SUPPOSE HE DID COME BACK 

Samuel M. Shoemaker 

One of the most difficult questions in all the Christian faith is the question of the Second Coming of Christ. He seems to have predicted His return as if it were to take place Irery soon after His withdrawal at the Ascension, as in St. Matthew, Chapter 24, and St. Luke, Chapter 21: "This generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled. 11 But He did not return as quickly as they had believed He would. I Thessalonians was written tp emphasize the "Second Coming". II Thessalonians was written to urge them not to give up their work and live in idle expectation- -much must still happen before Christ returns. He will not name dates, as our Lord Himself would not, saying in one place that "of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only. 11 There is some evi- dence for thinking that St. John, writing at a later date, when the earlier predictions about His coming had failed, identified the Second Coming with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. If we know only a little of church history we know the many earnest and some- times acrimonious battles of thought that have been waged concerning this hoped for event. They still continue- -He has not come. But somehow Christiandom keeps believing, that while we may have misunderstood Jesus in some of the things He said about His return to the world, we cannot be mistaken in thinking that the matter is too important for us to ignore it and to put it all aside. We believe that it was with a right judgment that those who set down the two major creeds included in both of them a declaration of the faith that He would come again into the world. We believe this because it appears that whether or not we've misunderstood some of the details, our Lord meant to convey to us that one day He would again visit this world. We be- lieve it because there seems to be no other practical way to get our world out of its unholy predicament apart from an intervening act of God. It is a belief that's given unspeakable comfort and incentive to many of Christ's most devoted and wonderful followers in all the ages. We believe it because surely at some time the love and righteousness of God must be vindicated and prevail in every corner of His Universe, including this fallen world. And we can scarcely viosualize this apart from God's own coming again into life and history and taking an active hand in it. And yet, it's hard to visualize this in material, visible terms. We've all seen pictures of the Ascension like John LaFarge's great painting in the Church of the Ascension in New York or the other lovely painting in the Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh. Shall we vis- ualize Himcoming down again in some human form like that in which He disappeared? Would it be like a reverse Ascension? And yet, how else could He come? Perhaps we'd better let all this alone as also the question of where it would take place and what retinue of angels and disciples He might have with Him or how long it would take men to recognize Him, whether Held look like our pictured conceptions of Him and so forth. These things are, I think, un- profitable for discussion. We do not and we cannot know about them. But it is not unprofit- able to ask the question- -suppose He did come? Suppose the disturbances of today were actually signs of His coming. Suppose it turned out that the ancient beliefs of some of our more conservative Christians were a great deal nearer the truth than the easy liberal view which dismisses the whole thing lightly. We can only let our imaginations out and do some practical wondering. I wonder who would receive Him and accept Him? We may be sure that the liberals and the skeptics would be busier than ever proving that this person couldn't be the Christ come back, but was some imposter trying to fool everybody. I'd like to read the editorials the Christian Century would write and hear the first-off opinions of the scholars and preachers-- I suspect they'd be found a very confused lot. Can you imagine the newspaper accounts of it? The people outside the church would, I suppose, take their time to make up their minds while we in the church were busy wrangling with each other. His actual coming would throw every- thing else into a crisis calling for immediate decision--the things we thought we could take ~

~ Suppose He Did Come Back--Page 2 time over--make up our minds about Him--our own conversion--the need to bring those sectors of life which can influence face to face with Him and His wishes--these could no longer wait for a decision sometime. You can ask a long vanished, historic Christ or a far away celestial Christ to cool His heels while you make further investigation which is only playing for time. But if Christ came again in visible form that kind of temporizing would have to come to an abrupt end. What.a scramble right in the church--to be found on the right side--to get on board--to stand well with Him. What if we should be found standing somewhere near Him and those piercing eyes that once turned and looked on Peter should turn and look on us ? We who want- ed just enough Christian faith to keep us comfortable, but not enough to wakL us from self and fromsin. I wonder to whom Held go for understanding and for faith and for active and costly cooperation? However long or short a time it would take for Him to usher in His Kingdom amid the kingdoms of the world, surely His first question would be the one He gave us long ago. When the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth ? Do you think it would satisfy Him if we recited the creed to Him? Though I think I see Him saying appreciatively that He was glad we knew and believed these things. I think we should begin to see with the suddeness of a thunder clap that faith is not accepting a string of historic facts and dogmatic statements, how- ever true they are, but the deepest heart loyalty of us to Him and Him alone. The present faith of some of us is only coterminous with personal safety and prosperity. When the dark hour comes we ask why this should come to us. That's not faith. But in the turmoil and genuine terror that I think we should all feel if suddenly He came back amongst us--we should see Him in His close relation to tribulation. For Him the highest point in His self -revelation and redemptive work coincided exactly with His lowest point in historic human existence--that is, in the Cross. We should behold in those Kingly hands the ancient wounds of nails. The Christ crowned of Glory is the same Christ that once was crown- ed with thorns. Shall we be running to accept Him in fear, whom all along we have refused to accept in faith? Faith can no longer be in terms just as theological propositions. ItIg got to be in terms of the commitment of all life to Him without reservation. I don't know whether i would be like getting on the winning side or whether, even in following the Victorious Christ, there would still be crosses and persecutions and tribulations. It makes us wonder. I wonder what Held think about His church and His churches ? If He turned up would it be at a quiet Quaker meeting or at a Roman Catholic mass or at a beautifully sung Episcopal Evensong ? Would He go down into the back streets of the city and seek out the poor and un- blessed? Would He again begin in the less spoiled countryside? Or would He avoid us in the West altogether and arrive in some oriental country where His impact upon the people would be free of the institutionalism and materialism and organization that in the West has obscured the very things they're meant to reveal in what we call--God forgive us--by the name of Christiandom? There are in every church, we must believe, His true followers. People whose hearts He sees and knows them to be pure and single in their devotion. Somehow I think He would get through to them and let them know how their faith is vindicated. But He would have to say to many of us who call ourselves by His name and think of ourselves as quite satisfactory disciples: "Depart from Me, I never knew you. 11 He has been so very patient with us and for so long a time. For years and years the truth has come through the read and spoken word. Grace has come through the gifts of the sacraments. Both have meant just as much to us as we'd let them mean, no more, no less. Now there'll be no mediation, only the blazing white presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Himself. Could we take it? I wonder if I could? This leads us to wonder what changes He would make at once in His Church. St. Paul tells the Corinthians that even the Holy Communion is provisional. "As oft as you eat this bread and drink this cup", he said, "you proclaim the Lord's death till He come. 11 Sounds as if His living actual, visible presence among us will do away with the need for intermedi- aries like sacraments, at least as we know them now. Maybe He'll tear away a   '11 the veils that beginning as means to draw us to Him have thickened and matted until they've got between us and Him.

Suppose He Did Come Back--Page 3 What about our ways of worship? Our church buildings? Our ceaseless string of activities? How would they look and what would happen to them if He should come back? I don't believe our Lord is going to be hard on our honest efforts. His Spirit is one of appreciation and en- couragement. Even when He comes in Judgment, He comes in love. But have we envisioned the cost if we're to have a church after His liking? Are we sure we really want one? This Advent Season reminds us always of the proximate coming of Christ at Christmas and that of His final coming to be our judge. The Advent looks to the great truth and message of the incarnation- -God taking on in flesh and blood that He might redeem us from within our condition and our world. Advent looks also to the other great truth of His coming again and His glorious majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead. Is Jesus' se6ond coming the same thing as the final judgment? Theologians find it hard to be precise and specific here. Some believe that there are yet two comings--the Messianic coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of glory and the last judgment when we shall receive our due reward for what we have done with His first and second comings. Some theologians were discussing this and were asking "what is the world coming to?" One of them said that "we do not know what the world is com- ing to but we do know who is coming to the world. 11 As God did not give His creation one final push at the first and then leave it to spin and hurtle on by itself, so Christ did not leave His redemption with us and then depart forever in an invisible form. He will come again. In what form and even for what purpose we do not know enough to say. This should be for us both a comfort and a spur. The worse conditions become in our world, and even with all our increased education and communication, the more do we feel that man by his own wisdom cannot straighten out his affairs. Somehow we can't believe that this strife and misery and anguish, which is all through the world today, represents God's final plan for our planet. As it was not enough in the old time to have only the law and the prophets but a redeemer was needed, so it's not enough in our time to be forever without the actual re- turn and presence of the Lord Himself. We're meant to cling to this hope, I believe, as a great strength and comfort. But surely this must also be a great spur to us to seek to live forever as in this great expectation. When Christ came first, He came with mercy and compassion as His great attributes. Yet even there there's an implied judgment never to be forgotten. For in Him was light and when men love darkness rather than light, the light judges them. This fell with special harshness upon the already religious folk like the Pharisees, whom many of our earnest Christians today greatly resemble. When perfection passes by and we profess not to see it, acting as if it had no challenge for us, then what was meant for our salvation begins to be our judgment. All this seems as if in a strange realm. Let's remind ourselves that this King of Kings and Lord of Lords is the Christ in whom we have all along believed. If He comes in the literal clouds and air, some will feel it a frightening portent but I know many a believing Christian who, in that awesome hour, as He draws near enough to be seen, will hold up their hands and cry out, I'Vihy that's my Jesus. 11 And that's just who it will be. Listen now to St. Paul's wise inspired words in I Thessalonians 5: "You yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say there is Peace and security then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child; and there will be no escape. But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all sons of lights and sons of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness so then let us keep awake and be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, so that whether we wake or sleep, we might live with Him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 11 Printed in U. S. A.