The Future’s Shock
First Congregational Church—Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
25th Sunday after Pentecost – November 18, 2007
Rev. Steven A. Peay, Ph.D.
[Texts: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13/Luke 21:5-19]

“Master, but when shall these things be? And what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?”

An interesting question, isn’t it? Jesus had just dropped a bomb – the temple will be destroyed, utterly. Those listening don’t question his prediction; they just want to know when and how they’ll know it is about to happen. That desire to know what is going to happen has been with us for about as long as we’ve existed. For some reason we want to know what is going to happen or when something is going to happen to us; perhaps in order to have some modicum of control over our future.

Just about every age has its predictions of what life will be like in the future. The internet serves up a delightful load of artwork from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century which depicts visions of the future. Individual flying machines, fanciful horseless carriages, ships that come from sea to shore on rails and dinners consisting of nothing but pills were all predicted for the year 2000. Oh, and they also predicted that there would be an office and factory completely run by radio. Jules Verne’s various writings and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World were all visions of what life might be like someday. The future holds a tantalizing appeal for us, as well as a great deal of fear and uncertainty. There can be little question that the future’s shock continues to have an effect upon us.

Back in 1970 Alvin Toffler, a sociologist and futurologist, wrote the book Future Shock. Toffler says that “future shock” is driven by change: “. . . the roaring current of change, a current so powerful today that it overturns institutions, shifts our values and shrivels our roots. Change is the process by which the future invades our lives, and it is important to look at it closely, not merely from the grand perspectives of history, but also from the vantage point of the living, breathing individuals who experience it.” [p. 3] What Toffler argues is that this “future shock” consists of simply trying to deal with the magnitude of change in contemporary society. Toffler coined the term “information overload” and I can only imagine what the man must think of his term and the age of the internet!

There can be little question that we live in a time of rapid and substantive change. The fabric of our daily lives has been seriously altered since September 11, 2001. The ensuing years and the war on terrorism have brought real changes in our economy, our travel and our worldview. The one constant in the midst of all this change seems to be change itself – Toffler was on to something.

Jesus answered the request for a handle on the future with a warning not to buy into predictions. He tells them not to be deceived by those who say the future is here. He couches his answer in the language of apocalyptic, which always has a predicative element, but really focuses on comforting those going through difficulties, promoting endurance and persistence in the midst of challenge – even persecution – and change.

Jesus tells his followers – and that would include us – that the world is off-kilter. Instead of being in relationship with the Creator God, living out the covenant, the world lives instead in sinful isolation and self-absorption. It is fairly simple to turn on the television, look at a newspaper or magazine, drive or walk down a street to see evidence of what Jesus talked about in abundance. Concern for the common good is minimal, even among those supposedly elected to promote it. Lack of concern for relationships, beyond those that meet our individual needs, is everywhere. All around us we see self-centeredness that dishonors the covenant God calls creation to live. And even the church, God’s people, falls short in living out the covenant obligation of loving service that Jesus left us. Does that mean it is the end? Does that mean that after being wrong all these years Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth and Tim LaHaye’s vision of Left Behind are on their way to reality? I don’t think so. Like Jesus said, it’s not given to us to know.

Then what can we do? What difference can we make in the midst of so much change, of information overload like never before, of the future’s shocks to us and to our life together? Jesus tells his hearers: “In patience possess ye your souls.” Eugene Peterson translates the text this way in his delightful rendering of the Bible called The Message: “Staying with it – that’s what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry. You’ll be saved.”

What we’re to stay with is our profession of faith, our living-out of our relationship with God in Christ. It’s what Paul is telling the Thessalonians – who had gotten all distracted about predictions of the Lord’s return – “don’t grow weary in well doing.” In other words, let your faith, what you believe, what you profess to be show in the life you lead and the actions you take. As Christ-followers, staying with it is to be as loving and forgiving as Jesus was – even under persecution and even unto death. Perhaps that’s how we handle the massive amount of change that is the future’s shock: through change. So our task is to be consistent, be persistent in changing every day to become more and more like Christ. Last week I quoted John Henry Newman, and what he said fits again. He wrote in his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, “In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect [i.e., mature] is to have changed often.” [Pelican, 1974, p. 100]

The Reverend Doug Gray, minister at Second Church in Beloit, gave a delightful and provocative paper to our Wisconsin Congregational Theological Society this past week. He examined chaos theory – butterflies and tipping points – and its implication for theology. He quoted the author Margaret Wheatley who observed, “The layers of complexity, the sense of things beyond our control and out of control, are but signals of our failure to understand a deeper reality of organizational life, and of life in general. We are searching for this simpler way.” [Another Step Toward a Theology of Chaos: What Butterflies and Tipping Points Can Teach Churches and Pastors, WCTS November 15, 2007, p. 1] The search for this simpler way, this way of making sense of change all around us, led to a most insightful point on information. Working from Wheatley again, Gray makes the point that information is energy and, indeed, life. What keeps systems, organizations and even organisms running is the generation of information and when it stops, life stops.

We may, indeed, be suffering from TMI (too much information), from information overload, which can be life-denying, but there is information that is life-giving, productive and life-changing. Our faith was called euangelion in Greek – good news. The whole point of the Gospel, the core of our Christian faith, is the spread of “Good News” about the change God has brought to the world and to life in Jesus Christ. This is information about a God whose love for the created world is boundless, whose will for humans is wholeness and fulfillment in oneness – communion – with God and needs to be shared. Somehow we Christians have become stuck in a negative rather than positive mode when it comes to the essence of our faith and that needs to change. There is more of the positive (thou shalt) than the negative (thou shalt not) in the Good News.

The positive mode of Christian life is actually found when we abandon ourselves to God’s will, God’s grace and God’s love. The 18th century spiritual writer, Jean-Pierre de Caussade understood this and made it clear in his masterful, and challenging, work Self-abandonment to Divine Providence. His point is that it is not in multiplying devotions, looking for great complexity in our prayer life, that we will find the simplicity which leads us to the One who is ultimate simplicity – God. The way to do this is to give one’s self to God at each moment of the day and in that giving – abandonment or surrender – we will enter into the sacrament of the present moment. In that moment we will discover the God who is always there, the creator God, the God of the burning bush, the God whom Jesus addressed in very familiar terms, because God is always around us – if we take the time to open the eyes and ears of our hearts to see and hear God.

The key to the sacrament of the present moment is simplicity, that is, it lies in our being intentional about seeing and hearing God in the ordinary. Christian spirituality, dear ones, is not rocket science. At its core it is simply being intentional, deliberate in making sure that we give each moment to God and open ourselves to what God is leading us to say, to do, indeed, to be each day. My Grandmother taught me a prayer as a little boy that I say, to be honest, almost every day; it this, “All I do this day, I do to the honor and glory of God.” A prayer at the beginning of the day as simple and straightforward as this one can make all the difference – if we’re intentional and if, periodically, during the day we stop for a moment here and there and center ourselves. In the midst of the flood of information and the change going on around us, all we have to do is stop for a moment, maybe with a quiet cup of coffee or tea, find some quiet and say to God, “I know you’re here. I’m here too. Thank you.” Then we’ll find ourselves in the present moment of God’s love.

God’s love can help us to embrace even the negative aspects of our lives and to bring about change – positive and life-giving change – as a result. Jesus’ disciples heard him, saw his life, witnessed his death and resurrection and went out as changed people and began to change the world – often in the face of life-threatening opposition. They were consistent, there were persistent and God blessed their efforts. The key is to have our lives enfolded and grounded in God’s life; to live within the covenant of presence. God’s transcendent love can be so transformative that even the negativity of persecution, of sickness, of sorrow, even of death can be endured and, yes, overcome. Jesus not only told us this truth, he lived it, and he modeled it – for us.

The future’s shock can be absorbed when we live open to God and open to others. We can deal with the flood of change all around us because a profound change has occurred deep within us – a change that aligns our life with God’s life and flows out of God’s love. I’m no futurologist and have no pretensions of being a prophet. Yet, I will tell you that there is one way to know the future and that’s live in the present moment – to live in God’s presence and present. Then you will always know when these things will come to pass. To live every day in God’s presence, the One who is Lord of time, is the only way to deal with the future’s shock.