What is this world coming to? Newspapers publish
articles entitled "Prophets Say: Don't Make Long Term Plans." A gathering of
the East Coast Prophecy Conference reached the consensus that the world is to
end very soon. With preferred Bible verses and peculiar computations some
groups point to the year 2,000 for the grand finale. The signs of endtime
distress have been connected to yet other biblical verses supposedly related to
regional wars, the return of Ethiopian and Russian Jews to Israel, the European
Common Market, Israel's exports of tulips and citrus fruits, famine in Africa,
earthquakes in California, recent storms, and the results of November's
elections! Throughout history sincere folks have been repeatedly mistaken about
such correlations and predictions. Yet they continue to pop up here and there,
and a few persist in offering revised dates as each comes and goes. These
visionaries and their prophecies of catastrophes in which evil forces are
miraculously conquered are classified as "apocalyptic" movements.
Apocalyptic groups are usually people on the
edges of society. They feel deprived of religious, political, and/or economic
power enjoyed by others. Their negative views of this world are balanced by
their hope for salvation in a new creation or another life. They are convinced
that the future will be different from the evil present. They are persuaded
that a radical reversal of the present will replace this dying age, and they
await supernatural intervention, expected right around the corner. Apocalyptics
sometimes develop a body of literature that includes supposedly revealed divine
warnings of God's final intervention to close up shop here, a miraculous
deliverance conquering present miseries.
Apocalyptic preachers portrayed in the Bible set
out to warn of God's judgment and to promise either reward or punishment in the
coming life. They challenge and call people to prepare themselves for the end,
and to hope when all seems hopeless, in short, to trust in the Creator's
ultimate sovereignty.
Apocalyptic expectations play little role in
mainline churches, such as our own. In fact, we find them a bit embarrassing,
while regarding them as tolerable and relatively harmless. Nonetheless, we were
greeted last Sunday and again today with an apocalyptic tone. Today's Collect
notes the coming restoration of all things. The reading from the Book of Daniel
emphasizes the power, glory and judgment of God over all beastly empires.
Daniel envisions the final establishment of Christ's kingly rule, when "all
peoples, nations, and languages" will serve God. Today's Gospel Reading from
John proclaims Christ as King of Kings, One exalted beyond any worldly
dominion. (It is this King who will rule when the apocalyptic new beginning is
inaugurated.) John also sadly observes the human failure to recognize the
Truth, indeed, the reality of God in Christ's life and ministry.
For us, predictions of an imminent end to the
world are unconvincing. I would not be building a home nearby and looking
forward to many years ahead, if I took seriously much of what we hear from
apocalyptic preachers on television or others reported in the press! Moreover,
as a mainline church, we do not feel peripheral to the social order. We have
some degree of power in society individually and to some extent as a church.
Likewise, we have little sense of urgency. What then can we take seriously from
this morning's theme and from apocalyptic exhortations?
If we have learned anything from such readings,
it is to NOT expect an imminent, scheduled, miraculous endtime transformation
of the world's distresses into triumph and peace. This claim has been mistaken
in every instance. Nonetheless, we share with Christian apocalyptics a firm
faith that God's will shall ultimately be done! We are challenged by their
awareness of the gap between God's purposes and human priorities. You and I are
confronted dramatically by the need for our engagement in the battles between
life as it is and life as it ought to be. We are reminded to live each day as
if it were our last. At any time we should be prepared to be accountable to the
Creator, not as persistent victims offering endless excuses, but as responsible
guests and stewards. Christians live as if the Second Coming were just around
the corner. However, we walk not in fear and gloom, but with graceful
responsibility and joyful expectation, as beneficiaries of the Cross and
Resurrection.
Furthermore, we are challenged by Christian
apocalyptics to examine whether we as the church have become too complacent
with, too affirming of, the status quo. Perhaps we are not sufficiently and
urgently "on the edges" of society. We need to keep before us the reality that
neither the churches nor the nations of this world are the Kingdom of God. Some
may be on their way toward that dominion, some may manifest certain qualities
of Christ's realm, but it is sheer folly to equate the perfection of the Coming
Kingdom with the existing churches or nations.
Christian apocalyptic warnings probe our
individual and collective consciences; are we really becoming increasingly
faithful as witnesses to God's Truth in Christ? As witnesses, you and I have
the responsibility, in the midst of all the flawed churches and realms of this
world, to receive and, with God's grace, to live out the qualities of the
Kingdom of God. We are to "do all such good works as (God) hast prepared for us
to walk in." We are called to continual growth in the Lord's love and service -
to develop community in the direction of perfect Truth, justice and peace. We
are bid to manifest a maturing, graceful goodness in our personal lives, in our
several callings, as citizens, and as a church. Those who choose otherwise will
generate their own self-defeating retribution.
In spite of the way things are in the world, you
and I may be confident that we shall endure, indeed, be victorious, by God's
grace and mercy. Every one of us can be hopeful and relatively unperturbed in
critical times, because we don't have to fret over what this world is coming
to. We already comprehend human destiny. We know our eternal King and our true
citizenship. Our testimony year after year in the Nicene Creed is declared,
"...he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead." In
our various Eucharistic rites we hear the words "and looking for his coming
again with power and great glory." We acclaim the "Mystery of Faith" - "Christ
has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again." We sing of his kingship,
his reign, and "his Kingdom stretch from shore to shore." And, we often pray,
"at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal
kingdom." For this consummation, you and I were born.
In the end, whenever that is, the Creator's Will
to restore all things shall prevail. The faithful shall be brought together
under God's gracious rule. Although we are challenged by our current battles
with evil as we attempt to serve "in unity, constancy, and peace," the final
outcome is assured. With our long-term vision of the future, the war between
good and evil is already won. In faith and hope we affirm what we have prayed
from our childhood, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. ... For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever
and ever. Amen."