| First
Reading | Epistle | Gospel |
| Malachi
4:1-2a | 2
Thessalonians 3:6-13 | Luke
21:5-19 |
Several
evenings a week, I seem to stop at the P & C on my way home. In the interest
of providing a balance to the broccoli in my diet, I usually purchase a little
something for dessert or a few donuts for breakfast. Whatever I choose, when I
come to the checkout line, they are always before my face: The National Inquirer,
The Globe, or The Star with prominent, never to be avoided headlines.
Reports of weird relationships, miraculous births and resurrections; predictions
of the end of the world; aliens or mummies coming alive; and conspiracies everywhere.
Week after week, these tabloids never seem to run out of news of wars and rumors
of war. Maybe no one in Ithaca ever actually purchases The National Inquirer.
Maybe the grocery store doesn't care if anyone ever does. Perhaps they are displayed
there where we can't miss them as a marketing ploy to scare us, to provide a sense
of continual anxiety so that we keep coming back, and stocking up and buying more
comfort food.
At some level, in some
manner, these headlines have always been a tool humanity has found necessary to
fashion. Yes, I will admit it, the Gospel passage today reminds me of the National
Inquirer. Now before you phone the bishop, let me say a few more words! It
is difficult for us to imagine how traumatic the virtual destruction of Jerusalem
and of the Temple was both for Jews and early Christians. For decades before and
after Jesus' earthly ministry, the land seethed with periodic guerrilla warfare
against the hated Roman occupiers. Finally in 70 A.D., the Romans had had enough
with the inhabitants in this troubling land, and decided to teach its inhabitants
a lesson by destroying their combined religious, political, and economic center.
The bitter aftermath of the Temple's
loss caused different factions within the society to turn the blame on each other.
Christians blamed fellow Jews and Jews blamed fellow Christians. Both Christianity
and Judaism had to find new centers. This separation from each other, as well
as lingering blame, caused further alienation and ,unfortunately, provided toxic
seeds for future centuries of anti-Semitism.
Luke
compiled his Gospel not too long after Jerusalem's fall. Yet it was long enough
after that Luke knew there was no going back, rebuilding and reconciling things
to how they previously were. Scholars have long argued and questioned the authenticity
of Jesus' words in this particular passage. At the very least, future historical
events gave the remembrance and interpretation of Jesus' words, a poignancy that
the disciples would not have comprehended at the time.
Yet,
an authentic Gospel message seems to come through whatever grimy film of social
upheaval, recrimination, and grief that may have settled on the medium that conveys
it. Jesus was warning both his and later generations that catastrophic events,
and rumors, conspiracy theories, and all sorts of outrageous explanations that
proceed from them, are a part of world history, whether it is first century Palestine
or 21st century Ithaca. Such aftershocks tend to congeal into hate, bitterness
and resentment, and ultimately lead one far astray.
I've
never been worried nor envious that my picture will never appear on the front
pages of the National Inquirer. I live a life far removed from how life
is reported in its pages. I suspect many of those the tabloid does name may live
a life far removed from them, too. There are enough bizarre and terrible things
happening in the world that I don't need rumors of more, nor do I need nightmares
perpetrating their effect. That is why instead of taking one of tabloids down
from the rack, I've reached in my pocket to pay the checkout clerk. By the time
I'm walking across the parking lot to my car, clutching my bag of turnovers and
donuts, I've forgotten the headlines and my mind has turned to something else.
The predictions of the Temple's destruction
and its bitter aftermath stands out in Mark and Matthew as well as Luke. Yet in
the context of the larger Gospel story, Jesus moves on to talk about redemption,
not terror. Jesus offers us the possibility of new relationships, not speculation
or despair. The words of Jesus give us scant justification for recrimination.
Jesus, like his God, like the long biblical tradition before him, placed himself
on the side of life. Jesus was telling disciples of every age, don't look upon
life's challenges as evidence of conspiracy, but as an opportunity to witness.
Rather from withdrawing from life in such circumstances, people of faith provide
the leaven of hope, and move on.
And
I offer this to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen
