I have written many articles on this blog on the topic of eschatology. In this article and its companion to follow, I want us to consider why eschatology is important in the Christian faith and, more importantly, in following Jesus. In other articles, I have dealt with the sick distortions of eschatology found in such concepts as the Rapture, a punitive, everlasting hell, and a “beam me up” approach to the Second Coming. In these two articles I want to talk about the “so what?” of Christian eschatology.
According to the New Testament, Jesus’ resurrection marks the beginning of God’s New Creation. What happened to him will happen to us and to all of time, space, matter, and life. The ultimate goal of God has never been to take us up to heaven to escape this world. God’s goal has always been to save, heal, reconcile, and transform this world. God’s most ardent desire is to dwell in this creation in such a way that love, justice, mercy, joy, beauty, peace, and reconciliation may characterize every aspect of life. What we pray for every Sunday is the goal of all Christian eschatology: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
For too long the church, at least in Western Christianity, has assumed that the gospel is all about how we can go to heaven when we die. No! The gospel is about what God has done and is doing and will do on this earth through Jesus Christ.
So, let’s talk a little about the Kingdom of God which was the message of Jesus. God’s Kingdom means the sovereign rule of God. Kingdom of God means that God is king and not all the brands of Caesar and Herod who have afflicted our planet for millennia. Jesus claimed that God’s Kingdom was breaking into this present world through him—his life, teachings, deeds, death, and resurrection. The New Testament also claims that with Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension, he is already Lord of heaven and earth. God’s Kingdom has already begun with Jesus. Matthew puts it this way when he reports Jesus saying, “All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth.” When? Now, in the present moment. And right after Jesus says that, he tells his disciples to go out into the world with this good news (Matthew 28:18-19). He calls us to become agents of the transformation of this earth, anticipating the day when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” God wants to save, redeem (liberate), and heal us in order that we might become Her blessing for creation. God’s goal is to become King over all creation through the healing power of love, not just to snatch a few souls from the dangers of earth and hell to the safety of heaven. For too long the church, at least in Western Christianity, has assumed that the gospel is all about how we can go to heaven when we die. No! The gospel is about what God has done and is doing and will do on this earth through Jesus Christ.
Listen to N. T. Wright’s explanation of what the gospel is all about. The gospel “is the story of God’s Kingdom being launched on earth as it is in heaven, generating a new state of affairs in which the power of evil has been decisively defeated, the new creation has been decisively launched, and Jesus’ followers have been commissioned and equipped to put that victory and that inaugurated new world into practice… If you want to help inaugurate God’s Kingdom, you must follow in the way of the cross, and if you want to benefit from Jesus’ saving death, you must become part of his Kingdom project… God’s rule is thus to be put into practice in the world, resulting in salvation in both the present and the future, a salvation that is both for humans and, through saved humans, for the wider world. This is the solid basis for the mission of the church.” (Surprised by Hope, pp.204-205) But what specifically does all this mean for the church today?
Let’s first talk a little more about how we relate to God’s Kingdom. We cannot build the Kingdom of God. Only God has the power, wisdom, and love to accomplish such a wonder. But God has made us in God’s own image. In other words, God intends Her wise, creative, loving presence and power to be reflected into this world through us. The final coming together of heaven and earth with the New Creation can come about only through the power and faithfulness of God. However, because of Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension and the work of the Spirit, we can anticipate that Kingdom right now. And we do that by building for the Kingdom. We can’t build the Kingdom of God but we can build for the Kingdom. Paul ends his magnificent chapter on resurrection in I Corinthians 15 by telling his readers that in light of Jesus’ resurrection and the anticipated resurrection of the entire cosmos, what we do in the Lord is not in vain. Again, listen to Wright’s exposition of this hope. “Every act of love, gratitude and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings and for that matter one’s fellow non-human creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world—all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the New Creation that God will one day make.” (Surprised by Hope, p. 208) None of this will be lost. It will all be gathered up in God and used as the building blocks of the New Creation.
I love how Wright’s image of the stonemason working on part of a great cathedral explains this process. He writes: “The architect already drew up the plans and passed on instructions to the team of masons as to which stones need carving in what way. The foreman distributes these tasks among the team. One shapes stones for a particular tower or turret; another carves the delicate pattern that breaks up the otherwise forbidding straight lines; another works on gargoyles or coats of arms; another is making statues of saints, martyrs, kings, or queens. They are vaguely aware that the others are getting on with their tasks, and they know, of course, that many other entire departments are busy about quite different tasks as well. When they’re finished with their stones and their statues, they hand them over without necessarily knowing very much about where in the eventual building their work will find its home. They may not have seen the complete architect’s drawing of the whole building with their bit identified in its proper place. They may not live, either, to see the completed building with their work at last where it belongs. But they trust the architect that the work they have done in following instructions will not be wasted. They are not, themselves, building the cathedral, but they are building for the cathedral, and when the cathedral is complete their work will be enhanced and ennobled, and will mean much more than it could have meant as they were chiseling it and shaping it down in the masons’ yard.” (Surprised by Hope, pp.209-210)
In a similar way what we do in the Lord is not in vain, and that is the mandate we need for every act of justice and mercy, every program of ecology, every effort to reflect God’s wise caring image into Her creation. All we do now is not just a blessing for the present world, although that should not in any way be minimized. The things we do now for God are advance signs of the coming New Creation when God is “all in all,” and when God’s Kingdom has come and God’s will is done “on earth as in heaven.”
So, the good news is this: creation, time, space, matter, and life are all to be redeemed (liberated). But again, we must ask along with Wright, what might it look like to celebrate that redemption, healing, and transformation in the present moment and thereby appropriately anticipate God’s final intention?
With Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God, he invited people to enter that Kingdom as though God were King and not Caesar or Herod. What would our world look like if God were King and not our contemporary Caesars or Herods? Would there be hunger, war, torture, greed? Would there be the reckless exploitation and rape of the earth we have witnessed over the past decades? Would the top 1-2% of the United States population hoard 42% of the total wealth of the nation? Would children be abused, cold, malnourished, neglected, exploited? Would health care be a privilege just for those wealthy or lucky enough to afford it? Would some people spend all their lives working like slaves just to get enough to eat while others lie, cheat, and steal themselves into obscene wealth? Would men, women and children be randomly shot in cities as drug wars and rage-inspired violence continue to plague our society? Would people be singled out as targets of prejudice and violence just because of the color of their skin, their religious background, their mental abilities, or their sexual orientation? If God is King and if justice matters to God (which virtually every book of the Bible maintains), then none of these things can exist in this world if God’s will is universally done. All of this means that if we are to build for the Kingdom, we must do all we can right now to transform this world into a closer approximation of that coming Kingdom. We must join in the long struggle for justice in this world. When it comes to the gospel and discipleship, justice is not a negotiable item. If we are not seeking justice in our world, then we know nothing of God, Jesus, or the gospel. The Kingdom of God means God ruling as King and bringing justice and deliverance from all kinds of oppression to all the world.
Now, all that scares the daylights out of the powers that be. (Consider the example of the Sadducees in Jesus’ day and their fear of resurrection. They controlled the temple and colluded with the Romans in governing the Jews. They were rewarded monetarily for their collusion. They were basically preservers of an oppressive status quo.) In Jewish thought, resurrection was primarily the way God would ultimately set the world right and end all injustice. Resurrection was a radical and revolutionary concept. The Sadducees, Caesars, Herods, and powers that be in our day are scared to death of anyone, much less any group, seeking justice—which means that if we seek justice, we will face opposition, ridicule, slander, and possibly death. (Jesus was crucified; Oscar Romero and MLK were assassinated.) But that, my friends, is what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus. To take up our cross means to pay the price of being obedient to God—of living as though God is our King and not any form of Caesar. And this is not a question of liberal vs. conservative. This is the essence of the gospel.
We are not required to solve all the problems. We are simply required to be faithful in ways we can make a difference.
Can we solve all the injustice, hunger, and ecological problems of our world? No. And we sure won’t do a blasted thing as long as we live in the problem instead of seeking solutions. We can’t solve all the problems, but do you know what? We are not required to solve all the problems. We are simply required to be faithful in ways we can make a difference. If we can use our political power and resources to end voter suppression, we can reform our broken government. If our sharing and advocacy feed only a small portion of the world’s hungry, then that makes all the difference to some man, woman, or child. And if we can make any difference through our efforts to recycle and to force our politicians to make the fate of the earth our nation’s number one priority, then generations to come will call us blessed. As the Jewish Talmud, says, “We are not required to finish the task any more than we are allowed to put it aside.” Once again, if we are not seeking justice, we know nothing about God, Jesus, or the gospel.
Years ago, I preached a sermon entitled “The Best Kept Secret in the Church.” The best kept secret in the church is Jesus! We sing about him, pray to him, read Bible stories about him, praise him, and worship him. So, how can he be the best kept secret in the church? Because the Jesus we sing about, pray to, read about, praise, and worship far too often has virtually nothing in common with Jesus of Nazareth. Throughout my ministry I have tried to make known the Jesus of the Gospels both to church members and those outside the church. And everywhere I have tried to do this (colleges, seminaries, churches, regional events, men’s groups, Sunday School classes, Bible studies, Lenten meditations, etc.) I have encountered two responses. Many people are hungry to hear the truth of the Gospel. They know there is more to Jesus than the same, status quo messages they have heard preached all their lives. And they become very excited—they want to learn more–and they want to know what all that means for their own discipleship. But sadly, I have found this group to be in the minority. Most people oppose, ignore, or forget any proclamation which takes Jesus of Nazareth seriously. They prefer the cultural gospel they have grown up with. They prefer the safe gospel which requires very little from them except faithfulness to churches which are a part of our world’s status quo. They use labels like radical, liberal, commie, and socialist to describe what they hear. The biggest disappointment of my life is the rejection of Jesus of Nazareth by much of the church. (Actually, the biggest disappointment of my life is how often I have failed to follow Jesus.) Years ago, we decided to play it safe which is the opposite of “taking up our cross daily and following Jesus.” Jesus was a radical. The term “radical” has the original meaning of “root.” (A radish is a root vegetable.) A true radical goes to the root of any issue, question, or challenge. Jesus never wasted any time on the periphery of life and its problems. He always went to the root. A synonym for this understanding of radical is “source.” Jesus is the originating source of our faith. As we continually return to the source, we find our own discipleship renewed, strengthened, and expanded.
Some churches and denominations are operating out of fear. They are losing numbers and money, and therefore want to grow more churches and raise more dollars. But to do that they are convinced that they must not offend anyone with the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth. If that is our approach to our mission, then we deserve to die as a denomination. I don’t think God gives a tinker’s damn whether we or any other denomination survives with a watered-down, timid, status quo affirming message. But God does care if we are faithful. God does care if we are following Jesus. God does care if we are building for the Kingdom. And God does care if we are seeking justice/deliverance for all the world’s oppressed. If we do that, it will not be easy. We will pay a price. We will bear a cross. We will join a Jewish peasant who 2000 years ago threatened the power brokers of his day so much that they killed him.
We should never forget that Jesus of Nazareth was executed as a rebel king. Rome knew he was a threat. Herod Antipas knew he was a threat. The high priest and Sadducees knew he was a threat. Why? Because he dared to call people to live as though these self-proclaimed rulers were not Lord. Because he dared to call people to live out of his vision of the Kingdom of God. Because everything he said and did threatened the position, power, and wealth of the keepers of the status quo. That is the Jesus of the Gospels. You can’t read the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, Matthew 25, the Nativity stories, and the accounts of the passion and Jesus’ resurrection and come to any other conclusion. That is Jesus of Nazareth. And he comes to us as he did to those disciples two millennia ago and says, “Follow me.” And the hard truth is this: if we are not following him as we seek first the Kingdom of God above everything else in our lives, then we know nothing of him, the gospel, or the God who invites us to build for Her Kingdom. But if we are following him, then we are joining in a divine conspiracy that has eternal dimensions beyond the wildest imagination of any human being who has ever lived. We are joining countless others in building for a Kingdom which is just, compassionate, loving, peaceful, merciful, and brimming over with joy. “Follow me,” Jesus says. How shall we respond?
