The End Is Nigh. Put the Kettle On.

This sermon is published in advance for the benefit of other preachers, who are welcome to draw upon any of the material here. It will become publicly available on the afternoon of the preaching date. There is a particular difficulty with predicting the end of the world. If you are right, there is nobody left to congratulate you. If you are wrong, you still have to put the bins out. In 1914, the Bible Students, predecessors of today's Jehovah's Witnesses, expected the culmination of God's purposes, including their being taken to heaven. October came and went. They remained firmly on earth. In 2011, American broadcaster Harold Camping announced the Rapture for 21 May, with the world's end to follow in October. Members of his church sold their houses to pay for advertising of this 'fact' - out of love for their neighbours. May passed. October passed. Eventually, Camping acknowledged his mistake. This was an improvement on simply blaming the calendar. And in 2015, rumours of a catastrophic September asteroid strike became so widespread that NASA issued a rebuttal. You imagine someone saying, 'I trained to explore the solar system. Apparently my job is now explaining why Thursday will happen.' We laugh. But underneath these predictions lies a serious longing: