The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
November 29, 2009
Vol. 12 No. 46

Everything But...

It is popular in some places to depict Christianity as possessing a doomsday mentality. You still see those cartoons in the newspaper with the bearded man in a long robe carrying a sign at the busy street corner, “Repent! The End Is Near!” It is not in the first place a “world-denying” theme, but an alarming technique to say that the world is about to destroy itself, hoping that others will recognize the danger, straighten up and fly right, and therefore avert the impending disaster. The Biblical story of Jonah and Nineveh is still the model scenario, for not only was fire and brimstone duly summoned, the Ninevites did repent, and then so did God.

Somehow, those who predict the coming of Armageddon or even 2012 never get the point that as human beings we have never been able to predict these events, indeed, nor we supposed to. God knows, and that’s enough. Most stabs in the dark of history are motivated by various desires to reap some benefit, spiritual or other, from such a disaster. Christianity has had its share of dooms-dayers, but for the most part we know we are in it for the long haul. Environmental prophets should not be ignored, however, and as for 2012, the Mayan calendar may end, but we have lots of things to look forward to in that year and beyond, including the London Olympics.

Ironically, the first Gospel in Advent, the anticipation of the coming of Christ on Christmas, always reports Jesus’ words about the coming end of the world. This message of dire straits indicates that when we have created our own big mess, only God is able to get us out of it. Not too many people know what that means. That’s why Advent is first.