Today's Scripture

2 Peter 3:8-15a

⁸But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. ⁹The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. ¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

¹¹Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, ¹²waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? ¹³But, in accordance with God’s promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

¹⁴Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by God at peace, without spot or blemish; 15aand regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.  THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD.  THANKS BE TO GOD.

Today's Sermon

“Hastening”

            Some years ago, I found our home eerily empty.  Sherri must have been at work or otherwise out and mysteriously our cats, which are exclusively indoor cats, were nowhere to be found.  My mind went to the first place one’s mind goes in such moments—this must have been the rapture, when the faithful are sucked up into heaven and the others left behind.  My conclusion:  the cats had made it, my spouse had made it, I had not. 

            There is a description in one of Paul’s letters that bears some resemblance to this description (without the cats), one with which some novels and some Christians have been obsessed.  Talking about where creation was ultimately headed was a common topic for early Christian writers, but they did not understand it uniformly.  Paul himself, as we said last week, seemed to change his mind about it.  Today’s passage from 2^nd Peter, one of the later books in the Bible, is a response to what was clearly a question, even frustration, of the early Christian community, namely why had Christ not returned and fixed everything.  When was this heaven on earth we’ve all been waiting for coming?  The answer, in part: “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years” (2 Pet. 3:8). 

            More waiting.  This is a theme of Advent.  The way a child so overtly feels waiting for that distant day of presents maybe mirrors a deeper longing in the hearts of us all.  We are told this longing will be fulfilled.  In the meantime, are we simply to wait and endure, as we spoke about last week, or is there more?

            I went down a biblical and theological rabbit hole on the question of Christ’s return or the day of God, as does one who thinks his cats may have been taken up in the rapture.  Along the way, I found a fascinating conversation between scholars Peter Enns, Christopher M. Hays, and Casey Strine.  The long and the short of it (or actually just the short of it) is that in biblical thought, prophecy and prediction was not as much temporal as it was conditional.[1]  In other words, things don’t just happen automatically.  Other things need to happen first.  This might explain why it’s so puzzling to modern readers when promises of the Bible seem not to have come true.  The conditions haven’t been met. 

            As a result, 2^nd Peter understand God’s action, or inaction, not as God’s abandonment, rather it is the presence of God’s graciousness.  “The Lord is not slow…as some think of slowness, but is patient…” (v. 9).  2^nd Peter is saying that God wants to give people a chance to get on board with living into their divine calling, to repent.  That word carries a lot of baggage for people, but it is simply about changing, turning, getting back on course.  Prophecy, then, is about driving behavior as much as predicting the future.  The writer says we are to lead “lives of holiness and godliness,” which will actually hasten “the coming day of God” (v. 12).  This is our part as I spoke about last week.  The culture at large wants us to use this season to buy stuff to make ourselves feel better.  Christians ought to use it instead to remind ourselves to do our part to hasten the day of the Lord. 

            Maybe you saw the headline in the paper the other day:  “Marin dominates racial segregation rankings in UC study” pointing out that Six out of the 10 most racially segregated municipalities in the Bay Area are in Marin County.”[2]  Maybe other pressing issues in the community call to you.  Now what could be done about that, or the many problems facing our community.  This congregation is filled with smart, resourceful, resourced, creative people.  How might we be engaging as people of Jesus on that front?  We are to live lives of holiness and godliness to help hasten the day of God when righteousness, justice, is at home here. 

            It is not Christian to reduce the faith to trusting God will simply come and fix everything. As Chuck Queen puts it,

           We don’t need more Christians to believe in some end-time cataclysmic shake-up. What we desperately need right now is more Christians to see the possibilities of Christ in glory here and now, to claim who they are in God and to become the body of Christ: feeding the hungry, caring for the vulnerable, healing the wounded, liberating the oppressed, and working for peace and restorative justice in the world.[3]

         Another way of saying it is while we are waiting for God, God is waiting for us, not to show up frantically with our own messianic complexes.  Rather, with the full confidence that once we do our part creating the conditions for the fulfillment of all things, we will find that the God we are waiting for is at the door…and the cats, well, they’re just hiding under the bed.  

Amen.

 

[1] https://peteenns.com/why-jesus-hasnt-come-back-yet-according-to-the-new-testament/

[2] https://www.marinij.com/2020/11/29/marin-dominates-racial-segregation-rankings-in-uc-study/

[3] http://afreshperspective-chuck.blogspot.com/2015/11/must-christians-believe-in-second-coming.html

 

Quotes, Questions & Prompts for Reflection, Discussion, and Prayer

“We don’t need more Christians to believe in some end-time cataclysmic shake-up. What we desperately need right now is more Christians to see the possibilities of Christ in glory here and now, to claim who they are in God and to become the body of Christ: feeding the hungry, caring for the vulnerable, healing the wounded, liberating the oppressed, and working for peace and restorative justice in the world.”
-David Steindl-Rast

1. Christians are sometimes left to either believe in a cataclysmic return of Christ or disregard the second coming as silly? Might there be other faithful options? If so, what might they look like?

2. As Christians, for what do we wait?

3. What does the process of waiting teach us about life?

4. How does Christmas change things?

5. What are you doing this season to set it apart?