Is The End Of The World Nigh?
Sermon
Remember the Millennium? That special year which precipitated all sorts of celebrations around the entire world, but which is now largely forgotten? There are some continuing projects which were started or finished in the millennium year, but other than that, and a somewhat large but useless dome in London, thoughts of the millennium are well and truly over. Perhaps that's just as well, for as the Millennium approached, so a kind of "this is the end of the world" frenzy took hold of some strange and bizarre religious cults, along with an increase in cult suicides and murders and the like.
Cults are outside mainstream religion because by concentrating too much on just one or two aspects of religion, they distort the true picture, and that as well as being far from the truth, can be very dangerous
There are times in the year when the church's message seems to be nothing but doom and despondency, and this time of year, as winter and Advent approach, is one of them. In today's gospel Jesus forecasts, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven." How true that has been in recent years, but despite the predictions of various cults, the end of the world didn't happen at the millennium and it hasn't happened since.
So what is this passage all about? Should we dismiss these words as those of first century Judaism, struggling to survive under barbaric Roman rule, but which have been proven wrong, since the end of the world hasn't happened? Or should we believe that they apply to us here and now, and that awful doom is indeed imminent?
These words of Jesus recorded by Luke are inspired by Mark 13 but Luke has made some significant alterations to the words of Jesus found there. Luke maintains the current belief in the early expectation of the end of the age (see Luke 21:27, 28, 31, 32, 36), but he has modified that belief. Luke focuses attention throughout his gospel on the importance of the day-to-day following of Jesus. And by reinterpreting the meaning of some of the signs of the end from Mark 13, Luke has come to terms with what seemed to the early Christian community to be a delay of the coming of the end.
For example, Mark described the desecration of the Jerusalem temple by the Romans, which happened in AD 70, as the symbol accompanying the end of the age and the coming of the Son of Man (Mark 13:14). But Luke writing later, probably well after AD 70, separates the historical destruction of Jerusalem from the signs of the second coming of Jesus by a period that he refers to as "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24).
The early church was convinced that the end of the world was nigh, and that Jesus would appear again very soon. St. Paul's early letters, which are thought to be the earliest Christian documents we have, earlier than the gospels, contain a number of references to the second coming of Jesus. Indeed, it would appear that Jesus himself thought the end of the world was imminent. But the world didn't end, and St. Paul's later letters accommodate the change in thinking which had to occur.
The same thing has happened here in this passage from Luke. He keeps to almost the same text as Mark, but because the end of the world hasn't happened, he accommodates his words to fit in with revised thinking.
So was Jesus wrong in his beliefs about the imminent end of the age? For if Jesus is God, how can he have been wrong about anything?
The passage set for today's lectionary reading, could be taken to apply to just about any time in history. Throughout history nation has been rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There have been, and continue to be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and these could well be termed dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. As could the arrival of comets and shooting stars and hurricanes and floods and volcanoes.
Throughout history Christians have been arrested and persecuted and handed over to ecclesiastical courts and prisons, and Christians have been brought before kings and governors because of Jesus' name. And throughout history Christians have been betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends. Some have been put to death and many have been hated by all because of Jesus' name. But still the end of the world hasn't come.
In times of oppression and persecution, such as those when Jesus lived on this earth, there has always been a sense of crisis and an imminent expectation of the end. But at other more peaceful times, there has been much more of a sense of the world growing old and running out of resources, or in these days, of being polluted to a gradual death.
I've noticed that when I feel anxious or worried about a particular situation I'm facing, that worry is somehow reflected in the way I view the rest of my world. When I'm anxious about something, I see fault in everything around me. I react much more to even the mildest criticism. I tend to feel depressed and fed up about life in general. And I'm usually quite unaware that these feelings have anything to do with my deeper worry. In fact, I would usually say I don't feel a bit worried.
But I've also noticed that when the worrying situation is past, then everything else is better. My gloom lifts. I view life quite differently. I'm able to cope much more easily with the niggling criticisms and the irritations which are so much part of life's rich pattern.
Perhaps for most people, their views of the end reflect their present situation. People who live in war zones, live in the knowledge they might die at any time. So for them personally, the end is indeed nigh. Because each of us is at the centre of our own particular world, perhaps we interpret our own particular circumstances in global terms. Thus people who live in war zones might interpret their possible individual demise with the end of the entire world.
Jesus was living in dangerous times, where the personal threat to him was looming ever larger and closer. At this point in Luke's gospel, Jesus' active ministry is already virtually finished. The Last Supper, the beginning of the end for Jesus, occurs in the next chapter. After today's chapter, there are no further accounts of Jesus teaching or preaching or healing. Small wonder that as the storm clouds gathered over Jesus personally, he perhaps translated that into storm clouds gathering for the entire universe. Especially as life under the Romans was so violent and so uncertain for Jews.
So is the end of the world nigh? Will it soonend with a big bang? Well, I doubt it, but who knows? As St. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 - Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.
That's such a good description of the way things happen in human life, that it may be very near the truth.
Cults are outside mainstream religion because by concentrating too much on just one or two aspects of religion, they distort the true picture, and that as well as being far from the truth, can be very dangerous
There are times in the year when the church's message seems to be nothing but doom and despondency, and this time of year, as winter and Advent approach, is one of them. In today's gospel Jesus forecasts, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven." How true that has been in recent years, but despite the predictions of various cults, the end of the world didn't happen at the millennium and it hasn't happened since.
So what is this passage all about? Should we dismiss these words as those of first century Judaism, struggling to survive under barbaric Roman rule, but which have been proven wrong, since the end of the world hasn't happened? Or should we believe that they apply to us here and now, and that awful doom is indeed imminent?
These words of Jesus recorded by Luke are inspired by Mark 13 but Luke has made some significant alterations to the words of Jesus found there. Luke maintains the current belief in the early expectation of the end of the age (see Luke 21:27, 28, 31, 32, 36), but he has modified that belief. Luke focuses attention throughout his gospel on the importance of the day-to-day following of Jesus. And by reinterpreting the meaning of some of the signs of the end from Mark 13, Luke has come to terms with what seemed to the early Christian community to be a delay of the coming of the end.
For example, Mark described the desecration of the Jerusalem temple by the Romans, which happened in AD 70, as the symbol accompanying the end of the age and the coming of the Son of Man (Mark 13:14). But Luke writing later, probably well after AD 70, separates the historical destruction of Jerusalem from the signs of the second coming of Jesus by a period that he refers to as "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24).
The early church was convinced that the end of the world was nigh, and that Jesus would appear again very soon. St. Paul's early letters, which are thought to be the earliest Christian documents we have, earlier than the gospels, contain a number of references to the second coming of Jesus. Indeed, it would appear that Jesus himself thought the end of the world was imminent. But the world didn't end, and St. Paul's later letters accommodate the change in thinking which had to occur.
The same thing has happened here in this passage from Luke. He keeps to almost the same text as Mark, but because the end of the world hasn't happened, he accommodates his words to fit in with revised thinking.
So was Jesus wrong in his beliefs about the imminent end of the age? For if Jesus is God, how can he have been wrong about anything?
The passage set for today's lectionary reading, could be taken to apply to just about any time in history. Throughout history nation has been rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There have been, and continue to be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and these could well be termed dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. As could the arrival of comets and shooting stars and hurricanes and floods and volcanoes.
Throughout history Christians have been arrested and persecuted and handed over to ecclesiastical courts and prisons, and Christians have been brought before kings and governors because of Jesus' name. And throughout history Christians have been betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends. Some have been put to death and many have been hated by all because of Jesus' name. But still the end of the world hasn't come.
In times of oppression and persecution, such as those when Jesus lived on this earth, there has always been a sense of crisis and an imminent expectation of the end. But at other more peaceful times, there has been much more of a sense of the world growing old and running out of resources, or in these days, of being polluted to a gradual death.
I've noticed that when I feel anxious or worried about a particular situation I'm facing, that worry is somehow reflected in the way I view the rest of my world. When I'm anxious about something, I see fault in everything around me. I react much more to even the mildest criticism. I tend to feel depressed and fed up about life in general. And I'm usually quite unaware that these feelings have anything to do with my deeper worry. In fact, I would usually say I don't feel a bit worried.
But I've also noticed that when the worrying situation is past, then everything else is better. My gloom lifts. I view life quite differently. I'm able to cope much more easily with the niggling criticisms and the irritations which are so much part of life's rich pattern.
Perhaps for most people, their views of the end reflect their present situation. People who live in war zones, live in the knowledge they might die at any time. So for them personally, the end is indeed nigh. Because each of us is at the centre of our own particular world, perhaps we interpret our own particular circumstances in global terms. Thus people who live in war zones might interpret their possible individual demise with the end of the entire world.
Jesus was living in dangerous times, where the personal threat to him was looming ever larger and closer. At this point in Luke's gospel, Jesus' active ministry is already virtually finished. The Last Supper, the beginning of the end for Jesus, occurs in the next chapter. After today's chapter, there are no further accounts of Jesus teaching or preaching or healing. Small wonder that as the storm clouds gathered over Jesus personally, he perhaps translated that into storm clouds gathering for the entire universe. Especially as life under the Romans was so violent and so uncertain for Jews.
So is the end of the world nigh? Will it soonend with a big bang? Well, I doubt it, but who knows? As St. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 - Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.
That's such a good description of the way things happen in human life, that it may be very near the truth.
