A sermon from our annual memorial service, held for those who have lost someone they love in recent years or longer ago.
The Christian message is such good news! It offers hope. Not insubstantial hope, no more than wishful thinking that all would be well. But real, solid hope. Actual promises from God that he will not fail to keep.
There is a danger in talking like that. The danger of pretending life is neater than it is. All of us here tonight know that losing someone we love hurts a great deal. Grief is painful and all too real.
But in saying that Jesus offers real hope, I’m not inviting us to pretend it doesn’t hurt. I’m extending Jesus’ offer of hope in the midst of grief.
The Bible reading we heard came from a letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica. That’s a town in northern Greece, now called Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city.
The bit we heard came about because some of the Christians in the church had recently died. Paul said this: “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.”
He’s not saying he doesn’t want them to grieve. But he doesn’t want them to grieve without hope. He wants them to have hope in the midst of their grief.
And so we get the rest of the reading that we heard.
The return of Jesus
The hope he offers them is all tied up with when Jesus returns.
We need to go back a little. Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday, then rose to life again on Easter Sunday. He was then seen alive for a period of 40 days, before visibly going back into heaven. But he promised many times that one day he would come back.
And when he does so, the most wonderful life imaginable would begin on earth for everyone who trusts and follows him. A life free of pain and suffering. A life where we can enjoy this good world, enjoy one another’s company, enjoy the best food and drink, and live productive, happy lives without anything to spoil them.
All the early Christians looked forward Jesus coming back. It was the hope they lived for.
1 Thessalonians was written 17 years after Jesus went back to heaven. Disaster had just struck. Some of these Christians had died. It’s painful enough to lose someone you love, but it was doubly raw in their case. Those who had died would now miss out on the return of Jesus. They’d died before it happened.
Jesus had never said he would return soon. In fact he’d said that nobody knows when it will happen. But the Thessalonian Christians felt betrayed. Jesus had waited too long. Some of their dearest would now miss out when the day they’re all longing for arrives, when Jesus himself arrives.
But Paul does not want these Christians to grieve like others who have no hope. There is hope.
Two things will happen to those who have died as followers of Jesus when he comes back.
They’ll come back to life
Firstly, they’ll come back to life. They’ll come back to life.
Here’s verse 14: “For 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.” He’s talking about people who have died, knowing Jesus. But he calls them those “who have fallen asleep in him”. It’s a strange phrase. In our day, we speak of putting pets to sleep. We don’t like to talk about death, so we find ways to avoid saying the word.
Paul uses the word sleep for another reason. He explains further on. It’s verse 16: “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.”
The return of Jesus will be a noisy affair. Nobody will miss it. You’ll hear three things. Firstly, a loud command, as Jesus commands everyone to wake up. Second, you’ll hear the voice of the archangel – you’ll hear the head angel talking. And third, you’ll hear the trumpet call of God, as God himself blows a long blast on his trumpet.
And all of that noise will lead to one most wonderful thing happening: “The dead in Christ will rise”. All who have died, knowing Jesus, will get up. They’ll come back to life. They’ll wake up.
And now we see why Paul called them those who have fallen asleep. Because one day, they’ll wake up.
Nobody likes waking up to an alarm clock. It’s horrible to have your sleep interrupted by a loud noise that wakes you. But that’s what it’s like to die as a Christian. You’re dead, but sleep is a better word for it. One day, you’ll hear not one alarm clock, but three: Jesus’ command, the archangel’s voice, and God’s trumpet. And up you’ll get.
They’ll come back to life.
We’ll be with Jesus
Second, we’ll be with Jesus. We’ll be with Jesus.
Here’s what happens next. Paul goes on: “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.”
It’s a lovely picture. Those of us who are still alive at the time will be scooped up with those who have just come back to life. And together, we and they will go to meet Jesus. And that meeting will happen in the clouds, in the air.
That’s not where we’ll stay. Some people have a very anaemic picture of life when Jesus returns. They picture themselves floating in the air, sitting on a cloud, with nothing to do, and more worryingly little to eat.
But that’s not what it will be like. Jesus clearly taught that he is coming back to this earth. Not just to the sky. And he also taught that the ultimate future is of life together on a renewed earth.
The reason we meet Jesus in the clouds is because he’s coming down from heaven. It’s the direction he will approach from.
If you go to meet someone off a train, or at the airport, there are lots of people waiting to meet people, and you’re straining your eyes for the person you’ve gone to greet. Finally, you spot them, and they’re halfway across the room. If it’s not someone you particularly care about, or if you’re feeling especially British, you stand rooted to the spot, and wait until they get to you. But if it’s someone you’ve longed to see more than anything else, and this is the most joyful moment of your life, you wouldn’t be able to do that. You’d run, arms wide open, grin on your face, as fast as you can to meet them. And then you’d walk back, together, to the exit, to the car park.
Jesus will come back, down out of heaven. Those who died knowing him will be raised to life. Then we and they will not stay rooted to the spot to wait for him to get here. Somehow, miraculously, we’ll be caught up into the air, to meet him on the way down. The best day of our lives.
And then Paul’s next sentence sums up how wonderful this will be: “And so we will be with the Lord forever”. It will be a double reunion. We’ll be reunited with the Lord’s people that we’ve had to say goodbye to at their funerals. And we’ll be reunited with Jesus himself. And the reunion will go on forever.
Conclusion
The reading ends with this sentence: “Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
Life is tough. Pressure is real. Grief hurts.
So it’s easy to lose sight of the real hope there is. Which means we need every opportunity to be encouraged by these wonderful truths. It’s one reason why a service like this can be helpful each year. We need each other to encourage us to keep our eyes on the hope Jesus holds out to us.
The Thessalonian Christians did not need to worry about those of their number who had died. They wouldn’t miss out.
Jesus will come back. Those who have died in him will be raised. We will be together with them again. We’ll live with Jesus forever. Grief will still come our way. But because of Jesus, we do not need to grieve like those who have no hope.