Apocalypse Now! Proper 27A
Back in the beginning of the present century, on my way to St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Old Ellicott City, I would pass a billboard that said something like: May 21/Be ready. It was paid for by radio evangelist Harold Camping who had predicted that Jesus and the Rapture would arrive on May 21, 2011, to transport faithful Christians to His Heavenly Banquet! Needless to say, May 21 came, and went, and here we are. This expectation was a total fiction.
The Rapture is not found in the Bible. An English pastor in the 19th century named William Miller came up with this idea. He predicted a specific date. He and his followers watched and waited. The day came and went, and there they were. Despite this failure, Millerites and others have persisted in making other predictions, none of which have come to pass, and here we are. If one Googles, “Does the Bible speak of The Rapture,” the answer is: The word rapture isn't used in the Holy Bible, but the idea of Judgment Day appears in all the canonical gospels. Rapture is a modern, not a biblical, contrivance. Such expectations are a complete fiction.
Imagine my surprise last weekend when I opened the Sports section to find the comics, first opening to the Arts page, to find the following book listed in the New York Times Nonfiction Best Sellers at # 9: The Great Disappearance: 31 Ways to Be Rapture Ready, by David Jeremiah! God bless Dr. Jeremiah, for outlining with authority, step-by-step, how the Rapture will take place whenever it does. But really, I thought to myself, “Shouldn’t this be on the Fiction top ten list?”
Not entirely. Our spiritual foremothers and forefathers wrote of a day of judgment. Such an idea exists in both Old and New Testament texts. Not necessarily as a literal expectation. Not as a literal truth. Rather, more like a genre – a genre of literature called apocalyptic that occurs in historical periods when the People of God are in crisis. The principal crises are slavery in Egypt, the captivity in Babylon, and the Occupation by Rome and destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.
Such texts write of a hoped for and extraordinary intervention by YHWH, the God of the Exodus with whom Joshua calls the people to renew and reaffirm their covenant relationship. [i] As they leave the Wilderness Sojourn to enter the land the Lord has promised to be their new home, they are to swear off the local gods and idols and renew their loyalty to the Lord YHWH and no other, as had been outlined at Mount Sinai.
Carried off into slavery once more to Babylon, along with the writings of the prophets who do their best to explain how this crisis arose, were some apocalyptic writers who urged the people not to worry. As in our shared past, the Lord shall intervene once more. In the meantime, remain loyal and continue to live life according to the covenant and its 613 Torah commandments. Indeed, it came to pass that Cyrus of Persia (modern day Iran) liberated the people and facilitated their return to Jerusalem, and the lands of Judah and Israel.
The next crisis was being a colony of first the Greek and then the Roman empire. Faithful living of Torah became increasingly challenging. The Pharisees advocated strict following of the commandments. The Sadducees advocated strict observance of the ritual sacrifices in Jerusalem. Some groups returned to the wilderness and lived strict ascetical lives of excessive purification. And some followed Jesus who advocated love of God and love of neighbor to be The Way, or The Path, to eventual salvation from the Roman occupation. By the time the Temple was destroyed there existed nascent Christian communities throughout the Mediterranean.
Again, there arose those who wrote apocalyptic visions urging the now two communities in crisis to stay the course of Torah, of the commandments, but with one obvious change: with no Temple there could be no more sacrifices. Thus, was born rabbinic Judaism as we know it today, in which most important festivals are celebrated around the family dinner table, and Christianity, with its unique sacrificial and eschatological meal we call The Eucharist, or Holy Communion.
The most controversial New Testament document was an apocalyptic vision called The Revelation of John, presumed to be written by an exile on the island of Patmos with an extraordinary grasp of the texts of the Old Testament. It is estimated that fully 80-90% of John’s Revelation is directly quoted from or refers to Old Testament texts. This was truly ingenious!
Although classic apocalyptic literature in the Bible often looked forward to a “day of the Lord,” John’s Revelation makes an astonishing and breathtaking claim: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is that day of the Lord. That is, God’s saving event has already happened! Now we are to live accordingly no matter what the current crisis may be.
Enter our story about Ten Bridesmaids and a banquet in Matthew 25. It’s a rather awkward story about ten maidens who have lamps, but only five of them have enough oil to light their lamps. There is a long delay of the bridegroom coming; he arrives in the middle of the night; we are meant to think that shops will be open at that hour; the unwillingness of the wise maidens to share their oil; when the five return from town the door is shut on them; followed by the strange injunction to “Keep Awake.” (Stay Woke?) Strange, because the failure of the unwise maidens is not that they have overslept, but that they have not prepared for the arrival of the Bridegroom. All this adds up to a truly odd story indeed. [ii]
Yet, way back in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “In everything, do to others what you would have them do for you.” Then insists that this “doing for others” is bearing the good fruit of the kingdom. Trees that bear bad fruit will be thrown into a fire. Therefore, he concludes, if you are not prepared, not living the Golden Rule, the door will be shut. “I do not know you!” [iii]
Two takeaways from this odd story. First, we must remember it is addressed to insiders, members of the community of faith, not outsiders. This is no condemnation of those beyond the Church. Ignoring to love God and love neighbor here and now is the problem. We make ourselves outsiders by not loving our neighbors – all neighbors, no matter who, what, or where. Second, it is “Apocalypse Now,” not later. There is no time to wait. No time to be idle. As John the Revelator declares, “He is risen! He is here! He is with us now and always! Live accordingly!” The Day of the Lord has already come. Now is the time for the rest of the story. We are to be the rest of the story! It turns out that instead of 31 ways to become “rapture ready” there are just two. The Greatest Commandment of all; the summary of the Law and the Prophets: Love God and Love Neighbor. Now! If not now, when? For The Rapture is here and now! Christ is alive!
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