The Rev. Michael Lemaire

The sermon uses the story of the failed Millerite rapture predictions to

explore why people long for the world to end: because the real world feels

unbearably painful. Drawing on Jesus’s prophecy of the temple’s

destruction, the preacher shows how ancient and modern communities alike

cling to apocalyptic hope when everything familiar collapses. But prophecy

and visions of a perfect future can become escapist fantasies. Isaiah

dreams of a world without suffering, yet our own world remains filled with

war, grief, and injustice. Instead of waiting for God to fix everything,

the gospel points us toward endurance, love, and the everyday practice of

kindness. Like Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem teaches, only when we know sorrow

can we recognize kindness as the deepest thing. In a broken world, kindness

is the call, the task, and the sustaining presence.