Armageddon, Bono, and Advent
One of my favorite movie genres is the apocalyptic genre…movies about the end of the world. I find it fascinating to see how different writers and directors imagine that day of days…how things will come to an end. I also find it interesting that many people agree that there is an end coming. Our cosmic ride on this celestial rock is not going to last forever. If you get into the science of it experts agree that statistically it is only a matter of time before some cataclysmic event happens that wipes out life on the planet. In fact, in case you missed it, there was an asteroid the size of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world in Dubai, that skimmed past earth on Nov. 1. Scientists labeled it as “potentially dangerous due to it’s size. Sweet dreams. But before you go lock yourself in the family bunker I should tell you…when they say skimming they mean it came within 1.43 million miles, which to be fair is close by cosmic standards. Apparently huge rocks skimming past earth is a pretty common occurrence, and NASA has tracked all the orbits of the concerning asteroids for the next 100 years and there shouldn’t be any collisions (read more here). So, we’ve got that going for us.
Remember the movie Armageddon with Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck? I challenge you to watch that movie and not cry at the end. Happens every time. Anyhow, it begins with Charlton Heston as the narrator describing the asteroid strike that hit the Mexican peninsula millions of years ago and wiped out all of the dinosaurs, and he says, “It happened before…it WILL happen again” as you watch the earth burn. I love the fact that they got the guy who played Moses to do the voice…they’re playing with our cultural emotions. They got the guy who famously played God’s spokesperson in The 10 Commandments to give it just the right sound of authority…to really freak you out. Judgment is coming. But then the rest of the movie happens, and it depicts some of the most scientifically far-fetched events that have ever been thought up. I’ve been told by some friends of mine who are literally rocket scientists, which is actually true…I do have friends; anyhow, they told me they watch Armageddon to make fun of it because of all of the incredible scientific inaccuracies. But still Charlton Heston’s scary beginning is right…statistically speaking it is only a matter of time til we get hit again.
And that’s just one way we know the world will end. Say we make it through without getting hit by an asteroid. We’re still in trouble. It’s also known fact that our sun will not last forever. It will do what all stars do…eventually die. But first, it will grow into what they call a red giant which is curtains for us. It will get so big that it will swallow earth and most of our solar system, then it will got through a couple more phases finally go cold as a black dwarf. Of course scientists estimate that this will happen in about 5 billion years, but still it’ll happen. Life as we know it will not last.
SO there you go, happy Advent, have a great week! Why do I start this way? Funnily enough it’s because many of the traditional Advent passages from Scripture focus on the end. Why does a season when we anticipate Jesus’ arrival focus on the end, do you ask? Good question. Why did Jesus talk about the end so much for that matter? Well, the short answer is so that we would be ready. This does not mean building a bunker and stocking up on Spam as I joked about before. That’s not the kind of readiness we’re talking about here. It is another thing I love about apocalyptic movies…they actually never are the end. Did you ever notice that? They always think it will be the end, but then somehow humanity rallies together to fix whatever problem is coming, and most of the movie is us getting to watch mass destruction on a wide scale, but not completely…because our humanistic triumph story still needs a world to exist in. And we love it. I love it anyway. They like to show us familiar things getting wiped out: the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel tower, the Capital Building, etc. Any well-known city with famous landmarks is toast. I always like to say that Pittsburgh, my hometown, is never on that list. SO, we all need to move to Pittsburgh. That’s what it means to be ready. Go Steelers!
Sorry couldn’t help it. Seriously though. Readiness really breaks in two ways for us depending on where we are. The first way is that it is a warning. Jesus warns us to be ready. In Mark 13 (one of those traditional Advent passages) he says, “Stay awake.” Be ready. Keep watch. A simple way to understand the warning is that it’s aimed at those who are not ready. Those who don’t think anything is going to happen. That’s why I said earlier that it’s interesting to me that culturally and scientifically we mostly agree that the world will end. But you wouldn’t necessarily know that by simple observation. We just keep on building and expanding as if there is no end in sight. However, I think the prospect of the end is going more mainstream. Just think about our last few presidents: they have inspired people on the opposing side of the political aisle to think the end was imminent. Sorry, I said I was going to be serious, but again I couldn’t resist. Put all of the earlier movie examples aside, since WWII and Hiroshima and Nagasaki we have been confronted with the fact that we humans are fully capable of speeding up the end. The need for Readiness seems even more real these last 70 years. SO, in one sense Jesus is just telling us that the end is coming and we need to be ready…it’s a warning…a wake up call for anyone who thinks nothing is ever going to happen to them.
The second way that readiness breaks is for those who are more than ready right now. While the thought of the end can seem scary, for many it is really good news. The message that things are not going to stay this way is an incredible relief for those of us who are suffering right now or have suffered greatly. It’s a message that cancer will not continue. That all disease will end. That miscarriages will stop. That children dying before their parents will stop. That hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, famine, drought…it will all stop. Think about societal brokenness and suffering: racism, classism, sexism, divorce, abuse, sexual slavery, poverty, mass shootings, murder. Their days are numbered. They will not last. There is an end. Be ready.
Now the only way for the end to truly be encouraging, to be good news, is if it ushers in the beginning of something else. And that is really where Jesus is going here in Mark. We’re not just talking about annihilation here. All of the warning signs that Jesus tells us about that we find in the earlier verses of chapter 13 encompass every level of existence: cosmic, political, social, etc. All of them point to the fact that the new is coming. They are truly the death throes of this world as we know it, and just like he does with everything else, God brings new life out of death…new beginnings out of painful endings. You can see that common hope in the secular world too by that already stated fact that none of our apocalyptic movies really end with everyone dead…they always want the new beginning, but the difference is that this is not anything that we can make happen. This is not another humanistic triumph story. We certainly contribute to the end, but our contribution is negative…the end itself, death, is the direct result of our sin in the world. But life is what God creates. That is his business, he brings everything out of nothing…and that is just what he promises to do with all of us.
In Mark 13 when Jesus tells his disciples and us to stay awake he points us to one thing that will endure through the end into the new, one thing that has endured throughout history, that is itself the cause of all history, and that is his word. Everything else will pass away, but his words will endure. He is the living Word as John 1 tells us and through him all things were made, and as Paul tells us in Colossians all things hang together in him. Jesus and his promises to us are what truly make us ready. As we have seen we may be made alert that the end is coming by his warning or we may be eagerly waiting for that end of things because of our suffering, but the only way for us to be truly ready, truly prepared for what is coming is through his word…his promise of new life. Without it the end would just be bad news ultimately. Death would win and everything would stop. But with Jesus and his promises death is not even close to the end. It’s just the beginning.
I watched Bono recently appear on The Late Show with Colbert (watch it here) as he was promoting his new memoir, Surrender, which I can’t wait to read. Stephen Colbert asked him that very question, “What do you think happens when we die?” Bono answered, “We’re born. I believe that’s actually when we’re born, when we begin. These are the labor pains, Stephen.” See, Bono gets it…as does Colbert…both being believers.
Jesus gives this warning in Mark just days before he would go to the cross to pay the price for our sin, to take our sin from us, to forgive us. He talks about the end of all things in this context because they are intricately linked. They cannot be separated. The end of all things as we know it is good news because the cross happened. Jesus has already won the battle, and he’s the one coming back. There was never a question about how this was going to end. God’s whole rescue plan of his creation centers on the cross. It transcends time and space and is literally an eternal reality. That’s why the end of the book in Revelation 13:8 says that He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” It is Jesus’ death and resurrection that undoes death. It is Jesus’ life that brings new life for all of us. As he says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
His promise of forgiveness of sin, his word, is the thing that will stand fast through everything. And it is what Jesus is calling us all to believe in. He is calling us to himself. Part of his warning right before our passage in Mark 13 is that there will be many false prophets, many false Messiahs coming. There will be people that claim they have seen the Christ or that they are the Christ to try to lead his people astray, and he is telling us to be on our guard, to be ready. And it is his message that guards us, that protects us, that prepares us, that keeps us awake anticipating that day of days. That is what we remember this Advent season: Jesus Christ has come and has dealt with sin, death, and the devil once and for all for us. He has promised us forgiveness of sins and a new life eternally when he returns. As his disciples once said: he alone has the words of life…he is the Word of life (John 6:67-69). And he gives us himself right now. Believe him. He will not let you go. No matter what you are going through right now, no matter what may come…even though everything else will pass away He will not. He will hold you fast. The great news of this Advent is that we know the end is just the beginning for us in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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