239 Prepping for the Beginning

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Prepping for the Beginning”, originally shared on November 9, 2022. It was the 239^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.) 

   Preppers are getting ready for the end of the world as they know it. Christians are prepping for another beginning as God knows it. How can that be? Today, we’re going to find out.

   A new Church Year will start on November 27^th, four Sundays before Christmas, on the first Sunday of Advent. It will focus on the history of salvation and will prepare us for the story of the new life in Jesus Christ coming at Christmas.

   And, as the current year comes to its end, our readings focus on the end of the world, the coming of Jesus Christ in Judgment, the perfection of the Reign of God, and the coming new heaven and the new earth.

   Depending on how you thought the mid-term elections went this past week, you may think that the world is coming to an end, or that it is just beginning.

   Or you may look at the wars and insurrections happening around the world and the threat of the world conflagration that is nuclear warfare and think that the world is actually close to its end, at least as we know it.

   Near the beginning of the pandemic, I saw a meme parodying the familiar green and red cover of the children’s book, “Good Night, Moon”. It said, “Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Zoom, Goodnight Sense of Impending Doom.”

   There is something to that in the world’s mood today.

   I remember when our son came home with a flier alerting parents to the “active shooter drill” that the school would be holding in the near future.

   We thought about how awful the world was where such things were necessary for children. Then we remembered that when we were about his age, our schools held nuclear war drills. We were taught not to look at the windows so that the blasts wouldn’t blind us. We were taught to go to the hallways so that we wouldn’t be shredded by flying glass. We were gathered in the basements where the survival food was kept so that, though I don’t remember that it was ever spelled out, we would have food and water when our parents weren’t able to come and get us.

   Some people built “fall-out” shelters in their back yards to protect themselves and their families. The Civil Defense agency of the government provided easy to follow plans.

   Science fiction was full of reflections on these shelters. What if your neighbors, or friends, or other relatives came pounding on your door? Would you let them in? What if they were desperate? Would you kill to protect your can of corn? And what would await you when you had to come out?

   We were preparing for the end of the world in the hope that some of us might survive. But, survive for what?

   The Bible has a lot to say about the end of the world, and it is our focus at the end of the Church Year.

   It tells us that the end of the world is followed by a new beginning.

   The new year begins with the season of Advent.

   Advent means “coming”, We live between two advents: the coming of Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem, and the coming of Jesus as Lord and Savior in the Final Judgement, with salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

   When will this happen?

   Nobody knows. People have been saying that they have the key to understanding the signs of the end for two thousand years, and so far every one of them has been wrong. Christian movements have arisen, built around the claim to have discovered the secret to the signs of the end, and so far, every one of them has been wrong.

   All we can know is that the end of history will be preceded by signs,

   But those signs are not there for us to have a time-code to crack. Those signs are there to show the meaning of the end, and the role that Christians play in the revelation of it.

   They are there to show us that life has meaning and purpose even in the worst of times, and that God is ultimately in control of how everything ends and what happens after.

   This happens in Luke 21:5-11,

⁵When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶“As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” ⁷They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” ⁸And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. ⁹“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” ¹⁰Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

   Does any of that sound familiar? How do we live as Christians in our own time?

   Martin Luther, the 16^th Century church reformer, was reputed to have been in his back yard one day, digging a hole. An apple tree was nearby, ready to be planted.

   A member of the church he served came by and spoke with Dr. Luther about the member’s belief that the signs of the end were being fulfilled in their own time.

   He asked, “Dr. Luther, what would you do if you knew that the world was going to end tomorrow?”

   Luther didn’t miss a beat, but replied, “I would plant my apple tree.”

   We go on about out daily work as we are called by God to live in each day. That daily work is to live the Christian life, to bear witness to the hope that is within us, to testify to the world that God has come in human flesh in Jesus Christ to suffer and to die on the cross in order to reconcile humanity to himself, and he calls all people to repent, to turn away from the rebellion that is killing them, and toward a loving and gracious God and receive life.

   We best prepare by opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit to make us God’s people.

   Jesus says this, in the first century context, in Luke 21:12-19

 ¹²“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³This will give you an opportunity to testify. ¹⁴So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; ¹⁵for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹By your endurance you will gain your souls.

   We got some much-needed rain this week. It was streaming down the street, off the roof, and through the downspouts. It brought some relief from the drought, but it also changed the landscape in the burn areas. In some place schools were closed.

   We Southern Californians are pretty chill when it comes to earthquakes. But if ½” of rain is predicted, we are all on “Storm Watch!”

   We the people of God are a people set apart. How do we get ready for the end of life as we know it and the coming perfection of the Reign of God.

   Water that was moving was once called “living water”. “Streams of living water” is used as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit in both the Old Testament and New Testament sections of the Bible.

   The Holy Spirit moves us, it changes things, it brings us life, it turns us around and upside down, it brings new life. It makes of us a new creation, we are born again, we are made God’s people.

   I was a Boy Scout. What’s the Boy and Girl Scout motto? “Be prepared.”

   How do we live in a material world now in reference to the Day of Judgement, the end and the beginning? How do we endure the rejections of our day, different in kind and degree from those of the Christians of Jesus’ time.

   Some people are stockpiling food, tools, and weapons, learning to live off the grid. They sometimes call themselves “preppers” because they are preparing for the end.

   How do we prepare? Jesus says that the meaning of the end for us lies in our coming opportunities to testify. How do we get ready? By allowing the Holy Spirit to shape us.

   Jesus says, “make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.”

   Let the Holy Spirit flow within you to make you who you are. The end is coming. God prepares us by making us the people we were always created to be.