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So…

Today we have come to the end of a series of four sermons on the end times! Whew! It’s over. It seems a good day for an “evaluative opportunity” to discover what you have learned and what I have taught successfully!

But as often happens, I have a different question.

Have you ever played Monopoly? 

Or 500 Rummy? 

Or Mexican Train?

I know you are saying to yourself, what does that have to do with the end times? Hang in there.

We play a lot of those games when we are with family, particularly in the summer when we are on vacation. The sun has gone down and so outside fun is done, plus the mosquitos are out by the thousands.

And we just don’t want everyone to settle down with their phones. There isn’t a 70” screen with streaming TV shows on, so we play board games, or table games as they turn out.

Have you ever played and wondered if the end will ever come?

I mean, how long did the game go on until you were all done. And I am sure none of you ever intentionally lost so you could get out of the game, like a person I know rather well!

I remember one game of Monopoly that my sister Sue and I and a friend played on the landing in the stairwell to the upstairs bedrooms that actually went on for days!

And here we are again, though this time it is not a game. It is life. 

And the end is coming. 

Soon, maybe. Or maybe not as soon as we think.

The end, it turns out has begun, and yet, the end of the end is still to come, and we find that weird. 

Jesus tried to explain it to his disciples. I am not at all sure they understood.

His presence meant the end had begun, and the Apostle Peter, understanding Jesus perhaps much better now that the Holy Spirit had arrived on Pentecost, explains to that amazing crowd in Jerusalem gathered for the Pentecost celebration all about the end.

He says that according to the prophet Joel, at the end of time the Spirit will come. He says, “Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

And that is what the crowd is seeing before them, with their very own eyes and hearing with their very own ears. 
The followers of Jesus, young and old, men and women, all filled with God’s spirit telling the stories about Jesus!

 You understand? 

The Holy Spirit has arrived and we are in the last days. This is it. The church and its collective work in the world has begun; and you and I, our calling to tell the world about Jesus has begun. 

The stopwatch has been set off.

The game, as it were, has begun. But there is much to do before it’s over.

So now what?

We’re invited, enjoined, commanded to go into all the world and make disciples, baptize them, and teach them what Jesus taught his disciples.

The very same thing his disciples were doing in Jerusalem that day! 

They went and invited others to come and join them as they worshipped God! Note, a bit further down the story, 2,000 new followers of Jesus joined the church that very day!

So that kind of begs the question: who have you invited to come and follow Jesus?

Who have you invited to come and learn about the gospel?

Who have you invited to consider getting baptized? 

Who have you invited to sit next to you in worship and learn together about the incarnate presence of God!

The end times are here… and still coming. 

So, get busy!

Amen.