"A Question of Time: Endtime"
Preached on December 19,
1999
by
The Reverend Dr. Thomas
Sheffield
Text: Revelation (selected
verses)
A number is just a number. But the year
approaching shows that that statement isn't quite true. It is, if nothing
else, the start of a new century and a new millennium. Or is it? Some,
like the Library of Congress say "no," since there was no year zero,
this is the end of the old not the beginning of the new. Some, quoting
such exotic references as ancient Mayan and Babylonian calendars and
medieval English traditions, say "yes," it is the first year of the
new millennium.
Along with the intellectual debate, however,
there is as the year 2000 approaches also a strange mix of fear, hope
and genuine gleeful anticipation. All these reactions and more, of course,
are related to the connection of the next year with prophesies of the
end of time. The tying of the endtime with this particular time arises
from one of the passages read from the Book of Revelation. "When the
thousand years, (which is the second of the thousand year epochs mentioned)
are ended, Satan will be released and the devil who had deceived them
was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the
false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever
and ever."
It is this specific passage as well as
the entire Book of Revelation, its visions, images and prophesies that
have provided the engine for the expectation that now fills conversations,
magazines and television programs, (even a prediction that the end of
the millennium will enable Elvis Presley to make his second coming.
This final prediction, truly, comes from the First Church of Elvis,
Presleyterian.) As we talk about the end of time, therefore, we must
come to grips in some way with the Revelation of John.
One commentator provides this succinct
summary of Revelation that I think may be helpful in getting us started:
"Its author who calls himself John, composed
the narrative in the form of a letter to seven churches in Asia Minor.
He describes being lifted in vision into the divine throne room, whence
he is then taken on a tour of end things. The events are organized around
the opening of the scroll of seven seals, once the right reader, the
Lamb with the mortal wound appears. The first four correspond to the
four horses of the apocalypse, each signaling global calamity. The tribulations
unfold and worsen according to a pattern of sevens, and midway the text
shifts to more developed allegories, seven signs, among them a birthing
woman clothed with the sun, crowned with stars, chased into the wilderness
by the red dragon; the final battle of Armageddon, yielding the victory
of the messianic warrior and his thousand year reign. Then after a last
shakedown and the final resurrection and judgment of the dead comes
the descent of the gem-adorned New Jerusalem, the healing of the nations
and the end of suffering and death, "but for all those condemned to
the pit below."
It is succinct, but even in that summary
the rich complexity, the confusing imagery and the convoluted irrationalities
re revealed. Twenty of us have spent the last fourteen weeks studying
the Book here at the church and we would tell you we still don't have
it all. Vast portions continue to dazzle and also mystify.
But what CAN we say at this time about
it all? Should we take it seriously? Should we be afraid? Should we
expect something to happen?
To answer the questions we have to dig
a little deeper into Revelation and uncover some of the original purpose.
Written at a time when persecution of Christians by the Roman government
was becoming more intense and organized, the hope of John was to give
hope and to keep Christians faithful even under such pressure. Even
more powerful, in that time, than outright persecution, were the subtle
economic and political forces that were drawing Christians away from
absolute faith in Christ. Affluence and accommodation were luring them
from faith and making it possible for Christians to consider worshiping
the emperor. To offer encouragement John tells them about his visions
from God and his visions of God. He tells them that faithfulness will
share in a coming glory. Even now, faithfulness, he wants them to know,
particularly when tested and persecuted, participates in the abundant
life of Christ and Christ's saving work.
We are ready now to answer that first question.
Should we take this seriously? I think we should. In fact, I think we
must. I believe the words of Revelation are an invitation to see our
lives and our world in eternal perspective, and to understand that every
act has consequences if not now, then in a future yet to be seen. Casual
faith, that drops in to visit with God now and then and permits God
to hear from us, has no place in John's view of faithfulness. Affluent
living has no eternal reward. Christians who do not put Christ and Christ's
work at the center of their lives are noticed by God and damaging to
the well being of the church and their own eternal lives. Now again,
should that be taken seriously? What do you think?
And here is another difficult question. Given what John
says, should we be afraid? I believe that what John wrote was given
to him by God. I do not believe, however, that the words used
are or were ever meant to be exact predictions of what is going to happen.
John was using a kind of elaborate language very familiar to the original
hearers to bolster faith, courage and hope. He was not trying to tell
them everything that was going to happen in a precise way. He was telling
this: that always God's will is supreme. He was telling them that evil
ultimately will be destroyed or, in some cases, will cause its own destruction.
He was telling them, too, that the world as they know it would find
completion in God's perfect will and love as known
in the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
Could there be judgment and destruction? Of course.
Could there be a reconciliation and a healing? Again, of course. The
point is not suddenly to believe that we have God all figured out and
the time schedule under control. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
It is to realize that the God we worship is beyond our control and our
figuring out. The God who is revealed in Jesus Christ is beyond manipulations
we think are so very clever. Lois Cheney described the essence of the
God John has met when she said in her book: "God is no fool."
This God has created the forces of the universe
at the beginning of what we call time and this God can create new forces
that will end our time. This God has overcome death and so this God
can bring new life out of death. This God loved us so much and gave
all for all and so this God can call us, in love, to absolute,
final accountability.
It is for that reason, too, that I believe
that Christians should not fear what may or will or can happen. Christians
should not fear, not because they think they have everything sewed up.
Christians should not fear because they think that God will not hold
them responsible for the decisions, the ways, the lives they have lived.
If you think that, you had better read or reread Revelation. Rather
it is because of faith in God. Whatever happens will happen with God
who created, cares, judges and loves us. It is because we know that
in all things, God who is revealed in Jesus Christ, does make good come,
and love triumph, and rightness rule.
So, is something going to happen? Is the
end time coming now? And if not now will it come ever? In Advent we
say we are waiting and we are preparing. It isn't a pretend waiting.
It isn't pretending to wait for Jesus to be born for the first time.
We are waiting for something else. We are waiting for God to act within
our lives and our world. We are waiting for God's final act in history.
Is the end time coming now? Maybe yes.
Maybe no -- but never because it is some particular year. It will come
because it is what God wants and the way God wants it to happen.
But is something going to happen?
Absolutely. How do I know? Because it already has started. Something
already is happening. It started with the coming of a Baby. It started
with that Baby's life that unleashed power and peace that continue to
this day. It started with those who began to live for and with the one
called Jesus. A new world was recreated in love. New life was made possible
in forgiving, saving, embracing grace. New faith was lived with courage
and patience and passion.
What Revelation leads us to see and understand
is that our lives, our lives of faith, are part of the greatest event
Imaginable or really unimaginable. We are part of God's work
in Jesus Christ. It is a work that requires courage always, faith constantly
and love most of all. It is work that is beyond time for it has its
roots and its hope in eternity. It is work that will one day be completed
and all will be whole and holy.
In the meantime, we do keep waiting. We do keep living,
not fearing, what is happening now or what may happen in some close
or distant time. In the meantime, we keep preparing by acting as if
that future, that future of healing and perfection and reconciliation,
were here and now. We keep doing and speaking and loving as if we were
right now living in that endtime. Ó
