“Quite the sermon today!’” Bea Leever remarked during coffee fellowship. “Pastor said all the troubles in the world these days may be a sign that the Final Days and the Rapture might be here any day now. Seemed like he was almost looking forward to it.”
“You aren’t kidding – the pandemic, war in Ukraine, our polarized society. We’ve got boatloads of troubles. Pastor said the Book of Revelations describing the Final Days was written a long time ago, somewhere toward the end of the first century. So I wonder if there were other times in the past 2,000 years when our ancestors thought the End of Days was just about to come,” Maeby Knottsosoon pondered.
“Just think of someone living around 1350 A.D. Their ancestors had survived attacks from the Huns and Visigoths. The Little Ice Age was just ending when the Black Death (bubonic plague) blasted them. Yikes! I bet some of those folks thought the End of Days had arrived.
“Or what about during America’s Civil War? The country was torn apart; brother was fighting brother. Golly, and think of what the folks living in 1918 went through. World War I was still going on when the flu pandemic struck. Eleven years later the Great Depression began; the dustbowl and another world war soon followed. Seems like there may have been more than a few times when the Final Days seemed likely to be right around the corner.”
The following Sunday – “So… did you like today’s sermon?” Bea Leever asked. “You bet!” Maeby beamed. “John Calvin’s* quote about the creation story is terrific. Here, it’s in the bulletin. ‘Let everyone regard himself as the steward of God in all things… (and) not abuse those things which God requires to be preserved.’
“You know,” Maeby continued, “the Final Days might be here soon but maybe not for generations to come. Meanwhile, we’ve got this beautiful Earth to protect and preserve. I’d like to think my grand and great-grand kids will know I’ve done my part to care for God’s creation. After all, it’s what’s expected of us.
“Let’s pray that, like us, they’ll be blessed with a bountiful and healthy planet right here on the only home we’ll ever know where we’re all forever… Earthbound.”
*Reformation theologian
“You aren’t kidding – the pandemic, war in Ukraine, our polarized society. We’ve got boatloads of troubles. Pastor said the Book of Revelations describing the Final Days was written a long time ago, somewhere toward the end of the first century. So I wonder if there were other times in the past 2,000 years when our ancestors thought the End of Days was just about to come,” Maeby Knottsosoon pondered.
“Just think of someone living around 1350 A.D. Their ancestors had survived attacks from the Huns and Visigoths. The Little Ice Age was just ending when the Black Death (bubonic plague) blasted them. Yikes! I bet some of those folks thought the End of Days had arrived.
“Or what about during America’s Civil War? The country was torn apart; brother was fighting brother. Golly, and think of what the folks living in 1918 went through. World War I was still going on when the flu pandemic struck. Eleven years later the Great Depression began; the dustbowl and another world war soon followed. Seems like there may have been more than a few times when the Final Days seemed likely to be right around the corner.”
The following Sunday – “So… did you like today’s sermon?” Bea Leever asked. “You bet!” Maeby beamed. “John Calvin’s* quote about the creation story is terrific. Here, it’s in the bulletin. ‘Let everyone regard himself as the steward of God in all things… (and) not abuse those things which God requires to be preserved.’
“You know,” Maeby continued, “the Final Days might be here soon but maybe not for generations to come. Meanwhile, we’ve got this beautiful Earth to protect and preserve. I’d like to think my grand and great-grand kids will know I’ve done my part to care for God’s creation. After all, it’s what’s expected of us.
“Let’s pray that, like us, they’ll be blessed with a bountiful and healthy planet right here on the only home we’ll ever know where we’re all forever… Earthbound.”
*Reformation theologian
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