Another part of scripture that is really, truly hard to deal with. For there will be an end, and at that time we will be made pure, and we will be with Christ.

But at present we look to that day. For we know we are not pure, and that Christ is not with us in fulness: we are like many women waiting for the day of their wedding and wishing it was over, so that the marriage can begin.

This week, contemplating remarriage, we met with a lawyer. We have wills to rewrite, the twisted passages of property transfers and family law to negotiate, and children to consider. And we had to give directions for when we die: I am old enough to know that this is nearer than the day of my birth.

These passages now have more meaning, for in pain and death itself Christ will preserve us. Which no ideology can do.

And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.”

Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.

(Luke 21:5-19 ESV)

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

(1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ESV)

The institutions of our wold look authoritative. The buildings they are in are designed to look su: one of the amusing things with the shrinking of the clerical class (we don’t get our money from a bank teller and we don’t keep ledgers by hand) is seeing empty banks turned into other things.

If God did not spare the temple, he won’t spare our deep state. We should not be concerned about this. Our society will fall or rise. In this pagan time, Christians are the minority and the elite…. well, the New York times published this by Tony Campolo.

We want to be clear: We are not suggesting a new kind of Christianity that simply backs the Democratic Party. Jesus is neither a Democrat nor a Republican — even if, as William Sloane Coffin Jr. once said, his heart leans left. Many faithful Christians did not vote for Hillary Clinton because of their commitment to a consistent pro-life agenda. True faith can never pledge allegiance to anything less than Jesus.

But Jesus-centered faith needs a new name. Christians have retired outdated labels before. During the late 19th century, when scientific rationalism fueled the questioning of Scripture, “fundamentalism” arose as an intelligent defense of Christianity. By the 1930s, however, fundamentalism was seen as anti-intellectual and judgmental. It was then that the term “evangelicalism” was put forward by Christianity Today’s first editor, Carl F. H. Henry, as a new banner under which a broad coalition of Jesus followers could unite.
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But beginning with the culture wars of the 1980s, the religious right made a concerted effort to align evangelicalism with the Republican Party. By the mid-’90s, the word had lost its positive connotations with many Americans. They came to see Christians — and evangelicals in particular — as anti-women, anti-gay, anti-environment and anti-immigrant and as the champions of guns and war.

Mr. Trump did not create these contradictions, but his victory has pulled the roof off the building we once called home. It’s time to build a new home.

If your faith relies on your nation or ideology, it is on weak foundation. It will be as empty as the coffee cup that I put at the top of the post. The church has enough problems. We need to preach against the sins of this time, which are not relating to racism but to an acceptance of the legislature and biased narrative over relationships, honour and duty.

They have a dream, shared with the radical Maoists. That the state is all, and there is no religion. They will kill, they will destroy. Because they do not want to think beyond the material, forgetting that the very material of this world was placed there by a creator, who called this creation good.

We broke it. We cannot fix it.

So we wait for Christ to come and repair creation, even us. Knowing that when dead, we can rest, for the dead will rise to him first.