The World Did Not End…

I am writing this on Thursday afternoon, December 20, 2012. According to the Mayan calendar the world is suppose to end tomorrow. I will schedule this to post on Friday, December 21, 2012.  If you are reading this, good news, the world did not end.

Date-setters and Dooms-dayers abound. Even though Jesus said “Don’t do that.” People keep doing that, and each time they show just how foolish they are for doing it. Remember Y2K? Remember 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will be in 1998. How about, “The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon.” People have been predicting the end of the world since, well, the world began.

People argue over how it started (big-bang evolution or young earth creationism?) and people argue about how it will end: rapture, Anti-Christ, global warming, nuclear armageddon, over-population, and alien-invasion are all popular scenarios.

The Advent and Christmas Seasons anchor me to something more substantial than tabloid theology and superstition. They anchor me to the God who became flesh and dwelt among us. Seems I read somewhere Jesus did not come to destroy but to heal. He did not come to wipe out but to renew.

I am not too worried about how the world will end. I am not going to argue with you about how it all started. What I am interested in is how do we live now in light of the Now But Not Yet Kingdom?

Karl Barth (pronounced “Bart”) was right: God has spoken to this world, and His message is “Jesus Christ.” God’s answer to our human crisis is the man Jesus Christ. God’s Word to us is not just propositions and principles, it is a King and His Kingdom.

My heart fills with majestic awe during this season, captured in this Christmas hymn:

 Joy to the World, the Lord has come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing…

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!

Let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy…

Heaven sings and He brings

All these best things to this world

And we pray, and we say

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

And wonders of His love…

Joy to the World, the Lord has come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.