Apocalyptic Expectations

Monday, June 25, 2007 -- Week of Proper 7
(The Nativity of John the Baptist, transferred)

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
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Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 970)
Psalms 89:1-18 (morning) 89:19-52 (evening)
1 Samuel 6:1-16
Acts 5:12-26
Luke 21:29-36


Today we finish reading Luke's version of Jesus' teaching in the Temple. The section ends with an apocalyptic speech of anticipation of the the end of the age. Luke's version of these apocalyptic warnings is less cosmic than some other New Testament writers. He includes a vision of persecution and arrest of Christians by Jewish and Roman authorities. There is also a vision of an army attacking Jerusalem. These are things that actually happened during Luke's life.

It is likely that Jesus believed that God would intervene decisively and soon in the history of humankind. That apocalyptic expectation is a part of the teaching passed on by the early Church. Apocalyptic expectation is the hope that God will intervene dramatically to establish justice -- to punish wrongdoers and to reward the righteous and to restore righteousness. The early Church expected the immanent return of Jesus to establish the long anticipated Messianic reign of peace on earth. During the early ministry of Paul, that expectation was so intense that Paul discouraged his followers from getting married and having children.

By the time of Luke and of the later epistles, the expectation of a final end of the age and the physical return of Jesus had begun to fade. The pastoral epistles deal with that changed expectation by giving attention to institutional stabilization. For Luke, the return of Christ is already accomplished through the triumphal coming of the Holy Spirit empowering the Church with divine presence.

Apocalyptic expectation has a fascinating history throughout the two millennia of Christian life. When people are discouraged by the faithlessness of the times, when they feel helpless to control the great events and influences of their days, and when they are inclined toward fear and pessimism, the embers of apocalyptic hope burst again into flame. End time fever also tends to increase around certain calendar moments such as the year 1666 and 2000.

Other than the Bible, the best selling book of the 20th century was Hal Lindsey's "Late Great Planet Earth," a fanciful string of apocalyptic scripture verses imaginatively stitched into a bizarre but entertaining narrative. Among other things, Lindsey announced that the world would pass away around 1988, within the generation of the founding of Israel in 1948. Later editions of his work modified that claim. The popular "Left Behind" series of novels is largely based on Lindsey's scenario, which in turn was influenced by the Schofield Bible and the dispensational speculative theology of John Nelson Darby in the 1880's, the father of dispensationalism.

The strength of apocalyptic thought is the hope that God will act to accomplish justice. The weakness is in the specifics of historical events and end-time predictions. Yet one of the characteristics that apocalyptic preaching shares with mainline theology is the realization that each individual person will reach an end -- we do not know when or how. Therefore it is urgent that we act decisively today on behalf of God's purposes. Our time is short. What will we make of it? Will we cooperate with what God is doing, or will we be part of the problem? These are good questions.

Some see a new, more scientifically grounded form of apocalyptic thought manifested in today's warnings about global climate change. Jesus says, "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near." Science says, "Look at the ice melts and the storms and the calculations that graph the directions and trends of our planet's ecology. It is urgent that we act decisively today on behalf of our planet Earth." Our time is short. What will we make of it? Will we cooperate with God's creation, or will we be part of the problem?

Lowell
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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