Realized
Eschatology
Fr.
Tony’s Midweek Message
November
21, 2019
“The Hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life. Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live… the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out.” (John 5:24-29)
As we wrap up the end of Ordinary
Time, the great green liturgical season that stretches from Pentecost to the
start of Advent, our Sunday readings in recent weeks have spoken more and more
about the end times (Greek: eschata).
When asked about when the end will happen, Jesus replies that no one knows,
only the Father. When asked about signs going
before the end times, he says that there
always will be shocking crises like earthquakes, wars, plagues, and disasters,
but that what truly presages God’s setting things right are the glimmers of
hope and trust that we see in the world about us. “Signs of the times” for Jesus are not
harbingers of disaster, but little glimpses of love behind and beneath our
world.
Apocalyptic was the main literary
tradition during Jesus’ life that spoke of the end times. This mysterious and highly dramatic treatment
of how rotten our world is and how God will set it right is the writing of
those suffering from Traumatic Stress, encoded
with various numbers, signs, beasts, and disasters to keep its message away
from the secret police of the Empire in charge.
New Testament scholar Ernst Käsemann referred to Apocalyptic as “the mother
of Christian theology.” When Jesus
proclaimed that God’s Reign had come near, he was saying that the hopes of Old
Testament prophecy for God setting the world right were being realized and fulfilled
in his ministry and person. This “realized
eschatology” was challenged by his death; but it then was endorsed and embodied
by his coming forth from the dead. Earliest Christians believed that when Jesus
came back from heaven, he would bring the fulfillment of all the parts of OT prophecy
that seemed to not have been fulfilled in his life, death, and resurrection: thus
the “future eschatology” of the “little apocalypse” of Matthew 24, Mark 13, and
Luke 21, as well as the Apocalypse of John.
Hope and fulfillment
are two of the deep themes of scripture.
The interplay between the two is subtle, as shown in the quotes above from
the Gospel of John: the hour is coming,
and is now here.
In our current political and
religious climate, eschatology and apocalyptic are much abused, by so-called Evangelical
rapturists, Christian dominionists, or cult-like followers of grim “Left Behind” fantasies. Followers of Jesus, however, see that at
heart, love, truth, and justice are already here present in the Cross and
Resurrection. God is already at work in
the world about us. The kingdom of lies
and accusation is already being undermined and put to flight. In the words of the Good Friday Solemn
Collect, “things which were cast down are being raised up, and things that had
grown old are being made new, and all things are being brought to their
perfection by him through whom all things were made.”
As we ready for Advent, it is
important to remember that this season celebrates the once and future coming of
our Lord, and his reign that “is coming, and now is.”
Grace and peace,
Fr. Tony+
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