Devotional Thought of the day:

²⁰  He who gives his testimony to all this says, “Yes indeed! I am coming soon!” So be it. Come, Lord Jesus! ²¹  May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with everyone. Revelation 22:20-21 (TEV)

⁸  And now there is waiting for me the victory prize of being put right with God, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day—and not only to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear. 2 Timothy 4:8 (TEV)

The believer has in essence already received God’s favorable verdict. Now, as at the future judgment, he or she stands clothed only in the righteousness of Christ and for his sake is assured of life. Thus, the fear of condemnation disappeared for Luther, and, instead of holding out the return of Christ as an object of terror, he could exhort his parishioners to pray for the speedy arrival of the lieben jungsten Tag, the dear last day, when the riches of divine grace, invisible to the eye and accessible only to faith in this world, would be revealed in the kingdom of God.

I grew up in the midst of a hysteria about the end times.  Even as the revival and renewal of the 60’s and 70’s guided people back into the church, part of that renewal was based on fear, and false teaching about the tribulation, the horrors of God’s wrath powered an evangelistic fever, and a desire to make sure our family, neighbors, and friends were safe.

End times, much like in the time of Luther, were pushed as something to drive people to God in fear of his wrath.

And salvation became a salvation from the extreme power of sin, and Satan, and the power of death.

Men like Tim LaHaye, Chuck Smith, Hal Lindsey, and Jack Chick became experts in this presentation of end times, and of using what Freud called Thanatos to motivate people’s going to church, and buying books and tracts.

We all grew to fear the second coming, and what preceded it, we studied the news with as much emphasis as studying scripture, and eventually, many burnt out on this fear-of-the-end-driven religion, and many more turned off, as we tried to scare and shame them into our form of Christianity. (and we were often proud of our “evangelistic efforts” being rejected, as proof we were doing the right thing!)

And as the day delayed, the church lost its grasp on people, the fear diminished, as did the fervor to save them from something, for we forgot to teach them what they were saved into…

Luther had this going in his days as well, though instead of buying books and tracts, they bought indulgences.

As I was reading this morning, the passage above from a book on Luther’s Spirituality again helped me to see a different approach regarding the end.  One I’ve come to appreciate on its own but didn’t make the connection of it to Luther.

I want the end to come!  I pray that Christ will return

Sometimes for the wrong reasons, for the end to all the trauma, I see, especially in the church.  Sometimes so there is finally an end to the trauma and pain caused by our sin, that spiritual illness that we are powerless against.

But the real reason to desire the end, to desire the judgment is that we know what Luther knew.  Because of Jesus, we are already judged as righteous, as holy as able to walk into the presence of God, glorifying Him for doing the impossible.  For He has declared and made us as holy, as special as Jesus.

And that makes heaven a homecoming, that makes heaven an entry into something beyond our imagination, beyond our ken.  To see God in all of His glory, and to know we belong in His presence. To hear our welcome, to hear with delight (and still the attitude of “who? me?  really?  when Lord?”) the Lord welcoming us into His presence.  To have answered the prayer that my mornings begin, “One thing I have asked of the Lord, and this is what I seek.:  That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,; to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to seek HIm in HIs temple”

May we all learn to desire this, to pray for it, to realize how real that day is, and rejoice in the thought it is nearer than before. Maranatha!  Come Lord Jesus!

strohl, J. E. (2007). General Introduction. In P. D. W. Krey, B. McGinn, & P. D. S. Krey (Eds.), P. D. S. Krey & P. D. W. Krey (Trans.), Luther’s Spirituality (p. xxii). New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.

Taken from https://www.northumbriacommunity.org/offices/morning-prayer/    (psalm 27:4