The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
December 3, 2006
Vol. 9 no. 47

Everything But...
           Sometimes even the Gospels can’t keep it straight. Here I was a few weeks ago looking hard at Mark 13’s “Little Apocalypse,” indicating that Jesus was steering us away from listening to all the end of the world prophets. Nobody knows the time or place of such events, only God.
           But now as we enter the new Christian year, Luke puts a different and harsher spin on Jesus’ apocalyptic words. This time Jesus really means it. All those natural disasters are meant to be signs of the coming of the end, but don’t worry, Jesus seems to imply, this means redemption and the kingdom of God must be on their way. Still, I am not sure the End of the World As We Know It ever really appeals.
           It is odd that the beginning of the Christian year, brightly anticipating Christmas morn, is to talk of the end of the world. Reading a mystery novel, it is always helpful (and only cheating a little) to read the last chapter in order to make sense of what is going on earlier. Those pundits who claim to know the meaning of history the moment it happens are usually involved in wishful thinking for their own agendas. As for your own life, you only understand the Why from a distance closer to the end.
           It is one of our better traits to be willing “to begin again from the beginning,” which is what we do each year starting today. Probably you have heard the story a few times before, but if you clear your mind and listen as if for the first time, it is positively amazing what you will hear for the first time. The stories don’t change, of course, etched in ink on the pages of plain paper. You and I change, our ears change and hear a different tone that rings a different note in our brains and hearts. It is amazing how you might now live with a new tune pulsating in our head.