December 3, 2017

In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken…Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place…But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (Mother).

I have spoken numerous times with you about the life of the early Church. Jesus’ earthly Ministry was over and those who were witness to his resurrection persuaded and inspired others to be part of a movement some called “The Way”. Those who were part of “The Way” ate together, healed one another and worshipped as a family in a member’s home. These were Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, women and men, foreigners and long-standing residents, and slaves and free. They came together out of a connection to the vision Jesus taught, lived and dreamed. Jesus would refer to this “kingdom” and wherever he went that kingdom came to life. People wanted to live in that kingdom.

That early church believed in many things, one being that in the sacred meal we call Communion Jesus was present, just as he had explained to the disciples in the upper room. Another was that they could heal in Jesus’ name. And another was that Jesus would return, in their lifetime. One of the reasons the early church could so easily give up their resources and put them at the disposal of the collective community had everything to do with this expectation of Jesus’ return. If End Times were near, if Jesus was to return so soon, what good were these resources? Better to share them now then have them go to waste when the Saviour comes.

If you have attended a mainline church most of your life you have likely not heard a sermon on Jesus’ return. It is mentioned in our 1925 United Church of Canada Basis of Union: Article XIX. Of the Resurrection, the Last Judgment and the Future Life. -- We believe that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust, through the power of the Son of God, who shall come to judge the living and the dead; that the finally impenitent shall go away into eternal punishment and the righteous into life eternal. There are several reasons for this omission. The most obvious is today’s date, 2017, meaning it has been 2000+ years since this expectation was first imagined and as far as I know the return of Christ as predicted by the early Church did not occur. That is not to say that Jesus will not return but it is to say that spending our time as a Church predicting this return, expecting it an immediate sense and wondering what this would be like seems to undermine our focus on living out the kingdom vision Jesus embodied.

There are many churches that do speak and reflect on the return of Jesus. They spend most of their time looking at the Book of Daniel and Revelation and the dominant themes are joy, meeting Jesus in the return, and enthusiasm to share this news with anyone and everyone in the hopes they too would meet Jesus. Mainline churches are not sure what to make of this focus, most of us have seen the preachers on TV making certain and bold predictions about when and where the return would originate only to be wrong. In 2011 Harold Camping toured the United States and Canada recruiting people to join his effort to sell their possessions and await Jesus’ return on May 21, 2011. It didn’t happen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/us/harold-camping-radio-entrepreneur-who-predicted-worlds-end-dies-at-92.html

I wish I could say this event was an aberration but it wasn’t. The embarrassment this caused to the Church is a reminder of why mainline churches choose to leave such speculation to others and spend our time living out the mission of Jesus we heard in last week’s Gospel text (Matthew 25:31-40). One of the reasons so many Christians who believe Jesus will return in their lifetime don’t pay much attention to the plight of Creation is the same reason the early church could so easily convince its members to give up their possessions. If Jesus will return soon holding on to your resources is of little consequence. Likewise fixing social challenges and healing a sick planet don’t seem as pressing when you believe Jesus is coming tomorrow.

So what do we make of this text and texts like it? Perhaps one day this prediction will come to pass. But in the meantime this story helps me focus on the moment when Jesus will come into my life and draw me to deeper places. Time and again I meet people at the end of their lives who lament their lack of attention to deep connections with others. Most of us know this lament. There is a gnawing anxiety in all of us that worries we are sleep walking through our life, missing those opportunities for deep connections when the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken and everything will scream at us to pay attention, something significant is happening.

Have you not discovered that those moments appear to us most often at night, in the dark, when we have our guard down and our spirit open? When I reflect on all of the deep, meaningful conversations I have had in my life they have come over a meal, in the shadows of some critical event in my life (In those days, after that suffering). I pray that over this Season of Advent I will be, you will be, we will be, awake to these dark, transformational, deep conversations.

Dark does not mean bad or sinister, dark is a creative and deep time when we take the opportunity to be honest with ourselves and others about what truly matters to the rest of our days. Is that something you are willing to do, are you willing to go to the dark places and find the energy, the healing and the power to address the presence of Christ in our midst?

A few months ago I received a call from a woman I had never met. She had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer one year before. She needed to speak to someone and found my name on an old column that was pinned to a community bulletin board. This woman had lived with hardships and tragedy all of her life but when she received the diagnosis she felt the hand of Jesus upon her and decided in spite of everything to live into the kingdom vision Jesus had preached and lived. We met at a Recovery Centre, in the living room, and it was very dark, almost no light. I could hear in her voice new life as she told me what God was doing in her life, how she had come to life. This woman was open to a miracle but was fully prepared to die when the moment came. But in the past year she had gone beyond her own challenges to engage others and involve herself in a loving community. In the darkness new life was taking hold.

In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken…Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place…But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (Mother).

Keep alert. In the dark new life is on the way. Amen.