Homily

Will the Lord Return Soon?

Sunday December 12, 1999 St. Spyridon

St. Andrew Orthodox Church, Riverside, Ca.

Father Josiah Trenham

Introduction. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. We are now some 20 days away from the end of the 20^th century and the change of the millennium. The last several weeks I have offered to you both a sober reflection upon the 20^th century and also a very blunt commentary upon the state of the Holy Church at this significant period of history. In these homilies I called upon the faithful to recognize where we are in history and to exercise every effort to hold fast to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, even to the point of martyrdom for His sake. I also called upon the faithful to recognize that our struggle sadly is not simply with the world outside of the Church. Our struggle is inside the Church for She is full of many wolves in sheep’s clothing, and many who have deviated from Orthodoxy, especially in the very important area of Ecclesiology (the doctrine of the Church). This is a time for the faithful to know and defend their Orthodox faith, and to “hold fast to the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) so that you don’t go to bed one evening and wake up the next morning a Roman Catholic or a Muslim.

The Return of the Lord. As the millennium draws near some are growing wearing of discussion concerning the topic. This week you probably received a copy of the Archdiocesan “Word” Magazine. The opening editorial was entitled, “This is not about the Millennium”. The editor has obviously run clean out of patience for discussion on the subject. I for one welcome serious discussion, a thing in itself almost extinct in our age of spiritual illiteracy and theological ignorance. Some of the pressing questions many are apt to ask is “Is the world coming to an end?” and “Is Jesus coming back soon?” These are very serious and important questions, and regardless of the many ill-founded answers being given these days the questions in themselves are very good ones. Indeed, these are questions found at various places throughout the pages of the New Testament on the lips of the disciples. Is it not normal to ask these type of questions if you are a Christian? If our hope is really in being united to our Lord Jesus Himself and in obtaining a heavenly reward is it not natural that we would regularly wonder (even out loud) how much longer it would be before these things come to pass? I suggest that this type of questioning is really very normal and Christian. If it comes out more at the millennium change this simply reflects that we fail in our contemplations and anticipation at other times, not that we are necessarily overly obsessed with a question about we know little.

Liturgical Life and the 2^nd Coming of Christ. Those who have developed a life of prayer in the Church have come to have the Return of our Lord to earth in glory in the forefront of their minds. This is the case because Holy Church so often directs our minds to the subject of the 2^nd Coming. Far from being an obscure and uncertain dogma the Return of the Lord to earth is a central part of our confession. The Divine Liturgy directs us to this glorious day. At the elevation of the sacred gifts we remember His “second and glorious coming”. In fact, the whole drama of the Liturgy is only understood in relation to the day when Christ comes again and we sit with Him finally at the Marriage Supper in the Heavenly Kingdom. Each day when we recite the Creed we confess that Christ shall come again to judge the living and the dead, and we say that we “look for” that day when He shall return, men shall be judged, all bodies resurrected, and the life of the age to come inaugurated.

Is Jesus Coming Again Soon? So how do we in the Church answer this question. If someone asks you this question let me suggest how you ought to answer. Your answer to “Is Jesus coming back soon?” ought to be: “I certainly hope so.” We confess knowledge of the day or hour of His return, but we do confess our great desire for that day to come. Is it true that each of us desires our Savior to come back soon? What if in the providence of God this New Year’s is the appointed great day of the Return of Christ to earth? What if in 20 days our eyes witness the flaming fire, the trump of God and cry of the Archangels, the earth being broken up and giving forth the dead, the sea opening and coughing forth those it has consumed, the heavenly signs, the dread tribunal descending, the books being brought forth, the river of fire, the gates of paradise, all mankind being separated into two camps on the right and left of Christ, and the final verdicts? What if 20 days we witness the abolition of disease, the vindication of the martyrs, the fulfillment of our hope, and we receive the embrace of our Lord?

Who would complain? Only those who are not now “looking for” and “yearning after” that great day of our Lord’s Return to earth. Only those who deceive themselves with their religious charades and are really hoping that their earthly pleasures will last forever. Only those who are trying to make this life something that it isn’t. Only those who are spending more time building their shabby kingdoms than they are trying to build God’s kingdom on earth. Search your hearts! How would you feel if indeed the Lord returns to the earth this New Year’s? In the contemplation of this our hearts ought to explode with joy. Yes sometimes we have fear also, especially if we recognize that we are not ready to meet our Sweet Savior face to face.

Here we focus upon the fundamental orientation of the Christian. This is a true mark of a Christian- to be looking for the Return of the Lord and the next life. Here is a true mark of a worldly man- to be absorbed with the vain things of this life- houses, business, money, investments, earthly accomplishments, degrees, advancements, honors, titles, these are all vain and only derive any eternal meaning whatsoever in as much as they serve to advance one’s salvation or God’s kingdom. The Christian is to be like the holy Patriarch Abraham. Though he had been gifted with many earthly blessings and great riches he disdained them all. As St. Paul testifies concerning the Patriarch Abraham confessed that he and his family were “strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one…By faith Abraham lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land…for he was looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:13-16, 9-10).

As we approach the change of the millennium let us wait for and hope for and indeed pray for the Lord to return to earth, and let be emulate our pious forefathers who lived as aliens on this earth and by God’s grace learn to yearn for the next life where we will be delivered from every evil and suffering and seeing our Lord face to face glorify Him together with His Unoriginate Father and the Most-Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, one is essence and undivided. Amen.