|
Sermon
for 22 Pentecost Yr B, 9/11/2003 |
Based
on Heb 9:27-28 |
|
Grace
Lutheran Church, Medicine Hat, AB |
By
Pastor Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson |
Death, judgement, and the second coming of
Jesus. On this third last Sunday of the church year, as well as on the next two
Sundays, there is an increasing focus on these sort of themes—which foreshadow
and prepare us for the next season of the church year, Advent. We mainline
Christians tend not to dwell much on these biblical themes of death, judgement
and the second coming of Jesus. So, today I’m inviting you to explore with me a
little what these themes mean for us as followers of Jesus in the twenty-first
century.
First then, death. The author of Hebrews says that, “it
is appointed for mortals to die once.” The Good News Bible puts it like this,
“Everyone must die once.” And the Revised English Bible translates it as
follows, “it is our human lot to die once.” The author obviously faces
and accepts the reality of death, and instructs readers of this letter to do
likewise. As you know, it has often been said that there are three
certainties in this life—death, taxes, and change. It seems that we humans have
our difficulties dealing with all three, don’t we?! Our society and culture
is a death-denying society and culture.
It seems that we do almost everything we can to deny the
reality of death. It was comedian Woody Allan who about summed it up for a
lot of folks, when he said: “It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want
to be there when it happens.” Mark Twain, in his usual, hard-hitting satirical,
matter-of-fact, ironic way once quipped: “We owe a deep debt of gratitude to
Adam, the first great benefactor of the human race: he brought death into the
world.” What both Woody Allan and Mark Twain communicate here is the
difficulty that our society and culture have in dealing with death.
One wonders why this is the case. One reason may be that here
in North America life is too good. For many of us, we enjoy heaven on earth. If
that’s the case, then why be in such a hurry to leave all that we enjoy here,
right now?! We have been blessed—some would say cursed—with the highest
standard of living in the world. Our consumerism and materialistic-obsessed
lifestyle would have us believe that our quality of life is bound up with the
power to purchase and possess goods and services. Why would people want to die
and leave all of their “stuff” behind?
Another reason why we have such a time facing death is that our
society and culture bows down and worships at the altar of “eternal youth.”
Eternal youth has become one of the most popular false gods of our society. We
see it especially in the mass media, where most of the advertisements immortalize
eternal youth. One of the greatest sins of today is for a person to grow older,
and reveal their grey hair and wrinkles. Someone was in a conversation with a
surgeon and they asked her: “What is the most common kind of surgery you do?”
The surgeon replied, “Facelifts!” The more our society and culture can hide and
ghettoize the aging process and our senior population; the more they can deny
the reality of death. Rather than honouring our seniors and learning from the
wisdom that they have embodied through a lifetime of experiences; our society
and culture ignores them, belittles them, and makes them feel that they are
guilty of the unforgivable sin of growing old. I cannot count the number of
seniors who have told me: “Pastor, I don’t want to be a burden to my family or
anyone else.” Such a remark reflects how disenfranchised seniors really are—it
is an expression of how they feel reduced to live their lives in a ghetto
rather than in the midst of everyone else and continuing to make significant
contributions to others.
Yet another reason why some people have such difficulty in
facing death is their lack of faith in another life beyond this one. For
some, this life here on earth is the only one that we’ve got—hence, we must
cling onto it with all the power that we can muster. For such people, this life
is not a dress rehearsal, a preparation for some better life to come. No, it is
all we’ve got. Therefore, it is pointless to waste any time living in hope or
dreaming of a future life. For such folks, there is no such thing as an
afterlife or a heaven.
Over against all of these attempts to deny death, we as people
of faith offer another counter-cultural approach to the reality of death. In
faith we are able to face death, accept it, and even look forward to it with
the hope of a better life beyond this one. Here we have much to learn from
some of our heroes of faith. Listen to the following last recorded words of
these heroes. Martin Luther said: “Our God is the God from whom cometh
salvation: God is the Lord by whom we escape death.” John Knox said: “Live in
Christ, live in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death.” John Calvin said:
“Thou, Lord, bruisest me; but I am abundantly satisfied, since it is from Thy
hand.” John Wesley said: “The best of all is, God is with us. Farewell!
Farewell!” And his brother, Charles Wesley said: “I shall be satisfied with Thy
likeness—satisfied, satisfied!”
In these last words, we have a deep sense of confidence that
“all is well.” As Christians then we need not deny the reality of death or
fear it. Rather, we can place all of our trust in Christ who is the
resurrection and the life; he will see us through death, and he has promised a
place for us with him in the life to come.
This leads us into the second theme of the day, judgement. The
author of Hebrews tells us after death we shall face “the judgement.” Once
again this is a subject that most of us don’t like to dwell too much on, we’d
rather avoid it. Who really enjoys being judged, even in this life? Most people
have a lot of anxiety about and dread the thought of having to go to court.
Likely none of us really enjoys being called on the carpet to be confronted
with the wrongs or sins that we have committed. How much more do we dread and
perhaps fear the thought of facing God the All-Seeing, All-Knowing Judge, who
shall set before us every single thought, word and action! Who can face up to
such a Judge? However, as difficult as it might be, it is quite clear that
we shall face the judgement of God; there are a number of references in the
Bible to a day of judgement or a day of the Lord. Reading the various
passages that address this subject of judgement, one soon realises that there
are different views of it, hence, most likely, different layers of tradition.
For example, in John 9:39, Jesus says: “I came into this world
for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may
become blind.” Again, in John 12:31,
Jesus speaking of his life, work and imminent death says: “Now is the judgment
of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.” This judgment
refers to the here-and-now, the present time. There is a sense that we
are all being judged every day in what we do and fail to do. Here Jesus is
attesting to that kind of judgement.
Then, in Mark 13, where Jesus speaks of the end times the
judgment associated with this is referred to in the future, which is
left open ended, without a specified time. Jesus says: “But about that
day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but
only the Father.” (Mk 13:32) In the Hebrew Bible, the prophet Amos is very
sober about “the day of the LORD;” he wonders why people would desire such a
day. Rather, he sees it as a day to be avoided and dreaded, he says: “Is not
the day of the LORD darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?”
(5:18-20) According to the prophet Zephaniah 1:14-18, the day of the LORD will
bring fire and punishment on all the inhabitants of the earth. No one and
nothing is able to escape it. In the New Testament there are also two very
sobering stories of the future judgement and the finality of it all. In both
Luke 16:19-31 and Matthew 25:31-46 the future judgement involves no negotiating
or compromising or allowing for excuses regarding what one has done or failed
to do in this life. We shall be held accountable for our life and, according to
these passages, be rewarded or punished eternally based on the life that we
have lived here in this world. Once again perhaps we would all do well to pay
heed to the following words of Mark Twain: “Let us endeavour so to live that
when we die even the undertaker will be sorry.” Does that mean we Christians
ought to live forever in fear of God as Judge? NO! Rather, we need to balance
these more sobering passages of scripture with other more comforting passages,
which offer us hope and promise. For example, in 2 Corinthians 5:17, the
apostle Paul says: “If any one is in Christ, s/he is a new creation; the old
has passed away, behold the new has come.” And in John 14:1-3, Jesus speaks
words of great comfort, hope and promise; saying that he has prepared a place
for us in the life to come and, one day, will come for us to bring us there
with him. Thus, in light of these passages we can balance our having to face
God’s judgement and give an accounting of our lives with the hope and promise
that even though we’ve failed and sinned, nonetheless we rely on Christ for
forgiveness and commend our lives into his eternal care.
This leads us into our third theme of today, Christ’s second
coming. Over the centuries, there have been all kinds of predictions about
Christ’s second coming—all of which have been wrong. If this teaches us
anything, surely it points out that we are not to waste our time concentrating
on predicting when Christ shall come again. The author of Hebrews speaks of the
second coming like this: “So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins
of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who
are eagerly waiting for him.” As we discovered earlier Jesus himself said he
didn’t know when the end times would occur. Why then have so many people
supposed that they know more than Jesus himself and therefore made their
predictions of Christ’s second coming? Is not such a focus due to a misreading
and incorrect interpretation of the Bible? I believe that it is!
For example, a careful reading of the Bible indicates that Jesus
himself at least hinted life would continue to go on for a while. When he
speaks to his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20, he charges them first of all with
the task of going to make disciples of all nations, and secondly, he ends with
this promise: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Here
we are definitely given the impression that it is going to take some time to
make disciples of all nations, and the reassurance that Jesus is going to be
with us always, would not be necessary if he were coming soon. Therefore, what
this and other passages do for us as followers of Christ is to give us hope and
confidence that he is with us no matter what. We need not fear the end or his
coming again. Rather, we can be among those “who are eagerly waiting for him”
by living freely each day and making the most of each day. In such a way, the present
and future are not motivated by fear or dread; but trust and hope that our
lives can make a difference for others and are well looked after by a God and
Saviour who loves us, both now and forever. Amen.