How long a wait?

The sermon yesterday was on Luke 18:8 - where Jesus says "When I return, will I find persistent faith on the earth?"

The pastor was going in a different direction with his message than my mind was. :) He wanted to talk about persistency of faith. While he was talking I wound up thinking about how my view of the Second Coming of Christ has changed over time.

I used to think that Jesus' return was imminent - "at any moment." And in light of that, as good evangelicals, we needed to be "rapture ready." (Ha - I remember from my year at Oral Roberts U., a guy on my dorm wing demonstrated how his church back home would have "rapture practice" - hopping up and down with his arms in the air - it was hilarious.) Back then, and for 30 more years, I believed Christ would return in my lifetime.

But for the last 2-3 years I've been thinking that I will be long dead, and forgotten by the generations ahead, by the time Jesus returns to take His church home. There's no doctrinal support that I can find for an imminent return at any moment. And there don't seem to be any signs pointing to that return in this generation any more than in the last one (which is also a change in view for me - I'm not setting my prophetic clock by the state of Israel anymore.) I've pretty much given up on seeing Jesus' return first hand. :)

So in the first of the two views I've held there's lots of excitement and urgency, but not much of a motivation toward leaving a legacy for the generations to come after us.

In the second position, it's possible to have a long-term view of the kingdom of God coming on earth through the community of faith - a potential for the ongoing reconciliation of creation to Creator via the work of God in us. But there's little urgency to it. We've got lots of time... if we don't get to it, our children will.

I guess neither position I've held is quite right. Jesus uses a lot of His parables to teach a persistency of faith (hmm - just what the pastor was originally trying to say...) during what seems to be a really long wait for His return. There is a need for faith that is "a long obedience in the same direction", a need to take a long-term view of God's reconciling work on the earth.

But there's also a need to live as if today were my last, that the next breath I draw may take me directly into His presence where my deeds will be evaluated for what was done for God's Kingdom (and what was done for self.)

I'm not crazy about living in that tension. It's more complicated that way. And I'm not real good at it. But then, God's call is never simple, and living it never easy.