2012: The end is near—again

Production company: Sony Pictures
Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover
Rating: PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and some language

By Dan R. Dick

What’s up with the end of the world? Why does it continually hold such fascination for the human race? There has never been an age or culture without mythic predictions of the apocalypse. Is it that we cannot conceive of a world without us? Is there a deep seated worry that we deserve obliteration? Is it just part of the human condition that we believe every beginning needs an end, and now is as good a time as any?

“2012”—highlighted in the latest blockbuster film of the same name—takis the latest rider on “The End is Nigh" bandwagon, this time dredging up the Ancient Mayan predictions of total global annihilation. As with most predictions, the end comes not with a whimper, but a bang. Earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, floods, are just the tip of the catastrophe iceberg. Things don’t just end; they end scary, loud, and painfully.

This isn’t new. Ancient cultures from the very beginning of time set out to predict the end. And what an end. In the attempt to make sense of the world, there had to be some reward for the good and some punishment for the bad—and extremely messy and excruciating pain for the really bad. But something odd happened. Over time, the reward for the good became less fascinating than the punishment for the bad. Eternal damnation, torment, and torture in a lake of fire took on obsessive dimensions. The God of creation became for many the great Destroyer, just waiting to spring the trap and punish sinners right and left.

But is this what we truly believe? Is this what we actually want? Vengeance is a tricky thing for a people who recognize that all have stumbled and no one is without fault. Don’t we really want to believe in grace and redemption? Wouldn’t we rather focus on a message of hope and peace? Our gospel is a message of light to stand in contrast to the cynical darkness of our age?

2012 will come, and 2012 will go. Are we in trouble? Are we acting in terribly short-sighted and self-destructive ways? Are we oblivious to the signs of the times? Of course we are. We’re human beings. That’s why we need a Savior. As it was in the day that Jesus walked the earth, so it is today. It’s time for the church to stand up and proclaim the good news—to act like the body of Christ in a new age. It really doesn’t matter what’s going to happen in a couple years. What are we going to do today?

Dan Dick is an ordained minister of The United Methodist Church serving in Extension Ministry as the Director of Connectional Ministries for the Wisconsin Annual Conference.