As usual he enters with authority. Blurting out random things and exerting his clear "power" in his office. (Of which he is the only male in the building.)
Prompted by the news from the TV inside our dental cubical, I make some comment on the state of our climate, of which he takes the opportunity (being the professing Christian that he is) to say "I wonder when God is going to come back and just blow up this whole place!...That's what it says in 1st or 2nd Peter... God's going to come back and blow everything up... You know, a New Heaven and a New Earth..."
This is being said as he sticks a numbing needle into my mouth!
As usual, Everyone is a Theologian... Its a good thing not everyone tries to be a Dentist.
The consequences would be equally disastrous... you know, a Blowing Up of someone's teeth... right?
Which was about the last words I got out in the not-so-conversation...
"Just don't blow up my mouth..."
It's almost like this sort of theology is missing something...
This simply put is basically the antithesis of Advent. It is in fact Bizarro Advent.
To put our "Hope" in a God whose return is the "Blowing Up" of all things... the destruction... the burning up of our world...
What a shallow and pointless theology... (Why fix anyone's teeth? Why do anything good? ... its all going to burn!)
Why can we not understand that God has always been the Alchemist? That our God has always been the One moving to Redeem His World... and the Fire He brings is one of purification!?
The Cross is the path that leads us into the Crucible.
To this day I still cannot quite believe the gospel we've labeled as "hopeful" reflects a God who needs to murder His Son in order to save us from His own wrath so that we don't burn forever! And brace yourself for the second coming... because as the Dentist said, "I believe the big bang is going to happen at the end!"
What horrible good news...
Maybe though, he is unknowingly using helpful language in that, the second coming of the Christ will be like a New Big Bang... a finale of Creation... and where this whole thing has been going will at last arrive... and all this Advent will at last reveal that which creation has been groaning and birthing... A New Thing...
A Child.
Many years later we are still receiving the words of the angel, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." - Luke 1:28
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