Now when these things begin to take
place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
My suspicion is that most of us
are wired to hear passages such as this one and feel anxious or threatened or
turned off. Apocalyptic writing is not
our favorite. It is language that is
difficult to hear, more difficult to figure out, and why bother anyway, because
in the end it's just about the Day of Judgment by an angry God.
What if we are wrong about all
of this? What if it is not the intention
of a passage like this Gospel reading to increase our anxiety or threaten us or
turn us off? What if this text does not
mean to be difficult and mysterious, but in fact quite plain and realistic? And what if the purpose of a text like this
is not to prepare us for the Day of Judgment by an angry God, but the Day of
Mercy by a loving God?
I do not know if Jesus was
speaking here of an event at the end of the world as we know it or not. I do not know if he thought such a thing was
going to happen soon, that he would, in essence, "be right
back." What I do know is this: we live life on the edge of apocalypse, which
means these texts can be helpful to us regarding our ordinary life, not some
future extraordinary event.
Not a day goes by when it is impossible
for our world to come unglued. It is not
healthy to dwell on that possibility, to be constantly aware of it or afraid of
it, but it is simply the truth that it is the truth. We are not in control. This is what Jesus means when he says
There will be signs in the sun, and
the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused at
the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and
foreboding at what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will
be shaken.
I know those words sound
mysterious and cosmic, but I think they are also quite plain and ordinary. I hear in those words also this:
You will experience your world being
turned upside down and inside out, so you do not know which end is up. What is perfectly normal will not seem normal
to you. You will be anxious and
afraid. Your faith will be shaken to its
core.
Does that sound familiar? We live on the edge of apocalypse. But part of the good news Jesus has to offer
us is that while living on the edge of apocalypse and experiencing the upheaval
that periodically comes to all of us is difficult, it is not impossible. Apocalypse, paradoxically, is not the end of
the world.
So what is Jesus' advice when
apocalypse is upon us?
Now when these things begin to take
place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
Stand up and lift up your
heads. Think
of what he does not say. He does not say:
- Fall on your knees and hang your head in shame.
- Run for the hills in order to save your life.
- Be afraid, be very afraid.
No, he says, "Stand up and
raise your heads." Why?
"Because your redemption is drawing near." Again, it is important
what he does not say. He does not say:
- Your judgment is drawing near.
- The wrath of God is coming upon you.
- You are going to get what you deserve.
No. He says, "Your
redemption is drawing near."
Redemption. What does he mean by
that? "Redemption" is one of
the words used in the Bible to describe what God fundamentally wants for us and
what Jesus' life, death, and resurrection does for us. There are many words you could insert
there: salvation, rescue, healing,
liberation, etc. The point is that the
time of apocalypse is also the time if redemption, which is why I could say
with all confidence a moment ago the rather silly sounding thing, that
apocalypse does not mean the end of the world.
Christian people learn that
when trial or crisis comes, we should look not for signs of ending, but rather
for signs of new life because they will
surely come. That does not mean that
anger at what has happened, or grief, or any other emotion is not appropriate
for Christians. It simply means that we live by those amazing words we say
together when someone has died:
Yet even at the grave we make our
song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
These strange words of Jesus
this morning are not about threat, unless, perhaps, you are an enemy of the
redemption, the liberation, of the people of God. They are purely and simply about hope. When the world is coming unglued, be it on
the scale of the cosmos or the scale of my own little life, I have my orders of
hope. "Stand tall, keep your head
up. It is going to be Ok. It is
Ok."
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