Reverend Ref +

YEAR C - PENTECOST 24 - PROPER 28

Why do we do this? Why do we come to church to hear stories of ancient peoples, sit through a sermon that may or many not be any good, pray to a God we can't see, eat stale wafers and drink wine that you probably wouldn't serve to your worst relative? Don't you ever want to say, "What's the point?"

Especially when we can look around and see evildoers prosper. Illegal drugs are a huge problem; but it seems like those who traffic in drugs have all the best things. Legal drug companies appear to put profit before people and price their products so high that people either run to Canada or must choose between eating and medicating. The national trend is for companies to hire only part-time workers so they don't have to pay benefits, thereby furthering their own profits. So why do we do what we do?

Well, as our reading from Malachi pointed out, we do it because God notices. In the grand scheme of things, God does notice. The oracle given to Malachi points out that we will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked. It says that when God acts, the righteous will be spared from that awful day and the arrogant will be burned up as if in an oven. The day of the Lord, says the oracle, will be a great and terrible day.

Combine Malachi with today's Gospel -- earthquakes, fires, wars, famines -- and there's great potential for a real hellfire and brimstone sermon. And maybe one of these days I'll let loose with one, but not today. The Malachi passage isn't all fire and brimstone. This isn't about "scaring the hell" out of people. This is really about loving God into people's lives. It's about reconciliation.

Malachi and the oracle are pushing for reconciliation. Parents will return to children and children will return to parents. And isn't that what the church is all about? Isn't that why we do what we do? To restore relationships. The history of the world is full of failed relationships -- Jesus and Judas, Jacob and Esau, Cain and Abel, God and humanity. This is why we do what we do, because we are trying to help heal the world's relationship with God. Malachi isn't hellfire and condemnation, Malachi is wholeness and healing.

People, though, are obsessed with the end times. The eschaton. "When is it?" "What will happen?" "Who will survive?" Is it just me or does it seem that people want a specific time-frame so they know exactly when to quit screwing around?

Jesus addressed this concern in the Gospel, but he didn't give a specific time-frame. Basically he said, "Be prepared now." Things will happen: earthquakes, floods, famines, plagues, wars and other calamities. Kind of like today. But life goes on. We aren't supposed to be concerned with the signs. We are supposed to be following Jesus. Which means feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless. It means taking care of those people affect by the events I just named. All of these terrible things happen, and people will try to use them as an indicator of the end times.

The biggest indicator of the eschaton, though, is that before it happens followers of Jesus Christ will be persecuted. You will be arrested. You will be betrayed by friends and family. All will hate you on account of your belief in Jesus.

Here's something to think about. When the believers are arrested and persecuted, to whom are they handed over? Synagogues and prisons. Synagogues. Churches. The leaders of the church are going to persecute those who claim to follow Jesus. The leaders of the church are going to persecute those who don't follow the party line. This also sounds like today when one group, claiming to be the true church, seems to be persecuting those people who don't agree with their doctrine. Well, maybe "persecuting" isn't the right word. But we are sure making it difficult on each other.

I don't know what's going on, but it seems like people are overly concerned with the Second Coming. Maybe it's always been that way, a concern with the end of the world, but today seems different. The problem today, I think, is that people are trying to force God's hand. Either people think it's their job to convert everyone on the planet -- "Convert now or burn in hell" -- or they are just waiting to gloat over the evildoers being burned to stubble while they watch, or they are fed up with everything and want God to come and take the problem away. They spend their time running these events through some kind of giant algorithm to come up with the specific time of the Second Coming. And if they aren't doing that, they are working to try to get the government to do things that will, in turn, get Israel to do something that is supposed to be the lynchpin for Jesus' return. If we do X, then Israel will do Y, and God will do Z. The problem with that is that it puts God on our schedule. It forces God to act based on our understanding. And that kind of limits God, don't you think?

Instead of focusing all of our energy on making Jesus return with a two-edged sword and flames spewing from his mouth, maybe we need to be focusing on reconciliation. We need to be following Malachi's oracle -- children returning to parents, parents returning to children, people returning to God. Instead of praying for the Second Coming so the righteous can be saved and the evildoers can get their just desserts, we need to be praying that everyone returns to God; like the prodigal son returned to his father.

Rather than praying for the Second Coming, we need to realize that we are already living in the end times, in the last days. The EVENTS that make up God's overall plan are not our concern. How we deal with them is. But be warned: this is dangerous business. Be prepared to be persecuted, ridiculed and maybe martyred. But also be reassured that what we do in the name of Jesus does, indeed, make a difference. And pray that everyone will return to the Father before that great and terrible day.