-
Website
http://emergentnazarenes.blogspot.com -
Original page
http://emergentnazarenes.blogspot.com/2008/12/advent-and-end-times.html -
Subscribe
All Comments -
Community
-
-
Top Commenters
-
Popular Threads
All Comments
I'm also wondering, are there more Naz-mergent conversations happening anywhere else that you guys are aware of?
“Interesting - they have verified the truth of their own Scriptures where it is written, 'They hated me for no good reason.'”
It is interesting that much of contemporary “end-times” rhetoric focuses on what society will look like in terms of sin; the usual accusations or warnings of false doctrine, coupled with media-wide portions of blatant and open practices of debauchery, blanket our traditional dialogue with regard to how we ought to identify these signs to come from up our “in-the-know” watchtower. Yet Jesus directed us to point our eyes specifically to the organized religious establishment “so that when the time comes” we will not be led astray.
“Led astray”….eh?
While living here in the same town where, government rule, fanatical conservatism and humanistic ideology seem to all converge on a regular basis, Olympia, Washington sure has its banners of end-times rhetoric.
If you have seen recently from the supremely delightful FOX news authority on balance and righteousness, the Olympia Capitol has once again contributed to ignite the rank and file conservative in their two-step maneuver of fear-casting and gang assembling, all in the name of holiday cheer and the Prince of Peace. This time it is the state’s “negligence” and/or good practice of actually and appropriately interpreting our First Amendment of Freedom of Speech by giving atheists equal time on the capitol campus next to the seasonal nativity scene that has incited the religious establishment’s tantrum.
In the joyous occasion of the Christmas Spirit, we have this kind response from a very prominent clergyperson from Seattle saying, and I quote the Rev. Ken Hutcherson accusing the Governor Gregoire, “You have led the state of Washington to be the armpit of America. And I'm afraid that our governor is the one adding the offensive odor to the armpit…”
Oh, how wonderful it is to have our sanctified leadership of the Christian church respond with such warm-hearted good tidings.
Perhaps we need to get back to the end-times narrative of what being led astray is really about: legalism. There is much more warning about being led astray by the false-Christ of legalism in the New Testament than there is about “sinful behavior.” Indeed, we have a well-journeyed practice to overlook what Jesus was really warning us about regarding these signs and evidently, who were really the ones bearing the bad fruit of the end-times.
Regardless of how high our advanced skillfulness for aggressive apologetics becomes, there is much more warning to us in the end-times to be free from the doctrine of pride and hate within the church walls than the call to have an answer for your faith by destroying our neighbor’s social environment with crafty proof-texting. However, because we’re really good at finding ways to avoid this problem of ours by attacking our neighbors, we do it because we can. Merry Christmas!
So which of us might truly carry the markers of discernment in the DNA matrix of warnings, being watchful and alert of our current landscape?
Perhaps…just perhaps…this holiday season we can celebrate the foretold arrival of the Wonderful Counselor by being counselors of peace instead of bowing down to worship a king of war who is fashioned by our own political ideology.
John 16:1-4
"All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you…”
Truth is, the inrushing of the Kingdom has begun, and we are privileged to be the advance ambassadors of its coming. And this, for the whole world, is really good news! May the poor be fed, the prisoners released, and the broken-hearted healed!
"see them in the light of the original audience" is the only way to "see". Some of John Dominic Crossan's work is a good place to start, such as Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, 1994, ISBN 0-06-061662-8
Our church has been preaching through Isaiah during Advent, and (with some slight lectionary modifications) we'll be preaching from Isaiah for 6 straight weeks, mostly from 60-66. We have found this to be a powerful way to view advent. We wait with Israel for the Messiah. We look forward to the new heavens and new earth, and we ask God to make us rise up and shine with the light of his righteousness here in this world.
If you're interested 4 of the 6 sermons will be on my blog: www.humblefuture.blogspot.com.