Pastor Yohannes Mengsteab preaches on the hope that changes how a Christian faces death. Working through Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, he asks why scripture so often says the faithful fell asleep rather than died, and what that one word does to our grief. He also shares the recent death of his own sister in Eritrea, the hymns she sang from her bed when she could no longer speak, and why her funeral was a joyful one.
This episode draws from the epistle reading of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, with the Old Testament reading from Amos 5:18-24 and the Holy Gospel reading from St. Matthew 25:1-13, along with references to 1 Corinthians 15, Acts 2, John 15, and 1 Peter 3:15.
Key themes include hope in the resurrection, grief and comfort, the wise and foolish virgins, remaining in the vine through daily time in the Word, today as the day of salvation, and the kind of joy that makes other people ask you where it comes from.
