The Preacher’s
Study
First thoughts
about next Sunday’s sermon, Advent I (or Advent IV, expanded season)
Frank Logue
Advent
is a season of preparation, but not just for a celebration of the first coming
of the second person of the Trinity as a babe in Bethlehem. This and the end of
one church year and start of another are when the readings have an
eschatological focus. This week, we hear in Matthew's Gospel Jesus speak of his
return saying, "About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels
of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
And
yet, no date has been predicted, and guessed wrongly, more frequently than the
second coming. To make matters worse for the preacher, the scripture lesson for
this coming Sunday is wrapped up in many parishioner's minds with the idea of
"The Rapture". That concept of Jesus’ two stage return, first
snatching away the faithful and then coming back for everyone else for judgment
is less than 200 years old.
In
1830, fifteen year old Margaret MacDonald had a vision during a healing service
in where she saw a two-stage return of Jesus. Her vision was adopted by
Plymouth Brethren founder John Nelson Darby who looked around scripture
cobbling together verses from Revelation, Daniel, Thessalonians and Gospel
passages like our text from Matthew. Darby’s system is the basis for all
teaching on The Rapture, a concept that did not exist in any Christian church
200 years ago.
So
while all Christians have taught of Jesus’ return and the Second Coming is a
consistent teaching of our faith, this Sunday's lesson may easily be misheard.
Yes, two people are alongside one another, one disappears and the other
remains. Because of the teaching of Darby on The Rapture, where the faithful
are taken away, we see this as Jesus’ teaching on The Rapture. But what did
Christian’s think in those centuries before Darby? They taught that Jesus said
the ones in the days of Noah who were taken away were the ones judged as evil.
This is more of the image and it fits the Palestine of Jesus when they were
under Roman oppression and soldiers would round up dissidents. The person taken
is taken away to judgment. That is the way it was in Noah’s day, according to
Jesus, and it could be the way things will be at Jesus’ Second Coming if the
ones who remain, remain with Jesus.
But
this idea of a two-stage rapture is problematic for at least a few reasons that
are not fine points:
First,
Jesus taught very clearly that not only did he suffer because he lived out the
love God has for others, but his followers would suffer as well. When we
emphasize The Rapture in our preaching and teaching, it starts to sound like a
Get-Out-of-Tribulation-Free Card promising that though bad times are coming,
Christians will be taken away before they come. This teaching is contrary to
Jesus’ own words and it is hurtful to our fellow Christians in Nigeria, China,
The Sudan, Indonesia, and the many other places where Christians are put to
death for their faith today.
Second,
an emphasis on End Times can lead to actions to try to set the events in
motion. Some extremists have sought to take action to force the biblical
timetable forward. This is misplaced energy as God is perfectly capable of
handling cosmic events without any help from us.
Third
and finally, an emphasis on The Rapture often leads to a lack of stewardship
for the gifts that God has given us. The theory goes that if Jesus is coming
soon, why worry about how we take care of the earth? Of course, in Genesis God
told us that humans are to be caretakers of the gift of creation. And when
Jesus returns, it would be nice if he found us busy about the stewardship of
creation God charged us with in the beginning, rather than trying to wear out
our resources before his return.
The
consistent message of scripture is that God created everything that is and
called it good. Things have gone awry, but God continues to love all creation,
us included. God will send Jesus back for the end of the ages. Jesus said that
no one, including him, could know the hour or the day of his return. Instead he
taught us to keep awake and be ready.
No
matter how or when, we know that Jesus is returning and that God’s vision is to
make all things new. And for that we don’t have to wait for a Glorious
Appearing, as God has already begun to make all things new.
So
as I journey toward Sunday, I will be looking for a way to point toward that
concept of readiness without getting lost in a rather recent and troubling
eschatology. For our role is not to look to the sky and wonder when, but to
look at those around us in need and start now. That is how we stay awake and
get ready—though proclaiming by word and example the Good News of God in
Christ.
Frank Logue is a member of the APLM Council having served
previously as its secretary. He is the Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of
Georgia and blogs on congregational development at
http://loosecanon.georgiaepiscopal.org
The black and
white scenes above were photographed by Frank Logue. The first was shot in the Ramone
Crater in Israel. The second photo was taken in the Golan Heights. It depicts Hebrew
graffiti and a look through to a distant idyllic scene.
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