A minister and a priest were by the side of the road holding up signs to passingcars. The minister held up a sign, “The End is Near!”
The priest, on the other side had a sign proclaiming, “Turn before it’s too late!”
“Get a job,” yelled a car driver when he saw the sign. Another driver, immediately behind the first, yelled, “Leave us alone you religious freaks!” Shortly, from around the curve, the two clergy heard screeching tyres followed by a splash. The minister looked over at the priest and said, “Do you think our signs should say: “Watch out! Bridge collapsed?”
I thought that the title for my sermon this coming Advent Sunday should be “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Eschatology.” Eschatology is the study of the “last things.” It is a subject that has seen the misuse of the Bible and has been a happy-hunting ground for all sorts of lunatic fringe movements from the first century until today.
There is always one group or another making a case for the imminence of the end of the world and rarely talk about anything else! Like Private Frazier on Dad’s Army, “We’re all doomed”. There was an American politician called James Watt who said that he wasn’t bothered about saving the environment because he didn’t know how many future generations there would be “before the Lord comes.”
Some of the books on this subject are often best-sellers, for sensationalism always sells. Still, it seems odd to me that evangelists can write best-selling books about the imminent end of the world, and then salt away their royalties in long-term securities!
I do wonder if any of these groups ever read this passage: “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32) Even Jesus did not know! NO ONE! But have we let the pendulum swing too far the other way? I believe that one day Christ will return and those who call themselves Christian are to live in faith, and hope, and, above all, love. Someone once said about the return of the Lord:“God didn’t put me on the Time and Place Committee; He put me on the Preparation Committee.” Our job is not to speculate about times and seasons, but to make sure that we are living as God wants us to live – sisters and brothers to one another – here and now.
Advent is a time like Lent to take stock of our lives to see if we are prepared for an unknowable future. Live each moment as if it were your last moment.
To remember that
The good that you would do, do now.
The love that you would give, give now.
The commitment you would make, make now.
As John Ruskin once put it: “Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close; then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of some kindly thing done for others, some goodly strength or knowledge gained for yourself.”
Be patient. Be faithful. Be prepared.