Jesus is Not Coming Back

There is a scene in the Harry Potter series when a young Harry is faced with a very difficult task. He is attacked by creatures called Dementors, which suck the joy and happiness of everything around them, until they finally suck out your soul. The magic spell that turns the Dementors away is only performed by very gifted and usually older wizards. Harry has been temporarily given the gift of time travel to right some wrongs, and he watches the Dementors closing in on his dear friend and himself. Just a few hours before, he was the victim waiting for someone to save him when he could not save himself, and a savior came. Now, having traveled back in time, he watches from a distance- waiting for the same savior to come. The savior did not come. He waited until the very last moment possible before he realized: he was the savior. He was the one who had saved himself earlier. And with that realization, he had the strength and confidence to perform the spell.

I am a Christian. It's the faith of my family, and the predominant faith of my culture. I went to seminary, I attend church regularly, I love me some Jesus. 

I saw my friends from seminary reacting to the news coming out of Aleppo, and news of whoever Trump's newest pick was for what he seems to think is a game of "worse options for cabinet ever." Many wrote the Christian refrain: "How Long. Come Lord Jesus. How Long." In my mind I started singing a song by a Christian band that I listened to as a youth, the chorus bellowed "How long, can we wait, can we wait for You to come? How long?" 

We are in a season of advent, the season when the Christian church makes a ritual of waiting for Christ's birth; Christ's arrival within humanity. We count down the days, we build up hope and light candles, for as our hope and expectancy rises, the darkness grows. The nights of the season get longer, in an appropriate juxtaposition to our fixation on the light that will be born. It does not matter in our tradition when Jesus was actually born, because we have used the winter for our symbolic benefit. Jesus, the light of world, comes to us in the midst of our longest nights. We wait for the light. We have been chided by strict advent-holders to stick to the tradition and do not sing a joy to the world until the Lord has actually come (December 25 being our chosen date of celebration). Wait for the light. Prepare for the light. It will come. 

People of the Christian faith often talk about Jesus returning. About the second-coming of Jesus. In tough times, in despair, we long for Jesus to return. We long for Jesus to "come back" and save us from this wreck we're in.

What if Jesus is not coming back? What if we have read the stories wrong? Christians can sometimes be caught saying things about the Jews of Jesus' time... saying that they missed all the signs that he was the messiah because he didn't look exactly like the image they had created for themselves. Christians say the Jews expected a messiah to come and sweep up the Jewish nation into triumphant power, to lead and be the eternal king. Christians say this, and then caveat that they wonder if they might have made that same mistake, bless their hearts. Maybe we could be that blind too, we'll admit to ourselves. 

We are blind. We are doing the same exact thing. We (collectively as humans, not just Christians or Jews) are Harry, waiting for Jesus (or some messiah) to sweep down with a force to dispel all darkness, with a spell to banish the despair and pain. Someone come and fix this. Anyone. Someone else take responsibility for fixing this.

We wait, while the people die. We wait, while the darkness grows. We wait, watching and wishing.

Perhaps the return of Christ will actually look like the scene in Harry Potter, when humanity will collectively see that it is them, it was them all along. The power of God (or whatever you call it) has been within us always, and we finally take responsibility. We finally step out and become Christ, Love, Light. But the writers of the bible seem to know that we will wait until the very last moment. They paint a gruesome picture of what the world will look like when Jesus finally does come back to put an end to our misery, like we will finally cry "uncle." They write that wars will rise, the seas will roar, the diseases will devour, until Christ (manifest in us) returns. We will wait until the last moment before the lights go completely out. It is a despairing hope. Despairing that we will likely leave it to that last moment before we step up... hopeful that we will step up at all.

Jesus is not coming back. Stop waiting. The light is in you. Jesus never left. Whatever your religion (and even if you have none) - that deity, power, force, goodness- it is in YOU. 

WE are the second coming.

How long shall we wait? How Long?