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A HELPFUL WORD FROM GABRIEL FACKRE – Eschatology, the
doctrine of the Consummation, deals with Christian teaching about the culminating chapter
of the Story. For many people the turning of the final page of life has to do with our won
personal end. What is the meaning of death? What happens to me when I die? Where now is
that loved one who was so much part of my life and is now no longer in our midst?
First we must be clear about what it does not say. In periods of uncertainty and peril,
there is a strong temptation to claim to know far more about the times and seasons than
befits the modesty of classical Christian faith. The history of the Church is replete with
movements that responded to crisis times or circumstances with detailed forecasts of the
how, when, where, and who of the end. Such eschatology becomes apocalypticism with its
blueprint, timetable, map and cast of characters, all in a soon-arriving cataclysmic
conclusion.
…Tellers of the Christian Story are at their best when they observe this counsel
and acknowledge that "We see through a glass darkly" (1 Cor. 13:12). The glass
is not transparent, giving us a full and clear view, but translucent. We have enough light
by which to see and to discern some of the shape of things to come. [1]
connections
Jesus warns about preoccupation with end-times predictions (21:8) and instead commands
simple attentiveness to God’s presence every day: "Be alert at all times"
(21:36). How can you nurture what Jean-Pierre de Caussade called "the sacrament of
the present moment"? He described it this way: "This discovery of divine action
in everything that happens, each moment, is the most subtle wisdom possible regarding the
ways of God in this life." What practices help you cultivate this simple
attentiveness? [2]
gambits
SUSTAINING VISION – Consider Victor Frankl in a Nazi camp during WWII: his was an
apocalyptic reality of being surrounded by death and hideous suffering, men and women
dropping and never rising. He makes a conscious decision to look at life differently. He
looks ahead and sees himself a famous lecturer with a room filled with students scribbling
down his words. He begins to change in attitude; discovers that though still suffering, he
doesn’t despair as much as others. He never tosses his vision aside, but lives for
the future today. Victor Frankl was a survivor—one of the few in his barracks. And he
did see his future come to pass—he did lecture in the classrooms that he had
imagined. And thousands did anxiously await his words.
FREDERICK BUECHNER on the Second Coming . . .
. . . Who knows how he will come, or when, or where. He says himself, "of that
day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father
only" (Matthew 24:36). People who in search of a timetable try to crack the Book of
Revelation [or Matthew 24 or Mark 13 or Luke 21] like a code are on a wild goose chase.
People who claim that all who join their sect will be saved and all others lost are wrong.
The ones who will be saved, Jesus says, are the one s who feed the hungry, welcome the
stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners (Matthew 25:31-46). If you
love, in other words, you’re in. If you don’t, you’re out . . .
. . . No one can say just what will happen when that day comes, but that it will be
a day to remember there is no doubt. The dead will be raised. The Last Judgment will take
place. The present age will end and the new age begin. In Dante’s vision, the
redeemed will shine like a great white rose unfolding petal by petal in the light of
glory. In John’s , the New Jerusalem will come down out of Heaven like a bride.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness," the risen Christ said to his servant Paul (2 Corinthians 12:9). It is in
that hope only that we dare say Amen to the prayer that brings all Scripture to a close.
[3]
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[1] Gabriel Fackre, The Christian Story (Fortress Press), page 222.
[2] Spiritual Formation Bible (Zondervan, 1999), page 1388.
[3] Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking (SF: Harper and Row, n.d.), pp. 101-102.
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