Katie Derksen
I was quite surprised when I looked at the Scripture readings for today and discovered that most of them talked about the end of the world. Doesn't Advent start in two weeks? Aren't we supposed to be preparing ourselves to enter into a spiritual gestation period, a time where we consider not only the coming celebration of the birth of Christ, but also what's growing inside each of us, as Mary felt Jesus growing within her? It took me a little while to realize how these two things, the beginning of Christ's life and the end of the world as we know it, could be connected.
So often we think about the coming of Christ, or of what Christ did in the world, but we don't look very often at the end of the world that Christ came to redeem. Granted, that's not only a scary and sometimes controversial topic, it's also confusing. Have any of you read the apocalyptic literature found in the Bible? Some of it is the weirdest stuff I've ever read - not just in the Bible, but in general. Images of violent hordes with teeth filed to points, dragons, women in red, harlots, birth, a lot of death, knights, beasts coming out of lakes with multiple heads, each wearing a crown... it's a lot of bizarre stuff.
Some of you have heard me mention that I spent a semester studying the book of Revelation. While none of today's readings come from that book, some of what was read for us certainly reminded me of some of what it contains. I haven't read very much of the apocalyptic literature in the Bible aside from what's in the book of Revelation, but I find it fascinating. The images that are written down are vivid, crafting pictures and sensations in the reader's mind. Often confusion is present too: the things that are passed on are often fantastical, referring to things that, to our twenty first century experiences, are completely unknown, or known in a completely different way. This leads to the need to research and study what is read - one cannot simply read Biblical apocalyptic literature on its own. This fascinates me. Not only are we given a glimpse of the future for the world, as is the nature of apocalyptic literature, but we're also given a glimpse of the past, out of which our history as a Christian people comes.
German theologian Juergen Moltmann takes an eschatological view towards Christianity. He believes that the Christian faith is grounded in our beliefs and teachings on the apocalypse, and that every thing in our faith needs to be based on that. For Moltmann, the beliefs about the end times, or eschatology, should not be a branch of theology, but the basis of Christian faith. As Christians, we believe in Jesus Christ - the birth, death, and resurrection. However, as Moltmann reminds us, we are also to believe in and have hope in the coming of the apocalypse. When the end times are upon us, the entire creation will be redeemed. The world will not be blasted away, the New Jerusalem will not be up in the clouds, or on some other plane of existence - the New Jerusalem, what is promised to us as believers as the epitome of creation, will be here, on this earth. But it won't be like anything we can imagine - everything will be redeemed, all of creation. All of the relationships we've ever had, all of the violence that this earth has been afflicted with, all of the animals, all of everything. Nothing will be as we can imagine it: gold will be transparent, pearls will be large enough to make human-sized gates out of them, and more.
We are to live in the expectation of this. More than that, we are called to live as though we know that this is what is promised to us, and that this is what we are headed towards. If we know that this is what is promised to us, if we are confident that we have been living lives that will guarantee us citizenship in the New Jerusalem, why get scared by the images of the apocalypse, or spend time worrying about when it will come? There are promises galore given to those who are faithful, and those who live lives worthy of God.
Within apocalyptic literature, there are many instances where things are paired up that would never be able to even get close in the world as we know it. You've all heard of the imagery of a lion and a lamb lying together two creatures that couldn't be near each other peacefully under normal circumstances. In Isaiah (11:6-7), we hear about wolves and lambs lying together, cows and bears grazing together, lions eating straw like oxen
Things are bizarre and turned on their heads. And yet, since this is what God revealed to those who were given the Scriptures, we can rest assured that this is what is God's intentions for the earth, and, even though we don't understand it, we can also feel safe in the knowledge that God knows what's going on.
Juxtaposition is found heavily within the realm of apocalyptic literature. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that those who came up with the lectionary had that in mind when they chose images of the end times to be read in congregations around the world a mere two weeks before the onset of Advent. It's quite the juxtaposition: just as we're getting ourselves ready to think about the coming birth of Christ, wham, they toss in the end of the world. That's quite the head spin!
And yet, as Moltmann and other theologians suggest, the two are tied inextricably together. Without the birth of Christ, there'd be no redemption of the world as we know it. Without the coming of Christ again, there'd be no redemption of the world as we cannot imagine it a world close to what Eden was, a world without sin, where God and Jesus are present in physical ways and where all people and all things can live together in harmony. And isn't that what we all long for, deep within our souls?
Jesus came to the earth in a time when there were many laws and rules surrounding the worship of God and the life of faith. There were yearly sacrifices on the Day of Atonement, and there were also daily sacrifices. All for the forgiveness of sins, and for the redemption of God's people. The priests were a huge part of the life of the people they were the ones that interceded with God on behalf of the sinful masses of humanity. However, as we hear in today's reading from Hebrews, and as we heard a few weeks ago as well, Jesus came to change that.
Day after day, year after year, the Levitical priests would offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. The people were (and are!) sinful beings, and forgiveness needed to be asked for. The people were so sinful that they couldn't even approach God on their own the priests were the intermediaries on behalf of them to God. The Temple was divided, and, based on who people were, they were allowed a different level of closeness to God. Only the most holy of people could enter in to the Holiest of Holies, the part of the Temple where God resided. And even those people could only do so at certain times, and after certain preparations.
The fact that the priests made sacrifices day after day is one that the author of Hebrews brings up. Not only were sacrifices made day after day, but the same sacrifices were made day in and day out. Even with all these sacrifices, God's people were still not purified enough to enter into the presence of God.
However, in one, huge, all-encompassing sacrifice, Jesus took away the need for all those other sacrifices. Jesus was crucified and died the ultimate sacrifice offered by the Ultimate Priest. Now Jesus, unlike the other priests, can sit down the sacrifice that has been offered was enduring and strong enough to take away the need for all other sin-related sacrifices. The sacrifice that was offered has redeemed humanity enough that we can now enter into God's presence on our own, without the need for a priest to act as a go-between for us.
The Levitical priests always stood to offer their sacrifices, indicating that the work was never done. The one little sentence that mentions that Jesus sat down at the right hand of God is important it tells the readers who notice that Jesus' task in that regard is done. However, all of Jesus' work is not done the image of him sitting down is only in relation to the need for sacrifices pertaining to sin: Jesus still acts as an intermediary for us when necessary, taking us and our needs to God when we are unable to, or in ways that we cannot. For the world is still full of sin. Even with all that Jesus has done for the world by dying and being raised from the dead, the world has not been returned to Eden.
And this is where the end times imagery comes into play. That is still one of the tasks left for Jesus. The world is crying out for healing, and the only thing that can heal it for good is the Second Coming of Jesus, the beginning of the end.
As people who hope for, pray for, yearn for the healing of the world, we should also be hoping for the end of the world to come. That's a weird thing to hear, I know believe me, it's a weird thing to say. But if you think about it, it makes sense. If we believe that God will redeem the world, return it to its original, sinless state, and if we know that the only way this can happen is for the world as we know it to end, then we should be hoping for just that.
We need to be living as though we know that the world will be redeemed. However, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the world has already been redeemed as far as it could be at that time. And so, we live in a world that is already full of redemption. And yet more is needed. It's a weird tension: in years past, the world was redeemed; therefore, we live in a world that has redemption in it; however, we know that the redemption that has been experienced is not complete. It's that "already/not yet" concept that is often written about in theology. It's here, but it's not quite here.
And so, we live in a world that has had a good dose of healing, but that needs more. We are to live as though we yearn for that, and that means yearning for the end of the world. We need to find some way to live in yesterday, today, and tomorrow at the same time rooted in the past, hoping for the future, and living as though both are present with us today, and doing what we can to live both out in our current context. As we read in the book of Hebrews, we should be encouraging each other at all times, especially as we think of the Day arriving when all of creation will be healed. Life, and especially faith, are all about the balance of tensions: the tension between faith and doubt, between being citizens of this world and citizens of God's Kingdom, between living a faith rooted in the past and living a faith looking towards the better future promised to us so many times in the Scriptures. Different days will find each of us on a different place on each of these scales. However, we are to always strive for the best, to find the place where we are living out our faith with each breath, with each heartbeat.
As we look towards the coming Advent season, let us also look towards what is coming for this world. And not in any sort of doomsayer way living as though the end times are what we hope for is more of a positive thing than a negative one. It means that we want the best for this world, and for each creature in it.
We live in the hope of Jesus' coming: both in the season of Advent, and in the season of the end of days. It's an odd tension, but it's one that deserves some reflection. As we sing the next hymn, contemplate the words that are being sung in a new way, as we yearn for the Kingdom of God to come down in a very real, and new way.
Amen