End Times

You have to love Juneau. I hiked out to touch the glacier today (not on the ice so don't scold me). There is something seductive about her on a beautiful day like today. I wasn't going to hike that far, but she seemed so close and tempting with the strange cold and dry touch she has. 

I also love Juneau because this weekend we had a couple of dinosaurs dancing in the roundabout at one intersection and two guys with "The End is Near" signs at another.  I was fascinated by the fellows on Sunday morning warning us that the end is near and to read Isiah 24. 

I nearly lost it. I would have rolled down my window and yelled the correct spelling of Isaiah but I had three teens in my car. Even if the end is near, spell things correctly. Mrs. Mackey, my second grade teacher, would not be happy with such sloppy spelling especially when it is flaunted at an intersection.

It made me think of the quote attributed to Martin Luther, "Even if I knew tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." Even in the end times, pay attention to details and live as if one has hope. 

Live as if one has hope, but hope in what?



How we view the end times influences how we live in the present and how we hope.

If I view the end as a pissed off god destroying all the non-believers and the earth, then there's a good chance I will kind of be a jerk not cherishing the gift of the earth or honoring the perspectives of those who do not believe as I do.

If I view the end as all about having the most stuff and lasting as long as I can before it all gets destroyed, then there's a good chance I will kind of be a jerk.

If I view the end as all creation called into communion with the God of love, then there's a good chance I'll still be a jerk, but at least I will recognize that is not consistent with the end as witnessed to in our faith. 

But that is why I would plant an apple tree, or kale in our case, and that is why I would spell check Isaiah before putting it on a sign. My hope is in the calling of all creation into the communion of love. There are all kinds of violent and destructive images in the book of Revelation, but it ends by saying, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen."