MAKING EVERYTHING NEW

I really am a news junkie. Daily I follow reports and commentaries of events around the world: a constant stream of terrorism, war and hatred. The projections for the future are just as dire: global warming, the looming crisis for health care and Social Security as the baby-boom generation ages, shortages and environmental disasters. I can get pretty discouraged.

Sometimes I listen to the apocalyptic predictions of “end timers.” They read the Book of Revelation as a secret code and a literal prediction, which they neatly overlay on current events. They are convinced that all of the bad news is proof that the end of this world is near, that a vengeful God will soon destroy the planet. The vengeance and terror that they portray does not square with my experience of a loving and merciful God.

Last spring 25 of us from The Church of the Good Shepherd engaged in a study of the Book of Revelation that provided an understanding of Revelation in the context of the time during which it was written. We learned that the strong use of symbolism and imagery was intended to describe events that were going on during that period of history. It became clear in our study that especially in difficult times the call of Revelation is to remain steadfast in our faith in God and Christ.

More recently, I have read of other turning points in history. Change often brings uncertainty and fear of the unknown. Those turning points also had their own “end timers” predicting the apocalypse, convinced that the end of the world was just around the corner. During the Middle Ages, the Black Death killed one-third of the population of Europe, and many read this as the coming of the end. Martin Luther witnessed the splintering of Christian Europe and considered the pope the anti-Christ. Using the new technology of the printing press, he brought the Bible, the Word of God, into the hands of the common people.

Christopher Columbus, according to many accounts, was responding to an apocalyptic view of the end times as he pursued gold in the Americas to fund a Christian conquest of the Holy Land. Rather than ending, the world – human relationships as we knew them – went through dramatic change. The predicted ending instead became a new beginning.

Over and over again in the Gospels, we hear the refrain, “Do not be afraid for I am with you.” In that light, everything shifts for me. Rather than recoiling from a bleak and scary world, I am beginning to ask new questions. How do I open my eyes to see the possibilities? What positive role can I play as a Christian in preparing for and going through the changes that lie ahead? How do I use the gifts God has given me to help create rather than destroy? How do I share my understanding with others?

Instead of looking at the future in fear, I am learning to step forward in faith, knowing that God is over us all and will guide us into a new and brighter tomorrow.

— Susan Shearhouse

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist