The Season of Advent is upon us. We are once again called to focus some of our thinking on preparedness and we recall John the Baptist's 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord' or perhaps as the band Queen sang 'Are you ready, are you ready for this, are you hanging on the edge of your seat?' Some differences between 'the world' and 'the church' may well be understood as clashes of eschatologies. In our lifetimes we have seen a number of secular eschatologies including the global winter and a new Ice Age, that we would split the Planet through nuclear warfare and planet earth would be no more than a group of meteors and space junk, and the hole in the ozone layer that would cause the oceans to boil dry, and now, of course, we are confronted, almost daily, with dire predictions of climate catastrophe. As Christians, we have no need to affirm or refute any of these, or the many other, dire predictions, however, we do have a need to have a better handle on Christian Eschatology. The first step in making sense of it is to ensure that we do not simply confine it to a discussion of the end of the world. For us that means an understanding that the end of the world is not the end of existence, but rather more the point where time meets eternity. That is to say, it is the interface between time and eternity. Now of course the first time time interfaced with eternity as in creation. You may want to affirm a literal 7-day creation or a divinely inspired evolutionary creation, yet as the spirit brooded over the face of the waters and the words were uttered 'Let there be light' we are talking about the interface of time and eternity. And as Advent calls us to be ready for Christ's return, it also is used as a time to prepare to celebrate the Incarnation. God from before before is born in human flesh, and in Jesus we understand that time and eternity have met again. The Christian life presents many eschatological moments, and as the host is placed in our hands (or mouth) and we hear the words 'the body of Christ' we know that this too is an eschatological moment, and here, in us, time and eternity have met again. The big difference between Secular Eschatology and Christian Eschatology is hope. This of course is the first candle we light on the Advent Wreath, and reminds us that we are called to live as a people of Hope.
I was teaching elementary Sunday school on the 1st Sunday of Advent. This is somewhat challenging to me, which is why I've undertaken the task for a bit. We discuss the Gospel appointed for the Sunday, which in the 1 year lectionary was Matthew 21:1-13. The challenge for me is to glean some sort of broader meaning from the passage, but at a level that children will comprehend. My oldest student astutely recognized that it is mostly the same story read at Palm Sunday. So the question arose, why are we reading it now? This allowed me to segue into an overarching theme of the coming of Jesus, and various ways that it is realized in the Scriptures. When I go out into the country to fill my 4th Sunday appointment at a pair of rural churches, there is a retarded adult who comes to the second service. She listens more attentively than anyone else in the congregation. So I've begun to adjust my preaching for her consumption. I have another one I see once a month in the old folks home who is not of normal intelligence. I feel like working with children and childlike people has broken me of some of the unproductive tendencies that many preachers have. Those people more easily apprehend the joy and peace of the season because they are unburdened by so many of the things that cause doubt and despair in other hearers.
I agree, that eschatology is a difficult subject to discuss with young people, and I think in the main we have tried to avoid it altogether. I am not sure that has always been helpful, and does not encourage people to look out of things eternal breaking into our temporal realities. Sometimes I think we have followed Maree-Antionette and let them eat cake, when we should have provided bread for the journey. I think it is good we have Advent every year.