Where We Belong: The End of the World as We Know It - A Homecoming

 

Mark 13:24-37

We have just come off of what was probably not the Thanksgiving we would have chosen or the one many of us would have wanted. Now we begin to look toward Christmas which will pretty much be the same.  I am sure we all had lovely thanksgiving dinners and enjoyed the ones with whom we were able to spend it. For many the day did not include as many as we would have like. There were vacancies at our tables, some because we had not been able to join those with whom we usually celebrate this meal, some because they were unable to join us, and others were simply vacant because those seats will never be filled again. Not the Thanksgiving we would have hoped for. Not the Thanksgiving we would have wanted.  

We are in the between times. Our national and cultural calendar keeping tells us we are in those strange days which fall between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is a season when we focus on family. It is the time of the year when so many of us take the journey home. If we manage to make it “home” once a year this is the preferred time to do so. These are “home” going days, when we go to the places and to the people where there are those who joyously wait our “home comings”. This is the season of our year when we traditionally travel the places where we belong, home to “our people.” Not this year. This year we are staying put. Our celebrations this past week were smaller and for some lonelier and we can expect pretty much the same for Christmas as well.

In this year when we cannot “go home” when we are unable to take that annual pilgrimage to the places where belong, we once again as the Church enter into the Advent season.  The Advent, as well as the Christmas seasons are seasons of homecoming, not only in the culture around us, but for us as Christians as well.

In Advent and Christmas we remember that God came and found a home among us, becoming flesh and dwelt with us for a time. As we look toward the manger and the tiny Messiah it holds, we are once again reminded that Christ’s dwelling places are not always the place where we would expect to find the God of the universe. So many times when we are looking for Jesus we look for him in the sanctuaries and cathedrals we have built for him. We search for him in abbeys and monasteries among the men and woman who have given their lives over to worship and prayer. Yet when Chris dwelt among us he came to us in a manger, and slept in stable room among the animals. He grew up among the meek and the lowly. He made his ministry among the outcasts and the sinners, for which he was commonly ridiculed. And when he went into the sanctuaries and holy places of his day, he was not well received and was often cast out. So as we move into this Advent season this year, I ask the question, where do we belong?

The passage with which we are faced this morning does not seem to be very homey. Yet it is a homecoming passage, in which we contemplate Christ’s return. At the beginning of the passage Jesus is using language and imagery which would have been familiar to his listeners, as it was the same as that used by the prophets when they spoke of the great and terrible day of the Lord. “In those days,” are the word the prophets used to describe the days when the messiah would come. They are the words Jesus uses here to describe the coming of the “Son of Man” that is his own second coming.

The great and terrible day of the Lord, the coming of the Messiah is the time when God promised to right all which had gone so terribly wrong. Evil doers would be punished. Those who swindled the poor, who did not seek to help the orphan and the widow, who bought and sold with dishonest scales, who mistreated those around them and hoarded up wealth for themselves at the expense of neighbor, stranger and kin alike, would get what the truly deserved. Justice would finally be found throughout the land.  A terrible day for all these; a great day for those who love and for all those being misused and abused; for those who serve the Lord. It is the ultimate homecoming. It will be the day on which all those who love God will be where they truly belong.

The passage begins with the darkening of the sun and moon and the falling of the stars. Often when we read this passage and those like it, we want to look to this paragraph to give us clues, to serve as a road map or to be an alarm clock which will go off to warn us when Jesus is coming. But, as Christ reminds us here, “No one knows the day or the hour, neither the angels in heaven or himself, only the Father knows when all this will come to be.

What Jesus is describing here is the entire created order losing all “order”. The heavens break open, the cycle of days and seasons fall into disarray. All that makes and measure time ceases as we enter into a new “season” which will no longer be marked by day and night, or the phases of the moon or the positioning of the stars. When the heavens break open and eternity invades finitude, everything is affected and time itself unravels. What Jesus is giving us here are not billboards on the highway letting us know that the next rest stop or gas station will be in three miles, so that we can prepare to get over now. What Jesus is letting us know is that when eternity breaks into our world, all the ways we know to mark the days and the season, to mark time, will no longer matter.

Why do we need warning signs for when Jesus is returning, anyway?  What is it we are hoping for? Would a billboard telling us when Christ will return really change who we are, what we are doing, how we are living? If we knew Jesus was returning in May of 2020 would we work harder, to be the holy people we are called to be? If we knew He would return before the end of the year, would we pray more and longer? What would we do differently with our lives, with our faith? Why would knowing Christ’s immanent return change these things?  

The message Jesus is seeking to convey is not for us to look for the signs so we can hurry up and be ready for his return. The message here can be found in the idea which is repeated several times throughout this passage, that is, “Keep alert;" "keep awake.”

In the parable we are those to whom the master has entrusted with the care and keeping of the estate until his return. As we wait for his return are we doing our best, working to further the kingdom, living lives which are reflecting the love of God and neighbor we saw lived out in the life of Jesus Christ and to which he called us through his teachings? We are the workers managing the estate until the master’s return. As we do so we are to continually be working, doing our best to “hold down the fort” so to speak, until his return, so that we are always awake, always ready for his arrival.

We are not to be like teenagers from TV show and movies, who upon finding themselves home alone for the weekend throw a huge party, only have their parents return earlier than expected and have to hurriedly put everything back in order before they arrive. Instead we are to always be ready for Christ’s return, whether he comes today or 2,000 years from now. We cannot go through our lives expecting to have a warning, so we can hurriedly get ourselves and our lives in order.

We are to live in hope, in expectation, always ready for Christ to return, desiring and longing for the moment when all things will be set right. Yet working and living to make right what we can while we have the time. We are to live into and work for the good, the justice which will be made complete, made full when Christ returns. Each day is to be lived seeking to make God’s will, God’s justice, righteousness, goodness and love a reality in the here and now, all the while hoping for the time when it will all be made manifest with the return of Christ.

Advent is the season when we remember the moment when God came into the world and made a home among us. We remember that Jesus, for a time, belonged with us and continues seek our belonging in him and with him. Right now we are reminded what it is like to be longing for home. In this time when we cannot be where we want to be, we long for the places where we belong. Yet, as Christians we know we will never truly find home, this side of eternity, outside of the home we will make with God in Christ.

In this Advent season of waiting, we are also reminded we continue to wait for Christ’s return, for Jesus to come “home.” We wait for a time when we will come together for the greatest “homecoming” feast the world has ever seen, one in which there will be no vacant seats. We wait for the time when we will all come home, because Christ has finally returned and we can all be home together for eternity. And while we wait, let us not wait like those who are looking for early warning signs, so we can hurry up and get our act together, but let us be alert, and always be ready, living today as if Christ will come today, yet also living prepared to continue to wait. All the while we are waiting, let us wait in hope and not in despair, not waiting for Christ for all things to be set right, but let us work to make things right, to be agents of justice, love and peace as we wait.  

 

Meeting Christ - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-28

 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The saying goes, “There are only two things in life which are certain, death and taxes.” Both seem to be inevitable parts of human existence. Apparently there are ways certain people are able to avoid taxes, but for the average working person, they are pretty much unavoidable. Death is something else entirely. It comes when it comes and anyone who has lived for any length of time on this earth has had to deal with. And the longer I live and the more I experience the death of those around me and most especially those whom I love, I am more and more convinced God did not create the humans to experience death, and the pain, the emptiness, the hurt and loss which death leaves in its wake. If we were truly born to die, the human psyche would have evolved to better deal with it. But we have not, therefore in my mind, it cannot have been an intended part of creation. It is an unwanted intrusion; Death is an uninvited house guest whose presence is harmful all who are living and he disrupts the created order, by creating gaping hole in the interior of our lives where there once a living breathing being who was cherished and loved.

Whenever we come face to face with the death of someone close to us, we ask questions. What has happened to them? Where are they now? What is actually going on with them?  How are they experiencing this separation? Are they conscious, aware of what is going on here on earth? Are they now outside observers, watching everything that is going on from a distance? Can they see us? Do they know how much their death is hurting us? Will we really ever see them again?

Paul speaks into these questions, so that we will “not remain uninformed” and so that we do not grieve “without hope”. There are so many ways to misunderstand this passage. We will begin with this second statement, so that none of us will be misinformed. Paul is not telling us that we are not to mourn, experience grief when we lose someone to death. Grief is a part of what it means to live in a world so full of death. Death cuts us to the core. It halts us as we journey through life, and disrupts our lives in ways which bring turmoil to our wellbeing and which hurt us in ways which we could never have expected before having experienced it. And each new death is a new kind of pain and a new kind of hurt. It is an experience of which we never grow accustomed, no matter how many times it occurs throughout our lifetime and with it comes a hurt which does not grow numb the more often we feel it.

Paul instead tells us that we are not to mourn, “without hope.” And then as the passage continues, he explains, to us, why we have hope and what it is for which we are hoping. But hope, does not push away the pain, nor does it negate our need to grieve and mourn the death of each and every one we lose.

I can remember talking to my Dad one cold winter day, after we had recently buried one his brothers. He told me he knew it was silly but what bothered him most, at that moment, was that his brother was out there in the cold. You see his brother always hated to be cold, and now he was out there on that bitter winter night, and Dad felt, he had to be so cold and there was nothing Dad could do about it.

Death hurts us and affects us in ways we would never have thought. We begin to think things and ask questions of ourselves and of God, which we perhaps would not ask at other times. At others times, the very questions which plague us the most in the midst of our grief,  are questions we think we know the answer to, or might think too silly to ask. But there in the moment of grief we ask them and the answers no longer seem so certain. This was just as true when Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in Thessalonica, as it is today.  It seems following the death of some among them, the Christians had some questions and concerns about their fellow believers who had died and what would happen to them when Christ returned.

As we continue to worship with our remembrance tree here before us, as its presence continues to serve as a reminder to us of those in Christ who have gone on before us,  Paul’s words can be seen as fairly apropos. As we think about these who have died, Paul does not want us to be uninformed about them, and what will happen to them. Paul wants to set straight any misconceptions, or any concerns we might have about whether being dead will put their loved ones at any sort of disadvantage when Christ finally returns.

The Christians of the church of Thessalonica did not know what to think when it came to those among them who had died. Their concern was for those they loved, what would happened to them when Christ eventually returned? For these Christians the community of believers was everything. They were the body of Christ and parts of Christ’s body had died and were no longer a part of the body.  What did this mean? They wanted to be assured not only of the hope of the resurrection, but needed to also be assured in a restoration of community, that they as the body of Christ would be whole again.

Paul tells them, Christ’s coming would not parse the living from the dead. The dead in Christ would rise (just as Christ had) and they would be united with their loved ones. Then together, they would be united with Christ. The resurrection was assured and “needing” to be resurrected was not a failing or something which would put a person somewhere else, or in a different place, somewhere away from those who had remained alive. At the time of Christ’s return, the living and the dead would be alive and united. Paul assures believers, those who are alive will have no advantage over those who had died, and thusly those who had died would not be at a disadvantage because they had died.

Paul then goes on to describe the second coming of Christ with imagery which has capture the imaginations of Christians through the ages and most recently, in the last 100 years or so, the imaginations of many have simply run away with the scripture, (some might even say “away from” the true meaning of the scripture). There are several books, as well as movies which depict this event with Christians mysteriously disappearing leaving clothing, leaving cars, planes and various other vehicles to become driverless means of destruction. Loved ones are secreted away and are simply gone. And all those who are left are shocked and dismayed. I think the song, “I wish we’d all been ready” from that great 70’s classic “A Thief the Night” will forever play in my head when I think of scenarios such as this.

I am not sure about you but I have never found this kind of imagery comforting or encouraging. Yet Paul lays out this passage for us and then says, “Therefore encourage one another with these words.” How can disappearing people, the world in chaos and all that is depicted in the dramatic presentations of the events of this passage be described as “encouraging?” Is it really “encouraging” that we will be caught up in the clouds and will meet our savior in the air. Even at its most benign (when you take away the empty clothes sitting on the couch and a daughter’s night dress all that remains in her bed), what about this passage is a believer supposed to find encouraging?

All these dramatic depictions can be summed up in the English word “rapture,” which you might notice is not actually found in text that I read this morning.  The word rapture does come is from the Latin word, “rapio,” which is used in this passage in the Latin translation of the text (Latin being one of the earliest translations of the Bible and was commonly used by those studying scripture until surprisingly recently).  The Latin word “rapio” literally means, “to take away.” And many take this to mean that the living and the dead will be secreted away to be with Christ for eternity. In the original Greek the word here is, “harpazō” also carries a similar idea of being, “taken away”.  Although the meaning of, “harpazō” when used in conjunction with “apantēsis,” which here is translated “meeting,” takes on a new meaning, altogether. The two words together are the words most often used to describe the way a group of people goes out from a city to go meet an honored dignitary.

When a dignitary came to town, or a hero returned after being away, some would go out of the town and meet him a ways out from the city and lead him into the city in a sort of procession, or parade. This is what the crowds were doing at Jesus’ triumphal entry. They went out to meet him and returned with him, singing and shouting and giving him the praise one would give a honored dignitary or conquering hero. It is because of this kind of historical understanding of the procession we conclude that those greeting Jesus that day believed Jesus was coming into to Jerusalem as a conquering hero who would finally throw off their Roman oppressors. But not only do we find this imagery in the Bible at Jesus’ triumphal entry but we also find this imagery and this exact language in the Matthew passage which was read this morning.

Culturally, at this time, it was traditional, following the engagement, for the bride to be to return to her own home and wait there. The groom would return to his home to set upon the task of either building a house, or an addition to his parents’ home, in which he and his new bride could live. Once the home was finished he would go to his bride’s home (usually this was done in the middle of the night for some reason) and bring her to his home, where they would be wed and a huge wedding feast would ensue.  The bridesmaids here are waiting for the groom to come, so that when he comes they can go out to him, escort him to his bride and then they all can return to his home. The words to describe the bridesmaids going out to meet the bridegroom and escort him to his home are the same words used here in 1 Thessalonians.

The bridesmaids are awaiting the return of the bridegroom and they need to be ready. When he does arrive, they trim the wicks on their lamps and go to light them so they can provide light to the bridegroom. Unfortunately some of them do not have enough oil and are forced to go looking for oil in the middle of the night. Once they are able to procure the oil it is too late, the bridegroom has come and gone and the doors to the banquet are closed. They are not recognized as members of the bridal party because they were not there at the time of the groom’s arrival. These bridesmaids are called foolish and are left outside in the night.

Thessalonian Christians are working to be the believers they know they are called to be. They are ready. Their wicks are trimmed and their lamps are full. The light of Christ is burning brightly in their lives. They are prepared for Christ’s return, but they have one concern, some of them have fallen asleep (which is the metaphor actually used here in the Greek). They are sleeping the sleep from which they cannot be awakened.  What does the return of the Bridegroom mean for them? Are they the foolish bridesmaids? Are these who have had the misfortune to have died the bridesmaids who are unable to get their lamps lit in time?

Paul says emphatically, “No, those who have died in Christ are not the foolish bridesmaids.” Those alive will not precede those who have died. Those who have died will rise first and then together, with all your lamps lit and shining bright you will go to greet the bridegroom and usher him back. Together you will rejoice. It will be like the triumphal entry all over again. But this time Christ will be returning and will remain and you will ALL be with the Lord, together forever! Never to be separated again.  And as our text told us last week, every tear will be wiped from your eyes. The sting and the pain of death will be removed. All will be resurrected and all those who believe will live eternally together with the Lord! Thanks be to God!

In this passage Paul is depicting a joining of Heaven and Earth. Christ will come down, Heaven will come with him and we will go up to meet him, a symbolic gesture showing that all Earth will escort him, in his return. Heaven descends, Earth ascends and they will come together. Earth and Heaven will be reunited in way they have not been since the fall.

Paul here is clearly describing a bodily resurrection. He is telling us that in the resurrection we will all be resurrected as Christ was resurrected. We will be restored to our bodies. At Christ’s return, we will not be disembodied spirits, floating up into the clouds to greet a Spirit Christ. No we will be fully resurrected persons, who greet a fully embodied Savior who is returning just as he was when he left, in his resurrected body.  And together fully alive in ways which are sometimes hard to comprehend, we will live eternally in a new Heaven and a new Earth which are united and inseparable. It will be a new Eden in which there is no death and in which life is abundant and eternal.

And it is with these words, with this imagery, with this promise Paul tells us we are to comfort one another.

 

Manna for Today: Psalm 63

 

Psalm 63:1-11

Key Verse: 63:1-2

“God! My God! It’s you—I search for you! My whole being thirsts for you! My body desires you in a dry and tired land, no water anywhere.” CEB

 When was the last time you were truly desperate for the things of God? When you woke up this morning were you longing to spend time in prayer. Do you thirst to hear the voice of God speak into your life. When you do come to your quiet time with God do you walk away satisfied as you might following a hearty meal? Does the voice of God speaking into your life quench something deep within you? When fostering a dependence on God, pulling away from time spent in the presence of God should feel like fasting. Listening to God, hearing God’s voice, immersing oneself in the presence of God is not an accessory to life, something from which a believe can easily opt out of. These are the food and water in the life of a believer. Skipping out on scripture reading, prayer, talking and listening to God is like skipping meals. You can skip one but doing so for any length of time results in starvation and eventually death. Partake of God as you partake of food and water, do so daily. We come to the feast that is the presence of God, because a good meal is enjoyable does bring pleasure and joy, but also because God’s presence is the nourishment which gives life and sustains us from day to day.

 

Things to Think on

 What would it mean for your to truly hunger and thirst for the presence of God?

How easy is it for you to skip spending time with God on any given day?

Does skipping your prayer time, your scripture reading time, your quiet time listening to God affect your day at all?

How does it affect your life when you skip this time regularly?

What does it mean for God’s presence to be a hearty meal, a feast full of rich food?

A Prayer for Today

Lord, I want to hunger and thirst for you. I want to find that when I avoid you, I am parched, I am empty inside. Let me long for you. You are the food which feeds my spiritual being. You fill me with all that I need. With you I am satisfied. When I am away from you leave me empty, allow me to feel the hunger pains as one who is not eating. Let me come to you not just once a day but throughout the day, as I do for nourishment. Let me find the sustenance I need to make it through each day in you. You are my God and in you alone will I rely.  – Amen

Manna for Today: Psalm 62

 

Psalm 62:1-12

Key Verse: 62:1-2

“Only in God do I find rest; my salvation comes from him. Only God is my rock and my salvation—my stronghold!—I won’t be shaken anymore.” CEB

Our rest comes from God. So often we see the peace we need, the rest we need in other places. We seek it in our friendships, in our governments, in the our entertainment and sometimes we seek it in food. We want so many things to fill us with that which only God can provide. God is our rest, God is our salvation. It is in God and God alone we will find that which we are truly seeking. Two things which help us make it through anything, and all things, strength and faithful love are found in God. Trust God the Psalmist calls to each of us. Let us find our rest in God. Let us fall back into the peace which only God can provide. When the world is chaos, and fear, when we fear we might be swallowed up by the hurricane of life which swirls around us, we can rest and rely on God. Trust God, lean on God. Know the steadfast love of God is always moving in your direction and working to bring you through.

 

Things to Think on

 

In what ways is it hard to trust God today?

What chaos is swirling around you that you need to turn away from and find rest in God?

What would rest in God look like for you today?

 

A Prayer for Today

Lord, so much is going on today. So many things are circling. So many voices; so much chaos in this world, it is so hard to find you in the middle of it all. Show yourself today. Help me to find rest in you. Help me to trust you today. Be my strength and give me you peace. – Amen

Those Who Came Before - Who Will Come After - 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 and Revelation 7:9-17

All Saints Sunday

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.” Hebrews 12:1-2

We have said their names, we have mourned their loss, we have lamented the way their passing has left an empty place in our lives, we have remembered the ways they instructed us, guided us and loved us so that in them we would know the teaching, the leading and the love of Christ in them. We have honored the way they pointed us to Christ. We are thankful to them, to the light their lives was and continues to be for us. They are our fathers, our mothers, our friends, our sisters and our brothers and in so many ways they were fathers and mothers to us in our Faith. They were and forever will be dear to us.

Paul was a spiritual parent to the Thessalonians. Paul was literally the reason they had come to Christ. Paul came to Thessalonica, proclaimed the gospel, they heard it and accepted it and became believers. Father in last week’s passage spoke of how he was a mother to them and in this week’s passage he speaks of how he was a father to them. He was father, he was mother, and he was their parent in the Faith.

This morning we have remembered that we are here because of those who came before us, our fathers and mothers in the Faith. For many of us, we know we would not be here this morning if it were not for these who names we read and whose lives we have honored this morning. Some of them prayed for us. Some of them loved us. Some of them gently taught us when we struggled. Others sternly urged, pushed us even in the right direction we strayed to far, or wandered willingly. They encouraged us and guided us. It because of them we found out way when we were lost and it is because of them we came back to the path we had left it. We owe our spiritual lives to the fathers and mothers of the faith who came before us and showed us the way.

In the Revelation passage we read this morning, St. John the revelator gives us picture of the great sanctuary of eternity. In that sanctuary we find a great multitude of believers from every nation, from all tribes, peoples and language. John tells us they are all there, before the throne, our fathers and mothers in the faith, who have gone on before us, whose words have guided our steps, whose lives lite the way, so we could see the road to Christ. They like Paul (who I am sure is not counted among them) are pure, upright and blameless conducting themselves in ways which worked to benefit and strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and bring us to the place we are today.

We are here because they urged us on in our faith, encouraged us when we struggled and plead with us when we faltered so we might lead lives worthy of God, worthy of the one who sits on the throne and whom we worship here today. In reality all worship; all gathering together of the people of God for worship, is rehearsal for the gathering and the worship which we will someday join in the eternal sanctuary described here.  One day we too along with all those in the eternal sanctuary will sing, “Blessing and glory and wisdom, and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!” We are here because of their faith, the hope they had in us and all they imparted to us.  And when we join them we will be there because of the foundations they laid in us and for us.

As Paul speaks to the Christians in the Thessalonian Church, he tells them repeatedly how thankful he is for them. Paul is thankful to God for the people in the Church in Thessalonica, for their faith and for the way they have carried their faith to others. It is easy to think about how the Thessalonian Christians might be thankful to him, as we are for those who came before us, but we rarely stop to think about what it might mean for them to be thankful to us. Paul was thankful to the Christians in Thessalonica, thankful for their faith and who they were becoming as people of faith. We are thankful to those who have come before us. Thankful for the ways they helped and guided us, yet, personally, I have not really stopped to think about the ways they might have been thankful to us. Perhaps, they, just as Paul was to the Thessalonian Christians, were thankful to us. Thankful to see us come to faith, thankful to watch us grow, thankful that they had the privilege to nurture and encourage, to lead and to guide, to urge us along in our faith. Maybe they are looking forward to us joining them in the great multitude, just as we are thankful to have the privilege to join them. It is kind of a neat to think they are thankful to and for us, just as we are thankful to and for them.

As we think of joining the great multitude, think of becoming a part of those gathered in the eternal sanctuary, we must remember that this is not a circle which ends with us, at least it should not end with us. It is a circle which should continue going round. Paul lived in such a way to bring others to Christ. They lived in such way that those around them came to Christ. These we have honored here this morning lived in such a way to bring us, guide us and strengthen us and we too must carry on, pass on what we have gained, so that other may come to faith, be strengthened and guided along their journey. We too are fathers and mothers, parents in this faith. We are to follow the example of those who went before us in all things, and that includes urging and encouraging, nurturing, , and leading others to faith and in their faith, just as we follow behind those who have gone ahead of us, we walk ahead of those who will follow us. “Come join us we say,” as we look to join those before us.

This is how God’s word is at work in us. This is what it truly means to be kingdom people, what it truly means to live life as Christ lived life. We follow Christ example in all things, his life was a living example of what it looks like to live in relationship with God. Jesus taught us to pray and taught us to love. He showed us what it truly means to love our neighbors, our enemies, the outcast, the widow the orphan and anyone our society pushes aside, rejects, tramples down or ignores. And he was continually drawing others to faith, bringing people to God through his actions, through his teachings, through his kindness and gentleness. What it really means to be a person wholly given over to living a holy life, a transformed life, a life which reflects that of Jesus Christ is to work to bring others to faith.

One day we will all meet in the great sanctuary of eternity. We will greet those whom we have honored today. We will see them again in that moment every tear will be wiped from our eyes, all the pain we have experienced on this earth because of death and sin and evil will be gone and the only thing left will be the joy we feel at joining these loved ones to give honor and praise to the one who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb, Jesus Christ. And in that moment it will not only be those who have gone before us, whom we will great, but we too will be greeted by those who come behind us. It is easy to name those whom are looking forward to greeting but we also should be thinking about the names of those who will want to greet us. Who are we discipling, who are we guiding, who are we leading, who are we hoping to guide in their faith. Not only should we be thinking about the names of those who have gone before us, but we should also be thinking of who will come behind us.