The season of Advent, the start of the Church year, always starts in this strange space
—sometimes called the Little Apocalypse
—this warning and parable about the end
—the end of the temple, and the end of the world.
We start at the End.
Prayer
We start at the End…
The End…
often Christianity gets hung up on this
—we misconstrue our faith as a form of escape
—just whiteknuckle it, until the end, and all will be well.
But that does such damage to the Way of Jesus.
While there are plenty of apocalyptic sayings throughout the Scriptures, both Greek and Hebrew
—sayings that unveil (that’s the literal meaning of Apocalypse)
Unveil what all this looks like to the eyes of God,
unveils what’s going on behind the curtain,
revealing the meaning found much deeper and higher than we regularly go, in our day to day life and interpretation of the world around us.
While these sayings are our heritage,
we must admit they are so often jarring and strange
—images that are at once stuffed with violence
and also packed with heightened hopefulness
—the language of apocalypse is the language of the oppressed and the language of crisis.
Consider the horror of Luke’s day
—revolts against Rome that ended in failure and despair, destruction, and death…
a crisis the scope of which we can not applicate today.
The Temple before which Jesus is saying these things today
—destroyed by Rome,
Jerusalem and her inhabitants along with her. God have mercy!
And then there was the natural disaster caused by the explosion of Mount Vesuvius
—it scattered ash for a 750 mile radius,
darkening the sky and wounding the weather itself,
famine following close behind.
Violence and ash covered the known world, like the first snow.
No wonder the Gospel writers preserve this stark, apocalyptic language of Jesus.
The earth, battered like a sinking ship,
Chaotic waters and roaring sea covering it with fear and foreboding.
The heavens, sun moon and stars, signaling that all is not well,
fallen, fallen the powers that be.
The heavens above and the earth below
unveiled, revealed, as imperiled and impermanent.
And we could look around at our world and see heavy trouble too
—troubles too big for any one person to handle or comprehend…
-Our present supply chain snafu is so large that you can see the shipping bottleneck from space!
-That horrible tragedy in Wisconsin,
a small-town Christmas parade turned into a day of death.
-Omicron, the latest Greek letter in this Pandemic Drama to threaten nation states and financial markets.
What can we even make of it, how can we hold such things? How can we not rush to God and ask, “Show me a sign—make it plain O’ God.”
But, for us and for Luke’s listeners too
—the sign of hope is one that won’t show up using satellite imagery, or looking up at hot ash raining down on the earth…
No, the sign we are offered as hope is hard to see, even if it is obvious once it is perceived…
that’s why we ought to be alert and watchful and prayerful
—so that we don’t go running after the wrong thing…
We will know that the Kingdom of God is near because it will be like a sprouting leaf
—a small thing to be sure, but a sign of so much new life to come!
In hopefulness we will be able to raise our heads,
hold them high because we ourselves,
we followers of the Way of Jesus,
are signs of new birth
—for God has come near to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
We start at the End…
The end…
the goal… the X on the treasure map that guides our adventure, our address from childhood imprinted on our memory that will lead us home…
What remains at the end?
What’s there when the heavens are obscured by grey cloud
and the earth rocked to its core?
We can look up and see the Son of Man
—the promise of Daniel chapter 7
—that while there are plenty of monstrous kingdoms and systems and powers,
they shall not rule always
—a humane kingdom ruled by the Son of Humanity,
a Godly kingdom, for the Son of God reigns
—that is one of those final goals, the end we seek.
A caring, compassionate Kingdom
—that’s the reign of God that is our goal.
Also we can listen for the Word of God,
for it too shall not pass away, it too is not going anywhere…
God’s word is always creative, from Beginning to End.
—creating a world that is declared good,
-creating promises of freedom from bondage,
-creating Children of God in Baptism
-creating the Feast of Heaven, the promise of Holy Communion.
The Word, always creative, always solid and steadfast
The Word of God—Jesus.
The Son of Man—Jesus.
Ultimately, our end,
the Revelation of God,
the unveiled hope to the oppressed and those caught in crisis,
the one who will not abandon us to any power in heaven or earth,
the one for whom we wait
—the creative and kind king
revealed at our every ending…
All of that is Jesus.
Our beginning and our end, our whole life,
is being found in the arms of Jesus Christ.
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