It's the End of the World as We Know It...

A little REM reference to go along with the prediction of the Rapture that is going around...brought to you by the same folks responsible for the Hale-Bopp Comet and the Y2K paranoia.  As a person of faith and as a pastor, I say unto you, I don't know the day or the hour of the consummation of God's creation, I don't know when Jesus shall return.  I wasn't good at math once we got to algebra anyway....

However, I do know that one day, my earthly life will end. I suspect it will be before Jesus comes. I think I'll probably go to him, rather than the other way 'round. The end of my earthly life could happen at any time. It could be tonight, or May 21st, or in the year 2062. It could come suddenly, like getting hit by a bus, and out of a clear blue sky, at a time when I least expect it, or it could be long and drawn out, with IV's and monitors, at a time solemnly predicted by folks in white coats.  I hope it's a long way off, of course, and yet, not further away than it should be.

All this May 21st nonsense is a way of saying what those of us who do funerals as part of our vocations tell ourselves every time we watch another casket close. Life is short and beautiful and precious. It is good to "be". If we could hold in our minds and hearts how much life is like this, we would be kinder to each other, we would enjoy the small things of living more, and we would absolutely NOT waste time holding grudges or sweating the manifestly small stuff. We would look one another in the face. We would taste our food, and kiss our beloveds. We would forgive each other.  We would live our lives so as to be in love with God and we would see that all we have is a gift. We would never dance on the grave of any other child of God.  And if we could embrace both our mortality and the "sure and certain hope of the Resurrection," we might be made free to do things we never thought we could before. We might not be afraid of all the things we're so afraid of. We might take on living as Easter people and give up obsessing over when and where and how we die.

TS Eliot wrote, "This is how the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper." As a Christian, I would say, "This is how the world ends, not with a bang, but with a hallelujah," as God brings to full flower the creation that God both made and redeemed in Jesus Christ. Spend your time investing in the right things--loving God, loving neighbor, and being about Jesus' business in the world: "preaching good news to the poor, giving recovery of sight to the blind, setting at liberty those who are oppressed and proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor." If the Lord comes for me, let it be that I'm so busy doing that, I forgot to check what time it was, or what day, or what hour.

God bless you.