The Waking Dreamer: Return of Christ

Showing posts with label Return of Christ. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

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.”

Monday, November 29, 2021

Freedom is Near!

Luke 21:25-36[1]

It doesn’t take any great insight to observe that we are living in a time when things are not as we expected them to be. While some scientists warned us that a global pandemic was on the horizon, most of us didn’t pay much attention. I surely didn’t! The problem is that when life doesn’t go the way we expect, it can feel like chaos. There are a few personality types who actually thrive on chaos, but for most of us it causes stress and fear. And some of us may find ourselves “shutting down,” so to speak. We may find it difficult to keep doing our normal everyday tasks. Trying to get through the day may feel like we’re wading hip-deep in molasses!

There are a lot of reasons why different people react to uncertainty in different ways. But there are some things that are true for all of us. For one thing, our brains are hard-wired to respond to anything we perceive to be a threat. Fear can creep up on us when we least expect it, and once it gets hold of us, we can have a hard time thinking straight—literally! Another factor is that most of us have a lot of expectations about the way life is “supposed” to be. They can be so deeply ingrained in us that they become like “scripts” for life. And when life doesn’t “follow the script,” our expectations can be like chains that bind us. Unfortunately, I’d have to say that these uncertain days have revealed that we are all less “free” than we would like to think.

Jesus addressed the uncertainty of his times in our Gospel lesson for today. As we’ve mentioned before, the situation in Judea was unstable and even chaotic. Although the Romans appeared to be firmly in control, there was a constant undercurrent of resentment and even rebellion among the Jewish people. There actually was an underground group who made it their goal to assassinate Romans and Jewish leaders who were perceived to be traitors to their people. All of this would boil over into an all-out war within a few decades, and the result would be Jerusalem destroyed. Eventually, the Jewish people would be expelled from their land and prohibited from living there.

I think Jesus’ disciples must have been aware of what was going on. While they may have hoped that Jesus might be the one to lead them to overthrow their Roman oppressors, the fact that they couldn’t predict the outcome of any of this led them to ask Jesus for reassurance. They asked him to tell them the “signs” as a way of making the stress and uncertainty more “manageable.” After all, we’re not so afraid of what we can predict. But Jesus didn’t give them any signs. Instead, he told them that the world in which they lived would continue to be as uncertain and unpredictable as ever. If they wanted reassurance, they would have to look beyond their expectations and their fears.

As we saw a couple of weeks ago, Jesus answered his disciples’ desire for reassurance in an unexpected way. He told them there would be “distress among nations” due to their “confusion” (Lk 21:25). He said that people would “faint” from “fear” and dread of “what is coming upon the world” (Lk 21:26). But he urged them not to give in to fear and dread. Rather, he said, “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Lk 21:28). “Redemption” is a word that might not use every day. But Jesus was talking about freedom—from the Romans, from their fears, from everything that kept them from living fully.

It may seem like a strange response on Jesus’ part. But I think Jesus was pointing them to something beyond the everyday affairs of life that they could “manage.” He pointed them to the day when he, the “Son of Man” would come “with power and great glory” (Lk 21:27). And as our lesson from Jeremiah reminds us, the promise is that he would come to do “what is right and just” so that the people would live in safety (Jer. 33:15-16). That’s the kind of “redemption” or “salvation” Jesus promised: that one day he would come with God’s power and authority and would set right all the wrongs and set free all those who live under oppression of any kind. And he reminded them that this promise would be kept, saying, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Lk 21:33).

It may seem odd to be talking about these things in Advent. The coming of Christ to set right all the wrongs may seem like dreaming of what lies on a distant horizon. We might wonder how this helps us find freedom in the midst of the uncertainty of our times. While it’s always helpful to be aware of our fears and expectations and the way they affect us, we don’t have to let them define our lives. I find that when I shift my focus away from my expectations and my fears to faith in the God who has promised not only to send us a savior but also to be our savior, I feel much less troubled by the surprising ways life can twist and turn. That kind of freedom is always available to us.

More than that, however, this is the season to celebrate the birth of the one who made the very promises we have based our lives on. I think the scripture readings for this season point us forward for a reason. Just as certainly as Jesus came to be “God-with-us” in the manger so many years ago, so he will come with God’s power and authority to fulfill every promise. When our fears overwhelm us because of the chaos of our days, we need a way to help us feel more grounded. One of the ways we can do that is to put our trust in the promise Jesus made, that our freedom is near. And when we doubt that we can remember that his words remain true forever!

Thursday, December 05, 2019

Hold On

Hold On!

Isaiah 65:17-25; Luke 21:5-19[1]

These days it doesn’t seem that many of us have much of an interest in questions about our final destiny. The present day offers more challenges than most of us feel we can handle! But even if someone were to be curious to know what our faith teaches about the end of all things, I’m afraid the chances are high they would wind up confused. There are those who speak of the “end of the world” in terms of the vast majority of humanity “left behind” to face whatever painful tribulations an angry God is going to unleash upon them for their unbelief. Then there are those who speak of the final victory of God’s saving love in a world where all people have the joy of sharing a life of peace and freedom together. These two views can be found not only in sermons and theology, but also in Scripture.

Our lessons for today illustrate this problem. Just from a quick reading, they seem contradictory. The one from the prophet Isaiah holds out a beautiful hope of a new heaven and a new earth. Isaiah describes the destiny he saw as the ultimate outcome of God’s saving purpose in this way: “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain” (Isa. 65:25). It is a vision of children thriving, and of people living full and fulfilling lives. It is a vision of houses built, and vineyards planted. It is a vision that includes even natural enemies in the animal kingdom living together in harmony. Isaiah virtually breaks into song over the awe-inspiring destiny God has in store.

Isaiah’s vision is filled with the language of freedom, new life, and hope. In a setting where conquerors continually displaced the people, taking their children away from them, throwing them out of their homes and off their own lands, Isaiah envisions a people returned from exile to live in their own land free from fear. But Isaiah’s vision doesn’t just concern Israel; their restoration leads to the restoration of the whole world. Beyond that, this vision of restoration and renewal extends to all creation—even the animal kingdom is to be transformed when God fulfills the promises and liberates the people. Isaiah’s vision is that what God will do at the end of all things will be consistent with what God did at the beginning: create a world full of beauty and love.

On the contrary, in the lesson from Luke’s Gospel Jesus seems to warn his disciples that the end of all things will be gloom and doom. Rather than being spared from the “tribulations” of the end time, it seems that Jesus was saying his followers would be also be right in the middle of it all. He said they would be arrested and persecuted (Lk. 21:12), that they would be betrayed even by members of their own family (Lk. 21:16), and that they would be “hated by all because of my name” (Lk. 21:17). It’s pretty clear that Jesus envisioned Christians enduring whatever painful hardships and trials the future holds along with everyone else.

Unfortunately, his warnings are easy to misread. For one thing, some of what he says seems to refer to events that would happen in their lifetimes: the Jewish people falling by the sword and Jerusalem being trampled by the Gentiles (Lk. 21:23-24). In fact, about 40 years later the Jewish people fought and lost a war to free themselves from their Roman conquerors. And many of the people got caught up in the violence—Jewish people and Christian alike. But some of this points to a time in the distant future when the nations would see “‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory” (Lk. 21:27).

So it’s hard to know if Jesus was warning his disciples about hardships of the near future or associated with the end times. I think the answer is that he was talking about both. He knew that the Jewish war would be just as devastating for Christians, and he used that catastrophic event to warn them about the hardships that they would face until the final turmoil associated his return. In the face of this, Jesus urged them to “be alert,” praying for strength, so that they wouldn’t be caught off guard when the day of his return actually would come (Lk. 21:34-36). And he urged them to hold on until the end, promising that the final outcome of all of the trials and hardships they might go through would not be their destruction but their salvation (Lk. 21:28)!

I think the best answer to the question of our final destiny is one that includes both hardships and the promise of final victory. I’ve spent 40 years studying the Bible, and I even taught the class on Revelation when I was a seminary Professor. And my studied belief is that God isn’t some cruel bully just waiting for the chance to torment the vast majority of humankind, and the natural world along with it. I would say that the torments we have to deal with in this life come from the evil intentions of powerful people. And the more closely we align ourselves with God’s purposes, the more we expose ourselves to the spiteful revenge of those power mongers.

But when it comes to God’s final purpose for us, I think we’re talking about something very different. We’re talking about the God who showed us what he was like by creating a beautiful world for us all to enjoy. And the Scripture promises that one day he will renew the world so that we can all truly enjoy it. We’re also talking about the God who showed us what he was like by coming as one of us to heal our brokenness and suffering by taking it on himself. And the Scripture promises that one day that work of restoring all things will be complete. And so we can hold on, trusting that God has promised that his good and loving plans for the human family will ultimately win out over all the evil that may be present among us now.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Corrective Steps

Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 1:68-79[1]

I’m told that when I was born, both of my feet were turned to the right. In the early 60’s, the solution the doctors recommended was to have me wear two left shoes. What they did not know is the effect that would have on my body. All of my life, I’ve had problems with my right ankle and knee. Any sports that involved running were a challenge for me. I must add that the “corrective steps” the doctors applied to my feet must have done some good. They did enable me to walk! I have had to take further “corrective steps” as an adult. As a serious bicyclist, I found it helped to get fitted for custom orthotics. These days, my practice of yoga has benefited me greatly. The stances we do in yoga have probably helped the most in strengthening my right leg.

At some point in our lives, most of us will be advised to take corrective steps with some facet of our health. Some of those measures bring relief. Others may be a nuisance, or even downright unpleasant. Many of us know that some corrective steps doctors recommend can actually debilitate the patient. The treatment for cancer can be like that. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments are meant to kill the cancer, but they don’t have the ability to discriminate between malignant and healthy cells. The treatment for some diseases can be quite burdensome. Although the goal is to heal the body, the steps taken can be quite painful.

Our Scripture lessons for today address “corrective steps” that were needed among the people of Israel. In this respect, they don’t seem to fit the season of Advent. More than that they seem to be in tension with each another. Malachi speaks of one who will prepare the way for the Lord in fearful tones, warning of judgment. The song of Zechariah in Luke’s Gospel joyfully welcomes the birth of John the Baptizer as the one to go before the Lord. If you find yourself puzzled, you’re probably not alone. A pastor friend of mine mentioned to me this week that these were not her favorite texts to preach! How does judgment go together with salvation?

The prophet Malachi addresses the people of Judah at a time of disillusionment and complacency. It was some time after the exile in Babylon, and they were weak, poor, and relatively disorganized. That their commitment to God was failing can be seen from some of the practices that Malachi criticizes. It would seem that they had placed all their hopes in God to intervene. And so Malachi promised that God would indeed send a messenger to prepare for him to come to the people.

Although this was the focus of their hope, they thought of the Lord’s coming solely in terms of their deliverance. But Malachi speaks pointedly about some things that needed to be corrected in order for that deliverance to take place. He warns that God would come to judge those who were faithless, those who broke the bonds of fidelity, those who distorted the truth. He would come to judge “those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice” (Mal. 3:5). All of these practices directly contradicted specific instructions God had given his people in the Torah. The fact that failed to obey these instructions demonstrated, according to Malachi, that they did not truly honor the Lord with their lives. And so Malachi speaks of the one who would come in ominous tones, asking “who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?” (Mal. 3:2).

This seems quite a contrast to the joyful song of Zechariah about his son, John the Baptizer. Zechariah viewed his son as one who would prepare the way for the Lord in that he would “give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins” (Lk. 1:77). He saw the birth of John as the dawn of the “tender mercy of our God” that would bring light to those in darkness and guide the people to walk in “the way of peace” (Lk. 1:78-79). On the surface of things, it seems difficult if not impossible to reconcile these two visions of the one who would prepare the people for the Lord’s coming.

And yet, when you look at John’s ministry, you find that he sounds more like the messenger of judgment Malachi describes than the bringer of salvation and forgiveness. Luke’s Gospel tells us elsewhere that when John saw the crowds coming to be baptized by him, he turned them away, calling them a “brood of vipers” (Luke 3:7)! In order for them to experience the salvation of the Lord they would have to “Bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Lk. 3:8) by making some of the very same corrections that Malachi addressed in his day. How could this message of judgment and the call for a radical change of life have anything to do with salvation? In the words Luke quotes from the prophet Isaiah, for the people to experience God’s salvation, first that which was crooked must be made straight (Lk 3:5-6). The corrective steps that might sound harsh were intended to lead the people to once again love the Lord their God with all their hearts. Then they would know the salvation for which they had hoped so long.

As we celebrate our Lord’s coming to live among us on that first Christmas long ago, so we can also look forward to his coming again to complete the work of salvation. But we must remember that in order to experience God’s salvation, all of us will have to undergo some kind of correction. That which is crooked within us must be straightened out. The ways in which we live our lives that do not honor God will have to be purged, and that may be painful. There are “corrective steps” that we all need to take in order to truly love the Lord our God with all our hearts and truly love our neighbors as ourselves. But the end result of these corrective steps is that, on that final day, “all flesh will see the salvation of God!”

Tuesday, December 04, 2018

Standing on the Edge

Jeremiah 33:14-16, Luke 21:27[1]

Promises are powerful words. They can reassure us when we’re feeling afraid or lonely or rejected. They can encourage us when we’re doubting ourselves or wondering whether we are lovable. They can motivate us to act when we question whether anything we do or say matters. Promises are powerful words. Of course, power can be used for good or for evil. Sometimes promises become a means of manipulating people. At times, those promises may stem from good intentions. At times, they may stem from a blatant aim of getting people to do what we want without any thought of fulfilling the promise made. I believe most of us would like to think, however, that we use promises for good. We know that promises are powerful words.

If we take promises seriously, they may leave us standing on the edge of anticipation. After all, a promise points toward the future. Our ability to trust in a promise may rest on past experiences. If we have had promises made to us and broken, it can be hard to trust in any promise at all. When it comes to our faith, essentially we’re trusting in a promise that has not yet come to pass. And when we do so, we’re anticipating an outcome that we hope to see based on the promise made. It can feel a little bit like standing on an edge: the edge of a curb, or the edge of a journey, or the edge of a major life decision. Promises leave us standing on the edge.

I think the promises in our Scripture lessons for Advent function that way: they raise our hopes but they also leave us on the edge of anticipation. In the midst of the brokenness of our world, we greet the promise of something new and better with relief, and joy, and a sense of hope that perhaps all things will, after all, be put right. At the same time, if we are paying attention to the brokenness in our world, these promises create in us a kind of “holy dissatisfaction” with the way things are. They leave us standing on the edge of a whole new world that has been promised, but has not yet fully come to pass. The promises in the Scriptures for Advent raise our hopes, but they also leave us standing on the edge of anticipation.

The promises in the Scriptures for Advent have a different kind of edge to them. They speak of the one who is to come in a way that we may not be able to fully grasp. We seem to want a Savior who will grant to us eternal life and perhaps also the occasional prayer request. But the promised one in our Scriptures for Advent looks different from that. The promise that the Lord says he will “surely fulfill” concerns one who comes to “execute justice and righteousness in the land.” We’re not used to associating a Savior with “justice and righteousness.” But if we pay careful attention, we will find that establishing that which is truly just and right is at the heart of God’s promise.

I think perhaps part of what creates the edge for us here is that we are not used to thinking of salvation in these terms. Salvation concerns eternal life in the hereafter and abundant life now. As it turns out, however, creating the conditions for a life that is truly just and right is actually central to what salvation looks like in the Bible. Part of the “edge” in this promise is that it confronts us all with the ways in which we conduct our lives that are not just and right. It is a promise that contains hints of judgment. When the one God promised comes, he will bring to light all of our shortcomings. In fact, Jesus said that we will all face judgment to the extent of every “careless word” (Mt. 12:36). And yet, we have to remember that it is Jesus who is the one who be setting things right. Nevertheless, that promise has an edge that may leave us all a little unsettled.

There is also a further edge to these promises, in that they point us forward to the hope of the day when the Son of Man will come “with power and great glory.” At this time of the year, we may feel good about welcoming the “baby Jesus.” A baby, as most of us know well, is cute and cuddly and warms our hearts. At least that’s how we like to think of them. Parents, of course, know that babies have their moments that aren’t so cute.

But our Scripture readings speak of a very different person coming. They convey to us the promise of a mighty Savior who will come to establish God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. That may not fit very well with our version of celebrating Christmas. But if we listen carefully to the promises of Scripture, this is the Savior we should be welcoming. He is the one who comes with God’s authority and power to right the wrongs and to bring hope to the hopeless. He comes to fulfill God’s new world.

If we pay close attention, the promises of Advent leave us standing on the edge. They leave us standing on the edge of anticipation. There is something within us all that longs for the love of God that will heal our broken hearts and bring to pass a better world. The promises of Advent leave us standing on the edge of the restoration of what is just and right. As we watch events unfolding all around us, it’s painfully apparent that what is just and right does not always prevail in our world. Perhaps more painful is the realization that we don’t always practice what is just and right in our own lives. Finally, the promises of Advent point us to the coming of a mighty Savior to establish God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. In so doing, the leave us standing on the edge of world we’ve always hoped for but could never quite find. I know this hope is one that is difficult to hold these days, but may the promises of Advent encourage us to live in the hope that our Savior is continually working to bring this new world into our world.

Monday, April 03, 2017

Paying Attention

2 Peter 1:16-21[1]

One of the benefits of living in the “information age” is that we have relatively quick and easy access to a lot of information. Many of us have at our fingertips the equivalent of an unimaginably large library with just about anything you might need. But at the same time, I think one of the great challenges of living in this age is that we have access to so much information. Without a proper framework for making sense of it all, it can just become overwhelming. Rather than putting forth the effort to sort out fact from farce, we accept as truth whatever seems convenient. Or what’s worse, we simply tune out.

Unfortunately, this also applies to our faith. With all the different voices claiming to represent Christ in our world, it can be confusing. Between television, radio, the internet, social media, books, and magazines, the fact is that those who speak for Christ do not speak with a consistent voice. To some extent, variety in the Christian message is to be expected. It comes from our different backgrounds and experiences and perspectives. That’s a healthy thing. But I’m afraid it goes beyond that. The collective voices of all those who speak for our faith disagree on matters that are fundamental, ranging from how we experience new life to what living out that life looks like to what our ultimate hope is. The resulting confusion can lead us to tune out rather than paying attention and trying to find a perspective that makes sense out of the teachings of Scripture.

The fact of the matter is that the Christian community has always had to deal with divergent voices that have made it challenging for people to know what to believe. Most of the apostolic writings in the New Testament bear witness to this. There was no mass communication technology in that day. The only methods the apostles had for dealing with this problem were to personally visit a church, to send a representative, or to write a letter. That’s why many of the New Testament letters were written in the first place: to clear up the confusion caused by rival preachers and teachers presenting views that called the apostolic faith into question.

This was the case for 2 Peter. In fact, much of the letter is devoted to refuting “false teachers” who contradicted the message of the apostles, who advocated a blatant disregard for the most basic ethical principles of the Bible, and who did all this in order to enrich themselves at the expense of their audience. As you can imagine, the response to this kind of flagrant deception was less than polite. In fact, 2 Peter is not unique in that. Most of the apostles saw those who were teaching with a different voice as a threat—primarily a threat to the well-being of those who were led astray by their “deceptive words” (2 Pet. 2:3).

In the case of 2 Peter, the primary problem had to do with the Christian hope. In the New Testament, that hope was focused on the return of Christ. Of course, throughout the history of the church, our faith in the return of Christ and the final fulfillment of God’s saving work has raised basic questions. What happens to believers when we die? Do we have to wait for the day when Jesus returns to be raised to new life? Are we looking forward to all of this taking place in heaven or on a new earth? It’s not hard to find conflicting views on these and many other aspects of our hope.

Apparently, 2 Peter was written long enough after Jesus’ resurrection that many were beginning to deny that there would be a “second coming” at all (2 Pet. 3:4). In response, the letter pointed to the transfiguration of Jesus as a foreshadowing of his return. Claiming to be a witness of the glory revealed at that time as well as the voice that attested Jesus’ identity as God’s beloved son, 2 Peter insists that “we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed” (2 Pet. 1:19). What those who were there saw and heard left them without doubt that Jesus would indeed return in the full majesty of his glory as Savior and Lord.[2]

Unfortunately, some have approached this passage as if it advocates that Scripture is to be accepted at face value. The truth is that kind of simple faith works for some people. But I find that unquestioning belief doesn’t go over too well with most of us. Scripture itself raises questions, some of which we cannot readily answer.[3] And any written document has to be interpreted—especially ancient writings that addressed a very different time or place. I think what all this means is that we’re going to have to put forth some effort if we’re going to “pay attention" to the apostolic message, "because it is like a lamp shining in a dark place until the Day dawns” (2 Pet. 1:19, TEV). I think that means more than a simple casual reading of select verses. It means serious and sustained study of the source of our faith.[4]

Cultivating faith has never been easy. There have always been those who raise objections they think clearly refute what we believe. There will always be a wide diversity of voices claiming to speak on behalf of Christ. It takes some intentional effort to sort through the tangle of sometimes conflicting messages out there. But it seems to me that our lesson for today points us in the right direction: the fundamental teachings of the Scriptures have always been our guide. That doesn’t mean we’re going to automatically find the answer to our questions simply by flipping through our Bible. We have to do more than that to be able to sort through the chaotic voices in our day. It takes systematic and serious study of the Bible. In order to find clarity, we have to do a better job of “paying attention” to Scripture.

[2] Cf. Jerome H. Neyrey, “The Apologetic Use of the Transfiguration in 2 Peter 1:16-21,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 42 (1980): 509-514.

[3] Cf. Neyrey, “ Apologetic Use,” 517 (fn 50), where he points out that “the position of Peter as an intelligent interpreter of oracles and tradition stands in tension with other traditions that portray him as not understanding what he sees or hears” (e.g., in the Gospels).

[4] In this particular context, Neyrey, “Apologetic Use,” 518-19, makes a persuasive argument that the “prophecy” that is at issue is the transfiguration as a foreshadowing of the return of Christ. He says, “The parousia-prophecy has already been defended as regards its source (i.e., God, vv. 17-18) and its authenticity (έπόπται, v. 16); vv. 20-21 add the author’s apology for his interpretation (see 3:1-2, 9-13,15-16). In this framework, the author senses that his opponents consider this interpretation of eschatological materials idiosyncratic and self-serving; hence it is incumbent upon him to continue to defend his own credentials for leaving an accurate remembrance of these matters.” Contrast R. J. Bauckham, 2 Peter, Jude, 224. While he recognizes that Neyrey’s view is held by the majority of NT scholars, he argues that the “prophetic word” refers to passages from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible which the NT authors used along with their eyewitness experience to confirm the promise of the return of Christ.

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

Staying Awake

Luke 21:25-36[1]

I don’t have to tell you that speculations about the end of time have fueled a wide range of responses, from curiosity to fear to outright paranoia. You might think this is a recent trend, but actually it has been around almost since the beginning of the Christian faith. Throughout the ages people have tried to put two and two together to figure out exactly how or when the end will come. Unfortunately, their calculations have usually resulted in two plus two equals five. We have a notoriously flawed ability to predict the future, and I think the more scripture verses someone gathers to try to back up their theories, the more likely they are to be wrong![2]

And yet, the fact of the matter is that the Bible speaks in a number of places about “the Day of the Lord.” In the Hebrew Bible, it refers to the day when God will come to establish his rule in our world. And that will mean righting the wrongs, comforting those who suffer and discomforting those who are at ease. It’s a message with a double edge to it. Although the New Testament redirects those expectations to the return of Christ, it has no less of a dual message to it.[3] For those who are oppressed and suffering now, the coming of Christ means relief and restoration. For those who are complacent, or who have compromised their faith, it has a different tone.

We heard the scripture last week that said, “Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail” (Rev. 1:7). We might like to think that the “wailing” refers to unbelievers. But if we pay close attention to the message of the Bible about the coming “Day of the Lord,” I would say the overwhelming power of that experience will leave no one unmoved. I think we will all be feeling something like the prophet Isaiah felt when he saw the Lord in all his glory filling the temple: “I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.” (Isa. 6:5). When we appear before the Lord at his coming, we will all be wailing with repentance and remorse.[4]

It may seem a strange thing to talk about on the first Sunday of Advent. After all, we’re supposed to be looking forward to a “holly, jolly Christmas,” aren’t we? Why should the Scripture lesson for today talk about things that may make us feel uncomfortable? I think the primary reason is that the season of Advent, which precedes the season of Christmas, is intended to lead us to reflection about our lives. It’s like the season of Lent in relation to Easter. The whole point of Advent is to be a time for us to prepare ourselves to welcome the coming of the Lord at Christmas.

So it is with our Gospel lesson for today. There is definitely a note of apprehension in Jesus’ description of the day of the Lord: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves” (Lk. 21:25). I would say that the language used here is probably meant to be understood more symbolically than literally.[5] But regardless, the end result is that “People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world” (Lk. 21:26)! Think of it: can you imagine the shock and awe that we will all experience when we “see ‘the Son of Man coming …’ with power and great glory” (Lk. 21:27)?

Despite the fact that Jesus clearly warns us that day will be overwhelming, it is also a cause for rejoicing. In fact, Jesus said it this way: “when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Lk. 21:28).[6] He clearly calls us to view that day as a something to celebrate. And the cause is clear: “when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near” (Lk. 21:31).[7] It may seem contradictory, but the reality is that the message of the Bible about the “Day of the Lord” makes both points: it will be a day when we will all be purged of everything that stands in the way of our relationship with God, which may be painful, but the outcome will be our salvation.[8]

So if attempts to calculate the coming of this astounding event prove to be fruitless, how are we to prepare for it? Jesus answered that question as well: watch, stay awake, and pray. The phrase “be on guard” literally means to keep watching. And the phrase “be alert at all times” means to “stay awake.” I’m not sure these are concepts we’re familiar with when it comes to our spiritual lives. We may know what it’s like to stay awake because of a sick child or a deadline, but not as a spiritual attitude. It’s just not a part of our experience. One reason for that is watching and staying awake are something we actively seek to avoid by filling our lives with things to distract us from having to pay attention.[9] And that’s really all it boils down to: paying attention. Instead of going through the motions of our lives, I think Jesus calls us to be thoughtful about where we are and what we’re doing and why.[10]

I think that’s where prayer can help us. That’s also not something that comes naturally to us. But as we learn to discipline ourselves to pray day and night, as we develop the practice of staying constantly in an attitude of prayer, we can become more thoughtful about the way we live. We can conduct our lives in a much more watchful and wakeful manner. I believe that is the whole purpose of a season like Advent. Yes, there are parties to attend and plans to make, but as we go about the “busy-ness” of this time of year, cultivating a consistent mindset of prayer can help us “stay awake” to the meaning of it all.[11]

[2] Cf. R. Alan Culpepper, Jr., “The Gospel of Luke,” New Interpreters Bible IX:402, where he laments the “plague of pseudo-religious prophets claiming that the end is at hand.” He insists, to the contrary, that “The gospel offers not a way of predicting the end of the world but the spiritual resources to cope with adversity and hardship.”

[3] Cf. Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, 740, where he points out the connection between the expectation of the coming “Son of Man” (Jesus) and the “Day of the Lord” in the Hebrew Bible.

[4] It is unfortunate that commentators are eager to emphasize the confidence and reassurance Jesus brings out in this passage and ignore the connection with the fact that, according to the prophets, the “Day of the Lord” would be so overwhelming as to bring fear and foreboding on all, even (and perhaps especially) the people of God (cf. Isa. 13:6-8a: “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt, and they will be dismayed”; cf. also Amos 5:18-20: “Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?”). Cf. Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology II:119-125, where he recounts the theme of the Day of the Lord in the prophets, which no doubt reflects the popular notion that it would be a day of battle for the destruction of Israel’s enemies. However, as Von Rad points out (ibid., 124-125), some like Amos ask the people to consider the possibility that “this day is to bring a darkness that might also be fraught with danger for them”; in other words, they failed to consider the aspect of judgment that day would bring upon them. Cf. similarly, Christopher R. Seitz, Isaiah 1-39, 133, says regarding Isaiah 13: “This ‘day of the Lord’ comes to put an end to all sin (13:9), and the evil of the whole world is to be punished (13:11). All human pride and arrogance is under assault, and even the heavens and the earth will feel the effects of God’s awesome judgment (13:10, 13).”

[5] Cf. Fred B. Craddock, Luke, 246, where he rightly points out that this language is meant to indicate that the coming of God’s kingdom will affect the entire cosmos. He says, “Redemption has a cosmic dimension. … In fact, it was Paul who developed a Christology adequate to embrace all creation in the act of the cross and the resurrection (Phil. 2:6-11; Col. 1:15-20). But both Matthew and Luke tell us that heaven and earth signaled in unusual ways the birth and death of Jesus. Yet, even earlier, prophets had spoken of the day of the Lord as shaking and altering heaven and earth.” Cf. also Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2:289, where he reminds us that the biblical view of the end times is couched in symbols that should be taken seriously but cannot be taken literally “because it is not possible for finite minds to comprehend that which transcends and fulfills history. The finite mind can only use symbols and pointers of the character of the eternal.”

[6] Cf. Culpepper, “Gospel of Luke,” NIB IX:411, where reminds us that “the end of time holds no terror for those who know God’s love because they know the one who determines the reality that lies beyond what we can know here and now.”

[7] Cf. Green, Gospel of Luke, 742, where he points out that Luke’s Gospel emphasizes both the presence of the kingdom of God in Jesus’ ministry as well as its arrival “in its fullness at the end of history.”

[8] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, In the End, the Beginning: The Life of Hope, 143, where he describes the final judgment by saying that “Everything which is, and has been, in contradiction to God will be burnt away, so that the person who is loved by God is saved, and everything which is, and has been, in accord with God in that person’s life is preserved.”

[9] Cf. Moltmann, In the End, the Beginning, 82, says it this way: “We see only our dreams, and our wishful thinking about reality is reality itself. But this again means that we don’t live wakefully in reality; we are asleep in the agreeable dreams of our fantasy world.” By contrast, a life of wakefulness and praying means (ibid., 83) that “We perceive the sighing of creation, and hear the cries of the created victims that have fallen dumb. We also hear the song of praise of the blossoming spring, and feel the divine love for everything that lives. So prayer to God awakens all our senses and alerts our minds and spirits.”

[10] Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.2:555, where he says that Christians are those who “those who constantly stand in need of reawakening and who depend upon the fact that they are continually reawakened. They are thus those who, it is to be hoped, continually waken up.”

[11] Cf. Green, Gospel of Luke, 743 (footnote 60), where he observes “As elsewhere in Luke-Acts, prayer here would seem to involve both discernment of the divine aim (which, in Luke, is regularly mediated through prayer) and orientation of oneself around that purpose.”

Saturday, November 22, 2014

The Good Fight

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11[1]

Like many of you, I still remember one of my first plane trips. I was 17, and I flew from Corpus Christi to Dallas to see my Great Aunt. I had received a neck injury in a car accident, and she was an orthopedic surgeon, so she insisted that she treat me. That flight was very relaxed. It seems that the airlines went out of their way to make people feel comfortable. The plane was only about half full. The whole experience made me think that this was the only way to travel. In fact, I remember thinking that to myself.

As many of you know, I recently flew to Calgary, Alberta, to visit my son Michael and his fiancée and her family. I can’t say those flights were particularly pleasant. These days the airports are jammed with people. It feels like you just about have to strip down to your skivvies to get through security. And then they pack you into the planes like sardines. Nothing like the relaxed and pleasant experience flying used to be. I can certainly understand why people who have to travel for their jobs are called “road warriors.” It seems like you have to fight for food, you have to fight for a seat on the plane, and then you have to fight for what little space you have. I’m glad I don’t have to do that much travelling!

I think many of us would say that life itself is a battle these days, not just travel. We fight to make ends meet. We fight to find a job, and then sometimes we have to fight to keep that job. We struggle with relationships to find the right person to spend our lives with, and then sometimes we have to fight to keep that relationship together. We fight to make a better future for our children, and then sometimes we have to fight to keep them headed in the right direction. And just about the time we think we’ve got it made, everything changes, the ground we’re standing on falls away from us, and we find ourselves fighting just to hold on until life settles into a new “normal.”

I think St. Paul knew how hard life can be. He had been through countless hardships, mostly because of his commitment to follow Christ and to proclaim the good news. Part of the message he proclaimed was the promise that one day Christ would return and finish the work of redemption. One day he would set right all the wrongs in this world. One day he would make all creation new again, as it was at the beginning. As you can imagine, that hope was something the early Christians clung to for dear life. In fact, they held onto it so tightly, some of them got their priorities confused and became almost obsessed with the idea that Jesus would return any day.

Paul reminded them, as Jesus had said before him, that their attitude toward that great day of restoration was to be one of watchfulness. He contrasts that with the observation that most of the people in his world were living as if they were either asleep or drunk. They had no sense that their life choices were self-destructive. They had no awareness whatsoever that there could be anything different or better than the life of satisfying their own selfish desires. When you think about it, it doesn’t sound like much has changed. It seems like many people in our world today are simply hurtling head-long from one day to the next, hardly giving any thought to what they’re doing or where they’re headed or what their future may be. And as a result, their lives consist of one tragic misstep after another. And they go on living that way, seeming not to notice the warning signs on the path they’ve chosen. They’re sleepwalking through their lives.[2]

The Apostle calls those of us who follow Christ to wake up from the fog and the haze of living like that, a life that he says is lived essentially in darkness. He says it this way, “for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober” (1 Thess 5:-6). Essentially, I think, what it takes for us to wake up and be watchful is to pay attention.[3] We are called to live intentionally. And throughout the ages, spiritual teachers have reminded us that one of the most important ways of doing that is to develop a discipline of prayer.[4]

But St. Paul also calls believers to wage the battle of life in a different way than most people do. It seems that aggressiveness, demanding our way, being assertive or even pushy, having a competitive edge, are all part and parcel of what we think it means to win the battle that life has become. Paul had a different idea about all that. He told the believers of his day to “put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8). The Apostle knew that you can’t fight “the good fight,” you can’t wage the battle for God’s purposes in the world without using “the weapons of righteousness” (2 Cor. 6:6-7).[5]
And here he returns to what seems to be the foundation for all Christian living: faith, hope, and love. We can invest our lives for God’s purposes only as we have the faith to trust that God will fulfill his promises of a new world.[6] We can fight the good fight only as we hold onto the hope that one day that new world will become a reality, and in fact it already is dawning in our lives today.[7] Only when we hold onto faith and hope can we take the risk of loving those around us, all those around us, even those who are difficult to love, especially those who are seemingly “unlovable.”[8] When we have the clarity to see through the haze so many in our culture are sleepwalking through and determine to live our lives in the way of faith, hope and love, then we’ll be “fighting the good fight.”

[2] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, In the End--the Beginning: The Life of Hope, 82. He characterizes the “sleeping” that Paul refers to by saying “Our eyes are open but we don’t see; our ears are open but we don’t hear.” He continues, “we no longer perceive the real world. We see only our dreams and think that our wishful thinking about reality is reality itself. But this again means that we don’t live wakefully in reality; we are asleep in the agreeable dreams of our fantasy world.”

[3] Cf. Moltmann, In the End, The Beginning, 84. He says, “The early Christians prayed standing, looking up, with arms outstretched and eye wide-open, ready to walk or to leap forward. We can see this from the pictures in the catacombs in Rome. Their posture reflects tense expectation, not quiet heart-searching. It says: we are living in God’s Advent. We are on the watch, in expectation of the One who is coming, and with tense attentiveness we are going to meet the coming God.”

[4] Cf. Moltmann, In the End, The Beginning, 83: “When we pray, what we are seeking is not our own wishes; we are seeking the reality of God, and are breaking out of the Hall of Mirrors of our own illusory wishes, in which we have been imprisoned.” See also Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, 43: “Spiritual wakefulness demands only the habitual awareness of him which surrounds all our actions in a spiritual atmosphere ....”; and Henri Nouwen, Here and Now: Living in the Spirit, 68-69, where he says that is the “discipline of prayer” that helps us to come back again and again to “the active presence of God at the center of [our] living.”

[5] Paul lists them as “purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God” (2 Cor. 6:6-7). Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.4:7: he says that “the armour ... which the Christian is to take and put on is a freedom and power which is neither proper nor available to man by nature, which surpasses him in all its aspects” but it is nevertheless “appropriated to him as a freedom and power” which we must take up. He continues, “What a man puts on when he becomes a Christian is according to Col. 3:10 and Eph. 4:24 no more and no less than—after the putting off of the old—the new man who is created κατὰ θεόν* (according to God) or κατʼ εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτόν* (according to the image of the one who created him)” (translations added).

[6] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, 337: “The expectation of the promised future of the kingdom of God, which is coming to man and to the world to set them right and create life, makes us ready to expend ourselves unrestrainedly and unreservedly in love and in the work of reconciliation of the world with God and his future.”

[7] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, 107-109, where he discusses the idea that Paul “sets salvation ‘in the mode of hope’” by pointing forward to the resurrection of the death and the annihilation of death itself, but also sees the signs of this hope already in the healing ministry of Jesus.

[8] Cf. Moltmann, Theology of Hope, 338: “Faith can expend itself in the pain of love, ..., because it is upheld by the assurance of hope” in God’s promised future. Cf. also Paul Knitter, Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, 209: “As Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.--and the Buddha and Jesus long before them--realized, our best ‘weapon’ for changing the hearts of our oppressors or enemies is to love them. ... Only in this way will liberation come not just for the oppressed but also for the oppressors.”

Friday, August 16, 2013

Ready

Lk. 12:32-40[1]

We Presbyterians don’t talk much about the “second coming of Christ.” In fact, I dare say you could find some Presbyterians who have never even heard a sermon about the “second coming of Christ.”[2] This is a strange phenomenon, because the New Testament has a lot to say about the matter. It is the focal point of the Christian hope. 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 on the future coming of Christ. Make no mistake about it, this is something that is central to the New Testament, and therefore central to the Christian faith.[3]

I think there are a variety of reasons why that may make us uncomfortable. In the first place, there are the assorted “flakes and nuts” out there who claim to be able to tell you down to the day and the hour when Christ will “return.” And they back it up with their charts. Surely most of us have seen them. Hal Lindsay became famous for his book, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” where he famously (or infamously) predicted that Jesus would return in 1978, or at the latest 1988. Edgar Whisenant, a former NASA engineer, wrote a pamphlet entitled “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will be in 1988” that was sent out to an estimated 300,000 pastors across the U. S.[4] He was convinced that Christ would return on the Jewish New Year in 1988. When that didn’t happen, he went on to predict it would occur in 1989, 1993, and 1994! I think many of us may be reticent to discuss the return of Christ because we don’t want to be associated with people like that.

I think another factor that inhibits our enthusiasm about the “second coming” is that those who tend to make a big deal about it seem to be using it as a “scare tactic.” You know, Jesus could come this very day, so you better get right with God because you might be “left behind.” Given all the hype surrounding the recent “Left Behind” series of books, I’m afraid this sentiment of using the return of Christ as a means of fear-mongering is also still very prevalent in our day.[5] It’s something most of us don’t want to be associated with.

Nevertheless, the truth of the matter is that the future coming of Christ remains the focal point of the Christian hope in the New Testament. And the consistent message is that since we look forward to the day when Christ will come and set things right, then it ought to make a difference in the way we live. Time after time we are called to be “ready” for that day. Unfortunately, I think we tend to associate that with the thinking that prescribes for us a certain ritual of conversion, or a specific set of doctrines we have to affirm, or a particular church we have to join in order to ensure that we are not “left behind.”

But our Gospel lesson for today gives us a different perspective on all that, in my opinion. Here, as in other places, Jesus insists that “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” (Lk. 12:40). But he tells us a parable that illustrates what that looks like. It’s a story about servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet. I think we have to assume that this is not just a matter of a night out, but rather this wedding banquet involves 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 are just sitting around watching the gate of the estate to open. Obviously, these servants have tasks that need to be performed on a daily basis. And so their “waiting” and their “readiness” involves being “dressed for action” and being “alert.”[6] I think all of this means that the servants are to continue doing their jobs, taking care of the master’s household, tending the garden, taking care of the livestock, performing any maintenance that the estate needs. 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.[7]

It seems to me that this is a perspective on what it means to be “ready” for the future coming of Christ that is much more consistent with the biblical teachings. Despite those who revel in their charts, we really cannot know when that day will come. And contrary to the fear-mongers, 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, and to live in the manner we’ve been taught to live.[8] And we’re to do that every day, as if the master were already here with us. If you think about it, in one sense he already is with us. 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, that’s what it means to be ready.

[2] Technically, the NT speaks of the future “coming” of Christ as his “public, definitive, triumphal coming.” 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. Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, vol. 2, p. 290: “The vindication of Christ and his triumphant return is ... an expression of faith in ...the final supremacy of love over all the forces of self-love which defy, for the moment, the inclusive harmony of all things under the will of God.” Cf. similarly, Shirley C. Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, 280-81.

[4] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_C._Whisenant . See also Jason Boyett, “Harold Camping and the apocalypse of my youth”, The Washington Post online Blog “Guest Voices,” May 21, 2011; accessed at http://www.washingtonpost.com/ blogs/guest-voices/post/may-21-2011-harold-camping-and-the-apocalypse-of-my-youth/2011/05/12/AFfkLNyG_blog.html

[5] See Dart, John. “‘Beam me up’ theology--The Debate Over ‘Left Behind,’”The Christian Century (Sept 25, 2002): 8-9; Nicholas D. Kristof, “Jesus And Jihad,” The New York Times, July 17, 2004; accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/17/ opinion/17KRIS.html?ex=1247803200&en=b9eee1a2743a902b&ei=5090

[6] Cf. J. A. Fitzmyer, Luke X-XXIV, 987. The Greek text for “be dressed for action” is to have one’s “loins girded,” which refers to tying up the long robe with a belt to ensure one is able to act freely and quickly. One could render it as being “dressed for work.”

[7] 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.” Cf. similarly, Fitzmyer, Luke X-XXIV, 985; John Nolland, Luke 9:21–18:34, 705.

[8] Cf. Donald K. McKim, 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.” Cf. also Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.2:555, where he says that Christians are those who “those who constantly stand in need of reawakening and who depend upon the fact that they are continually reawakened. They are thus those who, it is to be hoped, continually waken up.”

The Waking Dreamer