Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and
put on the armor of light, now in
the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in
great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious
majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
The collect this week concludes by saying that we will ‘rise
to the life immortal’. Paul builds on this idea by telling the Corinthians “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not
all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the
imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (I Cor. 15:51-53)
For me, and for many others, this verse is immortalized by
Handel in his Messiah. See and hear that song here
What are your thoughts about the final ‘trumpet’ and
immortality?
