Monday Devotional: November 6, 2023

Bible Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NRSVUE)

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. ¹⁵ For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Listen to the teachings! What emotional response arises in you as you read today’s text? Many people read Paul’s text as though it foretells the exact way in which the “end” will arrive. This Thessalonians text raises concerns for a large number of people because they pay attention to rumors.

Read the text and listen to what it holds. The passage begins with a reminder of the hope that we have in the resurrection of Christ. In a very straightforward way, Paul speaks to those who grieve the death of loved ones. Here is a reminder to continue in the hope of Christ, even in grief — for resurrection does not happen without death. The passage ends with a plea to the community to offer encouragement to one another. In between these verses, Paul attempts to describe the presence of Christ with believers at the end of the age. We grapple with this text. Some people read this and other end-time passages in fright. They live with a theology of fear, forgetting the basic biblical message to “fear not”. Some liken this passage to how people throng roadways to greet a king and then return with the king to the city. N. T. Wright connects this passage with a new heaven and the new earth of which Jesus spoke. Hope stands as the ultimate message in this text.

The passage closes with the words “encourage one another.” I hope that you hear much encouragement within the body of Christ. No matter our understanding of the end times, we need to hear hope and encouragement, the two primary themes in this text. This passage reminds me of the closing lines of “A Statement of Faith of the United Church of Canada”: “In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.” (UMH, 883).

Prayer

Season our lives with encouragement, gracious God, so that we may live as people of hope. Amen.

By George Hovaness Donigian, The Upper Room Disciplines 2017, page 373.