In today's Gospel Jesus
describes "Signs of the End" of the world. Portents will include false
teachers, wars and insurrections, nation rising against nation, kingdom against
kingdom, earthquakes, famines and plagues, deterioration of families, and
hatefulness. Human accountability to God at the End is a familiar biblical
allusion.
While not incorporating
accountability to God, many other commentators throughout history have observed
the ominous side of human experience. The troubling signs mentioned in today's
Gospel and elsewhere have been lamented outside the biblical communities. About
500 BC the Chinese philosopher Confucius remarked, "There is in the world now
really no moral social order at all." Elsewhere he deplored teenage behavior. A
hundred years before Christ the Roman orator Cicero began an address with the
words "O, what a time, what a state of things!" About seventeen centuries later
we hear the cynical Shakespearean lines, "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor
player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more;
it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing."
In a newly published volume we
are reminded that early 19th century England was a time of well-known
disrespect for authority at the top of the social system. The monarchs were
national laughingstocks, exposed by a sensational divorce that certified their
ineptitude. The political system was distrusted as corrupt, and the Church of
England was widely regarded as a mainstay of clerical privilege rather than
religious devotion. Cultural heroes were artists renowned for their rejection
of what they considered obsolete standards of family life and sexual morality.
The country was in the midst of widespread opium addiction that disabled some
of its most promising talents. "England's conservative social critics of that
time lamented the disappearance of authority, community, and all the bonds that
had made the place livable in the eighteenth century."(1) No wonder that
Dickens characterized those days with: "It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was
the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of
Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the
winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we
were all going to heaven, we were all going direct the other way."
Perhaps Dickens'
characterization is relevant for us here today. Observe the front pages of our
newspapers; notice radio and television newscasts... especially some of the
repugnant topics televised during mealtimes! Consider a narrator's concluding
remark on a television documentary on catastrophes; he proclaimed: "Disasters
are the events by which we remember and measure all events!" It would be easy
for us to conclude that gloomy biblical "Signs of the End" have typified the
human condition from our outset!
I am not advising a "well, what
can you do" complacency about the perennial, global bad news permeating human
history. I believe firmly that suitably positioned women and men of good will
must rise up and develop remedies for our persistent universal ills. Jewish,
Christian, Muslim, humanistic and other policy makers in both public and
private sectors are in unique positions for prodding their institutions to
transfigure dehumanizing and base processes that have taken on lives of their
own. Quickened by the Spirit's power, courageous Christian lay ministry is
essential for shepherding humanity along a path toward truly honorable and
godly enterprises.
But where does all this leave
you and me as individuals? Should we accept the woes of personal and communal
life as the norm? Ought we just hope that "someone will do something"?
Certainly you and I know well that most of us occasionally suffer troubles and
injustices: our own earthquakes, including family and friendship crises, money
and employment worries, and, illnesses and losses. During the past six thousand
years of civilization, darkness, despair, indeed - biblical "Signs of the End"
- have engulfed not only nations, but also many individuals. Many of us have
learned to perceive life pessimistically whether in regard to family life, our
jobs, or just about everything else. I knew a former clergyman - not an
Episcopalian - who admitted beginning each day with his own despairing creed.
Speaking to you from the pulpit, I'll paraphrase his words as, "Life is foul."
How's that for doctrine!
To overcome this darkness, some
forms of religion simply pretend there are no shadows. Ever-smiling preachers
imply that if we'll only follow their ways, life will become a bed of
roses.
The Gospel of Christ
acknowledges the darkness and the Signs; they are real and unrelenting!
Nonetheless, Christians are persuaded that Jesus' life and teachings disclose
God's own Word, God's very purposes enlightening all people and institutions
who will truly heed the Word. He is the true Word of God - alive within
scripture and among his disciples, past and present.
No smiling preacher this Jesus!
No bed of roses for him! He experienced human darkness and the "Signs of the
End" from birth to death. Rushed as an infant from Herod's death threat, Jesus
faced danger even in Bethlehem. Later, Joseph apparently died, leaving Mary as
a single parent to raise Jesus along with his brothers and sisters. He
apparently had very few friends and was eventually denied by one and brutally
betrayed by another. He experienced occasional loneliness and drew upon God for
strength and courage. Realizing that prayer unaccompanied by human fellowship
was not enough, Jesus reached out for human companionship. He was persecuted
and ridiculed, but grew in inner strength and peace. He was economically poor,
but yet so very rich. He was humiliated and executed for his preaching, and
even overcame that! While experiencing darkness, Jesus' life and ministry
revealed shimmering Light amidst the evils of his day.
Perhaps more fitting words for
today than Confucius, Cicero, or Shakespeare, were Dickens'- "It was the best
of times, it was the worst of times, ..." Darkness and despair, recurring
"Signs of the End," yes, but also Light and hope in Christ. To those who accept
Christ's invitation to true life, there is Light and hope amidst woeful
realities. In Christ, the true and only Light, each day becomes the beginning
of the rest of our lives, not merely a day nearer the End of the World. Our
present hills and valleys may generate modest and sometimes exceptional
occasions to grow in wisdom and share in affection. You and I can choose to
walk prudently in that Light, or we can choose to surrender to hopeless
darkness while dwelling unproductively on the Signs of an unspecified End.
Ignore the Signs? No! Let them be powerful motivators, not for idleness and
melancholy, but for the graceful transfiguration of ourselves and our
institutions. God will hold us accountable for our responses; in the End
his will shall be done. Along the way, we can endure with such prayers
as: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to
change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
My fellow parishioners,
disasters are NOT the events by which Christians remember and measure all
events. Instead, life is comprehended best in the victorious event of Jesus
Christ. A poet has summed up God's Light in Christ beautifully: God hath not
promised / Skies always blue, / Flower-strewn pathways / All our lives through;
/ God hath not promised / Sun without rain, / Joy without sorrow, / Peace
without pain. / Unfailing sympathy, / Undying love. ---Annie Johnson
Flint
For these promises and their
ongoing fulfillment, you and I can be deeply thankful! So, let there be Light
enkindled within our hearts and minds, shining forth in our words and deeds,
this day to the End of time! Amen.
(1) .from Alan Ehrenhalt,
The Lost City: Discovering the Forgotten Virtues of Community in the Chicago
of the 1950s (1995) as reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education
(Nov. 10, 1995), Page B5.