What is THE END?

This Sunday - November 16th

23rd Sunday after Pentecost

Malachi 4:1-2a ~ Psalm 98 ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 ~ Luke 21:5-19

Read online

As we near the end of the Church Year (it starts over with Advent on November 30) the readings turn to thinking about the end. Last week the shift to 2nd Thessalonians began the trend and it continues with the readings today. 

I often hear people talk about “the end” with fear and foreboding. But that has more to do with how it has been presented to us over the last several generations then how the Bible really talks about it. Here are a couple points to ponder:

1. God does not intend to destroy the world, but rather renew it. At the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, God made the earth and called it good. At the end of the Bible God promises a renewal/restoration of it in Revelation. 

2. The graphic descriptions that Jesus and Paul give of what has come to be called “the end” sound like now because they are ment to sound like every time. The point of those descriptions was not to name a specific time or to scare but reassure. Their message is “when you’re experiencing all this junk (insert more graphic expletive as desired), you’re not alone.” 

3. For centuries (roughly 1800 years), Christians heard and understood these apocalyptic messages differently. Only for the last 150 years has it been changed into the doom and gloom that we hear in novels like Left Behind or from certain groups of Christians that promote fear. Prior to that, Paul and Jesus’ apocalyptic words were heard in a very joyful and hopeful way: as a reminder that even when the world around us seems like chaos, God is still present and moving all of creation to something good.

   
   

   After reading the scriptures for this day, discuss the following questions with someone else:

4. When I read lessons like those this week, I feel . . . . 

5. When I hear people talk about the world ending, I feel . . .