What is the world coming to?

Sermon by Pr. Craig Mueller on the Sixth Sunday in Easter + May 25, 2025.

What is the world coming to? It’s easy to be discouraged when listening to the news. When thinking about the political, social, technological, and climate realities of these days.

What is the world coming to? Recently Ernest and I were in New York and went to the Museum of Natural History. At its planetarium we saw an awesome show called “Passport to the Universe.” Narrated by Tom Hanks, we went on an unforgettable journey from Earth to the edge of the observable universe. You’ve heard these mind-blowing facts, I’m sure.

Our ancestors looked into a night sky that looked like a bowl and was filled with stars. Now we know that the stars are suns. And our sun is one of a hundred million stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way galaxy is one of several thousand galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster. And this supercluster of galaxies is but a tiny part of the observable universe.

Our earth, our home, is but a speck of dust in the universe. What does that say about who we are, where we’ve come from and where we’re going? How do we live with this mystery and how does it inform how we live?

When I was a teen-ager I remember lying in the grass and looking into the sky. I had a read about a rapture in which Jesus would take all believers with him into the air. I would look at the clouds and try to imagine Jesus suddenly appearing and the world eventually coming to an end. In fact, fifty years ago many people were reading a book called The Late Great Planet Earth. I read it as well. It is considered one of the most popular non-fiction books of the 1970s.

What is the world coming to? The author, Hal Lindsey, took a literalist approach to the Bible, using prophesies to predict a timetable for the end of the world. Wars, famines, earthquakes, and the coming of the antichrist. Many Christians in our country have been and are still influenced by this theology. For many evangelicals, Israels’ founding in 1948 is a fulfillment of prophesy and why there is a strange alliance with Jews. It’s also why caring for the earth isn’t that important. Because it’s all going to get blown up anyway.

Many folks think this kind of theology is in the book of Revelation. Lutheran biblical scholar Barbara Rossing debunks all of this in book called The Rapture Exposed. And today’s reading from Revelation couldn’t be further from the “late great, planet earth” approach.

What’s the world coming to? Rather, it’s look who’s coming to the world! At the end of Revelation, and at the end of the Bible, people aren’t raptured out of earth, but rather God comes to dwell with us here on earth. The New Jerusalem is an urban image of a city in which there are no gates. It is a place of welcome and hospitality. All nations are there! Foreigners are there! There is no need for a temple because the divine presence permeates everyone and everything.

And this isn’t just a heaven where you are reunited with your loved ones. In the center is the tree of life. And the leaves are for the healing of the nations. Not toxic Babylon or secular power, but medicine for the world! Amid war, violence, and imperial domination, what a vision of peace! God’s throne isn’t in heaven. This is an earth-centered hopeful vision of the future!

What’s the world coming to? Our hearts are troubled, to quote the gospel. We long for the peace that the world cannot give. The way of the world’s peace is reflected in this quip by Vince Lombardi, “It is my way or the highway.” What passes for peace in the world is power. The Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome was achieved through compliance to the will of a dominant power. Empires and repressive governments allow for congenial environments only on their own terms.

Pope Leo’s first words were the same ones spoken by the risen Christ: “peace be with you.” Leo, or Bob as many in this country know him, said: “I would like this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world. It is the peace of the risen Christ. A peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. A peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, unconditionally.”

Of course, we are concerned about what the world is coming to. And anxiety is especially high among teens and adults. How do we cope? One author suggests to not to wallow in anxiety, but to acknowledge it and then to turn to action. Get out into the world! Do things like get outdoors, listen to music, play basketball, and to practice mindfulness and meditation. One person took up a focus challenge by looking at van Gogh’s “Starry Night” for ten minutes. He found himself tearing up as he took in the painting.

What is the world coming to? The list we make is overwhelming. The concerns we share are of grave importance. At the same time, remember to look in the nighttime sky. Remember you are made of starstuff, the stuff of the universe. Treasure each day. Like everything in nature, for each of us, one day our days will come to an end.

And gather with other people. Gather with this community to celebrate a God who doesn’t snatch us out of the world, but comes to this world—comes to dwell among us. In our cities and in our homes. And in this sacred space. Breathing peace into our troubled hearts. Filling us with the promised Holy Spirit. Nourishing us at this table. Dwelling among us and filling us with hope.

And inspiring us to love and cherish this world. This speck of dust in the universe. Our home. And what a world it is!