March 5, 2007
The Rev. Thomas William Blake

In January, Trinity Institute, a ministry ofTrinity Episcopal Church in New York City, hosted a conference entitled “God'sUnfinished Future.”  Grace Church, along with the pastoral care departmentat Ball Memorial Hospital, facilitated a live viewing of the conference inMuncie via the web. The conferencecan be viewed on demand from Trinity’s web site, http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/education.

Keynote speakers for the conference included Dr. JürgenMoltmann, The Rev. Barbara R. Rossing, and The Rev. Professor Peter J.Gomes. Their lectures focused on end-timetheologies and their relevance for us in the world today.

Almost all of what we otherwise hear on thesubject comes from fundamentalists with theologies that, according to thespeakers, are poor interpretations of the Book of Revelation and otherapocalyptic literature in the Bible.  For example, the idea of a"rapture" as perpetuated in the popular Left Behind novels, from which the "saved" will be sweptoff the face of the earth while the "unsaved" will be left behind, isnot a scriptural idea.

Such emphases on escaping from the earth, quitecontrary in fact to the Christian gospel, contribute to a lackof regard for responsible ecological and environmental stewardship.  If weplan to be exhumed from the earth, then why worry about the effect ourgas-guzzling SUV’s may have on the polar ice-caps, for example?  Or, ifthe end times are near, why worry about developing alternative fuelsources?  The oil should last as long as we need it. Again, such thinking is not the Christian gospel. We are called always to be wisestewards of God’s creation.

Even more disturbing, though, is using questionableend-time theologies to justify inconsistent and often bad foreign policies.  For example, in part because support for the state of Israel is understood bymany fundamentalist Christians as a necessary precursor to the end of theworld, those who shape American foreign policy have largely turned a blind eyeto Israel’s occupation since 1967 of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The United Nations does not recognizethese territories as belonging to the State of Israel, and the ongoingoccupation continues to cause severe tension in the Middle East and the largerworld. Many of the same people whofelt so strongly in the early 1990s that Iraq should not occupyKuwait essentially have not held Israel to the same standard.

Perhaps also related to rapture theology is thisincreasingly prevalent "friend or foe" worldview.  As PresidentBush said after September 11, 2001, "if you are not for us, you areagainst us."  I agree with him insofar as terrorism is alwaysinexcusable. A proper reading andembracing of the book of Revelation, though, (the book of Revelationessentially brought hope to people oppressed by the imperialism of ancientRome) would give us no option but to be critical of many of our American tendenciesand actions. From the perspectiveof many in the world, these tendencies and actions do very much resembleimperialism.

As the world’s only superpower at least for thetime being, Americans have a duty and responsibility to hold ourselvesaccountable. How do our actionsimpact others? What is it that wehave done to make others angry with us? How can we seek reconciliation? A careful reading of the Greek, as one of the conferences speakerspointed out, is that the "world" coming to an end in Revelation isnot the "earth" but the current world order.  Those few of us inthe developed world, and particularly Americans, will not be able to sustainour irresponsible use of the world's resources on the backs of the majority ofpeople in the world victimized as a result.

Moderate and liberal Christians have for too longignored the apocalyptic sections of scripture, and in so doing have givenfundamentalists license to misrepresent the Christian faith and misshapeAmerican environmental and foreign policy, not to mention domestic culture andpolitics.  As the conference reminds us, it is time we begin talking aboutbiblical apocalyptic literature in a more constructive way.

Christianity is rooted in incarnation. We are not about escaping or ignoringthe earth, but participating in its transformation.  We believe that thepromise of God is to transform creation into the heavenly vision articulated inapocalyptic literature.  Every week, Christians around theworld pray that God's will be done on earth as in heaven.  Again,God empowers humankind as stewards of the earth.

How then do we responsibly live into thatstewardship?  How do we become proactive in curbing and turning back thereckless destruction of the environment?  How do we bring an end to wars,classism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, hatred, and all oppression,and truly respect the dignity of every human being? In the nameof our faith, let us envision and work toward that new city,Jerusalem, where every tear is wiped away, and pain and sorrow are no more.