“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mark 13:28-31)
I attended a rally for Palestine yesterday – yesterday being the ‘International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People’. There weren’t many other obviously Christian people there. That was disappointing. There weren’t actually many people there. That was more disappointing.
Even so, my usual experience is that even when there are lots of people at the Free Palestine rallies, few of them seem to be Christians, as evidenced by the fact that most of the women tend to be wearing hijabs and most of the men have great big beards! That’s not to say that Christian men can’t have great big beards, nor that Christian women can’t wear hijabs. Even so, I think it’s a pretty reliable indicator.
Of course I’ve got used to this sort of disappointment over the years. I have come to accept the fact that Palestinian liberation is not a big issue for most Christians. Indeed, over the years I’ve come to accept that most of the things that burn on my heart are not going to get a lot of discussion in the Christian community at large.
When I attend gatherings of Christian people, Israeli/Palestinian justice issues are rarely discussed (except when I’m bringing them up). Likewise, I don’t hear many Christian voices speaking out against the current government attacks on our civil liberties, just as I don’t see great numbers Christian people mobilising in support of Julian Assange.
The refugee issue may be a heartening exception to the rule, but I can tell you that when I raise issues of Iraq and Syria at Christian gatherings I generally can’t help but notice that those around me are giving me that forced smile as their eyes dart about, seeing if there might be some excuse for moving to another table.
No one, I think, will ever accuse the Christian community of our fair city of being too outspoken on matters of justice and peace. The same cannot be said, of course, for discussions concerning the end of the world! The end of the world is something Christians tend talk about a lot!
I was told of a Christian cleric who was seen by the side of a road, waving a placard on which he’d written “The end is near. Turn back or prepare to meet thy doom!” People were screaming past him in their cars, with some yelling at him and telling him to mind his own business, but behind him was the sound of screeching brakes and broken glass. His friend says to him “Father, you should have just written ‘BRIDGE OUT’. It’s far less ambiguous!”
People expect us to be talking about the end of the world because we Christian types have always been talking about the end of the world!
When I started attending Christian youth groups as a teenager it was always a hot topic of conversation – “Do you think we’re living in the last days?”
In my conversations with Christian folk at Fight Club last week the same question was raised – “Do you think we’re living in the last days?”
As far as I remember, the ‘last days’ has been a hot topic of conversation in every church or Christian group I’ve been involved in over the last 35 years, and now, as I write more regularly about the prospects of another world war, I find myself sounding the same note – could it be that the end is near?!
In truth, I don’t think that a generation has gone by since the foundation of the church when believing people haven’t expected Christ to return within their own lifetime.
A lot of us thought it was going to happen in year 2000. If you were one of them there’s no need to feel particularly foolish. No lesser figures than Isaac Newton and Jonathon Edwards (the famous 18th century preacher) and Sun Myung Moon (founder of the ‘Unification Church’) all predicted the end of the world in year 2000! Jerry Falwell went as far as specifying January 1st 2000 as the last day!
The Amazing Criswell (apparently well known for his false predictions) had the date as almost six months previous to that (August 18th, 1999). God knows how he hit upon that particular day. God knows why he was known as ‘The Amazing Criswell’!
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are well known for having made multiple false predictions of Armageddon. Autumn 1975 was the last one. Before that the Watch Tower Society published similar predictions for 1941, 1925, 1918, 1914, 1881 and 1878!
I could go on. I found a helpful article in Wikipedia entitled “List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events”. It’s a list with hundreds of entries, spanning every century since the foundation of the church. And the prophets haven’t all been crackpots. John Wesley believed that Christ was going to return in 1836. Martin Luther felt sure that the year 1600 was going to be the last year of human history as we know it.
Pope Innocent III, who lived in the early part of the 13th century, saw the end as coming in 1284, that being 666 years since the rise of Islam. Wrong!
I won’t continue as you can look this up for yourself if you’re interested. What I will say is that the one thing that almost all those who have made false predictions about the coming of the end have in common is that they have almost all predicted that the end would come within their own lifetime.
Every generation since the foundation of the church has believed that it is living in the last days, and why not, for many of the Biblical writers themselves seemed to believe this, and indeed, why not when Jesus Himself seemed to say that it was all going to happen within the lifetime of those listening to Him.
“Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mark 13:30-31)
Now there are good reasons for thinking that what Jesus was referring to there was not the end of the world but the fall of Jerusalem – good reasons that I won’t go into here – but what we cannot doubt is that Jesus repeatedly warned us that the end would come, not only for Jerusalem but for the whole world, and that it will come when we do not expect it and that we should be ready for it when it happens.
Indeed, if you’ve been following our weekly Bible readings in church, this impending sense of the Kingdom coming has been the backdrop of almost every one of Jesus’ teachings of late.
The parables we’ve been listening to of the great wedding banquets to come – these are images, of course, of the coming of the Kingdom of God that will spell the end of human history as we know it. Each of those stories includes the warning: ‘be ready!’
The bridesmaids need to be ready with oil in their lamps (Matthew 25:1-13). The wedding guests need to be ready – accepting their invitations with gratitude and turning up properly dressed (Matthew 22:1-14).
Jesus has been telling stories of a master who has disappeared for a while. He has left his vineyard in the hands of his stewards (Matthew 20:1-16) or he’s divided his money up between his faithful servants (Matthew 15:14-30). In the background in each case is the expectation of the master’s imminent return and the great reckoning that will come when that return takes place! The end is near! Judgement is coming! And last week, using the imagery of a shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats, Jesus depicted that final judgement (Matthew 25:31-46).
Jesus spoke about the coming of the end a lot! No wonder His followers have become obsessed with exactly when it is all going to take place, and no wonder that many of those same followers find it hard to get excited about the peace and justice issues that are so important to me. After all, if the world is going to end within a very short space of time, why pour all your energies into developing long-term plans for the irrigation of rice-paddies in developing communities?
This is the way it has always been put to me. If the end is nigh then everything else becomes relatively insignificant, and even if the end isn’t all that nigh, eternity is a long time, and surely that makes all our temporal struggles relatively trivial.
Of course those who argue this way aren’t normally talking about our temporal struggles but about somebody else’s temporal struggles. Even so, the logic of the argument is clear enough. If human history is careening towards a fiery and imminent finish, then trying to determine the borders of a Palestinian state is like trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. What’s the point?
This ‘what’s the point’ argument used to bother me in my younger days, and then I realised that the Lord Jesus Himself was subject to exactly the same criticism!
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power” says St Luke, “and … he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” (Acts 10:38)
‘What was the point?’ we might ask. What’s the point of doing good and healing people if all you’re doing is making them more comfortable in their deck chairs?
“He healed every disease and sickness among the people”, the Gospel writer said (Matthew 4:23). What was the point? They were just going to get sick again.
He raised from the dead not only his friend, Lazarus, but also the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17) and the daughter of poor Jairus (Mark 5:21–43, Matthew 9:18–26, Luke 8:40–56). What was the point? They all died again!
And what was the last thing Jesus did on the cross before He died? He made sure His mum was going to be looked after when He was gone (John 19:26-27)!
How trivial an issue was that in the great scheme of things? God was going to take care of His mum for all eternity! Surely that was all that mattered! Why get so obsessed about the things of this world?!
If our understanding of the Gospel is that the coming of the Kingdom makes the ordinary things of this life insignificant then obviously we have misunderstood it.
The good news of the coming of the Kingdom was the very heart of Jesus message but this in no way led Him to downplay the significance of ordinary human realities. Integrity in ordinary human relationships was still all important. Justice, healing, freedom and love were still all important. Digging a well for the community and looking after your mum were still all important!
The mistake, I believe, is to think that the proper response to the coming of the Kingdom is to sit around thinking about the coming of the Kingdom. The proper response to the coming of the Kingdom, as depicted in the New Testament, I believe, is to get enthusiastic for the work you have to do while there is still time!
This is indeed reflected in these same parables of the Kingdom that we’ve been looking at. The workers who spend all day in the vineyard but get paid less than they were expecting (Matthew 20:1-16) should have been focusing more on their work than on their pay-packets. The servants who are rewarded by their master for what they do with the talents he entrusts them with (Matthew 15:14-30) are the ones who are industrious. The servant who gets obsessed with thinking about what the master is going to do with him when he returns is the one who fails his master.
As I mentioned, Martin Luther apparently predicted that Christ would return in the year 1600. Luther also apparently said that even if he knew the world would end tomorrow he’d plant a tree today!
There is a well-known story that comes out of New England Colonies of British America in the 17th century, regarding a solar eclipse that took place during a meeting of state legislators. Apparently a number of those meeting panicked and several moved to adjourn until one said, “Mr. Speaker, if it is not the end of the world and we adjourn, we shall appear to be fools. If it is the end of the world, I should choose to be found doing my duty. I move you, sir, that candles be brought.”
I mentioned at the outset that I attended a rally in support of the people of Palestine yesterday. We rallied at the Town Hall and we marched around the city and then we ended up back at the Town Hall before dispersing. What I didn’t mention was that as I finally departed the Town Hall I was accosted by another group who were also active on the steps of the Town Hall – a Christian group who were sharing warnings of the coming end and handing out tracts to passers-by.
Numerous members of the group came towards me, tracts in hand, but when they noticed the ecclesiastical paraphernalia I was wearing (cassock, large gold cross around the neck, clergy collar, etc.). Most of them backed away or gave me a nod of perceived solidarity. There was one woman though who was not so easily deterred!
She held her tract before my face as she confronted me. “Do you have Jesus in your heart?” she asked rather aggressively. I said “yes”. She said “Are you born again?” I said “of course”. She then backed down, slowly, keeping her eyes on me, like a guard-dog reluctantly allowing a suspect to pass.
I did feel like replying “have you missed the point? Why weren’t you marching with us”? I didn’t, of course. Even so, many of us do miss the point, and if we think that Jesus’ admonitions about the coming of the end are there to drive us to constant speculation about the coming of the end then we have indeed missed the point.
First preached by Father Dave Smith at Holy Trinity Dulwich Hill, on Sunday the 30th of November, 2014.
Rev. David B. Smith
Parish priest, community worker, martial arts master, pro boxer, author, father of four. www.FatherDave.org
Jesus was/is the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. When we summon up the courage and strength to move towards righteousness, truth and justice in our daily struggles, we move closer to the Kingdom of Heaven.
End is just another word for a new beginning. (Unless you’re a war monger going to hell, then it really is the end.)
🙂
Hey Arlene,
I appreciate that the Kingdom of God is not only some event in the distance but is also something breaking into our world in the present (“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Luke 11:20). Even so, the story of the Bible as a whole is a story of human history, and it is a linear history, beginning in a garden and ending in a city.
I don’t think we can afford to dismiss traditional eschatology by focusing on the imminence of the Kingdom. We can experience the Kingdom in the present (or glimpses of it, at any rate) but there is surely too a sense in which the best is yet to come! 🙂
Dave