Waiting?

 Waiting?

Luke 12:32-46[1]

Most of us don’t care much for talk about the “second coming of Christ.” Part of the reason for this is because of the people out there who are talking so much about it. They do so in a way that is confusing at best and offensive and even dangerous at worst. Over fifty years ago Hal Lindsay published the book, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” where he famously (or infamously) predicted that Jesus would return in 1978, or at the latest 1988. And of course, Jesus’ “return” would usher in all kinds of catastrophes for “unbelievers.” None of that happened, but people still followed his teachings and bought his books. He wasn’t the first to try to predict a specific date, and I’m sure he won’t be the last. Many self-styled “prophets” throughout history have wreaked havoc and at times even cost the lives of their devotees. One recent example was David Koresh, the messianic pretender whose “predictions” and “proclamations” about the “end times” led a splinter group of Seventh-Day Adventists to a violent clash with federal authorities near Waco, TX. Most of us don’t want to be associated with that kind of corruption.

I think another factor that inhibits our enthusiasm about the so-called “second coming” is that those who tend to make a big deal about it seem to use it as a “scare tactic.” You know, Jesus could come this very day, so you better get right with God or you might be “left behind.” By now, the “Left Behind” series of books written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins is “old news.” But back in the day, they were all the rage. Although they were novels, way too many people believed that what they portrayed was an accurate presentation of biblical teaching. The central feature of the series is the premise that those who trust in Jesus will be “rescued” from the catastrophes to come, while the others will be “left behind” to suffer. Again, this kind of fear-mongering is something most of us don’t want to be associated with.

Part of the problem is that most of us start out with several false premises when we’re dealing with this question. In the first place, talk of the “second coming” of Jesus is confusing. If Jesus has to “return,” then where did he go? Didn’t he promise, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20)? The standard answer is that Jesus is with God, but he will return one day. But that presupposes that somehow God and Jesus are somewhere else, “separated” from us right now. By contrast, the Bible clearly teaches that God is present with us always, actively working for good in our lives and in the whole creation. I would say it’s more consistent with our faith in Jesus as “God who is always with us” to speak about his future “coming in power and glory” to finish the work he’s still doing among us.[2]  

A further problem is that people who are preoccupied with “figuring out” the end time want to know all the details: when, how, and what will happen.[3] But typically, that obsession stems from a sometimes desperate effort to assure themselves that they will be “safe” and their destiny is “secure.” When you combine that with the fact that they’re convinced that those who are “outside” the church will be violently destroyed along with the whole creation, it creates an image of Christian Faith, not to mention an image of God, that not only blatantly contradicts the Bible, but is downright offensive. The Reformed theologian Shirley Guthrie, who literally wrote the book on Christian Theology for Presbyterians over fifty years ago, points out two problems with this approach. First, when we’re dealing with the Bible, it’s always best to rely on the clear teachings of the whole of Scripture rather than obscure books like Daniel or Revelation.[4] Second, when we ground our hopes regarding the future in God’s whole story, we have more than enough reason to look for Jesus’ future coming as a time not for violent destruction but for the “renewal of life” for us and for all creation. In short, the whole Bible assures us that God is for us, not against us!

And the Bible does have a lot to say about this future coming. All the hopes that the Hebrew prophets had raised about God renewing and restoring this world to the peace and justice and freedom of his merciful reign are focused in the New Testament on the future coming of Christ in power and glory. But the Bible consistently avoids paying any attention to all the juicy details that self-styled “prophets” have used throughout the ages to manipulate their followers. Rather, the message is that since we look forward to the day when Christ will come and set things right, then we ought to live our lives accordingly. It’s that simple and that hard. Time after time we are called to be “ready,” as Jesus does in our Gospel lesson for today. But none it has much of anything to do with all the talk of fear-mongers who threaten people with being “left behind.” 

Our Gospel lesson gives us a different perspective on what it means to be “ready.” Here Jesus tells a parable about servants waiting for their master to return from a journey, and the servants cannot possibly know the exact day or hour of their master’s return. Jesus says that those servants will be “ready” if they are found “waiting” when the master returns. But I don’t think that means that they were just sitting around passively waiting for the gate to open. Obviously, these servants had tasks that needed to be performed on a daily basis. And so their “waiting” and their “readiness” involved continuing to do their jobs, taking care of the master’s household, tending the garden, tending the livestock, performing any maintenance that the estate needed. In other words, being “ready,” being “alert” means doing what they have been instructed to do as if the master were right there with them. I would say that when live every day like that, we don’t have to worry about being “left behind,” or wonder about the details of our final destiny.[5] We know it’s secure in the hands of our loving God and our faithful Savior!

I would say this perspective on what it means to be “ready” for the future coming of Christ is much more consistent with biblical teachings. Despite those who revel in their charts, we really cannot know when that day will come. And contrary to the fear-mongers who try to scare people into doing their bidding, Jesus said, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12:32). That doesn’t mean it will be easy. It doesn’t mean we can sit around doing nothing. It means that we are called to do what we’ve been instructed to do. We’re called to live in the manner we’ve been taught to live.[6] And we’re to do that every day, knowing that in a very real sense our “master” is here with us right now. And so we can go about our business, the business of the mercy, and peace, and freedom, and compassion of God’s kingdom, in the confidence that what we do is pleasing in God’s sight. It seems to me, as we do that every day, we remain ready, waiting actively for Jesus’ final victory!

---

[1] © Alan Brehm 2025. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/10/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Technically, the NT speaks of the future “coming” of Christ as his final victory It is therefore not correct to speak of a “second coming” or a “return,” since “Christ ... remains present in the Spirit.” See Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith, 529.

[3] Cf. Shirley C. Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, 2d ed., 386, where he states bluntly that “Christians ought not place their hope in all kinds of fantastic speculations about a future they cannot really know anything about.” Earlier he quotes John Calvin to the same effect (ibid., 382): “it is foolish and rash to inquire concerning unknown matters more deeply than God wants us to know”! This quote is from John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.25.6 (found in vol 2, p. 997 of the 1960 Library of Christian Classic edition by John T. McNeill), where Calvin is discussing the “intermediate state,” or what happens to us between our death and the final resurrection. Even though that is a different matter than we’re discussing, I think Calvin’s words aptly summarize Jesus’ words in Acts 1:17 in response to the disciples’ question about the timing of the kingdom: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” I don’t think it’s a coincidence that what Jesus tells them to focus their attention on is the instruction to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:18).

[4] Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, 385: “the clearest biblical sources for helping us to understand the Christian hope for the future are not Daniel and Revelation.” Instead (ibid., 386) we look to “the God whose plans and promises are made known to us in the whole story of Israel and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.”

[5] Cf. Fred Craddock, Luke, 165: “readiness ... consists of continuing faithfulness to one’s duties.  When that is the case, uncertainties are no cause for alarm or anxiety.” 

[6] Donald K. McKim, another major contributor to the teaching of Christian Theology to Presbyterians, wrote in Introducing the Reformed Faith, 177: “If we believe the ultimate future is about God’s liberating rule, then the church and all followers of Jesus Christ will do whatever we can to point toward this future reign and to enact God’s coming kingdom in history today.”