Maranatha – O Lord, Come
The final word of The Revelation of Saint John is, “Maranatha!”
O Lord, come! It is a prayer. Perhaps the oldest prayer in the New Testament as
it is rendered in its original Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the earliest
followers of the Christ. A reminder that Jewish and Christian hope is not about
the end of the world, but rather a return, a beginning or rebirth of the world
as envisioned by prophets like Isaiah: a world in which all persons are
together “walking in the light of the Lord.” [i]
With all its language of arriving, taking, coming and
preparing, alongside the pernicious and very modern sorts of “left-behind” theologies,
it is easy to assume that what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24:36-44 is
some kind of exit strategy – as if Jesus it is time to escape from God’s
creation. The very same creation God describes as “very good”! And it is true
that an entire segment of Christianity is looking and praying for just that –
an exit from God’s ongoing creation toward some kind of Armageddon or Rapture. The
Franciscan Richard Rohr writes in The Universal Christ, “Talk about missing the
point The most effective lies are often the really big ones.” [ii]
Indeed, why would the early Christian community pray “Maranatha”- O Lord, come
– if they believed in such doomsday scenarios?
They knew that their Jesus set out to repair the world that
had been damaged by so much tribalism, greed, idolatry and sin. He was
dedicated to healing such a world – inaugurating what he often called “the
kingdom of God.” He most definitely shared Isaiah’s vision that Jerusalem, the
Temple, and most of all God’s People, would one day unite all persons, that “they
shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
anymore.” [iii]
Where are we now? A long way off from such a shared vision.
Not just rumors of war, but wars prevail. Nations rise up against nations. Armed
struggles and mass shootings. Famines, hurricanes, family struggles. Nations
divided against themselves. Families divided against themselves. Messiah’s of
all types come claiming to bring the Word of Christ and the solution to all of
our problems. Do not listen to them, says Jesus. They are all false prophets,
says Jesus. Is it any wonder that there is renewed interest in settlements on
the Moon or on Mars? Is it any wonder that many dream of an escape from it all?
Advent has always been characterized by the Biblical virtue
of waiting – those who wait upon the Lord will rise up as on eagle’s wings and
run without being weary! [iv]
Is it possible for us to imagine that in a story which begins with Jesus, the
man who embodies what it means to be “made in God’s image,” is threatened with
death from the Empire as a toddler, suffers all kinds of conflict and violence,
and yet ends with the Christ rising from the dead, that perhaps it is Christ
who is waiting? Waiting to return? Who is waiting for us to get on with the
work he gives us to teach, heal and unite a broken world? Who waits for us to
strive for justice and peace for all people, respecting the dignity of every
human being? Who waits for us to teach war no more? Who waits for us to preach
the faith, hope, mercy and love of God? Waiting to see a world “redeemed by
Christ-like love; all life in Christ made new”? [v]
And that those being “taken” are not those who are saved, but those who
continue to believe the big lies and fight for them? That those who are left are those who walk in
the Lord’s light? Who practice faith, hope, love, mercy and healing among all
people? Loving their neighbor – all neighbors – as they love God and love
themselves?
There is, as he says, no timetable for all of this. No one
knows when he will return. But time is an ever-flowing stream, and the
Universal Christ is well practiced in waiting - waiting to return to the world Jesus
and Isaiah imagine is possible. Waiting for the kingdom of his Father to become
a reality. To return too soon would be to risk repeating the entire cycle of conflict
and violence that resulted in his hanging on a Roman cross all over again.
Advent is a gift of time given to us to reflect on these
things. That the Christ came not to institute yet another religious elite, a
people set apart from all others, but rather to bring all people together under
a unified vision of faith, hope and love. Because faith, hope and love are the
very nature of God, and thus the nature of all Being. This is Good News! And
what we mean by words like “heaven” or “kingdom of God” is that such goodness
of a world of faith, hope and love cannot die.
Again, Richard Rohr observes, “Each of these three
virtues must always include the other two in order to be authentic: love is
always hopeful and faithful, hope is always loving and faithful, and faith is
always loving and hopeful. They are the very nature of God and thus of all
Being. Such wholeness is personified in the cosmos as Christ, and in human history
as Jesus. So, God is not just love (1 John 4:16), but also absolute
faithfulness and hope itself. And the energy of this faithfulness and hope
flows out of the Creator toward all created beings producing all growth,
healing, and every springtime. No one religion will ever encompass the
depth of such faith. No ethnicity has a monopoly on such hope No nationality
can control or limit this flow of such universal love.” [vi]
It turns out the end of time, of which no one knows when
that will be, is not to be a time of disruption and destruction of the world,
but rather it is the repair and restoration of the world; its healing, its
perfection! Some biblical writers suggest in that day the light of the sun and
moon will be as nothing compared to the light of those of us walking in the
Light of the Lord radiating the Light of Christ himself! Christ! That morning
star that knows no setting! When he returns, may Christ find His light ever
burning in our hearts and in all that we say and all that we do in His Name.
May we stop to take time every day to pray that most ancient prayer, Maranatha
– O Lord, come! Thy kingdom come! On Earth as it is in heaven! Amen.
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