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Title: Coping with the Delay (revisions Jun 07)
Text: Ps 6; Hb 10:19-25, 32-39; Jn 19:28-30
File Categories: Second Coming
Central Thrust: Exploring ways to maintain a realistic expectation of the second coming.
Ill: Children waiting to open presents at Christmas
Hym: 203 This is the Threefold Truth
626 In a Little While We’re Going Home
217 The Church Has Waited Long
415 Christ the Lord, All Power Possessing
602 O Brother, Be Faithful
Theological Concern: Sustaining faith in the second coming
Point of Immediacy: Delay of the coming and Christmas
Probs in Comm: Trite? Obvious?
Sermon in a Sentence: Combining past, present and future is the best way to cope with the delay in the Second Coming.
Attribute of God: Reliable—but not in a hurry
Preached: 070109 WWC Midweek Meditation
070112 WWC Impact (Black Student Friday night service)
070616 Choteau, MT church
\\ Coping with the Delay
!
I. The problem.
!! A. Adventists have a problem: we’ve been announcing Jesus’ return for over 140 years, Christians for over 2,000 years, and it hasn’t happened.
!!! 1.
When does this announcement lose credibility?
!!! 2. We continue to pray for Jesus to come and interrupt the cycle of suffering, misery and death.
!!! 3. How long can we be honest with ourselves and maintain our beliefs with no fulfillment to our assertions?
!!!! a.
We echo the cries of David in our Psalm.
e.g.
Psalm 6:2-3 (TNIV) \\ 2 Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish.
How long, Lord, how long?
!!!! b. Compare that with Psalm 13:
c.f. Psalm 13:1-3 (TNIV) \\ 1 /For the director of music.
A psalm of David./
How long, Lord?
Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me? 3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
!! B. Jesus points toward a solution with words from the cross.
!
II.
Waiting.
!! A. What is waiting like for you?
!!! 1. Children waiting to open Christmas presents.
!!!! a. On our way to Sabbath School DeAndre and Harmony (and family?!) said they couldn’t wait so opened presents on Dec 23!
!!!! b. Story comes home to me—Found out Mike knew what I was going to get, so I begged, pleaded, pestered him to tell me.
He finally did.
Now, every time I see that old family movie I remember how I hate to wait.
!!! 2. Waiting for summer to pass so could see BJB at our wedding.
!!! 3. Waiting for rescue or healing or hope.
!!!! a. E.g.
Ken Barnes attempting to sail alone and non-stop around the world from the West Coast of the US.
Storm off Chile rolled his 44’ ketch completely over, 360 degrees, ruined his engine, broke off both masts, killed his generator and injured him.
Left him stranded and adrift for 3 days.
!
III.
Negative consequences of the delay
!! A. Waiting is bad enough in itself.
!! B. Even worse, waiting can corrode our confidence, sap reality from our belief system.
!!! 1. How can one justifiably talk about a "soon" coming, 2,000 later?
!!! 2. When does our faith become a fantasy?
!!! 3. When are we living in a dream?
Refusing to accept reality?
Blinding ourselves so we don’t have to admit the truth?
!! C. E.g.
Farmer Astronaut move.
Astronaut, last name Farmer, dropped from the program when he left to be with his dying father.
Dreamed of going into space, built a rocket and capsule in his barn.
Mortgaged the farm, his cattle, missed payments.
Tried to buy solid rocket fuel for a single earth orbit.
FBI showed up in force.
Not being able to get the fuel, he couldn’t wait so he blasted off with make-shift fuel and crashed!
!! D. Ways of coping.
!!! 1. Can be separated into two groups:
!!!! a. Fantasy~/assumption
!!!!! 1) Emphasizes the future.
!!!!! 2) Marked by continual excitement or normative assumption.
!!!!! 3) E.g. “Next year in Jerusalem” which Rabbi Shimjon Felix says became the Passover mantra of the Diaspora Jews and kept it alive for their children and grandchildren.
(in a Sh’ma, 2003 article titled “Heed the Words: Next Year in Jerusalem”)
!!!! b. Reframing emphasizes the present.
!!!!! 1) My life may end today and usher me into the future!
!!!!! 2) Every moment may be my last.
!!!!! 3) Good news: (hymn) “One sweetly solemn thought comes to me ore and ore, I am nearer home today than I’ve ever been before.”
!!! 2. Both of these groups have serious drawbacks.
!!!! a.
Those that emphasize the past and future can become
!!!!! 1) Irrelevant
!!!!! 2) Leave us stuck and unresponsive to the contemporary world.
!!!!! 3) Entice us to escape or deny present reality.
!!!!! 4) You’ve heard the quip suggesting that “Some saints are so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good!”
!!!! b.
Those that emphasize only the present can allow the present to:
!!!!! 1) Emphasize normal life experiences.
!!!!! 2) Distract us from God.
!!!!! 3) Be overwhelmed with the misery and sadness of the present.
!!!!! 4) Deemphasize God personally and dramatically breaking into human experience.
!
IV. Jesus suggested another way from the cross.
John 19:30 (TNIV) \\ 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
!! A. *Compress* the past, present and future.
!!! 1. = Live as if it had already happened.
!!! 2. With God, what was and will be is.
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