Bad Party Jokes, Harold Camping, and the Comedy of Being Left Behind

Almost at the risk of just being another voice to pipe up in the seas of trendy, I am going to comment on May 21, 2011’s non-rapture and the Harold Camping fiasco. Before I get into what I actually want to speak to, I have to confess that I was amongst those laughing at the ridiculous nature of Harold Camping’s claims. At no point did I for one second think the world was coming to an end and that Christians were going to be raptured. So in gleeful delight I partook in all the jesting that was going on tweeting, “Breaking News: it is after 6 pm and everyone except Kirk Cameron got left behind." The comic of how God was using a computer to download the rapture was my favorite. But then I read a blog post titled, “Harold Camping, Rapture, Jesus, and Randy Macho Man Savage—It’s kinda Funny but not Really” by Eugene Cho that sobered the occasion. In his blog post he mentioned the story of a mom who tried to kill her two daughters to save them from having to live through the tribulation. At that moment all of a sudden all of my clever commentary became hollow noisy gongs, to use Paul’s imagery of lovelessness. I would love to say that I never cracked another joke about the nonrapture, but the reality is that, as Eugene Cho put it, “it [is] funny but not really.”

In Matthew 24 Jesus says, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. … So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Jesus over and over again says that his return is a mystery. His return is to be expected at any time, so one is to be ready. Being ready means setting about doing what God has called the Church to, and that is love one another and making disciples. Loving one another and making disciples is our task; our task is not trying to predict when Jesus is returning, nor is it about wrapping Jesus’ return with horrible theology (but that is another matter). We mock Jesus and try to make him a liar when we set about trying to unveil the mystery of his return. I have never seen anything good come from people gorging themselves on eschatological conspiracy. If those who claim to be disciples of Jesus, set about doing what Jesus actually told us to do, loving one another and making disciples, the Church would not be the butt of jokes told at parties by people trying to break the ice. Now for the super cheesy closing line, now that’s no laughing matter.