ἀποκάλυψις
Apocalypse
Daniel 12:1-3 (NIV)
The End Times
1 At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
Mark 13:1-8 (NIV)
The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
1 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”
5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
A husband and wife get away for a romantic weekend to celebrate her fortieth birthday. Someone turns on TV Breaking News and Apocalypse destroys them.
Apocalyptic novels may open with a personal vignette, a peaceful scene. The husband and father (these days wife and mother) is departing for two-week military reserve drill and there are plans for a family vacation upon return. Lovers are at the airport saying goodbyes as one leaves on a short assignment, they will soon be reunited, the future is sure. Irrelevantly in the background, trouble is brewing in the Middle East, a confrontation builds over several days, escalates, erupts, explodes into conflagration that instantly becomes global. Future vaporizes.
Here at the end of the Church Year our Lectionary readings suddenly turn ominous. In a time of peace cosmic clouds gather, darken, and the End Time looms. That is what’s happening in our Sunday readings, as we look toward Advent with its simultaneous anticipation of the Second Coming and celebration of the First Coming.
Meanwhile, timely enough, on the world scene tempers flare as Hamas and Israel escalate hostilities and the Egyptian PM hurries to Gaza to try and ease tensions. TV news shows a distraught young man holding the body of his eleven-month-old son, a war casualty, is he Jewish or Palestinian? He's human, until today he was a father. Civil war in Syria overflows onto neighbors. Intelligence agency director resigns and prepares to face the home front. A security clearance is cancelled. In Tampa a socialite’s cardboard mansion collapses. Apocalypse Now may be for a region, for nations, for the world, for a family, for a suddenly not powerful man, or a woman whose world tumbles in a matter of seconds. On TV Breaking News or in a telephone call.
Apocalypse - ἀποκάλυψις - is revelation, bringing on the End Time. Not to raise drama, but the End Time comes for each of us. It may come for anyone at anytime in any form. Especially when least expected. Our character, what we are, may show less in what happens than in our response.
TW+