Do Presbyterians really believe Jesus will come back, as he says he will in our gospel today?
William Miller was sure Jesus would return on Oct. 22, 1844. On Oct. 23 a phrase was coined that went down in history: The Great Disappointment. Many Millerites fell into deep depression.
One of Miller’s followers was Ellen White. She redefined the disappointment. The let down came from a false belief Jesus would return to earth on Oct. 22, 1844. Jesus took up his kingdom in heaven. His re – entry to the planet was yet to come. The Seventh Day Adventist Church was built on Ellen White’s teaching.
Are Presbyterians any – day – adventists? Our annual rush to rehearse his first coming answers that question. None of us will look up into the sky to see if he’s actually coming for Christmas.
We don’t want to be lumped in with those Christians who are as sure as Miller was. We’re honest about the state of the world today, but we don’t believe it’s on a steep slide toward a fiery end. We would do well to be more concerned about our own consuming, destructive ways on earth. Do we really believe the world will be consumed or destroyed as a result of Jesus’ judgment of it?
Jesus predicts dark days to come. As of today, in the fall of 2014, many signs of darkness in the world are found. We don’t see those signs through the lens of Mark 13.
What do we do with today’s gospel?
Place Jesus and the first disciples in their time. Place the gospel as we know it about a generation later. Jesus spoke God’s truth to power, pronouncing its ultimate downfall. By the time his words were first written down the end of the world as Jesus and his friends had known it was near. Rome was ready to move conclusively against the chronically troubling Palestinians.
Jesus’ second – generation disciples needed to remember him, and know he knew what was happening all around them. They found hope of salvation in Jesus’ words. They turned to a way of imagining, and a form of literature common in their day. They imagined a curtain pulled back to reveal meaning behind what we experience. It’s called apocalyptic.
Their longing for Jesus’ presence became a dream of his return, riding on a cloud. That longing shaped many of the collected memories of Jesus that made up the four gospels, and many other more wild and wonderful writings.
Did disciples who survived the fall of Jerusalem experience a Great Disappointment when Jesus didn’t come to their rescue? Some did. Most would have known better than to take apocalyptic as literally as William Miller did, and many faithful people after him still do.
Apocalyptic reminded our ancestors in faith that the end of their world wasn’t the end of the world. It assured them there was a power higher even than the powers that could rain terrors in their world. It didn’t offer them an exemption from reality. They suffered with their neighbours.
True freedom exists in imagination. The oppressor may have power over the bodies of the oppressed. If they can imagine themselves in other circumstances they are still free. That’s why forces of empire silence storytellers and take control of the story.
Apocalyptic texts, like Mark 13, were first acts of resistance. Not tables for some future generation to use to chart their future.
Will Jesus come back some day? Anything is possible, whether Presbyterians believe it or not. Our problem isn’t that we’ve stopped waiting for him. We’ve stopped imagining the world as he would have it be.
We’ve surrendered to the imperial narratives of scarcity and consumption. That’s most obvious at this time of the year, if we will but wake up and watch.
