End Times

End Times?

There has been a lot of talk lately about the “end times” and especially about the year 2012. The new movie “2012” has fueled many discussions and news articles about the Mayan calendar and the end of the world as we know it. Does this mean the end of the world, as some fatalists and fear-mongers are proposing?

Biblical people of ancient days also feared and anticipated the “end times” as well. The Wise Men who traveled from the East to worship the newborn king, studied the stars and the prophecies and came to King Herod in search of the new king, born in Bethlehem. This new king was promised to usher in a new reign of peace for the Israelites, his very prospect a threat to the established order of power. His arrival was a portent of the end of things as Herod knew them.

Some 30 years later, John the Baptist would call followers to repent and change their ways because the Messiah was coming…they world as people knew it was going to end. Jesus’ resurrection from death did indeed bring an end to the world as people knew it. It was a cataclysmic event with soul-wrenching seismic ripples that spanned centuries, and will continue to impact the human race for an eternity to come... victory over death, salvation – bought and paid for by the sacrifice of One.

As we enter a new season of Advent, the Sunday Bible readings call us also to get ready. The shortened days and longer nights of darkness crash against our desire for light. The world awaits the coming of a new Light of the World, a new Prince of Peace, and King of Kings…one who will end the world as we know it and usher in a new world of peace and love. Advent promises the prospect of light and victory of hope. Each Christmas, we are reminded of the boundless love of a God that would send His only Son into our midst to die…God enrobed in human flesh and frailties…so that we might gain EVERYTHING and join our creator in eternal love and relationship. What God would do this? Turn everything upside down so that we might be saved from ourselves and brought into eternity with Him? This is not the world as we know it…this is the world as God knows it. What we can glimpse of the Master’s plan is but a pin prick of light when God himself IS the light.

Each one of us will face our own “end time” as we stand before our God and are judged for how well we used the gifts and talents we were given to share Christ’s love with the world. Living in fear of whether or not the world will end in a cataclysmic event is foolishness if you forget to answer God’s call and mission for your life, or if you fail to love your neighbor as yourself.

Just lay aside your fears, enter the stable, look into the manger and see the life God has promised for you…full of love, mercy, joy and the promise of the future.

St. Andrew’s 20th Annual Live Nativity
Dec. 12 & 13, 2009
4:30 – 8:00 pm
Continuous 15-minute readings of the Nativity story and how a servant’s heart can change the world. Admission is FREE. Refreshments will be served. Receive an ornament gift.