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THERE’S ALWAYS MORE MESSIAH #2

THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND

It’s one of the most marvelous art demonstrations I’ve ever seen. Sculptor Alan Collins does something with modeling clay which simply transforms your life. It’s called “The Ages of Man.” He starts with a clay figure of an infant, a baby boy. And then slowly, shaping a bit here and there, curling in a bit of hair, some more definition to the chin, the baby becomes a little boy, a toddler. He moves a bit more clay around, hardening the cheeks a little. Now he’s six, then eight. Meanwhile, a narrator shares bits of poetry, humor, readings about what it means to be a boy. Then a teenager. Meanwhile, that clay is continually being molded; the boy becomes a man.

And you watch, mesmerized, as Alan is able to add years by simply moving the molecules around. Now he’s a middle-aged man; a few wrinkles appear around the eyes. The hairline thins a bit. Flesh sags. The unstoppable effects of age are showing now. Soon he’s an older man, still nice-looking, but definitely ready to carry around a card from AARP. Another poem about seeing the leaves fall from the trees. And now, the music slows down as he’s VERY old. Down to the end, and the shadows of death draw near. And very quietly a bell tolls the marking of the end of life. A cloth is slowly pulled over this old, weary face as the eyes close in death.

But you know, all during the exhibit, which takes about an hour, there’s a second figure nearby, also draped. And right at the end . . . is it REALLY the end? No! And Alan pulls away the second cloth; a spotlight shines on this new figure, and we see a man in the vitality of youth. Strong, handsome, with eternal life flowing through the veins and immortality written on the face.

And all at once, through the PA system, comes pounding this song from Handel’s Messiah: “The Trumpet Shall Sound.”

Here just eight days before Christmas, I want to share with you a quote which may jolt you a bit. This is from John Irving, who wrote A Prayer For Owen Meany.

“ANYONE can be sentimental about the Nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas.” That’s true, isn’t it; even the mall has a Christian feel to it right now. Then he says this: “But Easter is the main event; if you don’t believe in the resurrection, YOU’RE NOT A BELIEVER.”

And here on December 22 people focus mainly on the soft-and-easy concept of a Baby in a manger. Which is wonderful and good. But friend, the hope of the Christian faith is based on the fact that that Baby became a Teenager — just like that clay model. And then a Man. And then a Savior up on a cross. And then three days later, a resurrected Lord and triumphant King. Which is what Handel focuses on in this wonderful song of triumph, taken verbatim from First Corinthians chapter 15, one of THE most important passages in the entire Word of God.

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

I heard a cute bit of humor once, where it was posted on the door of a church nursery. Apparently babies still in diapers don’t always cooperate by resting peacefully in there during the pastor’s Sunday sermon, because the notice read: “We shall not all sleep . . . but we shall all be changed!”

But friend, all levity aside, that verse holds our only hope for the future. We don’t know the timetable, but someday, every one of us will take a trip to the cemetery where we won’t be an active or willing participant. We’ll be the one they drive in the hearse. And unless Jesus comes first, relatives and friends will sadly say goodbye and lay us in our resting place.

But then God promises us that a trumpet will sound! Every believer is going to live again, beginning at that very moment in time. Here’s John 5:25, Jesus Himself talking:

“I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.”

But now notice the five words: “And we shall be changed.” That old man in the clay modeling demonstration was suddenly new again. Young! Forever young! Forever strong!

You know, the other day we received in the mail one of the kindest, most gracious and thought-provoking letters from an excellent lay scholar in the Catholic faith. Just a lovely, dedicated Christian believer. And she wrote to dialogue with us on the subject of purgatory. I have to say very honestly that she had studied well. She did make a couple of good points and, what’s more, they were expressed in the spirit of Jesus.

Well, we don’t have time here in two minutes to dialogue that important issue, but I do want to lift up right here these five words: “We shall all be changed.” It is true, friend, that God is going to change us, to make us pure. I like the Clear Word paraphrase of this wonderful verse:

“In a moment, in the blink of an eye, God will change us. . . . Sinful bodies will be replaced with sinless ones, and beings with a limited life span will receive a life that never ends.”

I fully agree with my friend who wrote this letter: we need to be changed before heaven is a fit home for us. As C. S. Lewis wrote in his masterpiece, The Problem of Pain, if we’re not willing to “eat the only food that the universe grows,” the holy diet of heaven, what can we do but starve? But thank God, we have this promise that God will accomplish this in us. And notice as well: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.”

Some of you have joined me in reading through a challenging book by my friend Samuele Bacchiocchi, entitled Resurrection or Immortality? It’s hard going in spots, but oh — right at the end — he writes about the utter REALITY of heaven, the incredible REALNESS of life there. Notice:

“Whatever the meaning of all the details, the vision of the Holy City conveys the image, not of a mystical, monastic life in a heavenly retreat, but of urban life of INTENSE ACTIVITY on this renewed earth. Our resurrection bodies will experience the glory of an INNER and outward transformation.”

BEGIN MUSIC: “The Trumpet Shall Sound.” :40

You know, some Bible versions, instead of incorruptible, say this: “Imperishable.” Friend, the trumpet is going to sound, and you and I, if we’re willing, will be changed to something fit for heaven, something holy, something imperishable. The composer of the Messiah died at the age of 74; that incredible gift, that genius, was cut short. Imagine the music an immortal, imperishable George Frederick Handel might be able to give us, WILL be able to give us when the trumpet sounds again.