The readings
Amos 5:18-24
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? I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.
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? I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.
Psalm 70
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me, O LORD, make haste to help me!
Let those be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire to hurt me.
Let those who say, "Aha, Aha!" turn back because of their shame.
Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, "God is great!"
But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay!
Let those who say, "Aha, Aha!" turn back because of their shame.
Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, "God is great!"
But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay!
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Matthew 25
"Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to
meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the
wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was
delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was
a shout, 'Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to
the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But
the wise replied, 'No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you
had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.' And while they went to
buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him
into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other
bridesmaids came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to
us.' But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I do not know you.' Keep
awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
The message
Our readings and themes each week at church follow a
calendar. Like the days, weeks and
months of our daily lives, our time here together goes in a cycle. The church
calendar is ordered by its own seasons and special observations that help
direct our reflection, worship and growth in faith. We are coming up to the end
of that church year. On Sunday, November
23, we will celebrate Christ the King, which is the last day of our year
together. The church calendar ends with
the proclamation that when all is said and done, Christ is King, God’s way will
prevail. On November 30th, we
start all over again and we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent. This church calendar is a narrative; it tells
and guides us through the story of God’s interaction with the world. We start with Advent, the people’s hope and
the expectation for a messiah. This is followed by Christmas, when Jesus, the
expected one is born, Then we go through epiphany when the world starts to figure
out just who Jesus is. After this, we get to Lent, holy week and Easter, the
events around Jesus sacrifice, persecution, death and resurrection, the source
of our salvation. After this, we move on
to Pentecost, the birthday of the church and the time we look at the work and
teaching of Jesus and his followers.
Finally, we get to these next 2 weeks, all that stands between us and
the joy, hope and wonder of Christ the king, of declaring God’s way and love
wins, is the end times. While most of us
would rather skip this section on the end of the world and talk about loving
our neighbor again, these readings are placed exactly where they belong.
For the next 2 weeks, our readings will be about the end of
the world, the most confused, misunderstood, frightening, abused, made fun of
and in some ways popular aspect of our faith.
Armageddon, the end times, the apocylpase, the day of the Lord, whatever
you call it, the end is a multi-billion
dollar business today. There are tv
shows, websites, mega movies, bunker builders, and 1000’s and 1000’s of
best-selling books about the end. Some
religious groups and churches center their entire belief system on this
event. Some of the greatest religious
teachers and thinkers in history, including people like Paul, who wrote a good
portion of the new testament and Martin Luther, who laid out the framework for
our faith tradition, seemed to think the end times were eminent. Human history is filled with predictions
about the end of the world, the year 2000, the Mayan Calendar and May 21
probably come to mind first, but there were 1000s of others. These predictions come from all different
sources, astronomy, science, math, scripture, secret revelation, aliens, breaking
codes, equations, and ancient knowledge.
The only thing this diverse group of predictions share in common is that
they are all completely wrong. We are
all still here and still loved by God.
Instead of focusing directly on the readings for the next 2
weeks, I am going to do something a little different. This week I am going to talk
about the history and role of the end times in our faith and next week, I will
talk about what we are supposed to do while we wait. To understand the end
times, we need to go back to the stories of creation in Genesis. The 2 creation stories in Genesis explain
that the world starts off as good and that all things are perfect. Nothing breaks, nothing hurts, nothing dies,
and nothing goes wrong. Then something
happens and sin, death, disobedience, violence, anger, pain, suffering, greed
and separation enter the world. Things are forever change, they are no longer
all good. People and God are now separated.
God does promise that things would be restored to that original, good
state. This restoration is attempted in
many ways; through the call of Abraham, covenant with the people of Israel, in
setting the people free from slavery in Egypt, in the Promised Land, through
the gift of the law and the words of the prophets. The people are called back
to God through countless cycles of reward, punishment, and forgiveness. None of these really work, people are still
separated from God, still concerned about other things, still looking for
salvation from other places, still suffering, hurting, abusing and dying. After centuries of punishment and struggle,
the destruction of the temple and the loss of the Promised Land, The prophets
announce that even though it feels like it, God did not forget the people, that
God’s promise of restoration is still good. The promise announced through the
prophets has 2 parts, one, that God would send a messiah, one who would
restore, redeem and save the people and two, there would be an end of the world
as we know it, that the world is just too corrupt, infested and broken, it
would need to be renewed. Jesus starts the work of restoration, though his
life, death and resurrection; we are freed from the power of sin to separate us
from God. At the same time greed, evil, sin
and death are still around, lurking, tricking, deceiving, and harming us. We are in a constant battle against these
forces. Jesus gives us the tools, faith,
community and words to fight back, to live good lives in the midst of
all this garbage and try to not be consumed by it, but it will not be gone
until Jesus return.
The language and imagery surrounding Jesus return and the end
times are secretive, confusing, violent, brutal, condemning and destructive. They are filled with harsh judgment, and
severe punishment. It is the perfect
material to scare and manipulate but the most difficult to talk about with
faith and hope. I look at the texts
about the end, not so much as literal descriptions of what will happen, but as
visions reminding us of something we all know, as symbols of something we face
every day, Evil does not go gently into that good night. Sin and death do not
just walk away from good, they dig in and fight. If we get rid of all of the fear, predictions
and industries built up around the end times, we are left with God’s promise to
restore all things and a reminder of the reality that our world is a place of
good and bad.
Next week, we will look at what this means for our faith,
what we are supposed to do while we wait, just a hint, it’s pretty much what we
are doing right now, sharing God’s love, helping each other, worshipping and
comforting those in fear. Amen
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