Jesus’ Second Coming, I’m Guessing, Is Not What You Think

It pains me to say this because I’m thinking it will disappoint many, but it’s true: Jesus will not be returning to clean up this mess and complete the story. That’s true because he already has done the housecleaning and written the final chapter. We live in the eschaton, the end of the age where the Demand of God and demands of life have been defeated by the Promise of God and the opportunities of life! We live in this now! So it’s actually not painful to hear. In fact, the opposite. If we but see and hear. Let’s take a look and listen.

I know that Jesus is recorded as saying “I am coming soon” (Revelation 22) so as to sound like he will show up again in some fashion, but I’m afraid this is simply the logical and inevitable longing of those in the midst of martyred suffering. Jesus, alternatively, is also recorded as saying this about us in a prayer to God, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17). Eternal life now. There is no waiting around for another moment of miracle.

This makes sense, of course because try as we might to pray up another arrival, nothing has happened. But there is actually a more pointed reason this all makes sense about what’s actually happening on the ground as we speak: if Jesus is not to bat clean up, the first three batters must actually make it around the bases all on their own, and that, my friends, would put the onus of repairing and restoring this broken world entirely on us.

What has happened is that we have confused and switched up who is responsible for what. Instead of God being responsible for our eternal destiny and you and me being responsible for our temporal health and well-being, we have made it just the opposite: We are responsible for our eternal finality (just get that belief and behavior aligned with God correctly and things will work out fine) and God is responsible for fixing all the murder and mayhem that pervades our streets, cities, countryside, indeed the oceans too.

It’s not hard to understand the switch up. Do you actually want to give up your retirement leisure and go back to work to change the world? And it’s not just me feeling guilty, talking here as a comfortably retired senior. I’m talking about every walk of life and that from young age to old age changing our focus and understanding about what resurrection means.

Resurrection, and that. specifically, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, is not about relief and release from life but rather responsibility and accountability for life. And, again, we need to put the responsibility in the right place. God is responsible for taking care of what will become of us after we die (No, I’m sorry Virginia, you have absolutely no ability to change God’s decision about you). We are responsible for what will become of us and our neighbors before we die.

So how do we come to our senses and realize and know that Jesus’ Second Coming is actually occurring weekly, not to say daily, before our very eyes and ears? It will take for us to stop a moment and reconsider what is happening at our local church down the street.

There is a flesh and blood person there telling us that we have enough, we do enough, indeed we are enough, and our salvation gambit is over, thankfully, and we can find rest in God taking care of our destiny (you know the part where I just said we have no ability to change God’s decision about us? That can, of course, offend us because we have been taken out of the game and also make us more than a little bit uneasy about our future being bright and cheery, until we hear what the verdict is: liberty!). And (here’s the fun part!), even if the Preacher skews the story (and, oh, I know from personal experience how easy it is as a Preacher to tell people what to do even as I am telling them what God does and is doing!) the Bread and Wine of the Holy Communion will bring the goods (and what better way to demonstrate our need for Somebody to take over our eternal destiny than to come to the Table with empty hands uplifted!?).

So, watch this: you know how Revelation 22, the very end of Christian Scripture, says Jesus says Jesus is coming soon? He is! Very, very soon! As in “this coming Sunday” soon! Not to a theater near you but to the local church building near you!

And you thought Advent was for dreamers! No, it’s for all of us to be awakened and alerted to God showing up right here and right now setting us free and sending us to change the enmity and strife, the warfare and degradation, the poverty and starvation, the environmental destruction and decay…..changing that all to fulness, community, joy and distributive justice and peace for all.

I love Advent! All this talk and song to awaken us to realize again that Jesus is coming again this Sunday, and every Sunday, indeed every day the Table is set and the Word is spoken! Wow, Christmas got the party started, but Advent reminds us the party is all about Easter! Resurrection! Now!