Rituals and Rapture

Monday, May 15, 2006 -- Week of 5 Easter

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this link -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 963)
Psalms 56, 57, [58] (morning) // 64, 65 (afternoon)
Leviticus 16:1-19
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Some people are deeply moved by elaborate ritual. Others prefer the simple quiet intimacy of being with God. Both are provided for us by scripture and tradition.

Today in Leviticus we read Moses instructions about the liturgy of the atonement, a complicated rite of purification involving diverse sacrifices, incense, blood, vestments, curtains, altar, drama and ritual. (Yesterday's reading was about the elaborate ordination of Aaron and his sons as priests.)

In Matthew we hear the admonition that our prayer must be consistent with our actions. We are invited to practice our prayer, almsgiving and fasting quietly and humbly before God rather than other people. Tomorrow we'll read the simple prayer that Jesus teaches to his followers. Forgiveness has no ritual, but instead is connected with our forgiving relationship with others.

From my view, this is not a later teaching trumping an earlier one. The church's tradition has retained for us both kinds of prayer -- elaborate public ritual and quiet intimate prayer. I know that I have found both to be sources of presence.
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One little note. The notion of the "rapture" (a word not found in the Bible) comes from this passage in Thessalonians that we read today. An important context: this is among Paul's earliest letters. He is writing in an atmosphere when the congregation expected the immanent return of Jesus to earth. There is anxiety over the delay. -- We have been waiting expectantly for so long. What is the delay. Some of our disciples have died before the Lord's return. What about them? -- Paul is encourages the Thessalonians not to grieve so hopelessly about those who have already died. They too will share in the resurrection of Jesus.

Paul imagines the scene of Jesus' return, coming in the immanent future, maybe today, or if not today, more likely this week. He sees those who have died in a procession with Jesus. The archangel's trumpet blast raises the dead to Christ. Jesus leads the procession back to earth, with all the faithful dead returning with him. Those who are alive are then "caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air." The living join Jesus and the dead in the great procession which returns to the earth to usher in the awaited Kingdom of God. Jesus' return inaugurates the great healing of the earth when all creation will live in harmony.

It is a tragic misreading of this expectation to see this return of Jesus as an escape from the earth. Maybe you remember the evangelical Secretary of the Interior a few years ago who expressed some rather casual disregard for an environmental issue because he expected Jesus to return soon. His expectation was not the restoration of the earth, but its complete destruction. Why take care of earth if it is simply to be discarded? That's a bad misreading of scripture and a distortion of the teaching of Jesus whose stories showed such attentive regard for seeds, birds, fish, water and seasons.

Lowell
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas