New Testament Lesson

1 Thess. 4:13-18 (NRSV)

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you
may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even
so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. 15For this we declare to you by the word of
the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those
who have died. 16For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound
of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive,
who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be
with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.

The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.