Sometimes an Eskimo Isn’t Just an Eskimo
Two men are sitting in a bar in an isolated town up in Alaska. As
the night grows old and their table becomes littered with empty bottles, they
begin arguing over the existence of God. One man is an atheist, the other a
believer in God. The atheist raises his voice and exclaims, “Look here! It’s
not like I don’t have evidence, like I’m just spouting my opinion. My beliefs
come from my firsthand experience. Just last month I got caught up in that
terrible blizzard. Whiteout conditions—I couldn’t see a damned thing. I was
lost, it was 50 below, and I was going to die. So I fell on my knees, and I
cried out, ‘God, if you’re really there…I’m lost, and I’m going to die if you
don’t help. Please, God, save me!’”
The believer just stared at the atheist dumbfounded. Finally he said, “Well, you must believe! I mean, after all, you’re talking to me. You’re alive and well!”
The atheist frowned and shook his head. “No, man. God didn’t do a thing for me. All it was, was these two Eskimos who happened to be passing through where I was. They showed me the way back to camp.”
I don’t think this story needs much explaining in this company. Sometimes, an Eskimo isn’t just an Eskimo…. God’s grace takes all shapes and sizes. It could be as plain as a bit of bread or a cup of juice. It could be a person who’s got all sorts of troubles and struggles of their own, and yet they speak the precise Word you need to hear, or give you the hug from God that you so needed to receive. It could be a couple of Eskimos.
Revisiting the
Second Coming
Today’s scripture concludes our journey through the encyclical letter of James. In this final passage, James offers his audience of Christ-followers encouragement to be patient amid the pressures and persecutions of their world. The first verse in the passages encapsulates the essence of his encouragement: “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord” (Ja 5:7). Shortly after this exhortation, he grounds his encouragement in a promise: “The coming of the Lord is near” (Ja 5:8).
This kind of language typically triggers a certain theological idea—almost as surely as a doctor’s reflex hammer on your knee will cause your leg to kick out. When we read James’ words about “the coming of the Lord,” we are reflexively inclined to think of a day in the far-off future, a day that is commonly referred to as “the second coming.” There’s a common refrain recited among many of our brothers and sisters in other denominations when they gather at the table: “Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.” It’s a succinct statement of faith, and its common interpretation situates us in an interim or in-between phase, somewhere between Christ’s resurrection and Christ’s second coming. We are still waiting for Christ to come again—“‘in a cloud’ with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27; cf. Dan 7:13).
But today’s scripture and other related scriptures accommodate more than this one traditional interpretation. When James says, “The coming of the Lord is near,” he is using the same expression that Jesus used when he began his ministry, saying, “The kingdom of God is near” (e.g., Mark 1:15). Some translations render this expression as, “The kingdom of God is at hand” and “The coming of the Lord is at hand.” There is a very good grammatical reason for translation. In the Greek, the expression “is near” is made in a particular grammatical tense—called the perfect tense—which indicates a completed action with continuous results. In other words, the kingdom of God has arrived (completed action) and is arriving (continuous action). Or, the coming of the Lord has happened (completed action) even as it is happening (continuous action).
I don’t want us to get bogged down in grammar, so if that crash course in Greek made a complete wreck of things in your mind, just drop it and pay attention to what James says next: “See, the Judge is standing at the doors” (Ja 5:9). In other words, God is practically here. As close as a person knocking on the door. We might recall that John in Revelation uses a similar image for God: “See, I stand at the door and knock” (Rev 3:20). The point is, James may be referring less to a single day in the future when Christ will come in a spectacular way, closing the final chapter on history, and more to an everyday in which Christ is always at the door, always just around the corner. Put another way, James may be referring not to “the second coming” of Christ, but to the “always coming” of Christ.
When Jesus himself talks about the day of the Lord, a time of great crisis and yet also great possibility (that is often interpreted as “the second coming”), he insists, “This generation will not pass away until all things have taken place,” and “It will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:32, 35). Some smug historians and scholars have read these words and reasoned that Jesus must have goofed on his timing, because no one who has lived on the face of the earth (from Jesus’ time to our own time) has experienced this final apocalyptic event. But we can only draw that conclusion when we hear Jesus’ words in a very literal way. Alternatively, we could hear Jesus to be saying that the day of the Lord—this climactic, decisive moment in which a person endures great difficulty and yet is faced with the prospect of the Lord’s arrival—has and will come on us all, perhaps more than once!
Personally, I see in most “second coming” theology—in theology that makes a big deal about Jesus coming back once and for all—a faith that has lost its nerve, a faith that is anemic and despairing…a faith that is not really faith. If we’re all really just waiting for God to intervene in one climactic, catastrophic way that will somehow correct all our wrongs and make everything better…then what does that say about our faith in Christ and the way that he taught and lived? Do we actually believe that loving our enemies, and not fighting evil with evil, and not judging others, and not storing up material treasures but living simply and generously—do we actually believe that the way of Christ is worthwhile and leads to life? Do we actually believe that the kingdom is among us, and we can enjoy its goodness now, as Christ preached and practiced? Or do we believe that the way of Christ is secondary, a sort of consolation until the real thing happens, just some stuff that would be ideal but is ultimately impractical and ineffective, and what we really need is God to stop piddling about and get his sword out to make things right?
Where We Find
Christ
Another way of posing this question would be to ask: Do we believe God can be present in our midst in the shape of two Eskimos? In the shape of a needy person asking for help? In the shape of a loaf of bread and cup a that bear the memory and hope of our Lord and savior?
In the second half of today’s scripture, James commends the practice of prayer. He basically says, “Whatever the problem is, whatever the question is…the answer is prayer.” Is someone suffering? Pray to God. Is someone joyful? Praise God. Is someone sick? Gather round and pray. Is there brokenness from sin? Be honest with one another and pray.
For James, prayer is how we acknowledge and enter into the presence of God. As he insisted earlier, the Lord has come near—he’s at the door, he’s just around the corner. Prayer is how we open the door to God’s presence. Prayer is how we turn the corner to God’s presence. I can almost hear a refrain after each of the scenarios that James outlines: “Are any among you suffering? They should pray. The Lord is near. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. The Lord is near” (Ja 5:13). In all things pray, because the Lord is near.
Theologian and church leader Tripp Fuller regularly quips that there are three places Jesus promised us we would encounter him. The table, small groups, and the needful. “This is my body”—the table; “wherever two or three are gathered…”—small groups; and “inasmuch as you did so to the least of these…”—the needful. I think James is offering a similar promise in today’s scripture. His encouragement to be patient and to pray is not simply to say, “Just wait…one day God will make everything right.” It is, rather, to say, “Keep living in the way he taught us to live, for in so doing he will always be just around the corner, just behind the door.”
He could be in a pair of Eskimos. A needy friend. A humble table shared among the faithful. The irony is that if we’re looking for the second coming—some grand, dramatic moment from on high—we may miss the fact that our Lord has already come. That his kingdom is, indeed, as he says, not coming with things that can be observed, so that folks say, ‘Look, here is it!’ or ‘There it is!’, but is in fact already among us (cf. Luke 17:20-21).
Prayer
Who often shows up
In ways we never expected—
In a manger,
On a cross,
In a cry for help
…
Grant us faith
In your little way of love,
In the little deeds by which
We enter into your presence
And into your kingdom.
Amen.
