Listen or watch this service here and part two
Scripture: Acts 1:1-11 and John 17:1-11
There once was a farmer named William Miller who lived in upstate New York in the early to mid 1800s. Miller believed all of scripture is necessary and interprets itself. With impressive methodology, intense, extensive and detailed study, he became convinced that Jesus’ second coming would happen between March 21st 1831 and March 21st 1844. This would be 2300 years from the time Ezra was ordered to rebuild Jerusalem. Now, March 1831 came. But no Jesus descended from heaven. People continued to wait. March the following year passed. But, through the whole year, no heavenly Second Coming seemed to happen. Life continued as usual.
Miller apologized to his supporters in a letter saying “I confess my error, and acknowledgement my disappointment, yet I still believe that the day of the Lord is near, even at the door.” A Millerite, a follower of Miller, named Samuel Snow gave a new date – October 22, 1844. Seven-months from March 21st 1844. In two months this message spread like a wildfire. Now churches and people of all walks and denominations were excited. People sold their property or gave it away. They got all their affairs in order. Thousands showed up on a hill to await together. This time, this time, how could it not be true?
Henry Emmons wrote about it: “I waited all Tuesday [October 22] and dear Jesus did not come;—I waited all the forenoon of Wednesday, and was well in body as I ever was, but after 12 o’clock I began to feel faint, and before dark I needed someone to help me up to my chamber, as my natural strength was leaving me very fast, and I lay prostrate for 2 days without any pain—sick with disappointment.”
People realized they now had no farms. No food. No homes. They’d prepared to “rise” with Jesus into the sky… and instead had to walk down that hill back to a life now made much harder.
Millerite Churches in New York were vandalized and burned. In Illinois a mob attacked a congregation. In Toronto, a group tarred and feathered a congregation while another congregation was shot at.
William Miller wrote, “Some are tauntingly enquiring, ‘Have you not gone up?’ Even little children in the streets are shouting continually to passersby, ‘Have you a ticket to go up?’ The public prints, of the most fashionable and popular kind […] are caricaturing in the most shameful manner of the ‘white robes of the saints,’ … Even the pulpits are desecrated by the repetition of scandalous and false reports concerning the ‘ascension robes’, and priests are using their powers and pens to fill the catalogue of scoffing in the most scandalous periodicals of the day.”
This day is called The Great Disappointment in church history books. Disappointment. Bewilderment. Disillusioned. Confused. Feeling abandoned. Many walked away from the belief of Jesus’ return.
The few who remained gathered together and began to chat. Some predicted new dates – which failed to be accurate. Others began to teach that on that October date, the Heavenly Wedding Feast Doors were shut. The gnashing of teeth and wailing in the dark streets awaited everyone who wasn’t a Christian on that date in 1844. This stance weakened as people were born, became Christian, and people died who’d been present for 1844.
A new belief sprang up – October 1844 was the start of a heavenly, not an earthly, event. It was when Jesus began to get things in order for us and now – now – any moment – Jesus will return. But to predict the hour or the day is to force time into a timeless place.
Today, this new belief is the denomination we call the Seventh Day Adventist church. It’s one of the largest Christian denominations. They have schools and hospitals everywhere, are well known for advocating healthy, Kosher, vegetarian lifestyles. Anyone have Kellogg’s cereal today? You can thank the Adventist for that invention. All the meat substitutes made of soy? Many were begun by or are still owned by Adventists.
Today, I am struck with how the Miller story and our Acts story interact with one another. It is very logical to me that people gathered on a hill for Jesus to return from the sky. The men in white robes today tell the disciples that just as they saw Jesus be taken up from them, they can be sure Jesus will come again in the same way. That is – a cloud. And Miller was a great Bible scholar, his math is complicated and looks good for the dates he set. If I were around in 1844, I may have been convinced myself. It would be exciting! Can you imagine no more waiting and Jesus here, heaven here, now?
At about 4 a.m. this week I woke up with a stark thought. What if Miller was wrong and it wasn’t Ezra the prophecy is based on, but Jesus? Jesus’ first ascension? It was 4 a.m. I’d forgotten Miller calculated 2300 years. I was thinking 2030 years. So my logic said: If Jesus died in about 32 Common Era, then we have 2060ish years? Oh no – what if it was from Jesus’ first advent? First advent to second advent? That would be his birth – meaning 2030 Common Era. Meaning – 7 years. 7 years from now to Jesus’ return.
My groggy mind propelled me out of bed and I fumbled for a sheet of paper to sort this out. Now where was that pen?
If Jesus returns in 7 years, guaranteed, am I ready? It seems cliché and silly in the daylight at 10 in the morning, but at 4 a.m. this is a scary thought. Am I ready to meet my maker face to face? Am I ready for the unveiling, the revelation, the apocalypse – as it is called in Greek? No – I’m not!
I have a lot of living left.
I have a lot of sin to stop.
I haven’t given everything to those less fortunate.
I’ve not tried my best to love.
I’ve not perfected being in community.
I’m no saint.
I’m me. Good and bad. Sinful and divine. Trying and succeeding to follow Jesus’ lifestyle and also trying and failing.
Now I was more awake and thinking more clearly. Panic does that to you. What is monumental in 7 years? Climate change is on my mind. In 7 years we’ll know if we have successfully reduced our emissions and are going to survive in a hotter, but livable, world… or if we have blown past them and now will war, struggle, and maybe meet a Mad Max kind of world in the future. 7 years.
Now I had a cup of calming and centering tea and stood listening to the frogs sing. 7 generations of spring peepers. I wryly wondered if I’d have PR by then. Followed with – ‘you have PR with Jesus. You’re a full citizen in God’s realm. That sure doesn’t help taxes. But why would there be taxes when heaven is fully manifested on earth?’
You can see how my brain is full of squirrels sometimes.
So, now awake, now centered, now attentive, I thought about this all more rationally.
Maybe the men said Jesus would be returning as he left meaning… peacefully. Peacefully Jesus arrived and peacefully he left and peacefully he’ll return. There and gone, arrived and back, going like the wind. Being like the Spirit. Or maybe they meant coming again in the same way as in mysteriously. Mysteriously came to Mary. Mysteriously he left. Mysteriously he returns. Or without warning – a thief in the night, as Scripture says. Or what if they meant at the right time, the fullness of time, the perfect moment? The perfect moment he was born. The perfect moment he left. The perfect moment he’ll return.
My next thought was that heaven is outside of time. When we took communion, last week, we mentioned that we gather outside of time and space with all who commune. So those Christians in our past and those in the future, and everyone now, gather mystically and mysteriously at Jesus’ table.
So the notion Jesus was, is, and will be, isn’t a new idea to us. Jesus is all around us in our timeline. No special 7 years or 277 years from now need predicted. Jesus is now. And Jesus will be then. And Jesus was in our yesterdays.
Yet how jarring it was to really consider what it means that at any moment our lives are over. Our minds don’t handle that fact very well. It’s hard to live on edge and anxiety. So our minds put it off. Hides our mortality from us. Keeps us functioning.
Some of us are more aware of our mortality more than others. Some of us wonder if we’ll see the next 7 years. But truthfully, it could be the last day for any of us or all of us.
That’s scary to me.
My comfort is in our other reading today. Jesus prays aloud for us – having those present, and us today, overhear what Jesus prays.
He prays that we know eternal life. He defines eternal life as knowing God and knowing Jesus. He prays for our belief – not what we understand, but what we do. Our conscious belief that informs our actions: Like our belief that love is more powerful than hate. That life overcomes death. That God is good. Jesus calls us God’s own. Says we face evil and harm because the world at large is not in harmony with God and asks God to watch over us while we sojourn together. Jesus asks we share his joy. Asks we remain holy in truth. Prays for the disciples who hear him and “those who believe because of the disciples’ word.” That’s us. Jesus prays that we are made perfectly one, just as God and Jesus are. Just as we and Jesus are. Jesus prays for us to join him wherever he goes. Jesus prays we know the love of him, and God, and each other, and teach that love to all.
In John, there is no “Teach us to Pray” and Jesus teaching the Lord’s Prayer. This is the Lord’s Prayer. A prayer for those who were, are, and will be following Jesus’ way towards God. A prayer for unity. A prayer for truth. A prayer for love. A prayer for protection. A prayer for helping us navigate being in the world but not part of it – meaning, being here. Loving here. Helping here. But refusing to go along with oppression, hate, war, fear and discrimination that makes a lot of the world turn. Society turn.
Jesus prays for us. If it my turn to meet Jesus today or tomorrow or seven years from now or 277 years from now – it’ll be okay. For time is irrelevant. Already I am in Christ. You are in Christ. Already together we are the body of Christ. Already we share a life, a journey, choosing to come together to live intentionally following Jesus’ model and example and way.
Perhaps Jesus comes again every time we gather in his name.
Or, perhaps Jesus shall yet come in full glory and all evil and sorrow will be banished from earth.
What matters, from my mortal, stuck-in-time perspective, is if I’m living that eternal life of knowing God. If I’m caring for those God has entrusted to me – plants and animals, people and communities, myself and family. What matters isn’t when Jesus returns but the realization we are here for so short of a time. And just as mystically as we arrived, so we will leave. Just as unexpectedly we found ourselves alive, we’ll find our time alive on earth is over. Just as miraculous was our birth, so, too, will be our death. And, just as we came into this life cradled and held by God, so, too, we leave still cradled and held and loved by God. We remain as one, always, for time is relative and heaven is eternity – outside of time.
That is my comfort. That is how I can exist in this liminal time between first and second coming. This is how I calm anxieties and trust all shall be well. This is how I work hard to love for today, try to leave no goodness undone, and yet still sleep at night with so much work left undone.
May the knowledge Jesus prays for you, unites you with all others, and encircles you in love comfort you too. Amen.
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 