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“The Last Word on Wisdom”
Chapel Service
December 6, 2007
Rollins Chapel
Richard R. Crocker, College Chaplain
Text: Revelation 7: 9-17
I love this time of year in the academic calendar. The term is ending. It is
dark early and cold and snowy. Classes are over; final exams are upon us. It is
Advent.
Advent is the time in the Christian year when Christians- some of them,
anyway – think about the impending coming of Christ. Sometimes – well, most of
the time, really - they think about preparations for Christmas – putting up the
Christmas lights, getting out the crèche, cranking up the Christmas music,
buying presents, etc. But it is also intended to be a season of penitence
and preparation for the return of Christ – not in humility, but in glory, not
as baby, but as Lord, not as savior, but as judge.
The reason I like this time of year in the academic calendar is that it
helps reinforce the message of the Christian calendar. It helps us think about
final exams. Not just the exam on the work we have done this term, but the
impending exam on our whole lives. That’s one reason I believe in final exams.
Classes should end with a final examination – not with a wimpy paper. And the
exam should be three hours long, complete and cumulative. It will not surprise
you to learn that I am giving my Writing 5 section, the one on Happiness, a
final exam. It is the only Writing 5 section with a final exam. I believe that,
despite their temporary displeasure, having the course end in this definitive
way will make my students of happiness, in the long term, happy.
Final exams. Dark wintry days. The prospect of going through a great
ordeal and then being released in freedom to celebrate. Advent.
The second coming of Christ, which is one of the major themes of Advent –
his coming to judge the world – seems to be one of the central themes and
beliefs of the Christian Church. The ancient Apostles’ Creed states that “he
ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” This doctrine of
Christ’s return is vitally important and absolutely central to many Christians,
and yet I seems relatively unimportant to many others. What are we to make of
it?
The scripture passage today, from Revelation, is usually understood to be a
picture of the last judgment. It is, of course, a highly poetic and
metaphorical portrayal of an event that none can conceive. The book of
Revelation in general is quite mysterious; I have learned to beware of anyone
who claims to understand it. It is suggestive, rather than definitive. What we
do know about it is that it seems to be written in code, as a way to encourage
Christians to be faithful during a period of great persecution by assuring them
that their suffering is not ultimate. The Roman Empire, despite its apparent
power, will not endure as the great power in the world. Rather, “blessing and
glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God
forever and ever!” (Rev 7:12) The proclamation that Christ will return to judge
the world was very strengthening to people who were being martyred. The
doctrine, of course, has always been more meaningful to Christians who are
among the disinherited than to those who occupy positions of comfort and
influence in the world, who would be happier if things just continue as they
are now.
One way of explaining this doctrine, of course, is to take the tack that was
presented last week in chapel, in explaining another gospel passage. It is to
say that the doctrine of the return of Christ, and the last judgment, was not
the teaching of Jesus himself, but a doctrine invented by the church. Such an
argument has appeal to some of us. It makes us less worried about the final
exam. In fact, it abolishes the final exam. The term of life ends, not
with a bank, but a whimper. And afterward, there is --- who knows? The church
might well want to invent such a doctrine to explain its early powerlessness
and persecution. After all, in its war with the Roman Empire, it certainly
looked like the Empire was winning. To reassure the scattered, persecuted
Christians, such a doctrine was needed.
As you might gather, I tend not to credit such an explanation. The doctrine
of the second coming seems to me far too embedded in the Christian narrative to
have been so interposed. Jesus’ own references to his “coming again”, while not
the central part of his message for me, seems to me – as it has seemed to the
church in general for two thousand years – to be a part of his teaching. Yes,
it does bring comfort to those who are afflicted, and it does bring affliction
to the comfortable. For it asserts that, however we understand it, our lives
are to be judged. They matter. Justice, mercy, compassion matter – not just
power. The ultimate word about the significance of our lives is spoken not by
our peers, not by our obituary, not by our financial legacy, but by Jesus
Christ. This of course is a great statement of faith that is not obvious. But
it is, according to Revelation, the last word of wisdom.
We do not know how such a judgment will take place. The image of Christ
returning in the clouds to judge the assembled multitude of the living and the
dead is obviously a metaphor – obvious to me, that is. Many Christians see it
otherwise. But however it happens, judgment is required if justice and
compassion mean anything. Judgment does not imply, necessarily, hellfire
(though, once again, many Christians seem to require or even delight in such
imagery). But it does require that we somehow come to the knowledge of the
damage we have done to others, and to the overwhelmingly good knowledge of
Christ’s complete forgiveness of us. That is the essence of the gospel. The
judgment is penultimate. Forgiveness is ultimate. Of course we like to hear
forgiveness proclaimed, but forgiveness without judgment, without knowing the
harm we have done, through omission and commission, is empty.
Final examinations. I like the fact that at this time of year, our minds are
concentrated upon them. May they be for us a metaphor of judgment and of grace.
And may the release that we feel when the great ordeal is done be a foretaste
of the glory that awaits us as creatures whose lives are lived in the mercy of,
love, judgment, and forgiveness of God.
In the words that we all have heard, in Handel’s Messiah if no where
else:
Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and
might be unto our God for ever and ever! Amen.
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