Things don't always work out the way we would expect. The details of our daily lives don't always unfold as we envision they will. Just the other day, I heard the saga of another post-graduate on the hunt for a "real job". After applying for dozens of jobs in her area of expertise, she is finding that launching a career takes even more perseverance, patience and flexibility than she originally thought. Things are not going quite the way she had expected.

Our election cycle this year was shaped by similar stories, stories of people's plans gone awry, stories of futures suddenly fallen flat. There were the stories of families who have discovered—far too late—that their healthcare coverage contained a few discrete loopholes. When insurance companies pay a tiny fraction of their total bills, families like these have been forced to exhaust their resources and work like crazy to find a way out of financial ruin. Things have not turned out the way they had envisioned.

And by now we are all familiar with the stories of the scores of workers who dedicated decades to a single company only to awake one day and find that their pensions, the very foundation of their futures, had vanished into the abyss of corporate corruption. Things have not worked out as they had planned.

Our second reading for today is a reminder that things didn't work out the way the Thessalonians had expected either. For the early Christians in Thessalonica the vision of the future to which they clung was beginning to fade. These Christian converts had been expecting that Jesus would be returning any minute to claim them as his own. As best we can tell, these early Christians imagined the community in its entirety being greeted by the Lord who would raise them up to experience new life in God's kingdom. And because these members of the community were counting on Christ arriving sooner rather than later, they had arranged their lives accordingly. Many had sold their possessions and altogether abandoned any plans for a future in this world.

But while the Thessalonnians waited for this vision of the future to be realized, some members of the community died. It's not clear whether these deaths were the result of persecution, or simply, natural consequences, but in either case, these Christians were caught off guard. They had not anticipated having to deal with loss before Christ's second coming. Certain that the Lord was on the verge of returning, it simply hadn't occurred to them that anyone might not be alive to witness the grand reunion. And now, with some among them succumbing to death, the rest of the community was left to wait and to wonder: Would those who had died before Christ's coming miss out on the promise of God's kingdom?

The letter we know as 1 Thessalonians is, in part, a response from the apostle Paul to this community's crisis of faith. Paul wants to comfort these new converts, and he does so by professing his own faith with passion. His hope, as always, is that his witness and his words will inspire his fellow believers to hold firm to faith.

In the portion of the letter we heard this morning, Paul addresses the fears of those who are grieving. Paul reassures the Thessalonians that the God they have come to know and love is indeed faithful. This God has no intention of abandoning them or their loved ones. And though it hasn't happened exactly as they imagined it would, Paul reaffirms the promise that Christ will one day return. Christ will come again to restore the entire creation, the living and the dead, to wholeness.

You may have noticed that Paul makes his point using some pretty potent imagery. Paul writes of the Lord's descent to earth, his presence announced by angels and the blaring of a trumpet. And in the following verse Paul paints a picture of those who have died and those who are still alive being caught up in the clouds together and meeting the Lord in the air.

Paul's verbal sketch is as breathtaking as it is bold. Unfortunately, it has too often been mistaken for a play-by-play of the second coming of Christ. More than a few Christians interpret these verses literally and use them as a basis for teaching that those who do not measure up to God's standards will be left behind when Christ returns. The irony, and the tragedy, is that this sort of reading of Paul's letter, could not be further from his original intent. (Apparently, things didn't always turn out as Paul had planned either.)

In this letter to the Thessalonians, Paul imagines with soul the fulfillment of a relationship that is beyond the scope of ordinary language. Paul uses the language of poetry to recall the unbreakable bond between God and God's people. Making use of metaphor, Paul captures both the cosmic significance and the personal impact of God's unwavering faithfulness.

Mind you, these are not just any old metaphors that Paul uses. Here Paul uses imagery that takes us back to the story of Moses descending from the mountain with the Torah. Paul is bringing to mind that moment when the covenant was handed down from on high, that moment when Moses carried the promise of God's steadfast love to the people.

Through echoes of Israel's past, Paul reminds us of God's unwavering promise to God's people. And throughout his writings, Paul speaks of God's undying commitment to restore the creation. Paul lifts up the refrain that has been sung by every generation—that even when God's people have strayed, God remains faithful. Finally, Paul makes it clear to the Thessalonians that although their community now looks different, although their loved ones who have died seem so distant, God is still binding them together into one body through Christ.

Today, Paul's proclamation encourages us as well, to set aside our own expectations and open ourselves to the possibility that God has a 'plan B'. Things in this life may not turn the way we expect. We may wonder at times how we will get from today to tomorrow. But we can take comfort in knowing that God's faithfulness always has the final answer in our lives. We can find rest in God's vision for the future: a world made whole.

Our own personal plans may fail, our feelings and our faith, may ebb and flow, and yet God's love for us endures forever. Paul sums it up with this simple sentence: The one who calls you is faithful. May we draw comfort and courage from these words, even as we live into the promise that our Lord has prepared for us.