Sermon: The End of the World as We Know It

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The End of the World as We Know It

By Charles Rush

November 28, 1999

til recently, apocalyptic thinking around the millennium was pretty large around our country. In fact, I am always surprised by just how many people interpret the Book of Revelation rather literally and also believe that we are in fact living in the last times. Perhaps, youve seen those bumper stickers that say, "In case of rapture, driver will be taken into heaven." Unbearable presumption, unbearably bad taste.

I have a friend of mine that was doing some church planting in Alaska. One day he is out visiting a nice elderly woman who read her bible every day and was very religious. She lived in a trailer park. He is sitting around the kitchen table and she is getting some coffee in the kitchen that is separated by a thin wall. Suddenly an earthquake shakes the trailer and knocks it over on its side.

My friend was sitting across from a closet and the door to the closet was open. The whole thing happened so fast, he actually fell into the closet, bumped his head real hard and the closet door slammed behind him.

The shaking stops, he is just sitting in the dark, holding his head, gathering his wits. When he hears the woman in the kitchen, praying out loud to Jesus, in a major panic. She looked up after the earthquake was over, saw that the pastor was gone, put two and two together and assumed that the rapture had begun, that the Minister was one of the chosen and had been called to Jesus. Now she is left behind, despite her religious devotion to endure the Tribulation.

He opens the closet door, which now looks like a coffin opening by itself, and emerges, back from the rapture, I guess. She sees him coming, screams again, like she is in a Stephen King novel.

So I got on the internet this week and found the page for the "Rapture Index". They have conveniently categorized 45 different elements that should predict the imminent end of the world. It is a sophisticated statistical analysis like an economic report. By the way, Ive got it handicapped at 7 looking gloomy, 12 fairly sunny, and a full 26 as too ambiguous to tell. In other words, my early call is that the end of the world should not happen on December 31 and this should be good news for my wife because I have accepted an invitation to a small party that evening in Times Square. Katherine thinks this is a nutty idea but as I explained to her, when the fire and brimstone hit, I would like to be a ground zero rather than slowly die as the carbon monoxide breezes across the Meadowlands.

Here are the areas of concern: There is a rise in Web sites that cater to the occult and Satanism that would indicate a growing evil in our world. There has been a growing movement towards globalism with the European Common market and the increasing influence of the UN. We have seen some freaky weather-horrible earthquakes in Turkey, the after effects of El Nino, which has negatively impacted some African countries, big hurricanes. There has been famine in Sudan, North Korea, and across much of sub-Saharan Africa. We have a rise in AIDS cases, nearly reaching epidemic proportions in Africa. Finally, there has been considerable ecumenical unity recently- the Lutherans and the Roman Catholic Church have reconciled over the Reformation. The UCC, the Presbyterians, the Reformed Church have agreed to recognize each others Ministers and to work closely. Personally, I think this is a good thing, indeed a wonderful thing but since all of us represent a false religion that is duping you week after week, being

Also signs that end is not near, looked at literally. The two countries associated with starting the aggression that should end the world: Gog- generally thought to be Russia and Magog- generally thought to be Iran seem to have lost a good deal of their evil zeal. There are women leading reform in Iran and they dont seem poised to lead a global destruction of Israel. They could hardly beat back the Iraqis. And Russia, while potentially dangerous, is dangerous precisely because they are coming apart internally. They were a much better beast before 1989. Now they are just a Boris, sick all the time from hard drinking and bad food.

False Prophets. As I look down the list of eligible characters, none are particularly strong: The Pope, perpetually in the running, is getting physically weaker every year. Bill Clinton? Not serious enough! Louis Farrakhan? Please!

Also, there should be wars and rumors of wars. Global turmoil continues, although international arm sales have decreased every year for the past decade. Although it is true that there continue to be some serious civil wars around the world, President Clinton pointed out in his Thanksgiving address that the majority of the people in the world live under governments of their own choosing, surely the highest percentage in history. And there are large blocks of our world that are stable: North America, Europe (excluding the Balkans), India, and a large part of Southeast Asia, Australia. With the Cold War over, all of the Civil wars that do exist, are simply that Civil wars- they do not have the potential to pull the whole world into the orbit of their conflict to resolve some wider ideological battle like they did during the Cold War confrontation.

Famine. It is true that famine still afflicts a few countries in our world. But if you could hold a space-time teleconference with all the farmers in history and they could see the food production on the American farm in Kansas today, they would be agape with astonishment and wonder. We live in an era where we are forced to regulate production of food because our ability to overproduce could lead to social instability. By contrast, there were over 100-recorded famines in Europe alone in the 19^th century, meaning large numbers of people starved to death.

Finally, there are a whole host of categories predicting the imminent doom in the economy, led by a cabal of conspiracy on Wall Street, Bankers colluding together. This piece has a history of Anti-Semitism that goes with it. Now that I know some of you characters, I regularly come to your defense. In January, Im preaching in Texas, and the farther away you are from Wall Street, the more plausible a conspiracy seems. I will assure them that we will not falter from a conspiracy, greed and ineptitude perhaps, but not a conspiracy An overattachement to Gucci shoes and other fufu haberdashery perhaps, but not a conspiracy.

No, the economy is stable and expanding, the level of material prosperity very high. More than that, if you look at our economy from a historical perspective, you have to conclude that an unprecedented number of people are enjoying not only a prosperous lifestyle, an unprecedented number of people have meaningful work and independence.

Add to that the incredible medical developments. Not in apocalyptic literature of course. On this front alone, almost everyone living before 1950 would trade places to take advantage of our routine health care. Just one example, the leading cause of death among women until 1900 was childbirth.

Add to that the percentage of people that are able to take part in education; the ability to travel safely and quickly around our world; the fact of translation and the exchange of ideas and culture. Technology which has not only brought our world into a common dialogue but also opened before us our entire Cosmos. If our world is coming apart at the seams, it is also the case that if you could ask anyone in history to trade places, the overwhelming majority wouldnt even think about it for a minute. The fact is that we live in an era of unprecedented peace, prosperity, human rights, political participation, economic growth, technological development, and learning.

There are a couple of other problems with the Rapture Index. The first is that Revelation does not describe the end of the world. Apocalyptic literature does not function like that, despite the fact that people throughout history have interpreted it that way. The book of Revelation is a moral and spiritual critique of the Roman Empire. At the birth of Christianity, the Romans pretty viciously suppressed the religion. They saw it as a politically subversive faith. Quite unlike the Roman religions that encouraged all the citizens of Rome to demonstrate loyalty and submission to the Empire, Christianity taught people to live by the Kingdom of God. Jesus did not submit to Pilate but lived his principles even unto death, rather than conform to the Roman way. And we have lots of evidence that early Christian churches were little hot beds of an early experience of democracy, small groups of people, women and men, slaves and free, all supporting one another, mutually deciding how they would live together. The

And like all cleansings from then until the Stalin trials, the people going through them, tend to see the world in black and white. They were responding to a situation where church members were ratting one another out during torture. Others, after enough torture, finally agreed to sacrifice to the gods of the Emperor, in effect compromising their religious convictions.

The overall message of Revelation is simple and profound for people experiencing torture and oppression. It says, hold on to your convictions, and dont be afraid to suffer because if you see your way through, God will amply reward you. The theme of the Book of Revelation is actually a message of hope: "I will be with you."

And it is a social/political critique. How do you vent some of your anger about being tortured and killed by a totalitarian regime that is as ruthless as they are powerful? You dont do it directly. It is bad enough to be caught with a copy of St. Pauls letter to the Corinthians. Imagine if they also had a short tract on "The Emperor is a Pompous Ass". Cant do that. So you devise an elaborate language of hyperbole. You dont refer to Rome. You refer to a Beast that has ten horns. Since there were 10 regions to the Roman Empire, everyone knew what you were talking about but you had also built in what lawyers refer to as "plausible deniability". What 10 horns, ten regions? Just a coincidence, Im sure. The fact that the Beast in Revelation was given over to mad orgies (a lot like the Emperor Nero), the fact that the Beast proclaimed himself falsely to be a god (just like the Emperor Nero), the fact that the Beast surrounded himself with all manner of spiritual pollution and decadence (just like the Emperor

The Beast is the embodiment of pure Evil and that is pretty much the way that the early Christians experienced the Roman Empire. But there is another problem with this whole approach, and it has been a problem with Revelation from the beginning.

The problem is that when you start looking at the world in terms of us and them, in terms of the Saints who are pure and the Emperor who is the Anti-Christ (with all his minions in the Roman army), a legitimate spiritual longing for peace and justice gets mixed up with a desire for vengeance and retribution. You want them to get theirs. It is an understandable human emotion but it is not a very elevated Spiritual sentiment. As Bill Coffin once noted, "If you hate evil more than you love the good, you are just a damned good hater and of those the world already has more than enough.

So, our passage starts off this morning with a very elevated thought, looking forward to the day when God will be fully present with us, to the day when God will wipe away every tear and there shall be crying no more. In short, there will be peace with justice. But they just cant stop there. People who have been beaten down and punched out rarely can. So they go on to say, "but as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars- Id call that a fairly comprehensive list-, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8).

The Romans are really, really, really gonna get it. Those guys that sold us out are really, really, really gonna get it. In fact, everybody but us is going to get it.

Personally, I have a problem with this theology; I am not alone. Martin Luther also said that he thought Revelation shouldnt have been in the Bible. In fact, lots of people have said that from the very beginning.

And I would point out that we are a long way from the positive teaching of Jesus here. We are a long way from Jesus who taught us that God is like a merciful Father, waiting on the front porch of his house, who sees his Prodigal Son returning home, and doesnt wait for him, but runs down the road to meet him in thanksgiving and joy.

We are a long way from the Jesus in the Gospel of John who besieged by a bunch of righteous pious men, who catch a woman in Adultery, come to him and ask him how much punishment she should get. Jesus looks back at them and says "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone."

We are a long way from the Jesus who taught us that God rejoices over the return of one sinner like a Shepherd that rejoices over a lost sheep that is found or a poor woman who has lost a precious coin and finds it. We are a long way from the God of Jesus that invites everyone to the banquet table and insists that we go out and beat the highways and the by-ways until they come in.

And we are a long way from the positive spirituality that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, where he describes for us ways to become blessed, rather than ways to avoid the Sulphur lake. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who are gentle, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice. Blessed are those who show mercy to others, whose hearts are clean. Blessed are those who work for peace for they will be called the children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of their struggle for justice; the kingdom of God is theirs (Mt. 5:3-10).

The problem with evil and righteousness is that we all have a goodly mixture of both, which is not resolvable through any simple resolution. If Jesus is a reliable guide on these issues, it would seem to me that God is likely to keep working with us, both in life and beyond, until our characters come to full spiritual maturity, until we become, in other words, children of God. Part of what that means, it seems to me, is that none of us is fully righteous and none of us is beyond the pail of redemption.

Dont get me wrong, I hope those Roman Emperors really, really get it. I hope all of the tyrants in the world, the Slobodan Milosevics, the Radovan Karadics of the world. I wish there were a spanking room we could send these people for a good session.

But when you consider the profundity of injury that some of the tyrants of the 20^th century hath wrought, what retribution could possibly be construed for some of these crimes: Mao Tse Tung, Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, Pinochet. Even if you reversed inmates and guards, you couldnt begin to redress the suffering, frustration, lost potential. And it seems to me that it is beside the point.

What is important, it seems to me, is the hope that somehow, someway God is going to provide a future for the victims of injustice, disease, and natural disaster. It is important that God can make a way towards redemption and justice in some ultimate sense because victims have suffered horribly in this life.

Whatever we mean by Gods judgment and mercy, I hope we are talking about growth toward healing and wholeness for both victim and victimizer, whatever that may be. As C. S. Lewis has pointed out, so I am told, that could well be one positive reality, experienced in two different ways. I have to imagine that being fully in the presence of God would be a far more pleasing experience for St. Francis than it will be Mao Tse Tung more comfortable, more familiar, more like home, less like the Hell it probably would be for Chairman Mao.

When I was a chaplain in the ER at the University Hospital in Louisville, we would occasionally have drunks that would dry out. I particularly remember one guy that came in with a broken back and wanted to walk home. His blood alcohol level was .53. I was astonished that you could get a .53. .5 is lethal, meaning that over 50% of all people that ever attain that level are dead. I asked the attending physician how you get a .53 and he said not all at once. This takes work it takes commitment. You have to put down over a quart or two of scotch a day for 30 or 40 days in a row." That is commitment. And, of course, when it gets to that point, they are really careening out of control.

This hospital was very old and had open floors. I remember walking through the floor at night, guys with the DTs, shaking so bad, they had to be tied down to the bed railing to keep them from hurting themselves.

They were getting better all the time. They didnt feel right though because their body chemistry was way, way, way out of whack. It was some rugged road there for a while. A week later, they would usually thank all of us profusely for putting up with them.

I have a suspicion that the judgment and mercy of God are like that both in this life and the next. In this life and the next there is only one reality that is drawing us forward, that of Gods grace. For some of us, it will inspire our imaginations to new heights of beauty and wonder. For others of us, it will initially feel like withdrawal. We will all be getting well, but it wont be the same pleasant experience.

In this season of Advent it is important to remember that we worship a God who came after us whether we deserved it or not; a God who sent us all a baby to show us the face of salvation, whether we deserved it or not; a God who will heal all of us, whether we want it or not.

Amen.