The Last Days
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, (Hebrews 1:1-2 NRSV)
These words written by the anonymous author of the New Testament letter of Hebrews almost 2000 years ago, show that the earliest Christians thought that they were living in the last days. They knew that the world that they had known was on the verge of ending. If one looks at this in a simplistic way, one could say they were wrong. We are reading indeed these words 2000 years later. The world did not end, you may say.
Standing at the End of the World
As someone who reads history voraciously, I can tell you that the simple view is wrong. Countless worlds have come and gone since these words were first penned by an unknown scribe. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70 AD. The Roman Empire ended in 476, The black death devastated Europe from 1346 until 1353. Closer to our time the First World War(1914-18) came along and ended the world known as the Gilded Age or Belle Époque (good time). The dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima (1945) could be cited as another (remember those films with the big bugs). Each one of these were world ending events for countless people. In my daily ministry I meet people whose worlds have ended all the time, most often from a death, but sometimes an accident, illness or loss of employment.
Apocalypse as Revelation
The word apocalypse comes from a greek word meaning to reveal. It is about one having her or his eyes opened to a new way of seeing. This is what happened to the first Christians. The imperial political propaganda of their day regularly told them they were living in the best of all possible worlds (called the Pax Romana) and it would last forever. For a persecuted minority, this was actually bad news. However, these first followers had their way of viewing things changed. What changed it? They saw the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God's only Son. They now knew that things were different. They saw that their world was more fragile than they had thought and was actually a mortal thing. It could die. This would not be a cause for fear, but grounds for hope, because they also saw that God raised Jesus from the dead. This Jesus promised this same blessing for all who follow him (John 3:16).
How can I say all this? Because the witness of disciples who lived each day as if it could be their last one have reported these things. Martin Luther is supposed to have said "If I knew that tomorrow was the end of the world, I would plant an apple tree today!". He could say this because he knew what God has done in Jesus guaranteed that if his world ended there would indeed be another and we get to be part of it.
Be blessed
Pastor Knecht
Prayer Applications
1. In the morning make a list and write down your fears for the future-ask God to help you trust that they can be taken care of. Read Isaiah 25:6-10, Revelation 21:1-72. Take a legal pad and write down every good thing you see during your day. Start your day by asking the Holy Spirit to help you see the good in your world. Give a prayer of appreciation for each as you go to bed. Read Psalm 100.
From Jim Dascoli a Holy Cross member
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoy these modern TEOTWAWKI stories, but deep down in the back of my mind I know that part of that enjoyment or interest comes from a wish to have a chance to wipe clean all that I have done. Sometimes no matter how much as a Christian I can believe in forgiveness and the concept of Grace, it almost seems easier to accept a concept of an apocalypse wiping out all that I am not deserving of having received and testing me to see if I ever did deserve any of it at all.
Outside of the novels and stories in the young adult dystopian future, much of the fascination of end of times can also be viewed through the difficulty of humanity both in the macro sense and on a personal level of being able to accept that we can be forgiven for our actions.
TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know IT) popular culture from the 1950’s through early 2000 in general focused on more macro level, with humanity suffering for its sins against nature (Soylet Green, Planet of the Apes) and playing God with science and atomic power (The Day After, On The Beach) or science usurping our humanity (The Terminator, Scanners).
The latest non-YA TEOTWAWKI has its fascination squarely in the Zombie genre, with 28 Days Later kicking off the Zombie fest to today’s The Walking Day and a never ending supply of Kindle Zombie series. These stories have used The End of The World to challenge the viewer/reader on very personal and visceral level to confront what it means to survive.
Outside of the pure adrenaline rush of the current crop of Zombie movies and shows, one of the pulls of modern fascination with The End Of The World, is the washing away of all that we have done in the past in the hopes that if the protagonists can survive, all that they did prior to “Day Zero” is forgotten. A second pull is the need in this societal time of massive transition to want to find a way to truly test what we are at are core basic level, stripped away from our First World comforts and reliance on instant gratification and satisfaction of our basic wants and needs.
There is a scene early on in first season of The Walking Dead when Glen, the Asian kid (“I’m Korean, not Chinese”), comes up with a plan to go through the Walkers to get a bag of guns. When he is asked what did he used to do before it all went down, he replies, “I delivered pizzas.” Outside the tongue and cheek joke of our expectation that the Asian kid was a computer geek, the scene emphasizes that it doesn’t matter what we did or who were before, the slate is wiped clean and everyone is starting fresh on the same level.
Sometimes no matter how much as a Christian or spiritually driven person we can believe in forgiveness and the concept of Grace, it almost seems easier to accept a concept of an apocalypse wiping out all that we are not deserving of having received. It seems easier to bury our past transgressions under a slaughtered horde of the undead than accept the concept of forgiveness and Grace.
Jim