THE END????

 

 Recently, I've been asked by a variety of folks if these are the end times. I'm not real big on an end times faith focus and a belief of fret and fear. My experience with it has been....well, way too much heavy judgement as folks do their own sort  and export type of thing --- to quote Anne Lamott, "You can safely assume you've created God in your image when it turns out that God hates the same people you do."   This over-focus on the looming apocalypse creates a lot of immobilized, clenched disciples and that's not good for any movement .

A true story to further highlight my point. Let's file this experience in the "Major Misguided Ministry Ideas" folder. I was in seventh grade, my friend invited me to her Baptist church's Vacation Bible School (VBS).  The Jr. High class for that VBS was not familiar to me and my more relaxed church programs.  These budding adolescents were intense and I was intimidated. Case in point, when the daily snack was shared the teacher would select a kid to offer grace. The majority of the class offered prayers that went something like, "O, Sovereign of the Universe, you made the cow lower than man and to be in service to man. In your wisdom you also provided a harvest of wheat and sugar cane.  We are grateful for the cow's milk that strengthens us and for the wheat made into flour and mixed with sugar to provide a glimpse of life's sweetness and joy. For these gifts, we offer our thanks."  The one day I was asked to offer grace, I said, "Thank you for the cookies and milk."  You get the point.

Throughout the week the focus was on the end times and stories of the rapture. This was not often studied in my Methodist upbringing and I was uncomfortable and also quite freaked out. The rapture story that stuck in my mind was where two are out working in the field and one is taken and one is left behind. Good for the one gone to heaven, bad for the one left behind to endure the tribulations. 

Toward the close of the week these studies culminated in the teacher taking the class to the sanctuary, up to the altar and announcing that for the sake of our souls each one of us was now going to kneel and accept Jesus and, in a sense, get our afterlife passport stamped and sealed.  I may not have been able to pray for five minutes, using four syllable words and quoting scripture, yet, I knew this didn't sound right.  Wasn't this a personal decision made by an individual when one is ready to make that choice?  

Like every other kid in the class, I knelt, yet, that was all I did.  I was completely unsettled, scared and troubled.  That afternoon when I got home, I planned on talking with Mom. Now if there was anyone whom I knew would make it to heaven it was my mother  Regarding that story of the two women in the field, I was assured that Mom would be chosen and have her ticket punched for glory.  

I walked in the kitchen, Mom's domain, and she wasn't there.  I went downstairs to the laundry room, maybe she was doing the wash...not there either.  I ran upstairs, maybe she was cleaning the bedrooms, nope, not there. I asked my brother if he knew where was Mom and he answered that he hadn't seen her and didn't know where she was. I checked the garage, the back porch, the side yard....not in any of those places.  I thought it had happened...the rapture....Mom was taken and I and my brothers and sister and father were left behind, we didn't make the cut, bring on the fire.  I was terrified.

Fear-laden footsteps outside and a glance up to the field and I saw my Mom!  She was out in the garden and had stopped by to chat with the neighbor.  As she walked through the field to our house  I ran up to meet her. I was both thrilled and relieved. We were all still in the game!  

Surprised by my greeting and how close I stayed to her for the rest of the day (I figured if she went up in the rapture maybe I could grab on and get swept up as well....hey, in my mind it became every kid for one's self......) she asked me if everything was OK and I said that I just didn't like VBS and that I would be glad when it ended. "Why is that?" she asked. I replied that I didn't like a church that tried to make everyone afraid and that didn't sound right to me. 

Ours is not to scare, dare, bully or berate others into the faith. Ours is to love, journey and connect and extend grace and mercy.  That is how I understand my job and calling. I trust God to do the rest and to sort it all out and all in.  

So, are these the end times?  Who knows.  Jesus said that of that day and hour we do not know. He also said not to worry and to be about the work of God which is "to do what is just, to love tenderly and to walk humbly." Let our focus be there.