Pluralistic: Boss preppers (22 Nov 2025)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2025/11/22/eschatology-watch/

The End Is Near!? [Sermon]

There are a lot of punctuation marks and other special characters.

Just in English we have periods, commas, colons, semicolons, hyphens, en dashes (which are longer than hyphens), em dashes (which are longer then en dashes), at signs, hashtags or octothorps (the tic-tac-toe looking symbol), dollar and cent signs, ampersands (the and sign), carets (the little up arrow hat), percent signs, asterisks (the star symbol), parentheses, brackets, forward and backward slashes, question marks, exclamations marks…

…and that’s English. Other Western character sets have additional punctuation and accents.

And then people keep making up new punctuation.

Sometimes people are asking a question – so question mark – but also as upset, amazed, or astonished, like “The sky turned orange” ? !-

And in 1962 advertising executive Martin K. Speckter came up with a name for a question mark followed by an exclamation mark: the interobang: intero (interogative or question mark) and bang (exclamation mark): ‽

There’s even an upside-down version ⸘ for languages that begin questions or exclamations with an upside-down mark.

Even though the people who manage all the characters and emojis available on computers have added it as a character, it’s usually typed ?!, because it is used after a something that’s a question first, but said excitedly.

But what if it’s an exclamation first, and then a question?

Let’s go to God in prayer.

God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, to help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.

Amen.

THE END IS NEAR!

If we haven’t seen someone carrying a sign with this message, you have probably seen a cartoon of a person carrying such a sign. As we talked about a little last week – these signs should not make us panic.

And in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells us

Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say,

‘I am he!’

and,

‘The time is near!’

Do not go after them.

Luke 2:18, NRSVue

We recently had people giving away their possessions and homes because they expected to be raptured.

They’re all still here.

And times are difficult now. I’ll admit this scripture sounds like news more than prophecy:

wars and insurrections

Luke 21:19, NRSVue

and

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

Luke 21:10b – 11, NRSVue

But Jesus warns:

“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.

Luke 21:12, NRSVue

Now I’m not saying that now is the end times. I’m not going to carry a sign saying “The End Is Near!” If I did, I would put a question mark at the end.

But we do have clergy and other faithful people being arrested as they protest things like immigration actions, government firings, changes to voting rights, redistricting… things that affect ordinary people.

Some are betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends.

This is understandably frightening.

We might imagine what would happen if we were out in front of Humboldt County Courthouse and got picked up by Federal officials, and how we would respond. Maybe we could write out – or memorize – a list of responses.

But Jesus warns us:

make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance;

for I will give you words and a wisdom

that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.

Luke 21:14-15, NRSVue

That sounds like a risky strategy.

Yet dozens of people repeating the same prepared talking points is not persuasive. Even one person repeating rehearsed responses will seem more like acting than responding. What is more persuasive is to know what we know and believe what we believe, and to speak from the heart and soul, from the our truths, in response to the questions or statements.

And that’s how the Spirit will give us words and wisdom.

At this point, we may be anxious about the times. But as the title of this sermon implies, by putting the question mark after the exclamation mark, we don’t know that this is the end times.

Based on previous declarations of the end times, I would guess we are not. But even if it is, is that a bad thing?

Jesus promises

“By your endurance you will gain your souls”

Luke 21:19, NRSVue

Our reading from Malachi, probably written after the end of the Babylonian exile and the building of the second temple in Jerusalem, speaks to the people of Judah – or Judea – that justice will come:

See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.

Malachi 4:1-2a, NRSVue

This is a prophecy before the coming of Jesus.

It’s a prophecy that has come true repeatedly in history.

As confusing as it can be to decide what is right and how to care for diverse people, it is not nearly as chaotic as having many people whose primary interest is enriching themselves.

Selfishness can band people together for only a relatively short time, until that selfishness starts to become a wedge between subgroups, and then between individuals in subgroups.

Human beings are social creatures. We are built not only to care for each other, but to rely on each other. And to rely on each other requires trust. It requires honesty.

And despite what I’ve heard some people – even faith leaders – say, it requires empathy. Empathy is not weakness. Empathy is not, as some have remarkably said, a sin.

Those among us who care for others – even, as Jesus says in Matthew 25:40, the least of these, are doing the work that holds humanity together, the work that both relies on, and fulfills, the promise that justice will prevail.

So my challenge to all of us this week is to remember that there have been may times when it seemed like the end was near, that more often it was the end of major injustices and the beginning of healing, and that what our God requires of us is

to do justice

and to love kindness

and to walk humbly with our God.

Micah 6:8b

Amen.

Let’s sing NCH 609 Now Is the Time Approaching

* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue

* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.

#empathy #eschatology #justice #love #theEnd

#Catchoftheday
#OpenAccess on
#MENAdoc:

"Das Land ohne Heimkehr: die Gedanken der Babylonier-Assyrer über Tod und Jenseits nebst Schlussfolgerungen" by Friedrich Delitzsch

[Stuttgart: Dt. Verl.-Anst., 1911]

http://dx.doi.org/10.25673/98921

#death #deathcult #afterlife #eschatology

Frank Delitzsch was a German Lutheran and Hebrew scholar in Germany. Job is held up as a moral example (ch 29 & 31). Evidence is no cry from workers or from his land because of his avarice and oppression.

Now, it’s like, a cry against godly person is their cross to bear. We don’t open to strangers but celebrate their violent removal.

How can you carry out a life of righteousness?
#christian #justice #biblicaltruth #reagan #eschatology #ancientwisdom #scripture

I reflect on what the Bible says about "the Rapture" and what it is really calling us to focus on. Also, information about Faithtoberfest, which is drawing near!

#Christianity #Rapture #Eschatology #Faithtoberfest #Faith #Jesus

Eschatological thinking: why Peter Thiel is talking about the Antichrist

https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/the-political-power-of-eschatological-82b

#HackerNews #Eschatology #PeterThiel #Antichrist #TechPolitics #FutureThinking

#Maitreya, the future #Buddha, is central to Buddhist #eschatology as the prophesied restorer of the #Dharma in an age of decline. Unlike #apocalyptic traditions, #Buddhism emphasizes cycles of decay and renewal, with Maitreya symbolizing #hope, #ethical restoration, and continuity of teachings. Here's a brief overview:

🌍 https://www.fabriziomusacchio.com/weekend_stories/told/2025/2025-09-17-maitreya/

#WeekendStories

The sermon for September 14th 2025 is now available on the New Life web site.

In this sermon, which is based on Mark 4:26-32, I talk about A Positive Eschatology.

Click here to listen or download the mp3: http://www.new-life.org.au/sermons/20250914-keith.mp3 #sermon #endtimes #eschatology