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What to do
in Case of Apocalypse
by the Rev. Rich Smith
November 25, 2007
Luke 21:5-19
We are living in the last days! Well, at least the
last days of
November, and certainly the last days of the liturgical calendar that
marks the Christian year. Next Sunday we will begin all over
again, entering the season of Advent, and a new cycle of remembering
the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and of the coming of
the Spirit on the Church. Today, however, is the last Sunday of
the current cycle, known variously as the “Last Sunday After Pentecost”
or the “Last Sunday in Ordinary Time,” or in the more liturgical
churches like Lutherans and Episcopalians as “Christ the King” Sunday,
or “Reign of Christ.” In the UCC we have all those options, but
here we simply go with “Last Sunday After Pentecost.” As I was
explaining it to Marilyn who was preparing the worship bulletin, “We
don’t observe the Reign of Christ at Westmoreland.” And then I
hastened to add, when I realized how that sounded, “not liturgically,
anyway!”
But I may have hit upon something here – Do we, in
fact, observe the reign of Christ in our lives and our church all the
time, whether or not there is a special day in the liturgical calendar
for it? And if we did, what would that look like?
Our Gospel reading from Luke, with its apocalyptic
description of the “last days” leads us to consider two ways of what it
means to follow Jesus, or observe the reign of Christ. One
focuses on these prophesies of the future where it really makes no
difference in how you live now. The end is near and there’s
nothing you can do about it. Just believe the right things so you
don’t get “left behind.” Or like the Millerites of the 19th
century, sell all our possessions and go out to a hillside and await
the appointed hour for the end to come. The other way calls for
commitment to Jesus and the Jesus-way, even at the cost of persecution
and one’s own life. It means relieving suffering, creating
community, living hope, opposing injustice, making peace, including the
excluded in the face of calamity and opposition. Isn’t that, in
fact, what Jesus did?
That’s the choice we have to make – give in or stand
firm. That was the choice that faced the early Christians who
first heard this message. And believe me, these early Christians
really were living in apocalyptic times. As you know, all of the
gospels were written at least a generation after the earthly life of
Jesus, at a time when persecution of Christians was systematic and
intense. Yes, Jesus himself faced opposition, and was killed by
the Roman authorities for the threat that he was, but things got much
worse as time went on and Christians refused to deify Caesar; and
Matthew, Mark and Luke were written to communities that faced possible
extinction. The kind of things each of them describes as future
end-of-the-world scenarios were actually happening, and so the Gospel
writers placed on Jesus’ lips, as he was approaching his own
apocalypse/crucifixion, words unlike those you hear in the rest of the
Gospels. And so these persecuted communities of faith heard Jesus
telling them to stand firm, be faithful, trust in God. By your
endurance you will gain your souls. The book of Revelation came
along a bit later and said much the same thing, disguised as science
fiction.
It was a powerful message for them, and the fact
that many of them heeded it may account for the fact that Christianity
endured and we can make it our faith today. However, those who
read the Bible literally take all this, all these apocalyptic
descriptions, and conclude: the world didn’t come to an end then, so
this must still be in the future. They go through and calculate
timetables and usually find the end of the world is not far off.
People have been coming up with end-of-the-world dates for centuries,
and so far they’ve always been wrong. But I’m sure you don’t have
to look very far to find someone who will tell you it’s just around the
corner, in fact it could happen before I finish this sermon – The
rapture could arrive and I would be whisked out of this pulpit in an
instant. The choir, too, would vanish, as would some of you, the
true believers! More likely, it would be Bob who would be taken
and I’d still be here preaching to an empty house and left to face the
tribulation. And then maybe this preacher-snuffer would finally
fall... Well, you get the idea. A scary proposition, especially
if you’ve read the “Left Behind” series.
But I’m not really too worried about this. I
go along with the biblical scholars who believe that the Bible’s
apocalyptic literature was meant for its own time and not ours.
It wasn’t written to predict events in some far off future, like the
21st century, when God would finally intervene and bring it all to a
close, violently and abruptly. I mean, isn’t that awfully
ego-centric, to suppose it was all written just for us? It was
written for its own time, to say, yes persecutions are taking place,
and it will get worse before it gets better. But trust God.
Don’t give in, don’t give up. Hang in there and be faithful to
the Jesus-way. By your endurance you will gain your souls.
And always, there is a resurrection: a new heaven and a new earth!
But, even if there is no unique message to us, there
is still a message for us in the apocalyptic literature. Our
situation is different, in that we do not face the kind of persecution
that they did in the first century. But that doesn’t mean that
apocalyptic-like things might not happen.
Just ask anyone in California’s San Diego County,
who had to run from last month’s catastrophic wildfires.
“Apocalyptic” was a word frequently employed by reporters in describing
the enormity of what was happening. The smoke so black it blocks out
the sun, the howling Santa Ana winds, the advancing firestorm consuming
everything in its path. How different is that from our scripture
lesson?
For the last six years we have
worried, sometimes
more, sometimes less, about more terrorists attacks, especially worried
about whether they might be some form of nuclear attack. Many of
us grew up in the Cold War, when thousands of nuclear warheads were
armed and at the ready, when MAD, mutually-assured destruction, (and it
was mad!) was the about only thing keeping them from being used.
Some of you work in arms control, and we give thanks for your work and
pray for your success – for while it seems unlikely that we would have
a world-wide conflagration, even one nuclear device going off would be
apocalyptic for someplace.
An apocalypse of a different sort may be found in
“Colony Collapse Disorder,” the recent and sudden disappearance of
honeybees. Unless the cause is discovered and something done to
stop it, our food supply would be threatened. Without honeybees
to pollinate our crops, we’ll be left with nothing but corn (which is
self-pollinating). Turns out we eat a lot more corn that we
think, since it and its derivatives show up in about 5,000 items in the
average grocery store; as Michel Pollan says in The Omnivore’s Dilemma,
we’re basically walking Doritos. But this can’t be good for our
health, and without honeybees, we could be in big trouble. Not
the end of the world really, but the end of the world as we know it!
And of course, there is global climate change, the
very real apocalypse looming before us. Global warming seems to
be speeding up, and in spite of the eloquent warnings of Al Gore and
others, including some in this congregation, we wonder if perhaps the
fuse is lit – If Greenland’s ice keeps melting the way it has in the
last couple of years the sea level will rise several feet and that
won’t be good for low lying areas. More alarming is the glacial melting
in Antarctica. It doesn’t just send out icebergs that sink cruise
ships. If it all goes, the oceans would rise anywhere from 20 to
100 feet. Imagine Bangladesh. Imagine New York.
Imagine the Washington Monument in the middle of a bay...
You see, apocalyptic
scenarios are not just something from Biblical times, persecutions
which severely challenged and tested the faithful. And the
apocalypse is not about God bringing an end to history with some sort
of Armageddon, saving the believers and destroying the wicked.
(That’s so very uncharacteristic of Jesus and everything he taught
about God!) But it is – in some form – a very real
possibility. Maybe not, as I said, the end of the world, but
perhaps the end of the world as we know it. And like the first
century Christians, facing the end of their world, we, too, are charged
to be faithful and to discover anew the spiritual resources to cope
with adversity and hardship. Our faith does not necessarily give
easy answers, but it does offer at least two things – One, the never
failing presence of God, who is with us in all things, for as Paul
wrote to his own persecuted community, “Nothing separates us from the
love of Christ.. neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Our faith gives us
that! And one more thing -- we are given a charge, something to
do: to observe the “reign of Christ” in our lives – that is, to be
faithful to Jesus’ and the prophets’ call to create community, work for
justice and peace, share what we have, look out for those who have not
– in short to love!
Even though we are not suffering the persecution of
first century Christians, and even though we may dismiss the
Armageddon-type scenarios of fundamentalists, we can still be a people
who live with an “apocalyptic expectation,” which doesn’t mean we live
in fear. Nor does it mean resigning fromlife, going out to the hills to
await the end. Rather we are called to live in faith, a faith
that is characterized by its willingness to serve, to sacrifice, and to
stand steadfast, just as Jesus did. We are to be people of hope!
I’ve always found inspiration in this story from the
early days of American history: On the nineteenth of May, 1780, in
Hartford, Connecticut, in what was described as a terrible foretaste of
Judgment day, the noon-day skies suddenly turned from blue to grey and
by mid-afternoon had blackened over so densely that in that
superstitious age men fell on their knees and begged a final blessing
before the end would come. The Connecticut House of Representatives was
in session and as some fell down and others clamored for an immediate
adjournment, the speaker of the House, one Colonel Davenport, came to
his feet, silenced them, and said, “The Day of Judgment is either
approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for
adjournment, and if it is, then I would choose to be found doing my
duty and I wish that candles be brought. Gentlemen, let candles be
brought.”
One who is doing much more than her duty, and
bringing more than her share of candles, is one of last year’s
Volunteer Corps members, Rachel Cloud. She has gone to Columbia
with Christian Peacemaker teams - Columbia being one of those places
ranking with Iraq as one of the most dangerous places on earth, a place
where persecution is real, and apocalyptic things happen every
day. She has written a letter to our church, which I want to
share in closing:
A Letter from Rachel Cloud
November 2007
Dear Westmoreland Community,
Thank you for this opportunity to write an update and remain in
community with you all. Thinking of my journey with Christian
Peacemaker Teams based in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, what I currently
struggle with most is the contrast I am living. Some days I am thanking
God for the joy of the bright stars and croaking frogs that welcome me
to sleep on our Opón river community accompaniment. I'm leaning
which exotic fruits' seed's are edible, and that a well chosen shade of
yellow pineapple is a direct bridge to heaven. Floating on my back in
the middle of San Silvestre Lake on a day off, I marveled at the clouds
above me and the fact that sting rays and alligators allowed me to
share the same water. Many mornings begins with insightful team prayer.
Other days are heavy with sadness, fear, and injustice. Translating
articles for Christian Peacemaker Teams releases, I begin to cry as I
look for the right Spanish words to express the pain of war fueled
child abuse. I woke up one Sunday morning, the Holy day of rest, to a
cell phone ringing. Calling for solidarity, the Popular Women's
Organization reported that their president Yolanda had been violently
threatened, her house torn apart and a gun held to her head at 7:30
a.m. that same day. She was targeted because she is a strong, vocal
leader for human rights. She stirs up peace, and it challenges violent
actors in a way only peace can. This phone call asked would we go exist
with them, and be in the space of fear, healing, and planning for
action? My teammate and I lived a sacred Sunday in community with the
Popular Women's Organization.
What to do with this contrast? The nightmares combined with the warmest
greetings from the neighbor, weapons carried below signs pleading for
peace, loving homes with hot chocolate and memories of uninvited
conflict and blood in the yard. I am here. I am here because of the
contrast. I am here to witness it, to learn and breath that the cocaine
and weapons in the headlines don't cover half the story. I am here to
cry with these people, and shine with hope at the amazing marathon for
peace they run. I am also here to say that often we do sleep too
peacefully, forgetting our neighbors.
Out of this difficult contrast springs bravely forward an
uncontrollable hope. A young man I met was a manifestation of this hope
for me. As often happens here, his father was falsely accused of ties
with an armed group and later murdered before the young man reached two
years old. This young man was offered countless opportunities to follow
the example of violence: the military awaited his service, his wife
wanted him to join a guerrilla group and fight, and the possibility of
avenging his father's death hung in the air. He chose to return to the
countryside where he was born and literally plant life. As he lead led
me out of his family's jungle farm on a donkey with the breathtaking
beauty of a cloudy day, leaves bigger than my body, and graceful
mountain curves, he affirmed, "weapons can't solve anything." The
promise of that moment has stayed with me.
Thank you, Westmoreland for making this journey with me. Your prayers,
thoughts, discussions, questions, emails help me to stay sane on this
bridge between contrasts. I send love, gratitude and prayers! I think
of you often and am ever grateful for the gift of being a part of
Westmoreland with you.
Blessings in this season of contrast. A savior, a beautiful
migrant/advocate/activist, born in a dirty barn to poor, exhausted,
marginalized parents.
Peace and Love from Colombia,
Rachel Cloud
Volunteer Corps Member 2006-2007.
Last updated Wednesday, Februrary 29, 2008
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Westmoreland Circle
Bethesda, MD 20816
301-229-7766
Email the church office: churchinfo@westmorelanducc.org
www.westmorelanducc.org
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