Homily for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Malachi 3:19-20a
2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
Luke 21:5-19
Jesus predicted the fall of the temple
and he suffered, died and rose from the dead, around the year 33.
It was in the year 70
that the city of Jerusalem and the temple were indeed destroyed.
It’s 10-15 years after the fall of Jerusalem
that Luke writes his gospel,
putting his text some 50 years after the time of Christ.
In that intervening time, Christians:
suffered; were subject to violent arrest;
hauled in court before religious and civil authorities,
imprisoned, and some put to death.
All has Jesus had said.
The timeline here tells us that everything Jesus predicts in this passage
has already taken place by the time Luke writes about it.
So what we have here is less a prediction of the future
and more an interpretation of what is already past.
The words of Jesus, then, help Luke’s first audience
to interpret what they have been through.
They have lived through what Jesus said:
“Things are going to fall apart.
Your community of faith will be devastated.
Your beautiful house of worship will be taken from you.
Those who come in my name will deceive and betray you.
Friends, neighbors, even family members
will deem your faith old fashioned and foolish.
War and terror will frighten you.
Things you never dreamed would happen – will happen.”
Jesus tells us to expect calamity,
that we’ll need to endure such as this
and that by our perseverance
we will secure our lives in faith.
This is perseverance in the midst of:
deception by those we trusted;
the dismantling of what we depended on;
and the devastation of things we cherished.
Perhaps for us, too,
the text is less a prediction of what is to come
and more an interpretation of what we have experienced.
It is not that Jesus desires all of this but that he knows
that times will come to
sicken us like a plague;
starve our hearts like a famine;
and shake us to the core like an earthquake.
And he urges us in the midst of all this:
persevere in faith that you might secure that life which has no end.
The images in the gospel today are gloomy!
But in today’s first scripture the Lord promises that
justice, like the sun, will rise
and shine rays of healing on those who have suffered
and who have persevered in faith.
The dark skies of the present may tempt us to loose faith,
like the chosen people returning from exile,
wondering if the Lord is still with us,
if the sun justice will truly rise.
But precisely what the Lord asks of us
is that we stand faithful, trusting that his healing
will bring a new day.
This week many of us will find ourselves in the company of
“parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, and friends”
for Thanksgiving Day dinner
and there’s a good chance the conversation will, at some point,
turn to the Catholic Church and its many problems.
This is even more likely to happen at tables
where one of you is present
if others know you still go to church.
Some may question your faithful perseverance
and ask you to offer some reason for it.
Let the Lord, as he promised, give you a word of wisdom
with which to respond.
And remember: there is no defense for betrayal or needless destruction
- so you need not offer any.
We acknowledge the terrible mistakes of the past and,
even as St. Paul urged us today, we continue to work
at building up the temple of Christ’s body, the Church.
We believe that even when “no stone is left upon a stone,”
the temple of Christ’s body, us, his people, survives
because Christ has conquered all things - even death.
And that is why here, every week, we gather to be fed
by the light no darkness has extinguished,
the word whose truth is forever,
and the sacrament whose healing rays rise bright upon us
in the Eucharist.
In a gentle way, invite the others at your Thanksgiving table
to come home to this table or one like it where they live
that they might be nourished to persevere in the faith
that offers life without end.
-ConcordPastor
Malachi 3:19-20a
2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
Luke 21:5-19
Jesus predicted the fall of the temple
and he suffered, died and rose from the dead, around the year 33.
It was in the year 70
that the city of Jerusalem and the temple were indeed destroyed.
It’s 10-15 years after the fall of Jerusalem
that Luke writes his gospel,
putting his text some 50 years after the time of Christ.
In that intervening time, Christians:
suffered; were subject to violent arrest;
hauled in court before religious and civil authorities,
imprisoned, and some put to death.
All has Jesus had said.
The timeline here tells us that everything Jesus predicts in this passage
has already taken place by the time Luke writes about it.
So what we have here is less a prediction of the future
and more an interpretation of what is already past.
The words of Jesus, then, help Luke’s first audience
to interpret what they have been through.
They have lived through what Jesus said:
“Things are going to fall apart.
Your community of faith will be devastated.
Your beautiful house of worship will be taken from you.
Those who come in my name will deceive and betray you.
Friends, neighbors, even family members
will deem your faith old fashioned and foolish.
War and terror will frighten you.
Things you never dreamed would happen – will happen.”
Jesus tells us to expect calamity,
that we’ll need to endure such as this
and that by our perseverance
we will secure our lives in faith.
This is perseverance in the midst of:
deception by those we trusted;
the dismantling of what we depended on;
and the devastation of things we cherished.
Perhaps for us, too,
the text is less a prediction of what is to come
and more an interpretation of what we have experienced.
It is not that Jesus desires all of this but that he knows
that times will come to
sicken us like a plague;
starve our hearts like a famine;
and shake us to the core like an earthquake.
And he urges us in the midst of all this:
persevere in faith that you might secure that life which has no end.
The images in the gospel today are gloomy!
But in today’s first scripture the Lord promises that
justice, like the sun, will rise
and shine rays of healing on those who have suffered
and who have persevered in faith.
The dark skies of the present may tempt us to loose faith,
like the chosen people returning from exile,
wondering if the Lord is still with us,
if the sun justice will truly rise.
But precisely what the Lord asks of us
is that we stand faithful, trusting that his healing
will bring a new day.
This week many of us will find ourselves in the company of
“parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, and friends”
for Thanksgiving Day dinner
and there’s a good chance the conversation will, at some point,
turn to the Catholic Church and its many problems.
This is even more likely to happen at tables
where one of you is present
if others know you still go to church.
Some may question your faithful perseverance
and ask you to offer some reason for it.
Let the Lord, as he promised, give you a word of wisdom
with which to respond.
And remember: there is no defense for betrayal or needless destruction
- so you need not offer any.
We acknowledge the terrible mistakes of the past and,
even as St. Paul urged us today, we continue to work
at building up the temple of Christ’s body, the Church.
We believe that even when “no stone is left upon a stone,”
the temple of Christ’s body, us, his people, survives
because Christ has conquered all things - even death.
And that is why here, every week, we gather to be fed
by the light no darkness has extinguished,
the word whose truth is forever,
and the sacrament whose healing rays rise bright upon us
in the Eucharist.
In a gentle way, invite the others at your Thanksgiving table
to come home to this table or one like it where they live
that they might be nourished to persevere in the faith
that offers life without end.
-ConcordPastor
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please THINK before you write
and PRAY before you think!