Coming Soon 11-26-10

Roper Mountain, South Carolina

As a child living in an unstable alcoholic home, we were always looking for something new, something different than drab stucco apartments to keep out the tsunami of nocturnal fears that wash over those caught up in addictions. Too many times night was ripped asunder and the revere of childhood dreams obliterated by realities of adult torments. Night time slumber still eludes me most of the time.

A bright spot in childhood was the fantasy that came with seeing a large sign declaring “Coming Soon” As a kid, not schooled in concepts of urban planning, environmental sustainability, ad infinitum, I clung to the idea something new, big, and bright was about to change my world, eclipsing our bleak stucco landscape with something epic. I still have clear recollections of stores being built near one of our non-descript apartments. Utterly entranced, I could hardly wait to walk to and from school, climbing about construction sites en route. In those days no one expressed paranoia about public liability or lawsuits. I was not taken to school in a fear-filled mini-van. No fences kept my brother and me from walking on top of sixteen-foot cinder block walls and cavorting on scaffolding. It was better than any tree house. Amazing is how much fun we had doing this and that we survived. Only once did I end up going to the hospital in a code three ambulance as a consequence of nefarious activity on the way to school.

“Coming Soon” is a declarative that something transformative is about to happen. Grocery stores, hardware stores, movie theaters, malls, most anything of a retail nature tell us life will be better and richer for their arrival in the landscape of our daily experiences. Retail anthropologists and sociologists can decide if “Coming Soon” fulfills expectation or constitutes empty promise.

One of the most powerful laments ever put to paper is King David’s Psalm 55, some three thousand years ago. In his testament to the toxic power of betrayal, he describes in vivid language premeditated efforts of his dearest friend to bring him emotional injury of the highest order. David wonders aloud how it could be that one he once held sweet conversation with, walked within God’s house in sweet fellowship with, could wage war in his heart, make his words as drawn swords, and do this evil thing to him. In the depths of despair, David wonders if life is even worth living. Those of us experiencing betrayal resonate with David’s pain. We find it surreal to think those once holding us in great affection would actually embark on a course of mutually-assured destruction. They know “Coming Soon” is about something coming our way, something anything but new, big, and bright. There is little more bitter in the human experience than betrayal. Premeditated pain is a difficult pill to swallow.

Recently I was informed of a church member’s intent to cause me premeditated pain, someone who once offered to take an important place in my life. I was told something was “Coming Soon.” I could expect verbal assault in a public meeting that would cause me emotional injury in front of my friends. As it happened I was not in the place of the intended attack and did not get waylaid. “Coming Soon” hasn’t happened, yet. Premeditation is often fired by incendiary emotions that don’t damp easily over time. It’s only a matter of time before a random encounter will allow me to experience this “Coming Soon” I’ve been promised. I have become an avid student of Psalm 55. Suddenly an ancient lament has become part of my post-atomic life. Some things never change under the sun; the nature of evil being one of them.

New Testament writers tell us of One who will be “Coming Soon”. The Apostle Paul tells us Jesus will come in the twinkling of an eye to catch us up in the air, even as a thief in the night. With no warning, no announcement board, those having placed their trust in One who can deliver shall find themselves caught up in the clouds, in a place clearly new, big, and bright.

In his dream visions on the Island of Patmos, John describes this new place in astounding terms, a city with streets of transparent gold, gates made of precious stones, a place where there’s no night, no gnashing of teeth, no tears, no death, no pain. David’s powerful lament will no longer have relevance to my life. Old things will have passed away and all things become new.

A most controversial theme in Christendom is the concept of the Rapture, of the possibility of avoiding the Tribulation. Conservative scholars interpret scriptures as foretelling a “Coming Soon” that makes my church member’s threat pale in significance. The Tribulation is described as a seven-year period during which the world will be struck with warfare and natural disasters, leaving the earth little more than a depopulated cinder, Some denominations obsess on divining the signs, attempting to deduce when this tribulation is going to take place, when the Rapture of the Saints is to occur. Many fear the Rapture will catch saintly believers in the air and leave the rest of us nefarious souls behind to suffer the agonies of the Tribulation. Countless scholars argue ‘pre’ and ‘post’ Tribulation scenarios. Some want to believe we can avoid Tribulation’s torments by right living and enjoying immediate Rapture. Others suggest we all have to go along for the ride. Others pay no attention to any of it. Many are agreed Jesus is coming soon, yet, after twenty centuries of waiting, it’s hard to know exactly what “Coming Soon” means.

What one can deduce from any interpretation of the Revelation of John or Daniel’s prophetic writings from Babylon is being circumspect about how we live our lives and how we treat those around us is of highest import. There’s simply nothing more compelling than living our lives in such a way that if “Coming Soon” happens before lunch today, we would be ready. Virtually all interpreters of scripture, of any ilk, agree these are powerful imperatives to right living. The urgency placed upon the idea of “Coming Soon” compels us to get our spiritual and relational affairs in order.

The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the church at Corinth suggest the non-negotiable nature of this imperative in stark language. He says, paraphrased, “If I do not have love, nothing else whatever counts.” There’s simply no room whatever for pre-meditated injury to others. If He’s really “Coming Soon”, I really want to be ready. Really.

Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.