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The Dead in Christ Will Rise

            The church members in Thessalonica were having a lot of problems dealing with death.  And we don’t know exactly why.  It could be because they were new Christians.  They were all adult converts.  They didn’t have Christian parents or go to Christian schools.  St. Paul taught them the basic Christian teachings—and they believed what Paul taught them--but the classes were cut short because Paul had to get out of town fast.  You would think that Paul would have taught them the Christian way to think about death; it’s so central to Christian teaching.  And he probably did.  But when people are under stress what they know in their heads doesn’t always translate into how they feel or what they do.  We know that.  And maybe there was some popular preacher in town who talking about death in a way that was different from what Paul taught them, and the church members were just plain confused.  Like I said, we don’t really know.  All we know is what we have in front of us in the second lesson for today.  But what Paul wrote in his letter to these Thessalonians makes it obvious that they were having problems dealing with death.

            I can identify with these Christians, and I think you can, too.  We have a lot more going for us than they did.  Many of us did have Christian parents, and we went to Christian schools and that means a lot of Christian people have been helping us understand death from a Christian perspective.  We’ve heard sermons about death and gone to Bible classes about death.  Most of us have attended Christian funerals.  Compared to the people in Thessalonica, we’re college graduates when it comes to this subject.  But we still struggle with death, don’t we?  I’ve preached hundreds of funeral sermons; you’d think I’d get used to death after awhile.  But when I buried my mom and then my dad, it was still hard.  The thought of burying my wife or my kids is harder.  And then I think about my own death, a lot more than I did 30 years ago.  Everyone of you knows exactly what I’m talking about. 

            St. Paul doesn’t tell us what the Thessalonians were thinking.  He does tell us what he was thinking. We do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.  Paul knew enough about people and he knew enough about death to know that death always hurts.  But he also knew there was a way to take the hurt away.  He knew that Christians can contemplate death and dying and still be content and confident, even courageous.  What he needed to do was clear up the confusion.  That’s what he did for the people here, and that’s what he’s going to do for us.  What Paul said is, The Dead in Christ Will Rise.

They will rise justified

            One of the most important truths of the Christian religion is that Jesus is coming again.  We’ve all heard it, and we all believe it.  The Thessalonians heard it, too, but they put a strange twist on it: they got into their heads that Jesus was going to come soon, like very soon, like the day after tomorrow or next week.  Some of the church members even quit their jobs; why go to work if Jesus is coming?  Well, Jesus didn’t come, and the people started worrying and whispering: What if somebody in our congregation dies before Jesus comes?  They’re going to miss out; they won’t be here to get eternal life.  What must have happened is that a few members in the congregation did die, and the people just fell apart with grief.  They got into their heads that if a person died, there was nothing for them.

            We hear about these new Christians and we think, Come on, you guys; this is Christianity 101.  Maybe it is, but I can almost guarantee you that somebody you know, somebody at work or some classmate at school, maybe even somebody in your family, believes just about the same thing: When you die, you’re dead, and when you’re dead, you stay dead.  It’s the question of the ages. If a man dies, will he live again?  Religion tries to tell people the answer is yes—every religion teaches that there’s life after death--but a lot of people don’t buy it.  Even some religious people don’t buy it.  I’m not going to assume there’s anyone here this morning who worries that people who die might not come back to life again.  But if you’ve thought about this, if there’s ever been a question mark in your head about this, listen to what Paul wrote. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

            The whole Bible, all 66 books, really has only one theme: This is how God brings dead people back to life.  I can’t tell the whole story; here’s the text message version.  God created people to live, to live with him and to live forever.  People sinned.  Sin ended life with God, and sin ended life forever.  No life with God—that’s death.  No life forever--that’s death.  And so Death came to all people because all have sinned.  God sent his Son to get rid of sin.  Jesus took sins--all of them: mine, yours, everyone’s sins—Jesus took our sins and he carried them.  Those sins ended his life with God; they ended his life period.  Jesus died.  And when Jesus died with our sins, God said, “I see no sins in you; without sins, there is no death for you; without death there is only life for you, life with me and life forever.”  And God raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus says, “Because I live, you will live also.”

We believe that Jesus died and rose again, Paul wrote, and that’s why we believe that the dead in Christ will rise.  The dead in Christ will rise justified.  That’s why death for us is like sleeping.  If we have life with God forever, dying doesn’t change that.  Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies.  And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  So believers close their eyes in death and know they’ll get up when the alarm goes off.

They will rise glorified

            The alarm will go off, but it won’t ring or buzz.  Try the blast of a trumpet.  Back to the Thessalonians.  Maybe what was troubling these young Christians was the concern that their dead friends were going to miss the magnificence of Jesus’ coming.  Jesus talked a lot about how incredible his return was going to be.  He talked about that in the Gospel today when he said that Men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. Maybe the thinking was like this; our dead friends may get to heaven just like we will, but if they’re dead when Jesus comes back, we’ll get to heaven via Disney World and they’ll get to heaven via West Allis.

            I don’t think 21^st century Christians worry about what was bothering the believers in Thessalonica.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t have questions about people we know who’ve died.  Death always comes with some sort of trauma: heart attacks, strokes, accidents, months of suffering, years of dementia.  We stand next to a casket and we say to friends, “She wasn’t herself when she died.”  What we don’t usually say, but what we sometimes think is, “I wonder what she’ll be like when she comes back to life?  Will she be her old self? Or will that all be gone?”   

            Is dying a disadvantage?   Do people lose something valuable when they die?  Listen to Paul. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  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.  Miss out on something?  If the believers in Thessalonica were worried that their friends were going to miss out on the magnificence of Jesus’ coming, Paul put their worries away right here.  The dead weren’t going to miss out on anything.  Actually, the entire second coming of Christ is going to begin with the dead. The Lord’s command thundering across every cemetery on earth: Wake up!  Arise!  Come forth!    The voice of the archangel ordering his angel armies to gather the believers from the four corners of the world.  And the trumpet call of God!  St. Paul had a thing about this trumpet.  He wrote to the believers in Corinth:  Listen.  I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed!

            We will be changed.  Whether we’re alive or dead when Jesus returns, our bodies will need to be changed. The body I’ll have if I’m still alive will not be better to God than the body I’ll have if I’ve already died.  The body I might have after months of suffering or after a gruesome car accident will not be worse to God than the body I have now.  Whether our body is as strong as an ox or decaying in a casket, it’s all the same to God.  And Christ will change our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. The Thessalonians didn’t have to worry about their dead friends and we don’t have to wonder about the people we love.  They won’t lose out and they won’t lose anything.  The dead in Christ will rise and they will rise glorified!   

They will rise unified

            We don’t know how long it took for Paul’s words to sink in, but the new Christians in Thessalonica had what they needed to get rid of their confusion and dry up their tears.  But Paul wanted to finish the story and I’m glad he did, because what he wrote at the end helps me.  Maybe it’ll help you, too.

            About a year after my mother died, I took my dad to the church cemetery on South 68^th Street where she’s buried.  We walked together toward the grave and then I stopped and gave him some space.  He stood in front of the headstone, and I saw his shoulders shake.  I knew he was crying.  He wasn’t confused about death.  He knew my mom’s soul was with Jesus in heaven and he knew her body would rise on the last day.  He didn’t want her back; her death was a blessed relief.  He missed her.  After 59 years together, he simply missed her.  The truth is that death is usually hardest for the people who don’t die.     

            Listen to Paul: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.  The dead in Christ will rise and then the family reunion will begin.  They’ll all be there; the grandpa we never knew, the husband who died too young, the mom who wiped our noses, the grandchild we held in our lap, the aunt who made our favorite cookies, the friend who always listened. They’ll all be there.  And we’ll know them all and they’ll know all of us.  The Christians in Thessalonica who grieved and the apostle who helped them get over their grief, they’ll be there.  Moses and Elijah, Peter, James, and John, and all the rest, they will all be there.  And they will all see us and we will all see them.  And Jesus will be there, and he will see us and he will know us, and he will be with us forever.  And that’s the best part of the story. 

            So there it is.  We all think about people we know and love, people who’ve died.  And we think about ourselves, too, and the death we know we have to face.  Sometimes we wonder and sometimes we weep.  But we don’t grieve like those who have no hope because we aren’t in the dark about death.  We know the truth.  The dead in Christ will rise—justified, glorified, unified.  That’s what Paul and the Holy Spirit have told us on this Saints Triumphant day.  And they have also told us this: Therefore, encourage each other with these words.  Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on November 15, 2009

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