The end of all things

November 15, 2021

Dear Friends,

O Lord, so rule and govern our hearts and minds by Your Holy Spirit that, ever mindful of the end of all things and the day of Your just judgment, we may be stirred up to holiness of living here and dwell with You forever hereafter; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Peter’s words to the saints of his day hold true for our day as well: “Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation'” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

It is this time of year that the Church focuses on the reminders and warnings of Scripture that are meant to rouse us from our sleepiness. God’s patience means that the world keeps going even though it is marked for destruction and we all certainly deserved it long ago. But God’s patience also means that there is a temptation to grow drowsy, to imagine that things will continue as they always have, that the world is going to keep spinning and the sun will keep rising and setting and all the days we’ve planned for will continue to arrive just as we expected.

And so the scoffers mock the Church. They think we’re like so many cult-members, waiting to be transported to an alien spaceship when the comet comes circling around. What a waste of life, they imagine.

But like Noah, building his outrageous boat, we are preparing for something certain. This is not a myth or someone’s fancy. The rain will come and the floods will rise and the door will be shut, and all that matters on that day is that you’re safe in the ark. How the world thought of you will not matter one bit. How your friends and neighbors and family worried about your sanity will not matter one bit. None of that matters because it is God who cares for you. It is God who has told you about that coming day, and it is God who keeps you watchful and ready by feeding you and keeping your lamp burning bright.

The Bridegroom soon will call us,
“Come to the wedding feast.”
May slumber not befall us
Nor watchfulness decrease.
May all our lamps be burning
With oil enough and more
That we, with Him returning,
May find an open door!

God bless and keep you,

Pr. Buchs

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