Contemporary Service
Bumper Sticker Faith:
In Case of Rapture, This Vehicle will be Unoccupied
October 8, 2006

Scripture: Mark 13:32-37

"But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake."

Luke 17:33-35

“Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left."


Sermon                            In Case of Rapture, This Vehicle will be Unoccupied

Do you think very often about the end of the world? I have to admit that I don’t think about the end of the world as much as I probably should. I’m generally not concerned about unoccupied vehicles careening down the highway because the rapture has occurred. Maybe it’s because I’m a Methodist (we don’t talk much about those things) or maybe I’m just preoccupied with my life as I know it now, but the end of the world is not something that crosses my mind very often. It’s scary enough with wars and hurricanes… I guess I just don’t like to go there.

But I have a ninety year old great aunt, my grandmother’s older sister, who is convinced that Christ will return within her lifetime. And she is spending the remaining time trying to make sure that all the rest of us are ready. She sends us notes and tracts warning us about what will happen if we’re not. She expects it any minute.

Now we love her, but we usually roll our eyes at poor old Aunt Helen. We get tracts from her with cartoons of people burning in the fires of hell. She’s afraid that this is what we will come to if we don’t get our act together. (She’s one of those hard core Christians who doesn’t believe that Methodists are on God’s list to be saved.) But one thing about Aunt Helen is that she is ready. What is it that Jesus says in the Mark Scripture that we read? “Therefore, keep awake--for you do not know when the master of the house will come.” Christ could come while we are cooking, or shopping at the mall, while we’re worshipping, or as we’re driving down the road for Sunday brunch, and Aunt Helen ‘gets’ that. As our bumper sticker warns, In Case of Rapture, This Vehicle will be Unoccupied.

Before we go any further, though, let’s get our terms straight. What is rapture? What definition comes to your mind when you think of rapture? The term rapture means to be carried away by force or caught up. It can mean to be caught up in a spiritual experience or overwhelmed by emotion. When we’re in love we might say that we are in rapture. But, in terms of Christian theology, we understand it to mean being raised to meet Christ when he returns. As it says in the Gospels, “…on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.” Those believers who were ready are lifted up to meet Christ.

Now I’m sure this brings to mind a certain popular book series. Anyone read some or all of the Left Behind series? I can’t speak to the series since I haven’t read the books myself, but their popularity alone (books, movies, even video games) speaks to the fascination that Americans have with eschatology, that is the study of the last things. And not just Americans, but people all over the world – the books have been translated into several other languages.

As I understand it, the first book starts with what we are talking about today. A rapture. The true believers are taken up and the rest of the book is the story of those who are left behind. Have I got that right so far? Stephanie shared with me a funny story about when she and her parents were reading the first book. She was getting ready for school one morning and walked into her parents’ bedroom, where their pajamas were laid out on the bed as if they had been raptured, even her dog’s collar was laying in the dog bed….. and Stephanie had been left behind.

As Christians we have come up with all kinds of theories and explanations, accompanied by fancy theological words for what will happen at the end. Most of these theories come from the words of Jesus in the Gospels and the Revelation of John. We talk about the parousia, the Greek word for Christ coming on judgment day. We have theories about the tribulation; some people speak of the church’s place in the tribulation in terms of pre, post or mid tribulation rapture. Most of those things I certainly don’t understand. Yet people have tried to figure it out since the time of the early Christians. Even though Christ said, “But about that day or hour no one knows,” there have always been people who have tried to put a date on it, and have always been disappointed. It seems to me that in thinking about the apocalypse, that final revealing of divine mysteries, the one thing we can say for sure is that we don’t know.

But that’s just what I think, what do you think? Are you a Pre-Tribulation Rapture person? A Post-Trib person? Mid-Trib? Does it matter? What’s important to you about the end times?

I said earlier that I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the end of the world. I’d like to clarify that a little bit. I will say that I do spend a lot of time thinking about the coming kingdom of God. As one theologian described it, “The Lord who has left us to go on ahead is the same one who has loved us to death on a cross and who has opened the future to us through his resurrection.” (David Zersen). I guess, when I think of the coming of Christ, I tend to think of it as the beginning of something rather than the end of something. Maybe this is my way of avoiding my fear of the unknown. Yet, it seems to me that the one we belong to at the end is the same one who has been with us since the beginning, the one who makes all things new. There may be a time of tribulation, as the Scriptures suggest, but the Scriptures also say that death will be no more, weeping and crying and pain will be no more.

One thing about the Scriptures we read this morning, as with many other Scriptures, is that they can be used to stoke the fire of fear and uncertainty. While my Aunt Helen seems very certain, certain that she will see Christ’s return, I also see her as very fearful. Fearful of what might happen. Fearful for herself and for her family (those of us who aren’t cooperating with her plan to get us saved). Letting go of that certainty is facing our vulnerability, admitting that we can’t work our own salvation, and ultimately acknowledging that our life is in God’s hands.

But this doesn’t mean being apathetic. We can’t just throw up our hands and sit back to watch it happen like spectators at a movie. As the parable from the Gospel of Mark suggests, we have a job to do while we wait for Christ’s return. We are to keep watch for our master while being about God’s work in the world, loving God as we go about loving each other.

You know that one of my favorite commentators is William Loader. He sums up my thoughts about the rapture quite clearly when he writes, “Watchful living has less to do with speculation about the end of the world…and more to do with carrying out our trust…in a way that finally makes the date of the end a matter of irrelevance.” When we are alive in the expectation of the coming of the Kingdom, doing our part to make it happen right here, right now, there is no time for fear or wondering or anxiety with things we ultimately can know nothing about anyway. “But about that day or hour no one knows.”

So, are you rapture ready? Another way to ask this question is, if the Son of Man appeared while you were at work, would you be prepared to go to him, or would you turn back to your computer as if nothing had happened? Kathryn Turner in Weekly Wellsprings describes those who were taken up, saying, “…whatever they were doing, wherever they were working – part of them was alive in expectation of the coming of the kingdom.” Are you alive with expectation? Are you keeping awake? When the end comes there may be vehicles careening around unoccupied, there might be clothes left in piles in houses around the world, or maybe Christ’s return will come in a different way, something totally unexpected…. That’s the thing about the future, isn’t it? You just don’t know what will happen.

Let us pray: Lord of every hour, we thank you for your promised coming. Give us the courage to be ready, attentive and awake. We pray that we may watch for you, not out of fear but from love. And when you do come in glory to judge the living and the dead, may we rise with you into that immortal life which is your free gift, not earned by us, but given in your grace. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.