Left behind

Not so long ago, the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye was very popular in non Lutheran Christian circles.  It was a series of books about the end times, the second coming of Christ, the apocalypse (you can choose the term that is most familiar to you; they all mean about the same).

Using the imagery from Revelation and other apocalyptic literature in the Bible, this fictional series spoke of massive struggles - even wars - between the faithful and the unfaithful until Christ brings about the end time and the chosen ones will be with God and the others will be 'left behind.'

Not only do I believe these were inaccurate interpretations of scripture, they had a tendency to sound like private militia rantings with limited Christian overtones.

I only bring this up because we are approaching that time in the church year when we consider the end times - the time when Jesus comes again and the kingdom of God is manifest on earth.  It is a time in the future which the hope we all hold (to live eternally in the presence of God) and yet about which we know next to nothing specific.

We get a glimpse of God at work in our own times, especially if we are attentive to places of destruction, hopelessness, oppression and sorrow.  It takes faith to see God at work in those places, but our hope is strengthened when we watch and listen for Jesus. 

It's not about the kind of fear that leads you to climb over your neighbor and grasp at final straws.  As Luther would have told us, "remember your baptism" for in it you were joined to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  Now and forever.  Amen