Creation is not a onetime event that happened and is complete. Creation is ongoing. It is not that God was Creator; God is Creator.
| Christ will come again… |
Most Christians have been taught at least something about the Second Coming of Christ into our world. Or at least have heard of this “Second Coming.” Usually, people understand this Second Coming as the time when this great change will take place when “the lion will lay down with the lamb,” and the harmonious coexistence of all of Creation will be established. There are preachers, radio/TV talk show hosts, books and movies that make it seem as if all of this will happen in an instant, through the power and might of some kind of conquering warrior Christ, riding to earth like a knight on a white horse.
For some U.S. military commanders, the emerging war in Iran is part of a biblical plan to bring about the end of the world as we know it, according to complaints filed by over 100 service members. Reading this news leads me to stay longer in chapter two of my book which deals with the second coming of Christ. It would be helpful to those reading this blog to get the book Unveiling Empire: Revelation Then and Now by Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther. Their book will help you understand this portion of scripture, so you don’t get confused by the way that scripture has been abused.
As I understand it, there are those who call themselves Christians who believe that they will be raptured out of this world as Christ comes for the second time, leaving the rest of humanity to suffer through cataclysmic times. “Rapture Theology” is a relatively recent doctrine originating from the 1830s. Wickipedia has a pretty good summary of this concept. Catholicism, which dates back to the early church does not have this belief in our tradition.
The war in Iran is not part of some biblical plan to bring about the end of the world. This is not a holy war. As Pope Leo XIV told us, there is no such thing as holy war, only peace is holy. So, what are we to make of the clear teaching about a second coming of Christ? There are different understandings of this tradition but the one I hold is that we, the baptized followers of Christ, are the second coming of Christ. We are the organic incarnation of Christ for our world today and continue the mission of Christ. See John 14:12 “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” We continue the mission of Christ Jesus.
As I wrote in Chapter two: “In one of those “ah-hah” moments I came to understand that waiting for some superhero to come and rescue us and set all things right is not God’s plan for us Christians. The idea of a superhero is a worldly notion, and very much a pre-Christian concept. Sadly this mistaken superhero idea can drain the determination and motivation right out of people. Instead of becoming who we are meant to become, and doing what we are called to do, we plead and pray for a super being to hurry up and rescue us.
Our ideas about the Second Coming of Christ have often been mistaken and it is not surprising we would get it wrong. No one expected Christ to come as a vulnerable baby the first time, nor to be the kind of suffering Messiah we experienced in Jesus. God is a God of surprises, and God’s ways are not our ways. Therefore, we should not be astonished if the Second Coming is not quite what we have been expecting. In fact, shouldn’t we expect God to do something new and surprising?”
I also wrote: “The biggest flaw in this Second-Coming-as-superhero type scenario is the idea that the God who created us as totally free-willed creatures will suddenly come along and coerce all of Creation into peace and harmony at the end of time. God has not worked that way, God does not work that way, and God is not going to work that way. God is not a God of coercion who will somehow force or manipulate Creation into harmony and rob it of freedom. God is not creating the kingdom of God through violence and will not take away from Creation the gift of freedom. Somehow this great peace and harmony, and the blessing of all Creation, is going to happen through people who still have their free wills. Therefore, God must persuade, rather than coerce, us to peace.”
Once we begin to understand that each Christian community, and not only Christian communities, but any community that becomes a place of justice, peace, and mercy — a place of compassionate love — that community is a sign that God’s salvation is real and achievable. In the Pacific Northwest diocese of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion our vision statement says:
Ecumenical Catholics of the Pacific Northwest
Restoring relationships of justice, peace, and love
with God, with one another, and with all of Creation
by living out our baptismal ministry as the Body of Christ.
Our communities strive to build and restore relationships and become places that prove that God’s salvation is real. This can be challenging and at the same time, rewarding work.
Humanity has somehow decided that it isn’t possible to have a world of peace, wholeness, and completeness that would include the physical, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing of earth’s creatures. We have been warring with each other down through the generations ever since Cain killed Abel. And God has been showing up down through the generations attempting to persuade us that it doesn’t have to be like this.
One reason for the coming of Christ Jesus was as God’s “show and tell” to let us know what we need to do to make things better. In other words, to save us from ourselves. Of course, there is more to the coming of Christ as Jesus than this purpose, but we need to pay attention to the fact that we have been given an example to follow. It is an example of non-violent, compassionate love and mercy.
We believe that Christ, coming to us as the human Jesus, is God and therefore shows us what God is like. This changes how we read all of scripture, going back into the older texts. We read them through the lens of Christ. Does what we read fit with the God Christ revealed to us? Christ Jesus is the Word of God. The bible is humanity doing its best to record its experience of God down through the ages. It is Christ that we look to, as Christians, to know what God expects of us.
Many faith traditions understand that there is a spark of divinity in each human being. We Christians understand that this spark of divinity is what makes us the image of God. As the images of God, we are God’s representatives to the part of creation called earth and as I am now believing, to our part of the universe, our solar system and what we do here. Right now, we are doing a lousy job of it. Instead of treasuring God’s creation, humanity abuses it terribly out of human greed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
As I wrote: “Surprisingly, it turns out that we are the first wave of the Second Coming of Christ into the midst of Creation. We are the seeds of a new hope for Creation. Christ is the first born of a new way of being with Creation, and we are the continuation of something new come into the midst of the world. The power of the Spirit of God has been given to us, and is within us, not for ourselves, but for the sake of the world. It is all happening now! Wake up and realize the time is now, not in some distant future. We are not to sit, wait and pray for some distant far away future, but we are to actively spread God’s kingdom, so that it comes on earth just as it is in heaven. We are to turn away from the ways of the world, and be faithful to the ways of God. We need no super being to rescue us; with God we are enough in ourselves.”
And this: “Those who expect a literal coming of Christ in somewhat the same way as Christ came in the “First Coming” cannot and will not see the “Second Coming.” In other words, if you expect to see Christ embodied in a single, finite human body again, located in one finite place, coming in clouds on a white horse, riding with the armies of heaven to conquer and punish the world, you will not see what God is already doing in our world. If you cannot see what God is doing, how will you be a part of if? If you don’t even know you are supposed to be a part of this great venture, how will you enlist?
The Second Coming of Christ into the world is taking place in us, through us, around us. We are the Body of Christ, and therefore we are very much part of the Second Coming of Christ. It is very simple. I cannot say this enough, and I wish there was a way to shout it to the reader. Open your ears, open your eyes, open your hearts, and wake up to the good news – God has come into our world, is with us, staying with us, living in us, and yearns to transform and bless all of Creation through us. God comes to share life with us. Christ is embodied in us. We are the incarnation of God, the real presence of God. The Spirit of God has been given to us, is all around us, and is within us. This surprising new way for Christ to be incarnate in the midst of Creation is much more exciting than most people realize or can imagine.”
God is patient, compassionate and loving, and continues to believe in us, and continues to call us into partnership. If I were God I think I would have given up on humanity a long time ago and started over with some other species of beings. Perhaps God is having better success with beings on other worlds in this vast universe of ours. Nevertheless, humanity is what God has for this planet we call earth. God believes that it is possible and achievable for humanity to overcome its faults and become what God intends for us. But this means we need to believe with God that it is possible to have a world of peace, wholeness, and completeness that would include the physical, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing of earth’s creatures. We just need to change the hearts and minds of humanity and make it so.
More from the book: “God is a God of persuasion, who calls us into harmony and peace, and through Christ, shows us the way to harmony and peace. We, all the people of the world, not only the baptized, are the instruments of God’s shalom peace — if we but knew it. From the beginning God created people for a purpose. All of humanity is created in God’s image, and we are all God’s children. Christians have to wake up to the realization of who we are in God, and one by one awaken all the rest of God’s children, and call these children to maturity. We have to start following the way, the truth and the light, and let the kingdom of God grow, and spread and become. We are God’s children, but we are not meant to stay as immature infants. We are called to maturity and partnership with God. And we are called to wake up all the rest of humanity to its role as partners with God. All of humanity has been created for this partnership with God. We are not mere spectators of Creation, called to be God’s cheerleaders, shouting or singing alleluias. We are created to enter into the plan of Creation and are an active part of God’s plan.”
May God give humanity hearts of flesh instead of hearts of stone… God of mercy, hear our prayer.
Bishop Kedda
Bishop Kedda 