Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come.  Take my lips and speak with them.  Take our minds and think with them.  Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you.  In Christ’s name, we ask it.  Amen

As I am sure many of you know, the season of Advent is coming soon, two Sundays from today to be exact.  It is sort of appropriate to say Advent is coming because that is exactly what the word Advent means—come.  I will probably say a few of these things again in two weeks so bear with me, but the season of Advent is a time of expectation and preparation for the coming of Christ.  This sense of Christ coming is really three fold—it is past, present, and future.  We are preparing for and expecting the coming of Christ as the Babe of Bethlehem 2000 years ago in our Christmas celebrations.  We are preparing for and expecting the coming of Christ in our present daily experience through His Spirit that dwells in our hearts.  And we are preparing for and expecting the coming of Christ at the end of this age, when Christ will come again to usher in the reign of God, which is the peaceable kingdom.  I mention this tonight because in our Sunday readings we are already sort of beginning the season of Advent a bit early.  You see in these weeks before Advent actually begins, our scripture lessons begin to speak of the end times, the apocalypse, the advent of Christ in that third sense I mentioned, that time when Jesus will come again and enter time and space to usher in God’s kingdom on earth.

Specifically, our gospel lesson today is from the 21st chapter of the Gospel according to Luke.  Almost the entirety of this chapter of Luke’s gospel, as I said, speaks of Christ’s return at the end of this age.  Moreover, this chapter of Luke’s gospel is representative of the entire genre of biblical literature that scholars call apocalyptic.  The word apocalypse simply means an unveiling of something or a revelation.  Therefore in apocalyptic literature, God, through the words of the text, is revealing to us something of his eternal purposes.  Of course, the most familiar apocalypse in the New Testament is the, appropriately named, book of Revelation and perhaps the most familiar apocalypse in the Old Testament is the book of Daniel.  Generally speaking, apocalyptic literature is characterized by an individual, in today’s gospel lesson Jesus, revealing a vision of God’s work both in the cosmos and on the earth that is bringing into reality God’s will in time and space.  Typically the vision will include a transformation of our known world, the world you and I live in, into God’s kingdom where justice, love, and peace rule supreme.   

Now that sounds all good, but the truth is many people find apocalyptic literature difficult and even controversial.  To begin with, apocalyptic literature is often full of strange and disturbing symbolism.  Moreover, these stories of the transformation of the world, from this present age into the next, are often accompanied by great violence and suffering and, in the end, even divine judgment.  Certainly violence and suffering seem to underscore Jesus’ apocalyptic teaching which we just heard read.  Luke writes, “Then [Jesus] said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famine and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.’”  And that’s not all, Jesus continues, “But before all this occurs they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons…You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  You will be hated by all because of my name.”  So what do we do with this odd and disturbing teaching?  How are we to understand Jesus’ ominous words of warning?  Or more generally speaking, how do we begin to read and apply to our daily lives the bible’s apocalyptic literature? 

Well the first option (and some of you might be thinking this sounds pretty good right now) is to simply ignore it.  Jorie Mosty, a long time member of our community, once told me that her mother got so fed up with the weirdness and violence of the book of Revelation that she just ripped it out of the back of her bible…problem solved.  Though I respect the assertiveness of this move, I wouldn’t suggest that approach.   

Now one way people use the apocalyptic teachings of Jesus, as well as the other apocalyptic writings in scripture, which I don’t think is particularly helpful, is treating it much like a crystal ball.  That is people use apocalyptic prophesies to predict future historical events as they relate to the end of this world and the arrival of God’s kingdom.  Most every Christian in the West or certainly in America is by now familiar with the Left Behind series of fictional books.  John Newton, another long time member of this community, sent me a link a while back to the latest manifestation of the Left Behind series of books.  It’s a video game named Left Behind: Eternal Forces.  In the game, you get to, “conduct physical and spiritual warfare—using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat” while wielding modern military weaponry to fight the forces of the Anti-Christ (that’s just frightening).  In addition to the Left Behind series and the video game, the authors have written a non-fiction book that is intended to help Christians read apocalyptic prophecy in a way that predicts the end of the world by aligning biblical symbolism with historical events.  There are Christians all over the world who are consumed with using the bible’s apocalyptic literature as an indicator to predict the second coming of Christ. 

Now, as I said, I am not convinced that using scripture this way, as a fortune telling device, is the most helpful, useful, or even biblically accurate means for interpreting and understanding apocalyptic literature.  In fact, I think some Christians who see apocalyptic literature as a prediction of the time and events surrounding the end of the world, sadly, welcome, invite and even tacitly participate in fostering situations of human distress—as if God’s love at work in the world is somehow dependent on the amount of warfare, famine, and disease that humans are suffering.  
So let me offer another perspective.  You see I don’t believe that apocalyptic literature in the bible is intended to be an indicator of political and social events in human history.  I don’t believe it is possible to read apocalyptic prophecy and create an accurate historical date of the second coming of Christ.  In every generation, false prophets have predicted that the end times are upon us—and they are always wrong.  In tonight’s gospel lesson Jesus says, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am and he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’  Do not go after them.”  Even now survivalist sects stockpile arms, food, and other supplies so that members of the sect will be able to fight off the forces of evil that they believe will seek domination during the turmoil of the end times.  Every one of these false prophets was and is wrong, and every one that comes after will be as well.  We need desperately to heed Jesus’ warning when he says, “Don’t go after them!”  In other words, don’t believe them!

Joseph Butler, the great 18th century Anglican preacher, once said in a sermon, “It is commonly observed, that there is a disposition in men to complain of the viciousness and corruption of the age in which they live, as greater than that of former ones.”  Butler is so right…I hear people say all the time in one way or the other…I just wish it was like the good old days.  The truth is the apocalyptic world of the New Testament has existed from the days of Jesus to this very day.  Just turn on CNN if you don’t believe me.    Jesus’ vision is surrounding us right now.  Nations are rising up against other nations.  There are famines and plagues and earthquakes in our world.  Jesus’ words acknowledge the reality of suffering in our contemporary experience.  But don’t think that suffering is particular to our time.  It has been far worse in the past and will be worse again in the future.  Even those of us who are disciples of Jesus and who love God with heart, mind, and soul know real suffering.  As Jesus mentions in tonight’s lesson, we all know to one degree or another persecution and even betrayal, at times, sadly at the hands of those we love most.  The New Testament’s apocalyptic vision of a world of suffering—a world cloaked in darkness—is present now.  It surrounds us…all of us…Christian and non-Christian alike.

Yet…it is right here in the midst of a catastrophic and broken world that at times feels like it is at its end—right here—that we discover the meaning of Jesus’ prophecy and the bibles apocalyptic literature.  You see Jesus says to us tonight that we should not be terrified in the midst of the worlds suffering because not a hair of our head will perish.  We should not be terrified because through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God will walk with us in all the dark places of life.  We should not be terrified because even the shadows are made to serve God’s glory.  We should not be terrified because death has been defeated—the cross does not have the last word instead the empty tomb does.  We should not be terrified because in the fullness of time, whenever that may be, God will rule in light everlasting.  And we should not be terrified because we will be there, on the last day, basking in the light of God’s love forever…beyond even the end of time.  Amen.  

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