On November 11th, 2004, I sat down to write a sermon and this came out instead.
My folks used to have a home medical encyclopedia that listed every known ailment and its symptoms. We used to thumb through it on a regular basis in an attempt to self-diagnosis our various discomforts. I gave up on it after awhile -- we all did -- because we were turning into hypochondriacs. Such mundane things as sleeplessness, fatigue or thirst became harbingers of impending doom.
I feel the same way about prophecy, especially as it pertains to eschatology: the end times. As far back as I can recall there have been preachers and Bible scholars telling me that we're living in the last days. Natural disasters, plagues, famine, acts of war and anything at all concerning Israel have all foreshadowed the Second Coming. We try to find a perfect fit for 666 among prominent persons: Ronald Wilson Reagan, for example.
The proof of prophecy, of course, is in the fulfillment thereof. Otherwise, the horrors predicted by Nostradamus could have been prevented. It is only after the fact that we recognize the references to Hitler, the Kennedy assassinations et cetera.
Jesus tells us not even the angels will know when the end will come, but that hasn't stopped us from trying to pinpoint the date, selling everything and sitting patiently at the curb, awaiting the rapture. Everyone who has ever done this has been disappointed.
Thus far in my informal ministry, I've steered clear of some topics. One is Hell. I figure there's already plenty of preachers out there who are willing, and eager, to tell us who's going to Hell, who's already there, and what degree of torment they're experiencing. Their teachings are founded more in Dante than in Deity, but you wouldn't be able to tell them that. They'll tell you that you're going there, too!
Another subject I shy away from is the Last Days: Armegeddon, the Second Coming, the Rapture, the New Jerusalem, the thousand year reign, the end. I'm not qualified to teach it, and we're all powerless over it anyway. Studying the Biblical prophecies of Daniel, Isaiah and the Revelation of Saint John the Divine is like diagnosing yourself with a home medical encyclopedia: you'll recognize all the signs but you'll come to the wrong conclusion. Yes, we're all going to die, but none of us knows the day or the hour. Unless we happen to be on Death Row.
The world these days is bleak and cheerless and tiny. There seems to be little optimism about anything. There are almost nine billion of us and we're literally in each other's face and on each other's nerves. There is a 50/50 cultural division in our country (or 49/51) and the loudest faction is one with which I should feel a close kinship, but don't.
Conservative Christians see themselves as having a Christian president with a Christian mandate against all evils, real or imagined, foreign or domestic. As we thrash about in a melting world, alone and universally disliked, the Christian Right's only concern seems to be other people's sexual conduct. Where love, charity, and hetero-monogamy in a marital context are found, God is there. In fact, they don't even seem to require the love or the charity.
I don't think these brethren of ours are any more well-versed in Scripture than we are, but they do have preachers willing and eager to talk about Hell, and who's there, and who's on their way there. They might even want to include me, since I'm not one of them. So be it.
The Bible is a portable library: full of history and laws and stories and songs and prophecy and advice and nearly everything but math, science and car repair. Anything you need to reinforce your resolve can be found, isolated, extracted, magnified, expounded on and used as ammunition against those who would live in what you perceive to be sin.
Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery is one of the Ten Commandments. Most of us probably think we keep it, but Jesus says if we divorce and re-marry, we commit adultery. Many of us are divorced and remarried, and therefore in violation of the Commandments. Our brethren choose to overlook that.
Jesus says that if a thief takes our cloke, we should also give him our coat. Nobody pays any attention to that either. If we catch a thief absconding with our raiment, it's our Constitutionally guaranteed privelege and duty to blow a hole through him with whatever sort of firearm we might have handy. An assault weapon will do the job adequately. Thou Shalt Not Kill, unless the next guy violates Thou Shalt Not Steal.
Another topic I don't have any business preaching about is same-sex relationships. People who DO preach about it shouldn't. It's not a crime wave. It's not an addiction. Granted, their are Scriptural admonitions against it, mostly in the personal hygiene rules of Moses in the Old Testament, and in the apostle Paul's astonishment at what the Greeks did at the bath-house. Who among us goes to a bath-house?
I do feel that I can, with much certainty, talk about being a Christian. It means to live according to the lessons Christ taught and the example that He set: loving, forgiving, and not being judgmental. It means to live in hope and not despair; to live in the present and not be fearful of the future. It also means practicing conscientious stewardship over our resources. It doesn't mean having a higher regard for automobiles than humanity, it doesn't mean wiping out wildlife with oblivious indifference, it doesn't mean ratifying a Constitutional amendment that would deny life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to any segment of society that makes Midwesterners feel uncomfortable.
We are God's children. He understands all our languages, He knows our needs, and He will live in the heart that welcomes Him. He has given us His Commandments that we might walk with Him, not that we might judge others. He will come in His own time, not in ours, and we will see all things clearly when they have come to pass. Amen.
