33 rd Sunday in Ordinary Time November 14, 2010

Transcription

1 (Jesus) said to them, Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom... (Luke 21:10). 33 rd Sunday in Ordinary Time November 14, 2010 First Reading: Malachi 3:19-20 Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, When all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, And the day that is coming will set them on fire, Leaving them neither root nor branch, Says the Lord of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise The sun of justice with its healing rays.

2 Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12 For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; We were not idle when we were with you And we did not eat anyone s bread without paying for it; But with toil and labor we worked day and night, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Gospel Reading: Luke 21: When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6 "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." 7 They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" 8 And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, "I am he!' and, "The time is near!' Do not go after them. 9 "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately." 10 Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12 "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.

3 Homily So, what is going on in today s readings? Malachi, our first reading, is an unknown person. His name means my messenger, and most scholars think his book came after the Exile. Unlike some of the apocalyptic literature such as the Book of Daniel or Revelation, we don t know how to place Malachi s prophecies within a concrete historical situation. But what is noteworthy is his timeless, encouraging message. Those who fear the name of God ( fear translates as respecting or being in awe of, not fright) will come to a time where they are saved and vindicated: the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. This healing refers to the last judgment just as much as the warning to those who do evil and are arrogant. In New Testament times, we have a glimpse of how the coming of end-times was viewed and perverted by some, just as it continues to be distorted by some even in our own generation. We can think of tragedies that have unfolded in some religious cults where people died because of a misunderstanding of the biblical message. In the second reading in 2 Thessalonians, some believers were portrayed as confused or misled by what the implications were of an apocalyptic message. As can be seen in some of the later-composed Gospels, in 2 Thessalonians, some interpreted the day of the Lord as having already come. And, yes, we can say that there are grounds for this belief, in that we can enjoy His presence and healing right now it is not something that is simply delayed until an unknown time in the future. But in the case of some in the church in Thessalonica, they took this premise to the nines and felt that there was no need to work! Ah, there are multiple ways of distorting and misusing the Good News! What the prophets and Jesus are telling us are to work industriously for the sake of the Kingdom in the here and now! We know that the writer of Luke probably completed his Gospel around CE. The city of Jerusalem and the Temple have already been destroyed. We see in Acts of the Apostles, which is thought to have been written by the same author as Luke, that the difficulties experienced by believers after Jesus died are delineated. Yet, we also see that his people, the Body of Christ, were alive and well, infused with the Holy Spirit, with many healings and their numbers were growing daily. It is important to note that apocalyptic writers did not conceive of themselves as predicting the future but they are dealing with the present crisis they were going through or had already gone through recently. Thus, the events that Jesus is recorded as predicting have, in fact, already occurred by the time that Luke was written. Like the prophets of old, Jesus preached urgency for repentance for straying off track and recentering ourselves back to our proper purpose and our direction in life. Prophets were speaking in the here-and-now, and so we can read these words as still bringing us a vital message in our time. Often the words are expanded during the successive stages of transmission where material is added to what was already there, adapting it in concert with current events.

4 For example, a book not in the canon with which you may not be familiar, the Apocalypse of Enoch, underwent documented additions and alterations over a period of 150 years, and it is believed that a similar process may have influenced Jesus words as we now have them in Luke. From the 60 s, after the destruction of the Temple and following, the sayings of Jesus probably were augmented. We think that it is likely that some of the genuine sayings of Jesus were put together with traditional apocalyptic language. However, it is clear that there is a core of material that all agree came from Jesus himself, passed down orally and ultimately written down. Jesus genuinely predicted that his followers could expect persecution, addressing this issue with his own disciples (12, 16-19), but his warnings may have been elaborated due to what transpired for other Apostles and disciples in later decades. We also know that his prediction of the destruction of the Temple was probably not a later addition to the manuscript; indeed, there is little doubt that he made such prediction in his lifetime because this was one of the charges brought against him when he was brought to trial prior to the crucifixion. Despite the fact that his accusers were unable to make this charge stick, he was executed anyway (Mark 14:58; 15:29; John 2:19; Acts 6:14). Our awe and respect for our God is one which requires a continuing openness to change and revolution in our lives. We recall that Copernicus caused a major revolution when he demonstrated that the earth circles around the sun rather than the other way around. And in some sense, we are at risk for being pre-copernican in our spirituality, thinking that God s job is to circle around us, as though we are the center of the universe. No, God is the center of the universe as Job came to acknowledge and understand. There is a positive relief to be experienced in this awareness, in that we do not carry the burden of running the universe. The day of reckoning seen in Malachi is a reminder of our place. The prophet has his finger to the wind and is sensitive to read the signs of the times, not simply as an intellectual insight but to see God s hand in all events, whether they are positive or negative. Jewish scriptures give us a model for coming to the realization that there are no random events or accidents; the ancient Israelites and people even into our current times may have believed that God caused people to die, God conspired to punish and bring harm. Depending on the stage of religious and spiritual development, humankind was prone to project its own motives and emotions on to God and to explain their successes and failures as intended by God. But in due time, they came to realize that God was not the proximate cause of disaster, destruction, or death. But they understood that God spoke to them via these events, not that God caused them. Thus, Jesus challenges us, too, to read situations sensitively in the world around us, to recognize God s presence in all things.

5 It is unfortunate that having been products of the Enlightenment, we tend to ascribe events as purely accidental, arbitrary, and meaningless. Certainly for myself I have learned in the past year that the most difficult times yield important lessons and new bonds of love that one could not have begun to predict as products of either coincidence or a punitive God seeking to set me straight. Divine providence is a useful if archaic term -- often forgotten in today s religious world -- but there is something to be said for this idea. We are not orphans or victims of a random universe. If we re open to what we can learn in seemingly disastrous circumstances, we can surrender to the fire of love that will consume our chafe and leave us as more authentic disciples. For each of us, each day is the end time. There is loss at the end of each day that can never be recovered. Each day is unrepeatable. Each day is a tragedy and a new opportunity as well. Jesus says we don t have to prepare our defense in advance. He also says: But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls. In other words, what is essential about us will not be lost if we persist on our path of faith. O Lord, be with us as we go through a myriad of deaths where our only security is opening ourselves up to your second coming. Amen.