ADVENT IC

THE REVEREND E. WAYNE HOLLINS

Happy new year! To celebrate the occasion, as we do every year, we’re
observing our regularly scheduled apocalypse!

The First Sunday of Advent always focuses on the Christ who is to come—that
phrase in our Creeds that says “he will come again to judge the living and the dead” or
something similar. If you’ve wandered into any of the nebulous territory covered by
the “Left Behind” series of books and movies, you’ll recognize the term “rapture.” If
you’ve seen the opening of a particular episode of the HBO series Six Feet Under, you’ll
remember a different interpretation on that idea. And, just for another source of
“inspiration” you can read or watch Good Omens.

What do we mean when we say we expect Christ to return? And, related to that,
since we’re some 2,000 years after that event was first mentioned, do we really believe it
will happen?

Much of what we teach about the second coming is found in one of our lessons
today, and in another writing. Paul’s first letter to the Church in Thessalonika has some
words that I heard my own grandmother say as she lay on an emergency room bed. We
were all waiting for the diagnosis that would ultimately name the disease that would
lead to her death. She raised her hand from her side, pointed up and said, “we will
meet him in the air.” That hope gave her strength to face what was to come, even as at
the age of 95 she found herself in the hospital as a patient for the first time in her life.
The other source of teaching is, of course, the Revelation to John, which is
sometimes called The Apocalypse. While it has some beautiful writing, it is also
somewhat sensational and very nearly didn’t get included in the canon of Christian
scripture. Many still try to decode its language, assuming that there are many secret
codes there besides the number “666.” Some will point out that was coded language for
the Roman emperor, most of whom had characteristics that qualified them for the
nickname “beast.”

There may be some here who think the apocalypse is much closer than it once
seemed. Some of you may know someone who has stockpiled non-perishable food and
protective items in a bunker so they’re ready for it when it comes. And, as we’ve seen
in recent history, there are yet others who seem to want to go ahead and bring it about,
so long as it’s on their own terms. The appearance of the risen Christ with an army of
angels would most likely result in varied and sudden forms of precipitation among
those folks.

In apocalyptic sections of the Gospels, Jesus tells us that these events will be a
surprise to everyone, and even he doesn’t know the day or time. He’s not really
1concerned about it, even as he faces the very real apocalyptic moment that occurred
outside Jerusalem with his death and resurrection. Those two events caused the earth
itself to tremble, according to at least one account.

Jesus isn’t concerned with calendars and clocks. He teaches us to be aware of the
reality around us, to be awake, or as some might say, “woke.” Jesus has one short
teaching to help us prepare for any event on a wide range of apocalypses: be faithful.
Since all four Gospels were written a few decades after the earthly life of Jesus of
Nazareth, they all point us to a new reality that is the great apocalyptic moment of all
time. The resurrection of Jesus is the great story that began the life of the Church; it was
the story the apostle Paul kept telling that got him arrested and ultimately beheaded.
Paul’s story is about a God who accomplished much more than any Roman emperor
could do. God transformed death itself into life that never ends. Think about that as
we consider how God might transform life while it continues.

Jesus shows us how to make that happen, if on a much smaller scale, even as we
remain faithful to the hope that we ourselves might, in Paul’s words, “attain the
resurrection from the dead.” That faithfulness is found in the little things that come our
way that are often life-changing. You know what some of them are, because you’ve
experienced them yourselves. And that faithfulness is ours to proclaim at the last
moments when we surrender those we love back to God: even at the grave, we make
our song, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

The apocalypse isn’t something to fear, even if the events that accompany it seem
fearful. The apocalypse, when and however it happens, is that moment when the
eternal steps back into human time, transforming us and the time into the awareness
that the one who overcame our most apocalyptic moment—death—has been here
before and is ready to lead us through and beyond it.

That’s the faith that lets us proclaim, maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus.