While living in New York City in 2011 you couldn’t help seeing posters saying the world would end on May 21 of that year. The group Family Radio and its founder Harold Camping were so convinced that Jesus was coming back that day, that they spent millions of dollars on an ad campaign in the biggest city in the country. Not to keep you in suspense, but it didn’t happen; in fact, I preached on May 22 at my home church of All Saints, Norton, VA and began by observing that, I didn’t know about everyone else, but I was surprised to be there. Once again, it seemed we had avoided the apocalypse. It wouldn’t be the last time.
One of many, many signs around New York City in 2011 heralding the end of the world.
Now there’s an appropriate word for today: Apocalypse. It conjures up images of pain and death. It ain’t pleasant. Yet the word itself is merely Greek for “unveiling” or, more popularly, “revelation.” Even though we don’t read from the last book of the Bible this week, it’s worth pointing out that the actual Greek title of the Book of Revelation is The Apocalypse. And just as that complex and illustrative letter from Saint John the Divine tears the veil away from the hardships faced by Christians in the 2nd century, our readings for this week also are apocalyptic in nature. But whereas we often associate apocalypse and apocalyptic literature as something portending a terrifying fate, what’s really going on is present-moment truth-telling.
'Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: 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.'
--Amos 5: 18-24
Amos is my favorite prophet. He was a poor farmboy from the southern kingdom of Judah, called by God to travel to the northern kingdom of Israel and preach this apocalyptic message to the king. On the surface, Israel was thriving. The economy was great. They weren’t engaged in any wars. But behind the scenes, if you pulled back the veil, the poor had been neglected. The widows and immigrants in the land had been forgotten, and so Amos came preaching to the king that the day of the Lord – God’s breaking through human history at the end of time – was not something for which they should look with anticipation. For them who had mistreated the marginalized, it would be a day of consequence. Amos’ prophesy was a warning, an attempt to bring the people back to living the way God intended for them, but it fell on deaf ears, and soon the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians.
'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.'
--I Thessalonians 4: 13-18
Remember that most, if not all, Christians in the first three centuries after Jesus believed that the Day of the Lord – or the Eschaton, Day of Resurrection, or Second Coming - was coming very, very soon. This included the people of Thessalonica, who were afraid that when that day came the living and the dead wouldn’t get to be together. Paul wrote to reassure them that, in fact, the dead would be raised and that, in his words, “we who are alive” would join them. See what he did there? He believed, as they all did, that he would be around to see the end. For the Thessalonians, Paul’s words brought comfort that they would be with their loved ones during a time of great hardship, even though he pulled a Harold Camping.
'Jesus said, “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.”'
--Matthew 25: 1-13
We’ve mentioned many times this year how the theme of the Day of the Lord runs throughout the Gospel of Matthew. This is due largely to the destruction of the Jewish Temple in the year 70 AD, which resulted in folks reading less of the Torah and more of the prophets, reinterpreting their warnings and truth-tellings in light of their own personal tragedy. Matthew, writing around the year 80, has folks asking Jesus over and over what that day would look like. In this section from the beginning of chapter 25 Jesus hearkens back to the language of prophets like Amos., warning people to be awake, to be prepared, like the wise bridesmaids who brought enough oil to get them through the night.
When we read texts like these, so very long after they were recorded, are we supposed to freak out about the end or wonder if things we see happening were foretold long ago? We might feel a little less flummoxed if we accept that time is a made up construct. We literally reset out clocks last week and just pretended like that was normal. But that sort of proves the point. We invent time, and we give it meaning: what will happen in the future, we ask? But in the Kingdom, there is no future, there is no time. It’s a concept called the Eternal Now, and it’s what I’m referencing when I talk about Communion happening “round the clock” in heaven.. It’s we who fret about the future, and in the midst of crisis – like Assyrian occupation or the destruction of the Temple - folks thought they were right smack in the middle of the Day of the Lord and that the veil of time has been ripped away and the future was now. That’s apocalypse. When evangelicals and folks like Family Radio try predicting a future event using these texts, they miss the whole point of apocalyptic literature like these, which is that they speak to a present reality, not some far off future to fear.
Folks treat the prophets, or Paul, or even Jesus, as if they had some clairvoyance that let them see the future, but all they were doing was paying attention to what was happening in their time. They didn’t see what the status quo wanted to be true, but what was actually true, and their message was clear: stay on this course and it’s ain’t gonna be pleasant. They read events around them and understood the consequences of those events. It’s a wake up call, not judgment.
It's still true, even now. If you look reality in the face and fully take in what is, you’ll tear the veil away, and can see the writing on the walls. There are simply, actions – or lack thereof – that, if continued, will lead to a disastrous future.
The insanity of the last three years has ripped the veil away, wouldn’t you say? Little mini-apocalypses have popped up – teenagers who just want to go to school without fear shouting for gun reform, people marching to remind others that Black Lives Matter, women who’ve been treated as second-class citizens defending their reproductive rights, scientists insisting that climate change is real, and doctors and nurses begging people to be vaccinated. These voices reveal hard truths about who we currently are and offer us a wake- up call for who we want to be. Even now, in the land where these texts we read, study, and venerate originated, innocent people are slaughtered, and folks, rather than paying attention to what the suffering is revealing, are taking hard sides – some even rejoicing because they falsely believe apocalyptic biblical texts say all this has to happen for Jesus to come back. We often place our trust in stories of the past, and in so doing ignore the prophetic voices, the apocalyptic messages for our own time. Not messages of doom and gloom that are far off, but cries for justice and a turning around toward the mercy and love of God right now.
March For Our Lives, one of the many apocalyptic messages being sent in the last few years.
Where are you seeing the apocalyptic moments, revealing hard truths for the present and pointing us to a changed future? Pay heed to them, as the audiences for these holy texts of ours tried to do. Let the unveiling of our present inform the future selves that we want to be, not for the sake of the kingdom that is to come – God’s got that taken care of anyway in the Eternal Now – but for the sake of the kingdom that is already here
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