Don't Waste Time On End Times....

2011-10-31T18:28:00.000Z

4 Before Advent (2011) Year A RCL Principal

Micah 3.5-12 / 1 Thessalonians 2.9-13 / Matthew 24.1-14

The EndIs Nigh!

You have tofeel sorry for Harold Campion. Perhapsyou heard his name on the news back in May when on the 21^st of Maythis chap predicted with absolute certainty that the end of the world wascoming and that the world would be destroyed, the dead would rise from theirgraves and the faithful would be raised to heaven by way of the Rapture. When it didn’t happen he quickly revised hiscalculations, said his Biblical Mathematics had been wrong and proclaimed withthe same absolute certainty that the end of the world would come on the 21^stof October. Did you notice it? Nor did I?

Though hehas done the same thing twice before this year – proclaiming without a shadowof doubt that the end of the world would arrive on May 21^st 1988 andSeptember 6^th 1994. As thehead of Family Radio, a Christian Media Ministry broadcast all over America,Camping has now retired from his public ministry and has since been heard tosay that no one does know the day or the hour of the return of Jesus – finallyadmitting what Jesus said a long time ago a few verses later than today’sreading in Matthew 24v34 “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither theangels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Thesepredictions of the end of the world have provided fodder for bothfundamentalists and comedians over many years! There used to be rather grey looking individuals that would wander upand down places like Oxford Street in London wearing sandwich boards or holdingup placards which told us ‘the End of the World is nigh! Or there were folk whowould stand on the streets of Cambridge on aSaturday or who would proclaim at speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park ‘Repent, Jesus is coming’. Maybe they still do, though we don’t hear much of it these days.

Books havebeen written with titles like ‘The Late Great Planet Earth’ and ‘Arise andReap’ which have told those who have read them that we are living in the endtimes, and Jesus is coming back soon. Well, one day they will be right – the Bible says that Jesus willsomeday return and – in the words of Mother Julian of Norwich – ‘All will be well and all manner ofthings shall be well’. But those who seemto fixate on working out exactly how the words of the book of Revelation fitinto the present age seem to be missing the point – how are we living here…

When wepray in the words Jesus taught us, the one prayer he gave us to say, we say‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ – that’s notjust about the time when Jesus will return and the kingdom will come in allit’s fullness – it’s also a statement of hope that God will bring His reign tothe earth NOW, and a statement of our willingness to be involved in that. Jesus soon goes on in that prayer to ask thatwe know forgiveness and share that forgiveness with others, that we have thefood we need for each day, and that in trials we will stand firm. Any understanding, hope, faith we may havefor heaven coming to earth must be grounded in lives of love and service hereon earth.

Look attoday’s lesson from Matthew Chapter 24, for instance. Jesus says that life will become verydifficult indeed for those who follow him – and hints of needing to endure tothe end, but he doesn’t obsess about what that end will be, he talks aboutneeding to remain faithful.

Now whenMatthew is writing – we reckon about AD 70 or later – the Church is being tornapart by persecution, many are abandoning faith, the Jewish people are on goingto be decimated by the Romans and sometime after, or even just before, theGospel is written down and made available the Temple in Jerusalem will bedestroyed. Jesus’ words about thedestruction of the temple stand out in the mind of the writer as he iscompiling his writings and stories to make up the Gospel and it’s those wordsthat open our Bible passage, Mt 24:

¹As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, hisdisciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. ²Thenhe asked them, ‘You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stonewill be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

Jesus couldsee that time would come when the political intrigue that the leaders of Israel were involved in would eventually bringabout chaos and destruction for Israel. And he warns his followers that a time willcome that being faithful to his message will endanger their wellbeing, indeedeven their lives.

But Jesushas one message: “Stick with it, don’t be distracted” - don’t listen to false prophets, don’t getcaught up in worrying about the end, don’t allow the disloyalty and hatred ofothers make you give up. Stand firm inthe face of persecution, live with hope, but don’t live just for the end – asno one knows when it will come….

Common sensetells us that to live for something that might happen is a recipefor disaster. We worry, we fret, we getnervous, or we constantly look forward without seeing where we are or where weshould be going. Jesus doesn’t want hisfollowers to be distracted – as he says earlier in Matthew’s Gospel ‘where yourtreasure is, there will your hear be also’ or, in other words, what you thinkis important will be what you focus on…

I honestlybelieve Jesus wants us, his Church, to focus on one thing… and that is summedup at the end of the Gospel reading we heard just now, in Chapter 24 verse 14he says:

And this good news of thekingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world…

That’s thefocus we should have in the Church today! We call it Mission– and part of that mission is evangelism, sharing the good news of thekingdom. And it IS Good News –that amidst the turmoil of this world, even when there are wars and violence,natural disaster, strife and hatred, even then Jesus is with us. Even in the worst that this world has tooffer Christ offers us his strength, his love, his hope, his faith – throughhis Holy Spirit he has promised to be with us, and if we were to go to the veryend of the Gospel we would read Jesus’ parting words to his disciples. Words that we call the Great Commission, whenJesus instructed his disciples, and through them instructs us, to carry on hiswork of making the Good News real in everything we do and we say. In loving God and our neighbour, and learningto love ourselves as God loves us. Inspeaking the truth even in difficult situations, in standing up for what isright even when it is not the trendy, easy or popular way. In keeping Christ as the absolute centre ofour lives and as the basis of our worship and living.

This iswhat we are called to focus on, this is where our heart should be – rather thanwinding ourselves and others up about when the end of the world might be comingor not, and exactly what form it is going to take, we should focus on ourcalling as Christ’s people to share this good news, in word and action, insilence and in service and we should always keep in mind these words which wecall the Great Commission:

Matthew 28.19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizingthem in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, andteaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I amwith you always, to the end of the age.’

New Kid Deep Stuff

Don't Waste Time On End Times....