Time’s up!
It is fitting that our last column on “time” should deal with the end of time — what we call eschatology, or the study of the final events of human history.
It’s not a topic that Presbyterians spend much time discussing, aside from intoning in the Apostles’ Creed that Christ “shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” Perhaps we are uncomfortable with the idea of Christ’s judgment, or we don’t know how to reconcile scriptural statements about the end times with scientific knowledge about how the universe was formed and how it is likely to end.
Some of us have been embarrassed into silence by overly enthusiastic brothers and sisters in other church traditions who try to connect the dots between the book of Revelation and contemporary events.
If we read the New Testament there’s no escaping the reality of Christ’s return. It may seem like a non sequitur to modern minds, but many of the New Testament writers were expecting and preparing for Christ’s imminent return and a cosmic battle between good and evil.
Paul, in his first letter to the Thessalonian church, is no exception. In chapter four he assures the church that those who have already died will be with Christ when he returns: “For the Lord himself ... 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 ...” (4:16–17).
In chapter five Paul uses a variety of metaphors to create a sense of urgency. The Lord will come like a thief, bringing sudden destruction (v. 2); the new creation will be like the sudden onset of labor (v. 3); the children of God are called to stay awake, living in the light and not the dark (vs. 4–6).
The fact is, Christ did not return within a generation. Two thousand years later we are tempted to say, “Well, it didn’t happen quite like they thought. Whew! Dodged that cataclysm!” But we cannot escape the fact that ours is a faith that looks to the coming of Christ to make all things new. Our faith has a whole chapter still to be written. The vigilance of the early church is needed now more than ever. We watch and we work.
I want to quibble with at least one of Paul’s metaphors. Ask women who have given birth and they will tell you that contractions can start occurring weeks before labor officially begins. Labor can also begin and then stall or stop. We call this “false labor,” when in fact it’s not really false at all. There is progress in these early contractions. It’s the body getting ready for the main event. It’s preparation.
In the same way we are preparing for God’s new heaven and new earth in fits and starts. In fact, the new creation is coming even now in small, sacred ways. We see heaven breaking into our world all the time. In the words of A Declaration of Faith, a document for study and worship that originated in the former Presbyterian Church in the U.S.: “...we treat death as a broken power. Its ultimate defeat is certain. In the face of death we grieve. Yet in hope we celebrate life.”
In the movie Stranger Than Fiction Harold Crick wakes up one day to hear a voice narrating the events of his life. It becomes clear that he is a character in a novel that someone else is writing. Not only that, his character is due to be killed off before the novel’s conclusion.
Harold enlists the help of a literature professor to figure out the source of the voice and whether his death is a foregone conclusion, or something he has control over. The professor gives him a task — to determine what kind of story he’s in. Is he in a tragedy or a comedy? In a tragedy, everybody dies. In a comedy, everybody gets married.
So which is it for poor Harold? He walks around with a clipboard and paper with two columns — Tragedy and Comedy. For each event in his life he marks one or the other, seeking clues to his fate.
None of us needs to do that in order to know what kind of story we’re in. We’re not in a tragedy or a comedy; we’re in a story that’s much deeper and more wonderful and mysterious than all the plays of Shakespeare put together.
Christ has died. Christ is risen.
Christ will come again. |
