One of the errors of the more traditional and fundamentalist parts of christendom is an emphasis on end times. We like the speculation. We like to think we have some estoteric knowledge because we have read Tim LaHaye or Ravi Zechariah.
We see is as a time when we will survive. This is an error. The day of the LORD will come, because if it did not, all life on earth would be extinguished.
The day of the LORD will be sudden. It will be dark. It will be dangerous. But the glory of God will be obvious… a blinding and brightness and righteousness that we will avoid as we avoid the sun in summer.
18Alas for you who desire the day of the LORD! Why do you want the day of the LORD? It is darkness, not light; 19as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. 20Is not the day of the LORD darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
21I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. 23Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. 24But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 26You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images, which you made for yourselves; 27therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts
17But you, beloved, must remember the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18for they said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.” 19It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions. 20But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; 21keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22And have mercy on some who are wavering; 23save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on still others with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.
24Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 25to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
I want to talk about two more errors that we have in Christendom.
The first is an over emphasis on worship. I find this difficult. I love worship — from the beauty of evensong to being deafened at Parachute… from an high anglican eucharist to elim at full volume. My music collection contains gregorian chants, Divna, Bach, Mozart.. and Hillsong. (It also includes Tori, Ani, Nick Cave and the Pogues) But God is more interested in seeing justice roll like a river.
For we live in an age of injustice. The current ruling elite are leading our society to destruction, and there is little we can do about that. What we can do is local — but needed. One in five people in the USA are without work, and I think you can double that for the young, or in Europe. We need to feed these people, and find work — it might mean the church is rebuiding its drains, but work.
And I consider this is more important than having a big meeting area. We have those. They are called stadiums, and are in every secular place for the worship of sports. We can reclaim them as the Roman church claimed the pagan temples. We need smaller chapels for daily work, The kitchen and the cot will be more important than the sanctuary.
For the government will not model justice flowing like a river.
The second error is a sense that our group is perfect. One of the profound ironies is that the groups who know that they must continually return to the basics of the faith — those with Calvanist theology — are often the most rigid.
Now, I am not saying we should lose our precision and we should agree on theology. That will not happen until the day of our LORD, where there will be brightness illuminating the errors — and the theologians of the Christian error will have Jesus telling them precisely where their errors are.
In the shattered external state of the church, we are without power. But together, we are powerful. But it means we will be irritated: we will disagree. But together, we can do great things. A local example here. It is christmas, and the churches have put packages together. The Anglicans, Catholics, Baptists, Bretheren, Pentecostals and Presbyterians all put together a large box of supplies for the poor and indivent. And then all the social agencies give them out — using the food banbk (run by Anglicans) and the community support groups (run by everyone) to ensure there is no doubling up and there is no one left out.
We work together. We also work together to deal with the moral issues of the day — discussions of ethics actually benefit from someone saying “This is what St John Paul said” while some protestants ignore the person and deconstruct the text.
We are not commanded to be good denominationalists. The current church structure will fall. We are called to be faithful, and call divisions, as Jude did, as a result of those among us who foment discord.