Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from 2 Peter 3:8-15a
at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston on December 6, 2008 (Advent 2B)
at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston on December 6, 2008 (Advent 2B)
Edgar Cayce predicted Armageddon will arrive, the earth's axis will shift, and both England and Japan will sink in to the ocean. New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco will be destroyed by earthquakes and floods. And the island of Atlantis will rise from the ocean floor. All of these things were supposed to happen by 2002.
God's Salvation Church in Taiwan believes Jesus will come to earth in a spaceship during the middle of a nuclear war. Members of God's Salvation Church will climb aboard the spaceship at Lake Street Beach in Miller, Indiana and be saved.
Evangelist Marilyn Agee predicted that the rapture would happen on Pentecost Sunday in 1999. The rapture, she believed, would trigger various events listed in the book of Revelation, including the war of Armageddon. (Online: www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl9.htm)
These recent illustrations are nothing new. In practically every generation of humans from the time of Jesus until today there have been people and groups of people who have sold all their possessions and moved out into a pasture in the middle of nowhere expecting Christ to return to earth on a particular day of a particular year. Imagine their disappointment on the day after -- when Jesus did not return as they had expected.
Predictions of the end of the world were rampant even in Jesus' day and time. The resurrected Christ had told his disciples that he would ascend into heaven, but that he would one day return to earth. As we say in the creed, "He ascended into heaven . . . from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead." Almost from Day One the church has believed that Jesus will bodily return to earth. So Christians have waited and waited for the return of Christ and the Day of God's Judgment.
The delay of Christ's return became an issue for early Christians. We can see movement in the way the Apostle Paul and other writers of the New Testament viewed the issue. For instance, our text today seems to make room for the possibility that Christ's return should not be expected immediately. We read in 2 Peter: "Don't overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn't late with his promise as some measure lateness." (2 Peter 3:8) Apparently, God is not running late. Even if it sometimes feels that way. Rather, God has a reason for delaying the curtain call of human history. As our text puts it: "God is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn't want anyone lost. He's giving everyone space and time to change." (2 Peter 3:9)
So here is another way of viewing the question of when Jesus will return. The longer Christ waits the better off we humans are because the extra time gives more people space and time to change. Even so, the Bible does teach that there will come a day of reckoning at some point in history. Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps a million years from now. But there will come a day of God's judgment.
Some churches focus on that terrible day of God's judgment. And the churches that focus on such verses can produce some hard core preachers who specialize in tough talk.
Tough talk. We don't hear much tough talk from Presbyterian pulpits. That may be why we worship in the Presbyterian Church. Perhaps, like me, you have heard the tough talk and are glad to get a break from it. Back in high school for awhile my family attended a small Baptist church and every Sunday you could count on tough talk from the preacher. The content of what he said did not matter. It was the tone of voice. The bulging veins in the neck. The red face.
But while the image of disaster is one image of the final judgment there is another more positive image that accompanies it. It is the vision of a new heaven and a new earth. You see, the final judgment is not about God being so mad at the world that God destroys the whole thing with a ball of fire. Rather, the Bible is very specific about what God is mad at most and that is injustice. God is angry at a world that prospers the privileged and takes advantage of the poor. That will change when He returns. God is angry at a world in which the powerful abuse the powerless. That will change when He returns. In the new heaven and the new earth things will be different. Christ's return will usher in a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
The prophet Isaiah paints this portrait of the new heaven and the new earth:
The wolf will romp with the lamb,
the leopard sleep with the kid.
Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,
and a little child will tend them. (Isaiah 11:6)
In the meantime, we are to live in without spot or blemish. We are to lead lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. And even as we work for God's justice on earth now, during our lifetimes, we appreciate the fact that Christ's return is being delayed. After all, the longer Christ waits the more chance people have to grow into the mystery of God's new heaven and earth.
In the end, words fail us. There is no way to describe the scope and the wonder of what God intends to do in this world. We are left with mere images. Poetic language may be as close as we can get to the mystery. Poetic language such as this ...
Of every earthly plan that be known to man,
Christ is unconcerned,
He plans of His own
to set up His throne
When He returns.
(When He returns. Bob Dylan. Copyright (c) 1979 Special Rider Music)
Christ will return. We anticipate that event during Advent. The writer of 2 Peter provides an explanation for why it hasn't happened. God's giving everyone space and time to change. Space and time to change. That is God's gift to you, to me, during this Advent season. Space and time to change. What a precious gift God gives us.
As you think about what you will give to your family and friends, your colleagues and business associates, consider giving them the same gift God will be giving you this Christmas: Space and time to change.
