LEFT BEHIND

Scripture: Exodus 3:1-17; Deuteronomy 34:1-8; Mark 9:1-8

INTRODUCTION

When I left for Chautauqua Lake last June with a file full of sermon suggestions and recommendations from many of you, I was not surprised to find that at least a few folks in the congregation were interested to learn more about the “Left Behind” books and films that have swept this nation since the mid 1990’s.

As you may know, the “Left Behind” series of novels was created and co-authored by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, who have found their niche focusing on the Book of Revelation from a contemporary point of view.

With their vivid imagination, the writers describe what they think it will be like when Jesus comes again and how Christian believers will be “raptured,” that is, taken up into heaven while non-believers will be “left behind” on earth. Jenkins and LaHaye have sold more than 57 million copies of their books, and three years ago, Cloud Ten Pictures released the first “Left Behind” video which has already passed the three million mark in sales.

In that particular production, some of the scenes include a darkened sky as fighter jets fly toward Israel. Bombs drop, fires rage and the background music sounds like a mix of Abba and Madonna, full of synthesizers and lyrics like “When it comes down/I’ve made up my mind/I know that I will not be left behind.” Strangely enough, that description comes from an article in the New Yorker magazine which was published on Monday, September 10, 2001. (“Lights! Camera! Rapture!” by Scott Spencer, The New Yorker, September 10, 2001)

As I read and researched some of that information last summer in preparation for our sermon today, little did I know that Jerry Jenkins would be in Douglasville this past week for a book signing where he was quoted as saying that the “success of (this Left Behind series of) faith-based fiction is due to a hunger for spirituality in the world. People are looking for something beyond themselves,” Jenkins said, “especially after 9/11” (Excerpts taken from an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 17, entitled “Religious Fiction No Longer A Niche” by Don O’Briant).

Well, to tell you the truth, I have not watched any of the videos, neither have I read a single one of the “Left Behind” books all the way through. But I did borrow a copy written for young people entitled “Left Behind – The Vanishings,” which describes a teenager named Judd Thompson flying from London to the United States. Halfway over the Atlantic Ocean, Judd wakes up in the middle of the night, only to discover that a number of people on the plane have vanished in flight. The pilot and crew try to calm everyone down, including an older woman who is holding her husband’s clothes in her lap. “He’s gone!” she cries out to Judd, “He’s disappeared!”

No one can figure out what has happened, but Judd, sitting there strapped down in his seat, suddenly realizes what it all means. And this is how the co-authors Jenkins and LaHaye describe it: “Judd was afraid too, but he wasn’t puzzled. As the pilot came over the intercom, pleading for people to remain calm, the full realization of what had happened hit Judd … Christ had come, just as He promised, and raptured the church … it was the worst nightmare imaginable, and he was wide awake. He and most of the passengers on that plane had been left behind.” (“Left Behind – The Vanishings” by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, Tyndale House Publishers, 1998, pages 80-86)

Well, we could go on and on about this, but let me come right to the point. Ever since the first century A.D. when Jesus Christ died on the cross, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven – for nearly 2000 years now, Christians of all sorts and conditions have been trying to predict when the Lord will come again and what it will be like on earth and in heaven. William Butler Yeats in 1921 wrote: “Surely some revelation is at hand. Surely the Second Coming is at hand.” And most recently during the twilight years, months, weeks, days and hours, counting down toward the end of the 20^th century, people have declared, sometimes with absolute certainty, that the prophecies are all lined up and it’s going to happen … but it doesn’t.

Why? God only knows … Did you hear that? God only knows! And that is exactly what Jesus said as He ascended into heaven. Luke describes the scene in the first chapter of the book of Acts: So when the disciples had come together, they asked Him “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” In other words, is this it? Is this the grand finale that we have all been waiting for?

Jesus looked them in the eye and replied, “It is not for you to know the times or the season which the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” And having said that, He was taken up out of their sight. (Acts 1:6-9)

And that’s it! Those were His final words, His marching orders to those first disciples as He sent them out to change the world. Don’t try to figure out the future, He told them. That is not for you to know – it is in God’s hands, and God only knows how or when or where things are going to happen. Your calling, said Jesus, is to be my witnesses, so get on with it, right here and right now!

Driving back from the church retreat yesterday up in North Georgia, I saw a sign on the front lawn of a country church which said “Jesus Is Coming Again.” As a Christian, I believe that is true because our Lord Himself said He would return someday (John 14:3). But instead of focusing so much time and energy on the Second Coming, the rapture and all of those mysteries in the Book of Revelation, I think our calling is to focus on the reality that Jesus has already come and told us that there’s work to be done right here in His kingdom on earth.

II.

So please shift gears with me now as we spend the rest of our time looking at how some people, far too many people, really are being left behind, and what our Lord wants and expects us to do about it.

In the book of Exodus, chapter 3, God calls Moses to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt. The Bible says that God spoke to His servant through a flame of fire, a burning bush which inspired Moses in the desert of Midian. And so the journey out of bondage began, trekking through the wilderness toward the Promised Land, following a cloud in the sky by day and a pillar of fire, a flaming torch by night which helped those ancient wanderers find their way.

David Watermulder, retired pastor emeritus of the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, once told a story about that trek, about Moses and the people of Israel wanting to make sure that none of them were left behind. It’s a tongue-in-cheek story and this is what my mentor said in a sermon long ago.

“It’s about Moses – not the real story in the Bible but a parody that illustrates the dilemma.

Moses called his advisers together before he crossed the Red Sea and said to them: ‘I believe it is God’s will for us to cross to the other side and that no one in our community of faith is to be left behind. But before we make our move, I want to seek your advice.’ Noting that the Egyptian army was approaching, he told his advisers that at just the right time, God would part the waters with a mighty wind and allow them to pass through safely.

First, he turned to the Head of the Engineering Division, who said to him, ‘Moses, you must be out of your mind. All the laws of hydrodynamics speak against it. There is no way in which those waters will divide so that we can march through.’

The he called upon his Vice President of Medical Affairs, who said ‘Moses, that’s a terrible idea. At the bottom of that sea are many snails which carry the larvae of schistosomiasis. As we march through, the entire nation will be infected and we will have it for generations to come.’

His Chief Educational Advisor spoke up next: ‘Moses, I haven’t had time to think about this, but if you’ll let me form an ad hoc committee of the faculty, I think within six to twelve months we can give you an answer.’ (He must have been a Presbyterian!)

So Moses turned in desperation to the person whom he depended on most of all anyway – his Director of Public Affairs, and he said: ‘Moses I really don’t know what to say, but if you pull this one off, I’ll get you three pages in the Old Testament.’”

The book of Deuteronomy, chapter 34, says that when they finally arrived and prepared to go into Canaan, no one was to be left behind … except for Moses himself, and exactly why, we can’t say for certain. Biblical scholars have debated that one for a long, long time, and if you want to do some of your own research, go back and read Deuteronomy 3:23-29. Whatever the reason, Moses saw the Promised Land with his own eyes and then he died, as all the others led by Joshua started crossing over to the other side.

To be honest, the end of that story has never made much sense to me – Moses being left behind after all those years of serving God and his people so faithfully. But Philip Yancey, in his book, “The Bible Jesus Read,” offers a glimpse of redemption and hope for old Moses through a perceptive insight that was totally new to me, found in the gospel of Mark’s description of Jesus’ transfiguration. Listen:

“Jesus knew the book of Deuteronomy (and the story of Moses) well. During His own sojourn in the wilderness, Jesus quoted from it three times to counter Satan’s temptations. Later, at a hinge moment in His ministry, Jesus climbed a high mountain to meet with God … and just as Moses had met with God on the sacred mountain, Jesus’ appearance changed too. Mark says ‘There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun …’

… A voice rumbled from heaven and suddenly, there on the mountaintop before them, stood two giants of Israel’s history … Elijah … and just to the side – it could be no one else – stood Moses, engaged in conversation with Jesus.” (Mark 9:4)

And Yancey concludes:

“The scene of Jesus’ transfiguration contains a fact often overlooked by Christians, but poignant for any Jew. At that moment of tender mercy, Moses finally realized his life long dream. He stood on the mountaintop smack in the middle of the Promised Land …”

(“The Bible Jesus Read” by Philip Yancey, Zondervan

Publishing House, 1999, pages 104-105)

And with my own words, I would underscore that Moses, alongside Jesus, was left behind no more.

It seems to me that what we need today are leaders like Moses who will follow the light, the flame of fire that can burn in the heart and lead the way. Martin Luther King, Jr. was such a leader, who stood there in Memphis, Tennessee on the night before he died, and saw the light of the Promised Land with his own eyes:

“I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worrying about anything, I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”

(From “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” by Martin Luther King, Jr.,

On the eve of his assassination, Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968).

You see, Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that God did not want any of His children to be left behind.

And so did a grandmother in New Orleans just before the Olympic Games began here in 1996. Dr. Sam Shelton, a member of this congregation who teaches at Georgia Tech and who designed and developed the Olympic Torch that carried the flame from Athens, Greece across this country to Atlanta – Sam Shelton was there in the crowd in New Orleans that summer as a runner held the torch high, passing through the city streets. An older African-American woman with her three grandchildren stood on the sidewalk watching with tears in her eyes, and Sam Shelton heard her say to those little ones, “Look children, there goes hope!”

CONCLUSION

And so it was for Jesus Himself, who stood amidst the crowd and preached that Sermon on the Mount, saying You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid … Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:14, 16).

You see, Jesus Christ did not want any of God’s children on earth to be left behind. So He has called us to be His witnesses and commissioned us to let our light shine – the torch of hope, the flame of faith which promises love and forgiveness, equality and justice, hope and grace to all of the human family on the face of this earth, including:

· Almost two billion living in poverty, struggling to survive on less than $2 a day

· 40,000 children who will die from hunger related problems in the next 24hours

· 45 million in the United States without health insurance

· 13 million children going to bed hungry tonight

· 25,000 homeless people right here in the city of Atlanta, Georgia

So what do you think? Should we wait for the second coming or the rapture someday, somehow … Jesus said in so many words, “Leave the future in God’s hands… and let your light shine, right here and right now!”

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The sermon distribution fund has been established by the Session of First Presbyterian Church to enable friends and groups to make contributions for the printing of the Sunday sermons. Sermon leaflets will be printed from time to time, as they are requested and as funds are available. Please designate your gift for Sermon Distribution Fund. Thank you for your support.