The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
Both the first reading and the Gospel reading tell us about the "end times", the times when the world as we know it will come to an end in a last great battle between the forces of good and evil. The whole Book of Revelation tells of John's vision of how that will happen, but all through the prophets and the Gospels we find hints and predictions of how that will come about.
We need to remember that the book of Daniel was written about 600 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The book of Daniel was probably written in Babylon, where Daniel and the other Jews had been taken as slaves after Babylon had conquered Israel. Babylon was located roughly where Iraq is found today. Daniel refused to worship the various gods of Babylon, and insisted on worshiping only the one God
when the Jews worshiped. He was known to have the gift of prophecy and to be able to explain dreams, and his prophecies and explanations discussed events that would happen all over the world as they knew it then. We have just read part of his prophecy about the end of the world, and you will note that the actual end of the world is to be preceded by a time of great hardship, confusion and evil. This is basically what the Book of Revelation says, too.
We find, in the Old Testament, that various prophets have said that the end of the world would follow a time of rule by the Evil One; and then a new world would replace the old, corrupt, spoiled world....a new world of peace and holiness and nearness to God. Later on, Jesus added to this the concept of his return to judge all people, saying that those who had died would be raised to face judgment, and those who were alive at the time would also be judged. Everyone will be held accountable for their actions, and those who have lived righteous lives will accompany Jesus in a triumphant return to heaven, which will be a new earth, much like the one we know, but clean and pure and ruled by God. The people who have been judged to be evil will be locked with the Devil and his demons into Hell and will live in everlasting torment there. Jesus spoke of this several times, including the well-known parable of the sheep and the goats, the sheep being sent to his right and the goats to his left, and the sheep being taken home by Christ, the Shepherd, while the goats descend to the pits of Hell. He also made it clear that we will be judged on how we treat other people, because whatever we do to another person we do to Jesus himself.
We are nearing the end of the Church Year, and so we are being given readings about the end of the world to help us evaluate our own behavior and devotion during the past year. These readings are intended to help us think of how we might be judged at the last judgment when Christ returns in glory. As we prepare for the new Church year, which begins on Advent Sunday, we are supposed to meditate on these readings and make what might be called "new Church year resolutions." Thinking about how our own judgment by Christ might go, gives us the opportunity to make any changes we feel necessary in our lifestyle or in or observance of God's laws and Christ's teaching. The hopeful message is: we still have time to clean up our act, start over, turn over a new leaf, and God, who loves us much more than we can possibly understand, hopes with all his infinite, loving heart, that we will do exactly that, because he hates to think of the possibility of losing any one of us, his beloved children, to the punishment of Hell.
The next two weeks of the Church year will give us further food for thought on this topic. You might want to follow the lead of the Church and spend the next few weeks not so much in Christmas shopping and parties but more in thinking about your own life and how well it conforms to God's ways. You might find things that need to be changed, or think of ways you can better show your love for God through your actions to other people. It is an opportunity not to be wasted; each of us should make good use of it.
Amen.
