I’ve sung it since I was a child. It’s a happy little tune about the second coming of Jesus. But this time I really heard it for the first time, and it shocked me!
A couple of weeks ago I was in New York with some incredible folks. One afternoon afteroon a group of us were in a home in New York together. A couple of people grabbed guitars and soon we were singing our way through some familiar choruses. That’s when this one came up.
Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon,
Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound;
All of the dead shall rise, righteous meet in the sky,
Going where no one dies, heavenward bound.
As we sang it one line jumped out at me and seemed so incongruous with the celebration the song was evoking. “any will meet their doom??!?!?!” Unfortunately, that’s true enough at the end of the age, but why were we singing with such joy over that? I’m sure it breaks our Father’s heart, rather than sending him out on the dance floor skipping a jig?
When I pointed that out most people in the room hadn’t even realized what they were singing. They were into the happy beat and the larger message of the song of Jesus’ return. But we all learned something in that brief moment—how much religious passion can blind us to the love Father wants us to share with everyone around us. How can others facing doom ever be a source of joy or frivolity for us. Jesus showed us something so different when he wept over Jerusalem…
