Proper 27C’25
9 November 2025
II Thessalonians 2.1-5;13-17
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
North Little Rock, Arkansas
The Rev. Carey Stone <+>
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us, and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word. Amen. – II Thessalonians 2.16-17
Since the first century there have been speculations, predictions, and warnings about the “second coming of Christ.” This continued into the 1970s with the best-selling book called The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lyndsey; and that book spawned a number of low budget films like “A Thief in the Night” and “Image of the Beast.” One of the scenes that has stuck with me is of a couple in their morning routine. They are carrying on a conversation and while the husband is still talking, he goes into the bathroom and turns on an electric razor. The wife continues to talk but starts noticing that her husband is not answering her back. She goes looking for him in the bathroom and there in the sink is an electric razor still turned on “annnhhhhh..”[sound effect] with the husband vanished. The message was clear; the husband had been raptured/resurrected while the wife had not, she was “left behind.” In the 1990s The “Left Behind series” of novels sold millions of copies and were made into movies starring the likes of Lea Thompson, and Nicholas Cage.
Not much is new under the sun. Believe it or not, the whole belief and concept of being “left behind’ is exactly what was happening in Thessalonica in Northen Greece the group that St. Paul’s letter is addressed to. This new Christian community had some doomsday prophets who were troubling them by telling them that they had been “left behind” and had not been raptured into heaven. To this St. Paul wrote:
“Don’t be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way…
Christ had been resurrected for over 20 years when this letter was written to the Thessalonians. This began a shift away from expecting Christ’s imminent return to focusing more on how to live life as Christians in a messed-up world. Rather than “pie in the sky” the focus was more on “spreading the Good News” and living on earth with the overarching principle of love found in Christ’s kingdom.
As time went on there were new dates set for the second coming and also a great fascination with trying to identify who the “antichrist” was. The rise of a world leader that would deceive everyone was always on the horizon, and naming who the antichrist was/is a moving target. For the early colonists in the Americas the antichrist was the native Americans and the French Catholics; then it shifted to Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and the witches of Salem, to the Church of England and the King.
In more modern times the pope, the European Union the National Council of Churches, feminism, New Age religions, and even supermarket barcodes, fiber optics, and chip implants. This apocalyptic focus on the “end times” and the “saving of souls” has caused many within the Christian faith to neglect the needs of the poor and homeless that are still on earth and very much in need.
Rather than asking who the antichrist is, a better question might be: “where do antichristian tendencies plague my own soul and the souls of those around me?” Where does injustice and oppression lurk? How can we help feed the increasing numbers of hungry people? Where can we as a body of believers put our energy into that could make a real difference?“ St Paul’s words still hold true:
“So then, brothers and sisters stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us.”
Those traditions would include: gathering each week for worship and holy communion; reaching out to those who are in spiritual darkness in need of the Good News; making disciples by leading them by word and example to pray, study, and take action out in the world for the cause of Christ. Standing firm and holding fast to the truth found in the words of Jesus: Love God, love your neighbors, as you are loving yourself as God’s beloved child. To Love our enemies, pray for those who use and abuse us. This is the high road of Christian discipleship that we are each called – to be faithful in the places and with the people we’ve been placed with.
Some of us can remember Y2K and the chaos that was supposed to ensue as the calendar/clocks turned over from 1999 to day one of the year 2000. Computers were supposed to all crash, nothing that required a computer connection to function would be able to function. I was working in a hospital at the time and was waiting to see one of our doctors so I waited in the reception office where his wife worked as his office manager. She nervously began to quiz me; “do you have your jugs of water? Do you have your cereal bars?” I kept saying ‘no’ to all of her questions and she was looking more and more perplexed, “You’re not going to be ready for Y2K!” I then shared with her a quote attributed to Martin Luther:
“Even if I knew tomorrow that the word would end, I would still plant an apple tree today.”
Today is the only day we know for sure that we have. Today is the day of salvation. Today is a good day to be a good steward of all that God has given to us.
We don’t know when the Christ will return, but in the meantime, there are so many that need what we have St. Luke’s! Dear friends we need each of you to help keep our doors open – keep our community growing and keep our ministries thriving as we continue to Tell Out Our Souls!
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us, and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word. Amen. – II Thessalonians 2.16-17