Acts 13:26-33
Psalm 2:6-11
John 14:1-6
A lot of people have been saying that the world will end in December this year because the Mayan's calendar cycle resets then. It is really nonsense, but people do like getting excited and having something to talk about. As for the end of the world, I am not going to say that the world will not end in 2012. Jesus tells us in the Gospel today, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” We are indeed waiting for Jesus. He will come. The world will end. It might be December 21st, but it might be tonight or it might be 10,000 years from now. If one fact about the end of the world is clearly written in Scripture it is that we cannot calculate when it is going to be.
The response of some doubters to all this talk of the world ending tomorrow has been rather illogical. They say things like, “people have been saying that the world is going to end for 2000 years now”, as if that were any argument against the world ending. We Christians are clear that the world is going to end, but we also are clear that it is not going to end before it ends.
St. Paul talks about this from another perspective in our first reading today. Moses, speaking the Word of God, told the Israelites that Jesus would come. He said this about the year 1500 BC. During the next millennium and a half, many people doubted if Jesus would ever come. Even up to the day before Jesus came, people doubted. Then he came. As St. Paul says, “We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our fathers he has brought to fulfillment for us, their children, by raising up Jesus.”
It has been almost 2000 years since Jesus promised that he would come back for us. Up until that day when he comes, the world is going to go on the way it has been going on so far. Then, one day, tomorrow, today, or 10,000 years from now, Jesus will come. Just be sure you are ready to welcome him whenever it might be. The end of the world is not a cause of fear for us Christians. We are anxiously awaiting the day when the sky opens and Jesus appears.
