16th November 2008 (2nd before Advent)
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
What does the future hold for us? Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians reminds us that Jesus is coming back to earth one day. This time it will not be incognito. He will be coming in glory ‘to judge the living and the dead’ (2 Timothy 4:1). This is ‘the day of the Lord’ that Paul talks about here.
We cannot escape from the aspect of judgement. Paul describes it as sudden destruction with no escape, a time when people will suffer God’s wrath. However, we make a mistake if we think of God’s wrath as vengeful and merciless, like human anger but writ large. God’s wrath is the other side of the coin to God’s salvation: we are only truly saved from evil when evil is properly and finally dealt with, and that is what God’s wrath is all about. It is the expression of his righteousness and holiness in the face of evil. At the deepest level it is the expression of wounded and rejected love. Unlike human anger, it never results in injustice; God’s wrath is never blind rage. The day of the Lord is like harvest time – good for the wheat, bad for the weeds that get destroyed. People who suffer God’s wrath on that day will only do so if they are deliberately rejecting him and choosing what is evil.
That, however, is not the future God has for us who belong to Jesus. Any wrath that by rights should come upon us has been turned on to God himself – God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. Through faith in Jesus we have been appointed to salvation, and to live for ever with God in a future without any kind of evil.
Paul tells us that this future is going to come suddenly, without any kind of warning. We must not be caught out thinking that it doesn’t really matter how we behave. We are to be ready, keeping alert and self controlled, living each day in faith and love and hope. And we are to encourage and build one another up. If we keep growing, we will be safe.
That is also the message of Jesus’ parable. God has given us gifts and talents to help grow his kingdom. That is the path to true joy.
Questions:
1) What are your ‘talents’? How can you grow them?
2) Why does it matter what we hope for?