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Bible Readings for Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

– The Week of The First Sunday of Advent *Click on each bible passage to expand the text. Psalm 79 1. O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple, they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.

2. They have given the dead bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.

3. They have poured out blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead.

4. We are objects of reproach to our neighbors, of scorn and derision to those around us.

5. How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?

6. Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name;

7. for they have devoured Jacob and destroyed his homeland.

8. Do not hold against us the sins of the fathers; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.

9. Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake.

10. Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants.

11. May the groans of the prisoners come before you; by the strength of your arm preserve those condemned to die.

12. Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times the reproach they have hurled at you, O Lord.

13. Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise. Micah 5:1-5a 1. Marshal your troops, O city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod.

2. “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

3. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.

4. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.

5. And he will be their peace. Luke 21:34-38 34. “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” 37. Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, 38. and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.

Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake. – Psalm 79:9

He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace. – Micah 5:4-5

“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. – Luke 21:34

The Day that Never Comes

Luke 21 27. “At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

2,000 years is a long time to wait, Lord.

Every generation, we meet these false prophets heralding a return that never manifests, a glorious day of finality and redemption that fizzles out like an untended candle upon a forgotten birthday cake.

Where is the Son of Man?

Where is the glorious return?

The Drunken, Dissipated, And Anxious Masses

Luke 21 34. “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth.

Uh… wait. That’s the content of my whole life right now: dissipation, drunkenness and anxiety.

In fact, that’s the life of most of you, too. We Facebook, tweet, and video-game our lives away, lost in a pixel-induced stupor; dissipation at its finest. We are proverbially drunk with ego and power, we think our shit don’t stink as we lament our First-World Problems such as, “Why is Starbucks always out of Maple Oat-Nut Scones???”, while a mother in Somalia holds the lifeless emaciated body of her dead child. We have no gratitude for what we have in this life, or for the fact we’re alive at all! We are filled with anxiety over our car lease, our mortgages, our wrinkles, our hair line, our children, our shitty job…

So we flounder useless and impotent in this wasteland of pixelated fantasy and wired indulgence. We’ve never been this connected as a species, and yet we’ve never been so isolated. I don’t talk to any of my neighbors. Don’t even know their names and we’ve lived here for 6 years. Pretty sad, but I don’t think I’m unique.

And while I’ve recently argued that there will never be a so-called Second Coming (because as a preterist I believe that all of the prophecy of The Olivet Discourse and Revelation has already been fulfilled in the 1st century CE), there is still a dark and secret part of me that wishes that I am wrong. I want this world to get an enema, again. I want God to hit the Great Reset Button. That would allow me to stop trying anymore. It’s purely selfish.

The Darkest of Selfish Fantasies

Flush it all away God. I want you to do it… I could sure use a vacation from this…

*WARNING* Do not watch this video if you will be offended by nudity, cursing, or violence!

… at least sometimes I do. Especially lately. That’s why I’ve been struggling to write the last month or so: I am losing faith in our ability to “cleanse” our own society, to live out love as the Lord commanded. I am losing faith in my own ability to do so, too.

There’s Always Hope

But that’s the wonderful part about faith in God: when the strength of mankind fails, there is an inexhaustible supply above that never fails. The biggest mistake I always make is to think that I can do everything on my own. I can’t, at least not without help. Most importantly, this relationship is ever one-way: God is waiting on us, even depending on us, too. The Kingdom of God will never be realized on Earth as it is in Heaven without our conscious and widespread commitment and participation. God will not simply “make it happen”.

And that is the real “secret” to The Day that Never Comes: the signs of the prophecy might have already come to pass, but the “when” of its fulfillment is completely up to us. The day that society puts down the game controllers, drops the chicken wings, sobers up from all the cocktails and prescription pills, and stops fretting about shit that will never matter… that is when we shall finally see the Son of Man coming in all of his glory.

For “he” is us. And the glory is ours to claim for the sake of the name of God, and the world.