I saw on Facebook just the other day a picture of a man holding a cardboard placard with the words, “Prepare, the beginning is near.” This was obviously a take-off on the classic cartoon of the premillennialist prophet standing on the street corner proclaiming that the end is near. Premillennialism infects modern western Christianity. It is the premise, based on the Book of Revelation… sort of, that a fallen and depraved world waits for the second coming of Christ to set things right, and that at this so-called second coming, Christ will gather the few faithful and take them up into heaven. It is a theology of ‘end times’ popular in fundamentalist circles. It is based on the idea that there is no redemption in this life, that fulfillment comes only in the hereafter. End time theology is a theology based on fear, and it demeans the richness of life that we have been given and are meant to share.
The Book of Revelation is of the literary genre called “apocalyptic.” Such literature emerged in Jewish culture in the late second century B.C.E. New Testament and Gnostic scholar, Elaine Pagels argues that such literature emerges during times of social, economic and political stress. Indeed in the late second century in Palestine, the socio-political climate was one of drastic change and uncertainty. This is the era in which the apocalyptic book of Daniel was written, and the highly influential apocryphal Book of Enoch. Revelation in the New Testament canon carries the same ethos into the early centuries of the Common Era. This literature speaks of violent end times when God will set right a world gone wrong. It is not surprising that such a theology would gain traction in our own day and age, an age of violence and rapid change and uncertainty.
But our faith is not about end times, at least according to the teachings of Jesus. Jesus speaks of God’s radical new order of peace and justice and dignity and well-being as a present reality. Jesus sees the apocalyptic expectation of God’s vision of the world breaking into the present day as we speak, but not only as we speak, but as we practice the reality of God’s love in our lives… loving kindness, doing justice, walking in humility… living into our true humanity. In other words, the means of Love are the ends of love in the making. Love is our vocation for the present day. Love is the incarnation of hope.
Our faith is one of hope and expectation and possibility. The life of faith is always in renewal, always beginning. That is why worship is characterized by celebration and beauty. Each new day for us is an invitation to love, an invitation to experience the mystery of life as if it is beginning for the first time. Certainly we experience the end of things in this life, but as followers of the gospel vision we stand at the end of things and proclaim and practice the new. We stand, as people who “act as if”, for possibility and new life taking root in present time. Advent is the season of the church in which we prepare for the beginning, giving hope its authoritative voice, that we do not live for the end, we live for the New… forever possible…. forever beginning… again.
A very interesting essay Jim. Well done, sir.