Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
This week’s total solar eclipse was fun; offering us an opportunity to experience this natural phenomenon while hosting guests to our community. People all over the country wanted to get a view.
The eclipse also gave certain fundamentalist Christians the opportunity to predict the end of the world. Of course, I know the people of St. Stephen’s aren’t so easily taken in by these conspiracies. But why do so many others? And do we know where this thinking come from?
In one sense, it is easy to see where these ideas come from. But it becomes even harder to understand the more we read Revelation, Torah, Prophets, and Gospels. They might quote a verse in scripture, but it is unrecognizable in scripture itself.
The vision the conspiracies offer often supports the anger they want to justify, the status they want to maintain, and a vision for God that matches their own sense of power.
So an eclipse becomes the fodder for the realization of that vision. Much like a hurricane cast as punishment, an eclipse symbolizes opportunity. Not for a demonstration of grace, but of power. Not of love, but of wrath.
There’s a reason doomsday prophecies never sound like Jesus—even when they quote him.
Our work involves being more like Jesus, aligning ourselves to his vision. Less predicting the end of the world and more caring for the least of these.
With love,
Drew