Biblical Text: Luke 21:5-28
The text is Jesus answering the disciple’s questions on the end of the world. The sermon is an attempt to hear it. Because like the disciples we are often in so much shock and horror about the end of something we think is eternal that we can’t hear. Jesus put them into that shock with his answer about the temple – “not a stone will be left.” But then he tries to talk about what such an end actually means. The short answer is: 1) This is this world. These things have always been. Nothing here is eternal. 2) The end of a world is not the end of the world. 3) Don’t worry about the end because your life is safe with Christ regardless of what this old world does. 4) You won’t miss it. You don’t need to look for signs or guess the time. The Son of Man comes with power and great glory. Nobody will miss it.
Now the problem is that isn’t a good a story as “The Omen” or “Left Behind” or even “The Terminator.” And for a variety of reasons theologians and pastors try and hide behind big words. And in doing so, we tend to cede the ground to those horror stories. And instead of an apocalypse being a revealing it becomes a terror. Instead of the eschatological last things causing us to lift up our heads because our redemption draws near we run from one panic to another. But Jesus point is that we already know how it ends. Christ wins. Which frees us to live now.
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