Online shopping has been convenient, and necessary during these days of the pandemic. I also enjoy online looking and not buying, just to see what is out there. The problem with all that looking is that you get on the email lists, even from the ones you don’t give out your email! Not only that, but you look at something online once and then your browser ads are full of that same item immediately. How do they do that? No, wait, I don’t think I want to know.
The problem with being on everyone’s email list is that you get flooded with requests, requests? No more like demands, to buy. More and more, the same stuff that you already bought, or the companion pieces. Like Amazon’s helpful little “purchasers of this usually also got that!” line. Oh, really, you think? Then maybe I ought to have that too. Maybe. But probably not. Or as my wife would say, definitely not.
The one that really has been getting under my skin lately though are the ones that declare “Last Chance!” Last chance to save a lot of money, for example, but only by spending a lot more money. Last chance to get this unique item that we only have a few million of. Last chance before the price goes up. Last chance before everyone has one and we’re on to the next thing that you’ll get a last chance to purchase. I’ve got a couple of them that send me a last chance on an almost daily basis. It’s wearing me out.
You can’t help when you’re inundated with last chances to hear something ultimate in that. Something apocalyptic even. Last chance. It’s all over. It’s the end. Our minds go there, don’t they? Too often really. We are obsessed, as a culture, with the end. How many post-apocalyptic movies have we seen in our lifetime? How many dystopian novels have we read? Is this really our last chance? Is this the end of all that we know?
You’ve seen, no doubt, the conspiracy theories running rampant in some branches of the Christian community. Conspiracy and end times pronouncements are getting a lot of play, going viral in this time of fears of the virus. I’ve never really understood the fascination. Or the fear-mongering. There are some interesting psychological analyses that I’ve read recently as to why people get caught up in conspiracy theories and end time prognostications. You can look it up yourselves, if you’re really interested. But the one bit of information that I gleaned from that research is that argument won’t fix it. You can’t reason someone out of a conspiracy theory. You can’t give them enough information that will change their minds. So, don’t bother.
So, what do we do? How do we refute them, or avoid them, or ignore them? You can’t really. I wish you could. Just like opting out of email lists doesn’t guarantee you won’t get email telling you this is your last chance anymore. Believe me, I’ve tried. But then why? Why can’t we avoid them, the end time pronouncements? Because Jesus did it.
Matthew 24:32-44 "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 36 "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39 and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
Sometimes I wonder why Jesus said things like this. Surely He knew that His followers would just go nutzo with this kind of thing. Surely He knew that it would cause dissension and division and distraction by parts of the church to come. Surely. Yet, He did it, and kept doing it. This is only one of the times when Jesus spoke like this. What exactly did He want us to do with this information? Be afraid? Spend our lives looking over our shoulder? Certainly not share it with an air of superiority or condemnation to the world around us? Yet, that’s what many people do. Are doing. Blaming. Pointing fingers. Getting angry.
I think there are mainly two reasons why this kind of thing was shared by our Lord. And both of them are about keeping us humble. The first reason is to remind us that we don’t know everything. Or to put it another way, we aren’t in control. It has always astounded me that here we have Jesus, the founder of our faith, the incarnate God walking among us, saying “I don’t know when this is going to happen” and there have been people and are people saying “I know!” It just seems to me that saying you know more than Jesus is the highest form of arrogance. To claim that you’ve been given knowledge that Jesus didn’t even get is a heresy that we should avoid. Jesus says, I don’t know and implies that you don’t need to know. So, quit trying to figure it out.
But then, He does say keep watch. Isn’t that a call to figure it out? No, I don’t think so. I think it is a call to pay attention. Pay attention to the world around you and the work before you. Pay attention to whether what you are doing is Kingdom work or selfish work. Pay attention to the opportunities you have to let God’s grace flow through you, so that a little bit of the Kin-dom (I love that phrase that we’re using. Kingdom values imply the inter-relationship of all creation, we are longing for a Kin-dom) can shine through you.
I always loved the story, whether it really happened or not, of a conversation St. Francis of Assisi had one day as he was hoeing his beans. A pilgrim came upon the saint in the garden and called out to him. “Francis,” he said, “what would you do if you realized this was your last day on earth?” Francis paused a moment and wiped his brow. Then he picked up his hoe and went back to work. “I would continue hoeing this row of beans,” he said over his shoulder.
I don’t think this is really our last chance. Last chance as a nation, as a stable economy, as the people we are becoming. But even if it is, maybe we ought to just keep hoeing our beans. What Jesus was asking us to do, I think, was to stop worrying about the end, it’s not in our hands anyway, and we can trust the One in whose hands it resides. But to keep hoeing our beans trusting that what we do matters. And if it doesn’t matter, don’t do it. Do what we can, as we can and walk with God in all that we do.
Just keep hoeing your beans. To the glory of God.
Shalom,
Derek
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