or believe in a
certain version of the second coming. I think this is where we
have gotten hung up in the past. The version that I got as a
child, that scared me to death, is not really what the second
coming is all about. The second coming is something to
anticipate, not something to fear. You see what I was afraid of
was the version that the Jesus of the second coming was
absolutely, utterly different from the Jesus of the first coming.
When I understood how God works, then I knew that what God will
do in Jesus in the second coming will correspond to how he has
acted in Jesus in the first coming. We do not need to know the
time or the manner God will bring history to completion. In the
Gospel of Mark, Jesus says, "Even the Son is not let in on that
part of God's plan."
Our responsibility is to be faithful now. To be faithful and
to live in the hope that our efforts to follow Christ and his way
of life are not in vain. That is what the doctrine of the second
coming is all about. If we live according to the way
that God has shown us in Jesus Christ, those efforts will not be
wasted. The good that we do will be caught up in that
consummation and will contribute to that consummation. It makes
all the difference to know whether we are going about doing good
or we are just going about. God has a purpose and we are to be
faithful to that purpose now no matter if there is a second
coming within our lifetime, within the next generation or 2,000
years from now. We are to live in expectation that God's way
revealed to us in Christ will ultimately triumph. We can
contribute to that by our faithfulness.
So I would say to you this morning that the teaching of the
second coming should neither be ignored or be blown out of
proportion with exotic language that is not consistent with the
Christian gospel. We as Christians should all hope and work for
the day when God will fully bring about the way of life in the
world that God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
statements that are found on bumper stickers. We are using those
sayings as the occasion to agree, disagree, correct, add,
subtract, to understand more deeply our faith. Today we tackle a
really big one. It says, "Warning! In Case Of Rapture This Car
Will Be Unmanned." And immediately when I shared the words of
this bumper sticker with my wife she said, "I know a correction:
this car will be unwomanned or unpersonned."
I think it may be helpful to talk about something we do not
talk a lot about in the church. There are some things you need to
know. There is some language we use that we are not familiar
with, for instance the word rapture. The word rapture refers to
the belief associated with the second coming of Jesus. It is a
belief that believers will be caught up into the clouds and
transported directly to heaven. If you cannot quite understand
what that is all about, all you have to do is watch Star Trek,
when they say, "Beam me up, Scotty." That is a kind of rapture, a
transporting up. Paul uses that language in 2 Thessalonians: "We
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air."
Then there is the whole doctrine of the second coming in which
the rapture is a part in at least some people's belief. It is the
belief that Christ will physically return to earth at the end of
the present age and set everything straight. Now let me share
with you that as I was growing up I was not excited, enthused or
enamored in any way about the idea of a second coming. It scared
me to death. I literally had dreams and nightmares about it. I do
not really believe my parents or anyone else in the world knew
that it bothered me. I had dreams at night that the Lord returned
and returned with a cosmic kind of fireworks display that scared
me to death. So as a result as I was growing up, in my study in
Sunday school and church and later in seminary, I put that whole
thing on the back burner. I believe we cannot do that. I think we
have to take a fresh look at this whole doctrine of the second
coming.
I would like to do it by doing it in three main chunks. I
really have to simplify but at least trust me that when I
simplify that I do know it is a little more complex than this. I
will paint the big picture.
Let us look first at what the New Testament has to say on this
matter of the second coming. You cannot read the gospels, the
letters of Paul, some other epistles, the Book of Revelation
without realizing that the overwhelming message of the New
Testament is that of the imminent return of Jesus and the
imminent embarking of God's reign on earth. Now not all of that
written by the different writers agree in all the details and
with their descriptions. But the overwhelming message is that
Jesus will return and God's kingdom will be restored within the
lifetime of those who lived with, saw, and heard Jesus.
The other thing you notice when you read these stories about
the second coming is that the language describes this event in
very poetic, enigmatic, and sometimes troubling imagery called
apocalyptic. It was in existence before Jesus was here on earth;
he used some of that language to talk about himself. It is a
language that is troubling, it is not easy to understand, and
sometimes it is even difficult to accept.
One other important thing that we should note is that
obviously the imminent return of Jesus did not take place in the
lifetime of the early believers. Therefore the church was left
with a problem of how to respond to the reality of something that
Jesus said was going to take place, something that Paul said was
going to take place and something that the writer of Revelation
of John said was going to take place, but did not take place in
the lifetime of Paul and John.
It is interesting that there has been a whole variety of
responses down through the ages in dealing with this failure of
the imminent return of Jesus. One response was that God's kingdom
was equated with the church. Therefore the people believed that
as the church gained in control and influence, God's kingdom thus
made inroads in the world. That is the way that God would bring
about his kingdom.
Sometimes the church forgot or completely ignored the teaching
of the second coming. Since the teaching was mistaken
in the sense that it did not happen exactly as predicted,
therefore one could say that you could put it aside and just
ignore it.
The other response was that from time to time there would be
groups of believers that would rediscover the doctrine of the
second coming in the New Testament. They would lift up that
message and emphasize it. These were called Millenial Groups.
They knew that there was something that was missing in the
interpretation of the Christian faith and they tried to bring
that truth to the fore. They reinterpreted the second coming to
speak to their situation. It is interesting that the conditions
about which Jesus speaks in the book of Mark could have been
understood as applying to the various situations down through the
ages in which believers found themselves. Wars and rumors of wars
and all the other things that happened have been conditions that
believers in any age could look at and say that the time is right
for Jesus to return.
Another response of some people was a more secular outlook
that developed over the years that as human beings made progress,
that progress was equated with the spread of God's kingdom. That
view was particularly prevalent at the end of last century and
beginning of this century. Then we saw that so-called kingdom
human progress is not always steadily in the right direction. It
is hard to make a case that we are steadily progressing toward
God's kingdom.
In some cases there was another response that is woven through
all the responses and that is the belief that Jesus had already
returned in the life of the Spirit. If you read the Gospel of
John, you find that this is a belief that in some sense God's
return in Jesus might be understood to be through the Spirit.
Now after we said all of this about what is in the New
Testament and examined some responses to the message of the
second coming down through the age, the real question is: Where
are we now? We cannot ignore or mute the teaching about the
second coming. It is too much a part of the New Testament. It is
too much a part of our historic creeds. It is too much a part of
our liturgy to cross it out and just go with what remains. So the
question this morning is: What does the
message of the second coming have to do with us today? Let me
share with you a few of the main themes.
The doctrine of the second coming teaches that God will bring
to completion in Christ what God has begun in Christ. I think all
of us realize that even with all that God accomplished in Christ
there is still unfinished business in our world. And God has been
working through the Spirit with us to bring that work to
consummation. The doctrine of the second coming says there is a
goal out there, there is a point at which God will bring it all
to fruition.
Now God is the initiating agent of human redemption. God
initiates. Humans respond. This being clearly understood, and
this has to be clearly understood, I point out that our Christian
faith teaches that humans have an important part to play in the
whole matter of God's purpose for creation. God shares
responsibility for his creation with human beings. All the talk
about the second coming should never take away our responsibility
in the here and the now for caring for all of creation and
sharing God's message, the message of redemption.
Further, we do not need to know the details or believe in a
certain version of the second coming. I think this is where we
have gotten hung up in the past. The version that I got as a
child, that scared me to death, is not really what the second
coming is all about. The second coming is something to
anticipate, not something to fear. You see what I was afraid of
was the version that the Jesus of the second coming was
absolutely, utterly different from the Jesus of the first coming.
When I understood how God works, then I knew that what God will
do in Jesus in the second coming will correspond to how he has
acted in Jesus in the first coming. We do not need to know the
time or the manner God will bring history to completion. In the
Gospel of Mark, Jesus says, "Even the Son is not let in on that
part of God's plan."
Our responsibility is to be faithful now. To be faithful and
to live in the hope that our efforts to follow Christ and his way
of life are not in vain. That is what the doctrine of the second
coming is all about. If we live according to the way
that God has shown us in Jesus Christ, those efforts will not be
wasted. The good that we do will be caught up in that
consummation and will contribute to that consummation. It makes
all the difference to know whether we are going about doing good
or we are just going about. God has a purpose and we are to be
faithful to that purpose now no matter if there is a second
coming within our lifetime, within the next generation or 2,000
years from now. We are to live in expectation that God's way
revealed to us in Christ will ultimately triumph. We can
contribute to that by our faithfulness.
So I would say to you this morning that the teaching of the
second coming should neither be ignored or be blown out of
proportion with exotic language that is not consistent with the
Christian gospel. We as Christians should all hope and work for
the day when God will fully bring about the way of life in the
world that God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
