Sermon: The Apocalypse is about Hope, or it is about nothing at all.

              You have been told many things about the Apocalypse, be it from Popular Evangelical Christianity, the History Channel, or Hollywood. Most of it is nonsense.

              The one thing you need to know is that the Apocalypse is about Hope, or it is about nothing at all.
The Apocalypse is the unveiling, the revealing, of what God is up to in God’s world, God’s new creation.
It is our hope that the world is about to turn.
Let us pray

The Apocalypse is about Hope, or it is about nothing at all.

              The Apocalypse is not an escape or exit from the world.

              The Christians in Thessalonica are convinced that the Day of the Lord, the return of Christ, his showing up and righting every wrong—is right around the corner. In fact, some of their community have quit their jobs in preparation for the end. With this free time they are no longer busy… other than busy being busybodies. In general, it feels like a whole community is attempting to white knuckle it until the end of the world
—just hold on long enough to escape…
…but long enough never comes.

              You know how vaping has been in the news all over the place—their was this interview with a teen who said, “I’m going to quit using Juul once I’m done with high school—I’m sure life will get a lot less stressful and complicated then.”
…The end is not necessarily the end, right?
There might still be stressors and complications in his life after high school that will still trigger cravings… so too, just holding on until the exit unlocks, wasn’t a winning strategy for these early Christians… or for us… because the Apocalypse is about hope, or it is about nothing at all.

              The Apocalypse is not about chasing after signs.

              Look at the disciples seeking signs. They want a roadmap, they want to be ready. They have this very human impulse to read world events as pointing to the end. A rather narcissistic tendency really, the age I live in just happens to be the end of it all…
That said, the time period Luke is writing about and writing in… it did have an end of the world quality to it.
-The Destruction of the Temple, the center of Religious Life, at the hands of the Romans.
-Violent revolutionaries claiming the same title as Jesus.
-Infighting between Emperors.
-Mount Vesuvius exploding killing everyone in Pompeii and covering everything within 750 miles with ash.
-Famines throughout the Empire that shaped birth patterns for a generation.
-Christianity seen as unfriendly, unsocial, and against family values.
-Formal and informal persecution—led by soldiers or led by peasanst with pitchfork—neither very nice.
-Christians dragged before people in power, forced to repent of their faith, or at least explain it, often at the edge of a sword.

              You can certainly see why the early church needed some warnings against over-reacting to world events…

              For that matter, there is always someone ready to shout, “I am he,” and “The time is near.” Remember that whole Mayan Calendar thing in 2012, or Harold Camping in 2011, the Y2K scare in 2000, the Left Behind series in the 90’s, the Late Great Planet Earth predicting the end in the 1980s, the scare of 1666 in England, 1525 in Münster… and so on. If Jesus himself has told us he doesn’t know the day nor the hour, then maybe we don’t either… because the Apocalypse is about hope, or it is about nothing at all.

              The Apocalypse is certainly not about violence and destruction.

              Jesus warns the disciples that there will be people who will gladly offer signs—they will say “I am he.” There will be people of ill-will willing to point to the topsy turvey uncomfortable bumps of history and interpret them as calls to violence from God… Who will see fear as an opportunity to sew evil seeds and reap destruction.
              In Jesus’ day, there were zealots of all sorts—the Saccari, the knifemen, first among them—convinced that the Day of the Lord could be prompted by acts of violence, by wrestling control from Rome and returning Israel to Davidic greatness… seeking a new world through violence and terror…

              And we do the same thing today
—If you carefully read the article about the neo-Nazi who incited others to attack synagogues in Wisconsin and Michigan on the internet, and then was found in his car outside the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, armed with a machete and planning on killing African American shoppers before the FBI nabbed him…
if you read the article carefully you’ll notice he and his militia regularly did “doomsday drills.” Violent people preparing for the end of the world… this can not be the meaning of Apocalypse… because the Apocalypse is about hope, or it is about nothing at all.
              Truly, there is no shortage of Armageddons. But what if all of this is unveiling the good news of Jesus Christ? Then there is hope.

              The Apocalypse is about Hope.

              It is about doing good…

              Oh Dear Thessalonians, inching your way to the exit, planning your escape… stop it. You’re just wearing yourself out, beating against a wall that will not give…

              Dear Thessalonians—do not be tired, do not grow weary—or at least not of doing good.
Keep on keeping on, because there is a world that yearns to be loved! Don’t check out, don’t tune out… engage and connect with those around you!

              So too, dear members of St. Stephen…
 I know many of you are going through some stuff right now…
be tired… it is alright to be tired…
in fact, some of you really need to stop and rest a bit… but rest so that you can do good in the roles and relationships God has put you in and called you to!

              The Apocalypse is about Hope.

              It is about gaining your true self…          

              If the Good news of God is being revealed, then, the Disciples receive more than warnings—they are given tools to endure, and in so doing gain their life, their soul, their psyche, their true self.
They have one another, they, together testify and trust.
—they are able to navigate the strange times they are in by being part of this new community that helps to hold the holiness of God, unveil the face of the divine…
one that points to Jesus and trusts in his promises.

              We too… we have each other and what we’re doing right now
—gathering as a community, building up our faith, encountering Jesus in word and sacrament, and being sent out to our neighbors—that’s what worship is friends—it is so important, it is essential…
what we are doing right now helps hold the holiness of God, it unveils the face of the divine.

             

              The Apocalypse is about Hope.

              It is the revelation of what God is up to… the revelation of New Creation.

              Revelation. The unveiling of a new age, a new creation. There is so much hope in that.
It is being unveiled, revealed, in Jesus
—Jesus is the first fruits, the first taste of this new turn the world is taking.
The New Creation is a peasant girl singing a faithful song to God about the infant in her womb.
The New Creation is a Liberating-Savior among the Least, Last, and Lost.
The New Creation is executed as a criminal by the powers that be, the powers of the Old Age.
The New Creation meets Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb.
The New Creation asks us, like Mary, is the world about to turn? A+A