Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
3:2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3:3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
3:4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
3:5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
3:6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
3:7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
3:8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
3:9 What gain have the workers from their toil?
3:10 I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.
3:11 He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
3:12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live;
3:13 moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.
Psalm 8
8:1 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
8:2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
8:3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
8:4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
8:5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
8:6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
8:7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8:8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
8:9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
8:9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Revelation 21:1-6a
21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
21:2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;
21:4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."
21:5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true."
21:6a Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Matthew 25:31-46
25:31
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
25:32
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
25:33
and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
25:34
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,
25:35
for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
25:36
I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'
25:37
Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
25:38
And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing?
25:39
And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?'
25:40
And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.'
25:41
Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,
25:42
for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
25:43
I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'
25:44
Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?'
25:45
Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.'
25:46
And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life."
So, to start the year: apocalyptic. Seems like starting with the end. Did you realize the Greek name of last book of the New Testament is transliterated as the “Apocalypse” of John? It’s not the opposite of “Revelation,” it’s the synonym.
Once a year is about how often the Apocalypse of John appears in the lectionary. Here it is, joined by Ecclesiastes, which also appears about this often. I once used Ecclesiastes in a service, honoring a young high school graduate about to go to college. I reminded her, in the words of the Preacher, that if the making of books there is non nd, and much study is a vexation. Nobody really wants to hear the Wisdom of the Preacher. Both texts are joined here with Matthew’s parable about the sheep 🐑 and the goats 🐐, one I’ve used so often I fear I’m turning it into a cliche. It’s also apocalyptic. In Matthew’s telling, it’s the last thing that happens before sheep go off with Jesus, while the goats face the final end of their good days.
These are the lectionary selections for New Year's Day. Nothing like starting the year with doomsday, huh?
“To everything there is a season" already violates our sense of time: and what is the apocalypse, if not the end of time? “Party’s over, out of time,” and all that. We want to fantasize about the end of time, watch movies about the end of life as we know it, even read comic books relentlessly focused on life after societal death. But we don't want things to be seasonal, we want them to be occasional, and the occasion to be right now, if we need it; and later, if we don't need it right now. That’s why we like apocalyptic scenarios right now: seasons are always irrelevant, the crucial time is always right now, and the end is not really the end. Some of that is because we’ve already really kind of broken the seasons, literally as well as figuratively. Long out of school as most of us are, our lives are still ruled by school holidays: summer, then Christmas break, then the Easter holiday, then summer again. But the seasons mean less than nothing to us. One season just means we run the A/C, the other just means we run the heat; and in between the only other variation is whether to mow, rake, or shovel. There is no rhythm to our seasons anymore, except the rhythm of shopping (Christmas, especially after Thanksgiving Day), or maybe what sports events we follow.
"To everything there is a season?” and today we take that to mean the season of our success is over, and all that comes now is the end of time. Apocalypse is the revelation of our failure; now is the winter of our discontent, but it is never made glorious summer. Winter is coming, and it’s the End of all things. John had a vision of the end of all things, but he saw a new heaven and a new earth. But not one coming as the result of human endeavors, but as a consequence of justice.Today we’ve gone Greek; Ancient Greek. Beginning and the End of the Universe is chaos, and that state of things will inevitably return. Civilization is the ordering principle, but it ultimately fails, and the rule of nature, nasty, brutish, and short, reclaims all. All of us, that is; but we are all that matters. Isaiah’s holy mountain was at least a peaceable kingdom including humankind and all of creation. Our apocalypse always wipes nature out; or at least relegates it to the background where it doesn’t matter. And our apocalypse is always a revelation of the inescapable truth of now.
That’s the Greek apocalypse: a grim inevitability that didn’t reveal any deeper truth, but was just the inevitable consequence of the state of the universe. Ecclesiastes, John of Patmos, and Matthew are describing the same inevitability, but for a very different universe. The Preacher gives us the good order of the quotidian:
I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.
John gives us the good order of the end of all things, following a truly nightmarish view of the future that rivals any zombie apocalypse or comic book scenario:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true."
Complete witham assurance we can rely in it! And Matthew tells us, in apocalyptic terms, both what the consequences of how we are living will be, and the very simple thing we can do about it.
When you think about it, what more do you need to hear on the first day of a new year?
