THE 33RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, 2019
I have written about my 2nd grade teacher, Sister Angeline many times. She was a woman of great love and was earnest about making sure us kids would go to heaven. She believed that if we were not willing to go to heaven on our own volition, she would scare us into going to heaven. My second grade year was filled with stories intent on frightening the “hell” out of us usually by telling us stories that scared us to death.
I remember vividly how she painted what the “end of the world” would be like; the fire and brimstone that would destroy the earth and how Jesus would be the severe judge, sending some people to heaven and others sentenced forever to suffer in the fires of hell. I, also, remember how if given the choice of God flooding the entire earth, eg. Noah, and Jesus coming at the end of time, e.g. fire and brimstone, I far preferred dying by drowning then by being burned alive. Placed at the time of the Cuban Missile crises and the belief that a nuclear World War would happen at any time, the thought of being vaporized in a nuclear storm only added to the imagery she painted.
As a result, my image of Jesus was not that of a savior who loved us so much that he died for us, but the Son of God who would judge us all harshly. Jesus is writing down everything we did wrong in his book, as we were told, did not help us in dispelling the angry image many of us had of Jesus. I guess, it could best be summed up in this rewording of the song, “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.” “You better watch out. You better not cry. You better be good, I’m telling you why. Jesus Christ is coming to town.” Judging by the readings we hear today on this Sunday, Malachi 3:19-20a and Luke 21:5-19, it is easy to see how the second coming of Jesus could be perceived as very frightening and intimidating.
I know that some Christian traditions get around the horror of the second coming by speaking of the “rapture”, that is, to borrow from Star Trek, the righteous being “beamed” up to heaven before all hell breaks loose on the earth. (One of my favorite bumper stickers is one a friend had that said, “When the rapture comes, can I have your car?”). In my serious study of the Book of Revelation, I think the idea of the rapture is a misinterpretation of the scripture.
So, how we do approach the whole idea of Jesus’ second coming? Is it from a place of great fear, as I was taught as a kid by good intentioned nuns? Is it from a place of privilege as is taught by some Christian traditions, e.g. the rapture? For me, neither approach is valid. I like to approach the second coming of Jesus from the viewpoint of the liturgical season of Advent.
In the first couple Sundays of Advent, we look forward to Jesus’ second coming at the end of time, as we remember the great grace of his first coming over 2000 years ago. I adopt the posture of hopeful anticipation that our Jewish ancestors had as they eagerly looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. The second coming of Jesus is a time of great anticipation in which the brokenness and suffering of our world will finally be healed and humanity fully reconciled to God. The image that Isaiah paints for us in Isaiah 2 is of all nations coming to the mountain of God, in which all human want is satisfied, all weapons transformed from instruments of destroying humanity, into instruments building up humanity, e.g. swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, and humanity finally learning the lesson to never go to war again, but, rather, to walk in the light of God.
As we listen to the totality of the Gospels, Jesus emphasizes the overly abundant love and mercy of God, and calls all of humanity to model God’s love and mercy in the way we live. It is this that is the promise of Jesus’ second coming. Is this something to fear, or to escape via the rapture, or is it, rather, something we would want to embrace fully?
In the last verse of Marty Haugen’s great hymn “Gather Us In,” we hear, “Not in the dark of buildings confining; not in some heaven light years away. But here, in this place, new light is streaming, NOW is the kingdom, NOW is the day.”[1] What Marty writes is what Jesus taught. We must live in God’s reign not just as something that will happen at some future date, but rather we must live in God’s reign, God’s second coming NOW. While Christ’s second coming is not fully established, the second coming of Jesus has a good foothold in our world. As disciples of Jesus, we must live in the second coming of Jesus as if it is fully established. If we live our lives today fully embracing a life filled with God’s love, goodness, and abundant mercy, we will have the power of increasing the Reign of God more fully in our world.
I would like to end for our consideration with a quote from Fr Richard Rohr’s book, Falling Upward.[2] Rohr writes in chapter 8, “Perhaps this is what Jesus means by there being “many rooms in my Father’s house” (John 14:2). If you go to heaven alone, wrapped in your private worthiness, it is by definition not heaven. If your notion of heaven is based on exclusion of anybody else, then it is by definition not heaven. The more you exclude, the more hellish and lonely your existence always is. How could anyone enjoy the “perfect happiness” of any heaven if she knew her loved ones were not there, or were being tortured for all eternity? It would be impossible. Remember our Christian prayer, “on earth as it is heaven.” As now, so then; as here, so there. We will all get exactly what we want and ask for. You can’t beat that. … Jesus touched and healed anybody who desired it and asked for it, and there were no other prerequisites for his healings. “ … How could Jesus ask us to bless, forgive, and heal our enemies, which he clearly does (Matthew 5:43–48), unless God is doing it first and always? Jesus told us to love our enemies because he saw his Father doing it all the time, and all spirituality is merely the “imitation of God” (Ephesians 5:1).
To embrace the second
coming of Jesus is to live the all inclusive love of God expressed in the life
and teachings of Jesus. And as Marty Haugen emphasizes, we must live it now, in
this place, and in our time. The second coming of Jesus is all around us. Let
us embrace it and live it.
[1] GATHER US IN, Mary Haugen, © 1982 GIA Publications, Inc.
[2] Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, by Richard Rohr, © 2011. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. pp. 101- 103, All rights reserved.
