Sunday, November 18, 2012 (Daniel 12:1-3; Mark 13:1-8)
Apocalyptic visions generate fear. Fear needs its antidote: love.
Do you know what the antidote for fear is?” the minister asked. The answer jumped into my head immediately. “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:17, NASB). But since it’s generally frowned upon for a member of the choir in an Episcopal cathedral to shout out answers to rhetorical questions from the pulpit, I kept quiet. The preacher offered a very different answer and the sermon moved on.
By the time you read this meditation, the presidential election will be over. No matter what the result, no matter which candidate we elect, many people will be angry, anxious and fearful. Although I am neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, I predict that the traditional media outlets and the blogosphere will be full of apocalyptic visions that will stoke those anxieties and fears.
Scripture also contains a large amount of apocalyptic material. Christians familiar with these passages should be well prepared to deal with the apocalyptic scenarios that cable news and the blogosphere produce. Yet I find that we Christians are not much different from those around us.
