Approaching the End

 

 

Texts: Malachi 4:1-2a; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19

 

Next week we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year, when we sum up all that we have heard during the last year, and every other year before this one.   It is the climax of the Christian story, our story that is also, first and foremost, God's story.  We should not be surprised to hear that it all ends in Christ.

 

Over the last few weeks we have been working towards this conclusion as we have gradually turned our gaze from what happened, to what it means for us, and then to what is still to come.   We might say that each year we look first to the past as we are reminded of the great events of the whole Christ event, from his incarnation at Christmas to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.   Then we look to the present as we ponder what it all means for us in the here and now, as we try to live our lives of faith in this country, in this place, in this time.   Then we look to the future, the future towards which we are constantly journeying as God works his purposes out.

 

In doing all this each and every year we are guided by the great framework of our faith, summed up in various "slogans" that occur from time to time in the Scriptures and in our liturgies.   God is the God of the past, the present and the future.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.   He is the One who was, who is and who is to come.  He is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

 

So now we are approaching the end; and the first thing to notice is that word "end".  In English it has two interesting but different meanings, and both of them are important for the understanding of our faith.   The obvious meaning is "finish" or "conclusion".  Films always used to have the words "The End' on them, in case we didn't realise the thing had finished.   Novels, too, often had the same words printed at the bottom of the last page – (but not, for some reason, books of non-fiction, short stories or poetry).   But that meaning of "end" is clear.  There is no more –it's finished.

 

The second meaning of "end" is not quite so obvious; it is something like "aim" or "purpose": the end we have in mind when we set out to do something.   That which we aim to achieve.  And, of course, the two meanings coincide when we achieve our end – our task is finished, it is ended.   And here we have the heart of the Christian teaching about the end times, or the end things, or simply the end of the story.  The end comes when God has achieved the end he had in mind in creation.

 

We had that end spelt out for us two weeks ago (All Saints Sunday) with that glorious reading from the first chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians.   The end or vision that God had in mind in creating the universe and everything in it was to have a Significant Other to love and to be loved by.  All through time God has been wooing his creation, and in particular humanity, to receive his love and to give him our own.  He seeks a free and loving relationship with his creation.

 

But loving relationships don't happen overnight, as the saying goes.  They take time.    Along the way difficulties arise.  Patience and endurance are called for, as well as understanding and forgiveness.  In one sense the whole of Scripture is an account of that love story, of God's wooing of humanity, and of our failures in response.   It is a story that is still unfolding, we live our lives in its pages; and yet we know how it ends.  It is a love story with a happy ending.   In the end, God wins our love – achieves his end – finishes creation.  The End.

 

Except that the end lasts for all eternity.  There is now forever more.   Time ends but life doesn't.  Life continues outside time.  That's what we mean by "eternal life" – not life going on much as it is now for ever, but life as we know it transformed into eternal life, of which at the moment we have only brief glimpses, if that.   Not only is eternal life beyond time, it is beyond our words, beyond our imaginings.  Having got to this part of our story it is time to fall silent.

 

Today's readings point to this difficulty.  The old Testament, like the New Testament, points forward towards the end without telling us much about what the end will be like.   For some reason we are given only a brief extract today from the last chapter of the last book in the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi.  The chapter is only 6 verses long, so we could have had the lot, but we have been left to read the rest of it for ourselves.   In my Bible the chapter is headed, "The Day of the Lord"; and the first thing that Malachi says about the day is that it is coming.  And the second definite thing is that the Day will be bad news for the wicked, but good news for the people of faith.

 

Beyond that it has to be said, Malachi seems a bit hazy about the details.  For you who revere my name, he says, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.  And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.  All of which may or may not strike you as something to really look forward to.  But the key is right there: as people of faith we look forward.

 

The Thessalonians were looking forward with gusto!  But some of them were so busy looking forward that they were no longer looking out: they were so focussed on the future, they were no longer concerned with the present.   As the old saying has it, they were so heavenly-minded, they were no earthly use.  St Paul did not mince his words.   Those who have stopped work while they wait for Christ's return shall not eat.  St Paul says they are to "settle down and earn their bread".  We live in expectation, we live in hope, we look for the coming of the Lord, but we live in the present.  And in the present, in the meantime, we must "never tire of doing right".

 

Once again, our chosen reading has missed out an important point of St Paul's teaching.  At the beginning of this last chapter of his letter, he asks for prayer that "the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured".   As that happens, of course, so God's end is fulfilled and the end comes ever nearer.

 

In today's gospel reading, Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem, seemingly for the first time; for the Twelve Disciples are doing the tourist-thing at the Temple.   They are struck, not by the holiness of the place, but by its enormity and beauty.  As faithful Jews we might have expected them to be moved by its sacredness, but the fact that they, a bunch of fishermen and the like from far distant and despised Galilee, are now standing near the House of the Lord.   But they notice in particular how the great building is "adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God".

We can imagine the shock they must have felt when Jesus assured them that the time was coming when the Temple would be destroyed.   When would this happen, they wanted to know.  And so, once again, our readings turn our attention to the future.

 

And once again the details are fuzzy.  The world will get worse, before it gets better, for them personally and for the rest of humanity.   They will be persecuted for their faith.  Jesus himself will give them the words to say in their own defence; and yet some of them will be put to death.

 

Is that the end in store for them?  No, it isn't, for Jesus gives them this assurance: But not a hair on your head will perish.   By standing firm you will gain life."  Even those who are put to death for their faith will gain life.  Why?  Because the end God has in mind is to share his eternal life with all those who love him.

 

The End.