“If It Could Happen To Joe…”

Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

At a certain church the minister kept getting irritated each Sunday. He got irritated because every week, a couple of minutes into his sermon, this one older man would close his eyes and fall asleep. So one Sunday after the worship service, the minister went up to the man’s little grandson who always sat right next to his grandfather in church, and the minister said, “Billy, I’ll pay you 25 cents every week if you keep your grandfather awake for the whole worship service. If you see him start to close his eyes, poke him and nudge him. OK? Is it a deal?” And Billy nodded and agreed.

Well, the very next Sunday, Billy was sitting next to his grandfather like he always did, and just like his grandfather always did, a few minutes into the sermon, the grandfather closed his eyes and fell asleep. After the worship service, the minister took Billy aside and said, “What happened? I thought we had a deal!” But Billy replied, “My grandfather made me a better offer. He said he’s going to pay me $1 a week to leave him alone and let him sleep.”

Wake up! Be alert! That’s the message that the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians here in his first letter to the Thessalonians. But when Paul told the Thessalonian Christians to be awake and alert, he wasn’t saying that because they were in the habit of falling asleep in worship. No, Paul was telling them to be awake and alert to what they were doing with their lives because, as Christians, we believe that at any time Jesus might return, and then the light will be shined on us and we’ll be judged on what we’ve done during our lives.

But the question that the Thessalonians had is pretty much the same question that many of us have: When will that day come? If Jesus is going to return and judge us, where should we mark that down on our calendars? After all, for many people these days, they don’t do anything that’s not on their calendar. They go from doctor’s appointments to haircut appointments to lunch appointments to business appointments. And that sort of thing even starts with children. I still remember the first time I ever heard the term “play date.” I was talking with my brother on the phone several years ago and he told me that his daughter had a play date that afternoon. And I had to ask, “What’s a play date?” And, of course, a play date means that one kid and her parents contact another kid and their parents and coordinate their calendars and work out a day and a time when the two children will get together and play.

I realize that I’m ancient – at least that’s what the kids at Youth Club keep telling me – but somehow I managed to grow up without ever having one play date in my life. If it was a Saturday morning and I wanted someone to play whiffleball with , I’d call up Pat or Steve or Griff, and we’d get together on the spur of the moment and play whiffleball. We never worried about scheduling those get-togethers in advance and marking them down on our calendars. But I guess times have changed, and today many people have this desire to know in advance exactly what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen.

I guess that’s why so many people get all excited about the theory associated with the Mayan calendar. You know, that’s where on December 21, 2012, the Mayan calendar completes a 5,126-year cycle, and some suggest that that’s when the world will come to an end. Even though, as far the Mayan Indians are concerned, that occurrence doesn’t have anything to do with the world coming to an end, it’s a date – December 21, 2012, a date that people can put on their calendars, and figure that if the world is going to come to an end, they’ll know about it in advance and be able to get ready for it.

Or it’s like earlier this year when a radio evangelist named Harold Camping came out and announced that according to his calculations, the world was going to come to an end and Jesus would return on May 21. And a lot of people got excited about what he said and wrote down May 21 on their calendars as the day they should get ready for. But guess what? May 21 came and went, and Jesus didn’t return. So, Harold Camping apologized to people and said that unfortunately he had made some miscalculations, but that he was really sure that Jesus would return on October 21. And people got excited about that announcement, and they wrote that date on their calendars. Well, here we are, more than three weeks after October 21 and Jesus still hasn’t returned.

In the same way, the Thessalonian Christians were saying to Paul: “OK. As Christians we believe that someday Jesus will return and judge us. But when will that day be? Already 10, 12, 14 years have gone by since Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and then ascended into heaven, and he hasn’t come back yet. Is he coming back? And if so, when will it be?”

And so Paul responds to the Thessalonians by reminding them of what Jesus himself said about that subject – that no one knows when Jesus will return, only God the Father knows – and God isn’t letting us in on that secret. In fact, Jesus says, God the Father doesn’t even let Jesus in on that secret.

But know this, Paul says: when Jesus returns and judges us, it will be at an unexpected time. It will come upon us suddenly and without warning, much like a thief coming in the night. And when that happens, Paul says, it will be like a great light has been shined upon us, and what we’ve done with our lives, including those wrong things that we’ve done in the dark and in secret, and that we think that no one knows about, all of a sudden the light will be shined upon them and they’ll be exposed to God’s judgment.

Our problem, though, is we like the TV commercials that tell us that “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” The idea is that the wrong things we might do in secret, in the dark, can stay hidden there in secret, in the dark. “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” means that it’s possible to keep our wrongs hidden and out of sight, so that they’ll never be found out. But as Paul tells us, if we really believe that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegans is true, we’re sorely mistaken.

As a very tragic case in point, consider what has transpired in the past week or so at Penn State. A former assistant football coach allegedly sexually abused and raped little boys repeatedly over a period of years, with other members of the college, including Joe Paterno, aware of what was going on, but with no one ever bothering to call the police, thus making it possible for that assistant coach to abuse and rape even more little boys. Apparently, according to the news reports, what the assistant coach was doing was reported to various levels of the Penn State hierarchy. But my impression, at least, is that they decided to keep it quiet and in the dark and not call the police in the hope that the whole sordid thing would never be found out.

Well, guess what? It was found out. And in the process it was found out that Joe Paterno, the winningest coach in college football history and a legend at Penn State, was at least indirectly involved in shrouding that evil in silence and darkness. And at a time and in a way that he didn’t expect, judgment came suddenly upon him. As recently as Wednesday of this week, Joe Paterno held a news conference and said that because of the incident, he would finish out the season and then retire. But the board of trustees of Penn State met that night and decided that Joe Paterno wouldn’t get to set the date of his leaving. And so without warning, after 46 years of being head coach, Joe Paterno was forced to face the consequences of what he had done and of what he had not done.

But instead of us just shaking our heads at Joe Paterno, what we need to consider is this: If that could happen to Joe Paterno, could that also happen to us? Are there some wrongs in our past? Are there some sins in our lives that we think have been buried and hidden and will never be found it? If so, then we need to take a look at what happened with Joe Paterno and realize that if that’s what we think, we’re just kidding ourselves. Because ultimately, nothing remains hidden to God. And so while we have time, we have the opportunity to repent. While we have time, we have the opportunity, with God’s help, to try and right the wrongs we’ve done and to seek forgiveness. Because to not do that, and to hope that our wrongs and sins will forever be cloaked in darkness is a deadly mistake.

Each time we celebrate communion, the final part of the words of institution goes like this: For as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Until he comes. In communion, we remember not only how Jesus ate with his followers long ago. In communion, we remember not only how Jesus is with us right now through the power of the Holy Spirit. But in communion, we also remember that that day will come in the future when Jesus will return, and the light of God, in all its fullness, will be shined upon us.

No, we don’t know when that day will come. All we know for sure is that some day it will come. And so let us make use of the time that we have to make the changes in our lives that need to be made. Because what today may be hidden in darkness, one day will be exposed to the light of God.