Scripture text: Luke 21:5-19
The
weeks between All Saints Day and the first Sunday of Advent take on
an apocalyptic air in the life of the church. The texts from
Scripture that we read on each of those Sundays are often drawn from
various End Time prophecies out of Revelation, Daniel, and the
Gospels. It's the one time of year we in the more mainline and
mainstream church traditions focus on what our evangelical brothers
and sisters spend most of the year on.
I
may get in a bit of trouble for saying this, but to me, it's two to
three weeks too many. As a culture, American Christianity is obsessed
over the end of the world, an obsession we don’t really need to
feed any further. We talk about it. We calculate it. We interpret
each and every event in the life of the world as having some manner
of cosmic significance. It borders on the neurotic and just as
unhealthy as that clinical diagnosis implies.
Amy
Dietz joked on Wednesday at Bible Study that we had come through
another milestone. Apparently this week, the survivalist movement had
predicted the great Black-out that would destroy society and usher in
a time of chaos before the "end of the world." Nothing of
the sort happened, of course. I replied with a joke of my own, having
now survived Y2K, the end of the Mayan calendar, the great Black-out,
and 2 or 3 of the Rev. Harold Camping's predicted second comings of
Jesus. I also managed to dodge WW3 during the Cold War, so I guess
I've got a pretty good track record when it comes to evading
Armageddon.
This
is typically my approach to this topic: amusement, laughter, maybe
even a bit of mockery. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I
am a historian and a theologian. The truth is, we've been in the End
Times since Jesus' moment of ascension. For 2000 years, we've been
awaiting Jesus' return and for all we know, it could be another 2000
before he truly comes back. He's shown no inclination so far of
accelerating his time table. And for those who think "Well,
surely he'll do it now. After all things are so terrible,"
I offer a reminder of just a few brief points of history that did
nothing to change God's mind.
The
Fall of Rome and the near destruction of civilization. The dawn of
the Dark Ages and no Jesus. The Black Death. Remember the old college
joke about looking at the person on your right and left and being
told that only one of you will pass? Change that to "only one of
you will survive" and you've got what that time in history was
like. No Jesus then. Nazi Germany nearly enslaved the whole world in
tyranny and fascism. Nope, no Jesus didn't come back then either.
Krakatoa erupted. Chernobyl exploded. San Francisco flattened by
earthquake in 1906 and Tokyo in 1923. Natural disaster, war, disease,
famine, and for 2000 years, Jesus has not returned.
However
much we might want to believe otherwise, our time in history is not
any worse than any other. In fact, there is significant evidence life
is much better now than it has ever been. We have to take the world
as it is, not as we believe it to be or wish it were. But therein
lies my conundrum. You see, I wish everyone realized the folly of
wasting all this energy on something we have no power over nor can we
predict with any accuracy. But that's what I want, not what really
is. As it is, our world is full of people increasingly paranoid about
the End Times. Terrified. Frightened. Paralyzed.
And
what are we to do about that? Perhaps the best place to start is to
ask what is it that people fear about the End Times.
Is
it the turmoil of society that is supposed to prelude Christ's
return? The danger of being imprisoned, tortured, or even executed
for one's political or religious beliefs is reality for many people
throughout our world, one we have thankfully been largely free of
here in America. But what if that were to change in the chaos that
accompanies Jesus' return? What if being a Christian (or the wrong
kind of Christian) became illegal here?
Well,
to that possibility and for the many for whom that is already
reality, Jesus himself offers the counsel of our Gospel lesson. "I
will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be
able to withstand or contradict. You will be hated, but not a hair of
your head will perish."
Christ himself offers us assurance that, whatever chaos envelopes the
world around us, we will endure. There is nothing to fear.
Perhaps
that's not it. Perhaps it is the fear of what will happen when we
move from this world to the next. For what it's worth, regardless of
when Jesus returns, this is a reality we all will face in the moment
of our death. But here again, the Scriptures offer a word: the
promise of Easter. That because of the life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus, death no longer has its sting. Death cannot separate us
from God. Life eternal is ours. I would lose count of the number of
passages where this promise is affirmed: Romans, the letters of John,
the Gospels, Galatians, even Revelation itself speaks to this truth.
There is nothing to fear.
If
not that, then what else could we fear so? Could it perhaps be God
himself? Sometimes I think that truly is it. We've come to be afraid
of God. Afraid that he will punish us. Afraid that we're not good
enough for him. Afraid that he'll cast us into the pit of fire along
with the rest of the sinners.
Well,
if that's God's intent than I suspect he will find heaven a very
lonely place indeed, for none of us are good enough. Not you. Not me.
But if we've come to believe that matters, I ask again that we turn
to Scripture and even to the examples I've already given. If
damnation is to be our fate, then why would God bother to defend the
believer who stands before a tribunal fighting for his life? Why
would God bother with the whole incarnation, crucifixion, and
resurrection of Jesus bit? Why would Jesus even show up the first
time if all he's going to do the second time is cast us all into
hell? That, my friends, makes no sense.
No,
more rational, more logical, and far more true is what we find, time
and again, in God's holy word. A god of love, of compassion, of
mercy. One who cared about you and me enough to bother. To bother
with Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. To bother to stand beside
you and I in our trials. He bothers because you and I are loved by
him and it is a love the likes of which mere words cannot express.
I
said a minute ago we need to take the world as it is, not as we wish
it to be. Well, that's what God does. He's not interested in a
perfect world, because that doesn't exist. He's not interested in a
perfect you, because that doesn't exist either. What he is interested
in is you as you are. Me, as I am. The world as it is. The person
that he loves in you and I and throughout this world is not what we
could be or should be, it's who we are now with all our flaws,
imperfections, and mistakes.
It
was that person that Christ came to save. It was that person that
Jesus died for, and it is that person who will stand beside Christ at
his return. You. Me. God is not our enemy. He is our greatest and
most passionate lover, an ally in all things.
And
if that is who stands with us in the midst of all the things this
world and this life throws at us, there is nothing to fear. Let the
world end. So what? Let the world endure for another ten thousand
years. So what? God remains and he remains ever by our side, his eyes
full of love for who we are, not who we wish we were. Amen.
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