I was about eight years old when I first contemplated the end of the world. My neighbor, who must’ve been hanging out with some evangelical, apocalyptic types, informed me about it. We were having a remarkably cool summer, and she said, “You know, they say that when summer becomes winter and winter becomes summer, it’s the End Times. The world may be going to end soon.” I thought, “Boy, I hope it doesn’t end before I get to go to Sea World. I really, really want to go to Sea World next week.” Lucky for me, I did manage to go Sea World before the Rapture. Since then, I have approached any message of the apocalypse with the same attitude, “I sure hope it doesn’t happen until… because I’ve got things to do.”
To most rational people, contemplating the end of the world seems pretty crazy. Most Christians don’t mention it very much. But some people seem to long for it and proclaim its coming with glee. They give off a sense of triumphalism, as if they know the rules, they know the score, and they’ve got the big win all sewn up in their secure package of faith. They are the kind of people who purchase billboard ads with a certain date for the Rapture, and stand on street corners proclaiming that passersby need to be saved, because the End is Near. They terrify me. I can’t understand someone who looks forward to his fellow humans being “left behind”, or rubs his hands with satisfaction at the idea of his enemies getting what’s coming to them.
Although it terrifies me, I cannot totally ignore the end of times message that accompanies Advent. While we await the coming of our savior as an adorable little baby, born in a picturesque stable, with a beautiful mother, we hear dire predictions of the end of the world. The Lord will return, “like a thief in the night” and we need to be ready, to be awake. What am I to make of these things? Just because something makes me uncomfortable and raises questions does not mean it isn’t valid and worthy of examination. My priest tells me that all good theology raises more questions than answers, anyway. So what am I to make of all the scary predictions in the sacred scriptures?
Recently, I’ve given the Second Coming a second thought. N.T. Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope, brought me face to face with the predicted end of the world. Knowing Wright’s other books, I was expecting some biblical criticism and some orthodox theology. Wright did not disappoint, although he definitely gave me pause. He didn’t focus on hellfire and damnation; he proclaimed the advent of the kingdom of God on earth with anticipation. After all, if God is good and we love God, then God loves the good things, too. To my ears, Wright made God sound like a supernatural social worker, who will remedy all ills, lift up the lowly, bring low the high-and-mighty, exalt the humble and humble the exalted. From Wright, I find a new outlook on the return of our Lord. Rather than finding a Jesus who takes his friends, the “right people” up to heaven, and leaves all the rest, I find a Jesus who returns to the world, to get to work, to get his hands dirty here, on the ground. He says that those who proclaim, “Thy Kingdom come…” should be ready to get our hands dirty, too. We’ve got things to do.
Wright tells us to get to work preparing the way of the kingdom. Rather than waiting for God to end the world and punish the wicked, we should be helping the downtrodden, caring for the needy, and building up the Kingdom here on earth. We should be practicing living in love, so when love embodied comes to earth, we will be ready. Wright says, “When the church is seen to move straight from worship of the God we see in Jesus to making a difference and effecting much-needed change in the real world, when it becomes clear that the people who feast at Jesus’s table are the ones in the forefront of the work to eliminate hunger and famine;... when the church is living out the kingdome of God, the word of God will spread powerfully and do its own work.” (267)
I cannot pretend to understand or to predict the coming of the Kingdom. To be honest, it still seems a little crazy. It's crazy to consider that the Light of the World would appear as a poor, helpless baby in a backwater town in occupied Israel. It is surely crazy to realize that he allowed mankind to crucify him as a criminal. It is most certainly crazy to believe that he would rise again, defeat death, and bring to earth a new kingdom. Crazy, but so compelling, and true. The God of Jesus Christ could not be kept out of this broken world. He cannot be kept out of Christmas, out of the shopping mall, out of the schools, or out of our hearts. He cannot be kept out and we cannot know when he might return at all. We can only continue in compassion, in justice, and in love, because no matter what, we’ve got things to do.
Wright, N.T. (2008). Surprised by Hope: Rethinking heaven, the resurrection, and the mission of the church. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
