The lectionary designates the gospel for the first week of Advent as apocalyptic. We hear Jesus warn his followers about a time when the world will be reconciled to God, which will lead to the total transformation of all things. So they ought to get ready for it.

The Big Sort.

Yes. But some Christians have gotten this moment a bit confused.

Starting in the 19th century, a few theologians started to assume this moment of sorting is when good people would be taken up, bodily and alive, to heaven. This is often referred to as The Rapture. This is a strange reading of scripture and tradition.

Before this reading, which seems to synthesize the big sort with an interpretation of the Kingdom of Heaven as a permanent hereafter in the sky, our common vision was more rooted in justice. In this way, it was about the reconciling of people with God. It isn’t about motivating people to get themselves heaven-bound.

The Wrong Direction

That’s why, what we see here is actually an image of sorting, not for heaven, but for condemnation. The people being taken up aren’t bound for heaven, but the other place. Because the promise isn’t annihilation of existence: it is to bring us into justice.

Consider it this way: why do books and movies often end with the bad guy getting their comeuppance? Because we need to see the justice. Similarly, do stories usually end with the bad guys controlling everything still but the good guys get spirited away? This does happen, but it isn’t nearly as satisfying.

We Must Experience Justice.

For it to be real justice, we must experience it. The balancing needs to be real. And this is much more consistent with Jesus’s teaching and the theology of the time than rapture theology.

The point is not to “save” the righteous only, but to bring justice to the world.

This is the message we are called to carry with us as we green our homes and prepare for the blessed birth. That God is seeking justice here. Here.

Here.

For the sake of the world.