WHEN TIME SHALL BE NO MORE
November 18, 2001

TEXT: Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19
In a cemetery in Ribbesford, England, this epitaph was found on the tombstone of one Anna Wallace:

“The children of Israel wanted bread /And the Lord sent them manna, Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife, And the Devil sent him Anna.”

A widow wrote this epitaph in a Vermont cemetery:

“Sacred to the memory of my husband John Barnes /who died January 3, 1803 - His comely young widow, aged 23, has many qualifications of a good wife, and yearns to be comforted.”

Now that’s creative marketing.

And finally, an elderly mother, planning her funeral, told her pastor that she wanted to be cremated and her ashes scattered around Wal_Mart. “That way,” she said, “I can count on my daughters visiting me twice a week.”

Some people find it easy to look into the face of death with a sense of humor. In reading the exit lines of some famous people, it is interesting to note how many of them looked back on their lives with regret, and how many looked forward to the great mystery that awaited them.

Both our Old Testament and Gospel lessons for today look forward to the future that God has in store for the human race. God, speaking through his prophet, Isaiah, says: “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.”

When the disciples of Jesus were admiring the great Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus told them that it would be torn down within their lifetime. And so it was, forty years later in 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. Luke’s Gospel was probably written after that event so this was a prediction that was recorded after the fact.

With the events of the past few months—the attack on the World Trade Center, the war in Afghanistan, the starving Afghan refugees, the Anthrax scare and fear of bio-terrorism, and this morning’s meteor shower— some people are wondering if we are living in those times when Jesus said, see, “the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down” and “you will hear of wars and insurrections,” “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; . . . in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.”

Many Christians have taken the apocalyptic gospel sections, of which today's reading is one, as literal predictions for the end of the world. Throughout history, both Jews and Christians have interpreted world events in light of apocalyptic thought. During the reformation period, some of the reformers thought the rulers of various German principalities were the antichrist and that the messiah would overthrow their corrupt kingdoms and establish the holy kingdom of God. Jews facing expulsion from various European countries turned to messianism to provide hope that their place in the world would be made secure by the promised coming of God’s Anointed. Charles Russell announced in 1872 that Christ would return in 1874. And, of course, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been announcing the end of the world periodically for the last century.

Now, however, words that once seemed dreamily futuristic and irrelevant to ordinary life seem urgently and eerily contemporary. A flight attendant recently said that people are now paying careful attention to the safety presentation she makes, their eyes following intently as she points to the oxygen masks, emergency exits and flotation devices. They count out the number of rows to the nearest exit and examine closely the latch handle to the hatch. People used to assume that this presentation was speaking of a possibility so remote as to be of no interest to them. Now we know better. The speech of Jesus about violent destruction, false messiahs, political upheaval, and potential danger now sounds like the recent speeches of President Bush. The great temple of world trade has been destroyed. There have been plenty of false prophets on both sides. Certainly there will be political upheaval. Continuing, if not natural, disasters are inevitable. Who doubts that the anthrax attacks are the last persecution we will endure? Suddenly, apocalyptic visions are once again relevant and scary.

The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 and the destruction of the twin towers in the year 2001 both transformed the people who experienced them. The early church was transformed from a small group within Jerusalem into a band of evangelizing enthusiasts who left the ruined temple to seek their future in the wider world. By destroying the temple, the Romans freed the early Christians to take their movement to the world and the rest, as they say, is history - our history, in fact. We would not be here if the early Christians had remained faithful to the temple in Jerusalem. With the destruction of the temple, early Christianity was transformed.

How will the destruction of the trade center transform us? What will we create in the wake of such a catastrophe? Martin Marty has said that Americans have finally joined the human race on September 11 when we moved from the illusion of security to the reality of insecurity, the natural condition of most people, most of the time. How will we respond to this new “uncertainty principle.”

Well, beside the occasional moments of stupidity such as Friday when a passenger breached security in Atlanta and caused a ripple effect of delays and inconvenience to ten thousand travelers, we really have done quite well. As President Bush has said, “ . . . Our country is patient; our country is united, regardless of our religion, regardless of where we live, regardless of our political party. We united behind the fact that we must rise to this occasion.” We have seen a little more civility in interactions with strangers and friends, in an outpouring of charitable giving and volunteer activity; in pictures of friendly cooperation among political and civic leaders, except perhaps in Reading.

What our religion means to us is also under examination, because we are a changed people and our values have changed. What will be the shape of Christianity as we move into this new century? In what new light shall we think of God?
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, this prayer was found:

O God, open all doors to me. O God, who answers prayers, I'm asking for your help. I'm asking you for forgiveness. I'm asking you to lighten my way. I'm asking you to lift the burden. O God, you who opens all doors, open all doors for me. Open all venues to me. Open all avenues for me. God I trust in you. God I lay myself in your hands. There is no God but God. We are of God, and to God we return.

It is a prayer that we might pray, but it was written by Mohammad Atta, the apparent ringleader of the terrorists. How does God hear the prayers of Muslims, Jews, and Christians?

Of this I am certain, God is far beyond our perception of God and we must still struggle to interpret God’s intention for human life. But it is the nature of evil and of diseased minds to take what is basically good and twist it to demonic purposes. For centuries we have seen so much evil in this world perpetrated in the name of religion, but it is all an aberration of the principles of true faith. Remember, where we stand determines what we see. Our experiences, our culture, our education—so many factors—shape and guide our perceptions, and we see the world through those lenses.

Many years ago, in another church, a young man who was the youth leader of the congregation, killed himself on the day before Christmas. It was one of the most difficult Christmas Eve services that I have ever had to conduct. With what was going on in the world at the time—Vietnam, environmental destruction, the Cold War—he felt he was living in the last days of the planet earth, and in his depression could not bear it, and so he took his own life. What he could never know was that it was the world inside, not the world outside, that led to his decision. His depression shaped his perception of reality which in turn reinforced his depression, a downward spiral into madness and self-destruction.

We must not only be careful how we look at life, but we must also examine the lenses through which we see our world. Our mental and spiritual health depend upon it.

At the end of the Thirty Years War, when Europe was a wasteland of death and destruction, Pastor Martin Rinckhart wrote the hymn “Now Thank We All Our God.” It was a hymn of gratitude for deliverance. He could have looked back to the world that he had known that now lay in ruin and ashes, but he looked forward in hope and gave thanks and praise to God.

We may also be living between the no longer and the not yet, a transitional period between this world and the next. We may indeed be running out of time. But time is relative, and in the mid of God time does not exist. From where God stands, past, present and future are but a moment, a twinkling of the eye. Perhaps Jesus is right. As the destruction of Jerusalem was the beginning of a new age, so the groaning and travail of these times are the birth pangs of a new creation, a necessary period that we must endure in order to bring forth a new and better world. For God is “about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.”

This Thanksgiving, let us give thanks to God that we have endured this present darkness and will emerge into the light of a new day, that God is still in control of human destiny and that the universe is unfolding according to God’s design.