A Church of the Apocalypse
Text: Romans 8:18-25
I don’t know about you folks, but it feels to me that we are living in what my grandmother called ‘the days of A Pig’s Lips.’
I didn’t know what that meant when I first heard it – I think was around six years old – but I could tell it wasn’t a good thing. She seemed concerned, and this was woman whom I had never seen worry about anything.
It wasn’t until several years later (more than I’m willing to admit) that I realized she hadn’t said anything at all about pigs, much less their lips, but rather had been expressing despair over the impending Apocalypse. Her distress wasn’t for herself – that wasn’t her style – but for all those who didn’t yet know Jesus and so would be lost forever.
No wonder she was so concerned over some pig’s lips.
Apocalypse is a strange word and it gets thrown around a lot when we begin to feel just how fragile the accomplishment of our grand human society really is. It’s a word that both Hollywood and would-be-prophets love. It’s a word we’ve all heard, and probably recently.
It is also one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. And part of the reason for that is because it’s not an English word. It’s Greek.
Translated it means: Revelation.
The Apocalypse of John, the last book in the Bible, might be the most complicated, dense, and over-interpreted book in the Bible. Depictions of dragons, beasts, and a quartet of huffish horsemen have captured the imagination of generations of Christians, leading many to see the world through a very dark lens and proclaim their time as the End Times.
I’m sure we have all either entertained or heard others claim as much concerning our own context. We are not an exception to human history, after all, and I have no doubt this is what my grandmother meant all the way back in 1986.
But apocalypse, revelation, was never meant to be a word that strikes terror or causes fear – and neither was the book of Revelation, for that matter. Both were intended to intensify hope and invigorate faith, to bolster conviction and boost confidence in all who believe in Christ Jesus.
God’s apocalypse is not a dark lens that casts shadows on our world, but rather a light lit by the revelation of his love through Jesus Christ – a light that we, as disciples, are called to shine as the Body of Christ in the world.
We, the Church, are an apocalypse of God that, as Paul tells us, ‘the whole creation breathlessly awaits with anticipation,’ (Romans 8:19). He goes even further, saying: ‘We know that the whole creation is groaning together and suffering labor pains up until now,’ (v. 22).
Until now. Until when? Until what?
Until God.
Until God revealed his unconditional and uninterrupted love for all creation in Jesus Christ, and poured that same unconditional and uninterrupted love into our hearts, so that we together as the Church become just the ‘first fruits’ of a harvest that will include all of creation.
I think we can all agree that our world is in suffering and pain right now – and we can hear the groans of the sick, the oppressed, and all of us who have been seized by fear.
But rather than cower, looking for signs of The End, my hope is that we will join the First Fruits of the harvest of God’s love – that we become a companion to the confined, ally to the ailing, and that we open our ears to those who have gone unheard.
The whole creation is waiting for the revelation of God’s children – breathlessly anticipating it, because it is desperate for the love of God that shines within them.
Will we be part of that Revelation, Northside?
Are we ready to bring about the Apocalypse of God’s love?
