Saving the World

It is quite easy to get a bit depressed when listening to or watching the news.  There seems to be trouble everywhere.  We wonder just where and when it will all end.  I don't know about you but I get a little irritated when I hear Christians saying that we are in the end times and that Jesus will soon be returning and he will put everything right.  They wait for him to come out of the clouds, descending from heaven to 'sort out' the world.  They expect to be suddenly carried off into the skies and be saved while Jesus destroys what is left of our beloved planet.


They seem to think of him as some sort of superhero that we love to watch on film or television who flies in and with a few strikes, everything is made orderly and perfect.  (Perfect being of course what we want to see according to our own particular beliefs)  He will zap our enemies like some supernatural destroyer.  I can't help thinking that the Jews in the time of Jesus thought the same of the Messiah that they were waiting for and that's why many of them had difficulty in accepting Jesus as the Messiah, the promised deliverer.  I wonder if Jesus returned today, how many Christians would recognise him and accept him maybe for similar reasons.

The thing is that Jesus taught and showed that God is Love.  So does all this destruction of those that we consider to be enemies really tally with a loving entity that loves all people equally.  Does a parent wish to destroy a child when s/he goes off the rails a bit or makes some erroneous decision.  The story of the Prodigal Son tells us otherwise.  What Jesus did teach and tell his disciples was that we should go and tell others of his ways of love and be like him.  God's spirit living in us is what will change the world.  He is not an old man sitting on a throne somewhere in 'the skies'.  We are his temple and he is alive on earth in and through us.  We think of the skies as up there, out there, over the horizon, beyond us but actually where earth ends is where the skies begin.  The horizon is actually the place where earth and sky meet.  So wherever we walk 'the skies' are actually at our feet and that's where God is, walking with us.  Wherever we are, he is because he is within us.  Do we want to save the planet and all its people?  Then we don't sit around waiting for his return (however that may or may not happen).  We take God with us, in us,through us in everything we do and everywhere we go.  We live his inclusive love even towards our enemies.  That's what Jesus taught.  If Jesus returned tomorrow, what would he do?  The following is a cartoon I saw and it made me think.  We need to consider again just what he taught and did on his first visit to earth.  His way can change the world for the better.

A tongue in cheek comic strip I found by
Brian K White's Comics on glossynews.com