Big end? Advent 1

Advent 1B 12/3/17

Religion and science agree that the world as we know it will end. According to the NASA website: the universe began with the big bang 13.8 billion years ago. Our sun came together 4.5 billion years ago and will become a red giant in about 5 billion years. But the earth will become too hot for life in just one billion years.

The first signs of human beings are found in Africa about 200,000 years ago and in Europe and Asia about 60,000 years ago. Historical records begin 6000 years ago.

Predictions of the end of the world have been frequent – and continue. Atomic war is a current fear. Europe, Asia, and much of North America lie within the range of North Korean missiles and atomic bombs. Other human caused dangers include global warming, overpopulation and world famine, and (according to Wikipedia and in alphabetical order) artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cyberattack, environmental disaster, and mineral resource exhaustion

Natural dangers not man made include asteroid impact, extraterrestrial invasion, natural climate change, cosmic threats (including Mercury’s orbit becoming so unstable so the planet crashes into the earth or gamma ray bursts or a solar flare), geomagnetic reversal, a global pandemic caused by naturally arising pathogens, a mega-tsunami, and volcanism. A current volcanic explosion in Bali is expected this winter to lower the world’s temperature by one degree.

Fears of future disaster based in science and in Scripture have in common very vague future dates and probabilities.  Today’s reading from Isaiah was probably written down about 500 years before Christ, after the leaders of the people had returned from their two generation exile in Babylon after the capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 586. That destruction was as much a reality to the people who heard the prophecy as say the Depression is to us. The Depression and World War II were life changing events in our parents’ lives. For us they are past events we don’t want to repeat.    

Jesus’ teaching about the end times is also found in St. Mathew 24 and St. Luke 21. It was part of the teaching of the early church. For almost 300 years church members were persecuted for their belief. For long periods of time Christians lived lives of peace among their pagan neighbors, but then without much warning a small conflict might bring out the mob and death and destruction would follow. It was roughly like the situation of the Muslim Rohinga in Burma, or the former conflict in Bosnia, or the situation of Christians in Pakistan or some other Muslim majority countries – social pressure, with some occasional but usually short-lived government persecution  We join in prayer for these and for other persecuted and abused peoples.

When we are under attack we look for redemption.  And God in his grace and love offers us redemption, his love and support. The memorial to the Holocaust in Jerusalem is in the midst of a grove of trees each one given to remember one of the righteous who helped save Jews from Nazi murderers. 

When we are under attack by the temptation to sin, we remember God’s grace in Jesus Christ. When we are tempted to despair, God gives us hope, the hope of new life in Jesus.

So this Advent season, let us be aware that the end is coming – the end of the world as we know it, the end of our lives on this earth – and let us be prepared and watchful.

We watch 4 Sundays for Christmas. We watch and wait as St. Paul reminded the church in Corinth, “not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”