I look forward to seeing you all on Sunday. We'll meet for church, catch up for a few minutes, laugh and joke, maybe go out to lunch, and then we'll celebrate that the world hasn't ended. Or, we'll cry because we haven't been included in the rapture. These peeps that have been saying that the rapture will occur on the May 21 and then the end of the world will be on October 21 aren't reading the same Bible I am.
It has got me thinking though, what would I do if I were these people?
I'd be so convinced that the end of the world is coming that I'd want to tell people. I'd plan out an awesome Saturday lunch with friends and then retreat to my home. I'd probably lie down in bed and hope to be taken in my sleep.
But...what would happen when the stroke of midnight struck? Would I get worried? Would I call my fellow church members? Would I call my adversaries? Would I try to figure out if I had just missed the mark, or would I think I had been left behind? How would I show my face in public again?
I'd see two ways out:
- Mass suicide with all who think the way I do.
- Go in to hiding.
(I struggle deeply with the concept of suicide. It's a rough thing that has plagued our world for all of time. It's extremely sad and unfortunate.)
So, I think I'd have to go with hiding. After all, Osama hid in plain sight for ten years.
I think I'd take my church members and go into hiding. I'd secure some random island that no one knew about, figure out a way to get myself, my family, and all my friends there. Then I'd live there until people forgot that I had proclaimed the end of the world and judged them prematurely.
Yeah, hiding would be the only way to keep the news cameras and late night talk shows from taunting and stalking me.
After it had all been planned, I'd probably read over the plans.
I'd think about it, pray about it, and then decide that it sounded like a lot of work.
I'd probably just go ahead and on May 20th tell the world that I'd been making it all up.
Then, I'd go back to the Bible, read it, and decide that the world was actually going to end at a time unknown to man. I'd probably decide that Jesus's message needed to be spread more than ever. But not for the sake of the souls of the "saved."
I'd decide that Jesus's message needed to be spread in a way that eradicated poverty.
I'd decide that Jesus's message needed to be spread in a way that accepted those who has never been accepted.
I'd decide that Jesus's message needed to be spread in a way that showed the world the beauty of the resurrection.
I'd decide that Jesus's message was not modernity's "heaven" but rather, Jesus's "salvation."
Yeah, I think that if I was to decide that the world was going to end, that'd probably be how it'd play out.
We've got to rid the world of the Christianity that is so convinced that it is all about us.
I hope the world ends, because when it does, the pains of the world will no longer be, pain.
Maybe then, the beatitudes will finally come to life in a way that our Church could not accomplish.
-B