Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
He answered, “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them!” (Luke 21:8, NAB)
There is a little asterisk in the New American Bible edition of Luke 21:8 right after the word “come.” It reads: In Luke, the proclamation of the imminent end of the age has itself become a false teaching.”
It may seem a bit contradictory, since the first readings as we end the liturgical year are from the Book of Revelation, full of vivid images and symbols and language about the coming apocalypse, an 
apocalypse some at the time believed must be imminent, given that Jesus had promised to come back.
But the way we define imminent is obviously different from the way the Lord does. For us, Advent is imminent. Christmas shopping and travel is imminent. Maybe retirement or the birth of a child or grandchild or surgery is imminent. These are all things for which we can point to something tangible, whether it’s a date on the calendar or something we can physically touch. These are all things we’ve been through in the past or have a pretty good reference point for how it’s going to look.
The end of the age is something else again. As Christians, we believe it will come. What will it look like? What will happen? While we may think we know or at least have some clues, we don’t know much at all.
And so, perhaps this is a good opportunity to stop worrying about the apocalypse, Armageddon, or however we choose to frame it. How the end will begin is something we have little control over. We do, however, have a lot of control over how our life story will be viewed by the Lord: Did we love Him with all our mind, heart, and soul? Did we care for His people, including ourselves, as He does? If the answer to those questions is yes, we have much hope for salvation. If not… start moving toward yes right now, not late today, not tomorrow, not in 2019. Don’t wring your hands about the world coming to an end. Conduct yourself as if it is.
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