Today's words from Jesus in Matthew 24 have Jesus speak of two different things that we Christians often ignore. Jesus calls his followers to look for an end and to avoid speculating about its arrival. There is an end, a purpose toward which history is moving. God's full reign will arrive, says Jesus. But he also says to ignore all those who claim to know timetables. When Jesus returns, no one will be able to miss it. "For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."It seems to me than many Christians live with no sense that God is up to something within history, at work within history to move creation to God's toward an ultimate destination, nothing short of the redemption of all creation. We often reduce what theologians call "eschatology" to nothing more than a question of what happens to us after we die. Practically speaking, our faith often deals only with the personal. Creation is no longer within God's sphere of influence. Redemption is possible only for individual souls.
But at the very same time, Christian speculation about end times is rampant. The success of the Left Behind series of novels points to this ongoing fascination. Tune in any Christian cable outlet and you won't have to wait long before someone speaks of signs that we are living in "the last days."
If only we could invert these two tendencies. If only we could live with a certainty that God is redeeming and transforming all creation, that nothing is outside the providence and power of God. If only our faith perceived God's sovereign power that dwarfs all the powers and forces we assume control history and destiny. Then perhaps we could live counter-cultural lives, certain that the reality we glimpse by faith is more "real" that all worldly powers. And we could leave the formulas and timetables to the religious hucksters Jesus warns us about.
In the Presbyterian tradition, one of the six "Great Ends" or purposes for which the Church exists is 'the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world." To exhibit something that is not yet here, we must have a clear sense of it. This is not primarily about progress or making the world a little better (not that those are bad things). Rather this is living in ways that befit an "End" that the world cannot see. This is living in ways that are suited to a redeemed creation, ways that do not make sense by the normal ways of the world.
As we draw close to Christmas, we prepare to celebrate the birth of a Savior, to celebrate God's very personal entry into the flow of human history. And this was not simply a one-shot, historic event. It was a beginning of something that is still unfolding, something that can only be glimpsed with the eyes of faith.
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