Image: Jesus Preaching in the Temple after Master IB, German, 16th century. Public domain.
I vividly remember the widespread obsession with end-times predictions during my childhood. This was evident not only in the rise and fall of various cults—such as the Branch Davidians, Aum Shinrikyo, and Heaven’s Gate, which all ended in disaster—but also in popular culture. Disaster movies like Outbreak, Independence Day, Armageddon and Deep Impact were big at the box office. There was a fear of the Y2K computer bug, which, if you saw the bad made-for-TV movie, would cause computers to go down, airplanes to crash, and nuclear powerplants to melt down. (I recently learned that the worst was avoided due to effective intervention.) The Left Behind series of novels were a smash hit, depicting the world in stark black-and-white, good-and-evil terms. And then there were the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which some evangelical voices depicted as the beginning of the definitive end-times battle between good Christian America and the evil Muslim world. Even the President Bush added fuel to this, warning all nations, “You are either with us or you are with the terrorists.”
The result, however, was not a mass spiritual revival, or an increase in altruism. More people left faith communities. The non-religiously affiliated rose. Fewer people identified as Christian, going from 78% of the American population in 2007 to 64% in 2024.[1] The times made for a lot of fear and suspicion, which was pushed into overdrive by COVID and has brought us to our present point. In 2020, around 20.6 million firearms were sold in the United States, which might have something to do with fear of neighbor.[2] We’re on track in 2025 for about three-quarters of that record-setting number, a “mere” 15.5 million. Acts of mass violence seem to make headlines every other week or so. Our sick culture seems caught between glorifying violence on the one hand and cowering from neighbors on the other.
But it’s not the first time that end-times obsession, powered by fear, led to a weakening of community. That very thing happened in the church at Thessalonica, as in many first century churches. The community is swept up in end-times speculation. And it’s not surprising—a lot of things were going on. Jesus rose from the tomb, transforming frightened men into bold preachers. The community they formed wasn’t like every other apocalyptic cult out there, which would often fall apart after the leader was gone. In fact, it grew. The central message of this community—Jesus is Lord—spread throughout the Mediterranean to all kinds of people with all kinds of customs and belief systems. As the church grew, political strife grew in Palestine. War broke out in 66 AD between Jewish rebels and the Roman occupiers. Early success faded though, as the Temple, along with Jerusalem was destroyed in 70. With the prophesied destruction (which we heard in our Gospel), many Christians expected Jesus to return imminently.
This however, led to some problems in the community. After all, if Jesus is coming back tomorrow, why work for a better world? Why plan for the future? Why should people even work for their living or worry about family responsibilities? In a much-misinterpreted passage, even Paul the Apostle seems to leave this interpretation open, writing, “…the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none….” If folks don’t care for their neighbors, community can’t long survive.
And that is Paul’s concern for the Thessalonians and Jesus’s concern for his church. In Thessalonica, some of the people have gotten so wrapped up in end-times thinking that they have forgotten the needs of their neighbors. Paul has addressed this in chapter 2 but gets to the practical implications here. Thinking the time is short, some folks are living irresponsibly. To fill the time, they’re in everyone’s business! The term is a rare one in the New Testament. It’s usually translated “busybody” or “meddler”, but I prefer the term I learned in Indiana: “nibnose”! They’ve gotten stuck on themselves that they can’t see their neighbor’s need. That is certainly a constant temptation. In our Gospel, Jesus points to others: to follow the first two-bit prophet or politician who claims to be sent by God (“Many will come in my name, saying ‘I am he’.”) Or to be terrified by current events (“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified….”) While we may not be motivated as much by end-times thinking today, the behaviors are with us in every generation: meddling in other’s stuff, following the wrong people, or paralyzing fear.
In contrast, Jesus gives us a better way; a way in which we don’t have to live paralyzed by dread or fear. We don’t trust institutions to save us—not the nation and not the church—but Jesus Christ alone. We don’t trust prophets and politicians to lead us into the promised land—but Jesus Christ alone. We don’t trust in our own goodness, resources, intellect, or family lineage—but in Jesus Christ alone. Jesus alone makes room for forgiveness when there is only bitterness; room for love where there is only hate; room for life where there is only death. We are not dictated by our fears but moved by Jesus’s love for us and for the whole world. This is a love that calls the most unlikely men to follow him; that includes women and children; that heals the servant of a Roman soldier; that receives a notorious tax collector back into community and welcomes a thief as he dies on the cross. Jesus is going to return someday, and that is a cause for joy, not fear. Jesus is going to return someday, and that is a cause for caring for the earth and all the creatures God made, including us. And Jesus isn’t just going to return someday, Jesus returns every single Sunday, in Word and Sacrament. He is here now. And when we receive his flesh and blood, we receive his love, that perfect love that casts out all fear.
When we know that, we can tell others what Jesus has done in our lives. He tells us that we’ll have opportunities for that, often spurred by suffering. All of you have faith stories, whether you think they’re worth telling or not! Because they point to a counter-narrative than the one pushed on us by the world. Instead of cowering in fear, we are given his power, filled with his love, sent for his service. Let’s continue to live out those stories. Amen.
© 2025, David M. Fleener. Permission granted to copy and adapt original material herein for non-commercial purposes with appropriate credit given.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off/.
[2] https://www.bradyunited.org/press/march-2021-nics-fbi-data-firearms-sold#:~:text=The%20time%20to%20act%20is%20now.%22%20About,the%2012.6%20million%20estimated%20sales%20in%202019..