ENOUGH!

 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

             In his book of meditations on the psalms, Ben Patterson tells of a professor who was lecturing from Paul’s letter, First Thessalonians, in which the apostle is teaching about the return of Christ. He was in Uganda and his students were young men preparing for ministry. These young men were living with horrendous reminders of what they had endured during the murderous reign of Idi Amin. Some were missing an eye or an arm. Several had bulging red scars from what had been deep machete wounds. In the eyes of all was the shadow of the horror they had seen. But there was also the light of the hope of Christ.

             The professor read verse 16 in chapter 4: “The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet call of God.” Immediately, a student’s hand went up.

             “Yes?” said the professor. “What is your question?”

             The man who had raised his hand hesitated for a moment and then asked softly, “What will the Lord shout?”

             The professor didn’t know what to say. Who would? Yet the accumulated suffering of the students in that classroom seemed to demand some kind of answer. What will the Lord shout when he returns as Lord of Lords and King of Kings?

            “I don’t know,” the professor admitted. Then he looked around the room, pausing to look at each student, and asked, “What do you think he will shout?”

             A student’s voice came from the back: “I think he will shout ‘Enough!’” That’s a good answer.* Enough violence, enough sickness and pandemics, enough tears, enough suffering, enough hatred. It’s a time we all look forward to.

             Paul reminds us in 1 Cor. 11 that the Lord’s Supper looks forward to that time as he says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” His words remind us that we look not only to the past with thanksgiving but to the future with hope. As we partake, we look to the future when he will return, and all will be well.

             To be sure, in the meantime, even now to some extent, we can experience the wholeness and peace that he has promised, but we know that all will not be realized until the final shout is heard. Paul’s words invite us to look toward that day: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

*Patterson, Ben. God’s Prayer Book. Carol Stream, Ill., Saltriver, 2008, p. 184.