Week of Proper 27: Friday, Year 1

Above:  Judgment Day May 21 Vehicle

Image Source = Bart Everson

Longing For the End of Days is Counterproductive

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

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Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada.  I invite you to follow it with me.

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Wisdom of Solomon 13:1-10 (Revised English Bible):

What born fools were all who lived in ignorance of God!  From the good things before their eyes they could not learn to know him who is , and failed to recognize the artificer though they observed his handiwork!  Fire, wind, swift air, the circle of the starry signs, rushing water, or the great lights in heaven that rule the world–these they accounted gods.  It was through delight in the beauty of these things that people supposed them gods, they ought to have understood how much better is the Lord and Master of them all; for it was by the prime author of all beauty they were created.  It was through astonishment at their power and influence, people should have learnt from these how much more powerful is he who made them.  For the greatness and beauty of created things give us a corresponding idea of their Creator.  Yet these people are not greatly to be blamed, for when they go astray they may be seeking God and really wishing to find him.  Passing their lives among his works and making a close study of them, they are persuaded by appearances because of the beauty of what they see.  Yet even so they do not deserve to be excused, for with enough understanding to speculate about the universe, why did they not sooner discover its Lord and Master?

Psalm 19:1-4 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1  The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the firmament shows his handiwork.

2  One day tells its tale to another,

and one night imparts knowledge to another.

3  Although they have no words or language,

and their voices are not heard,

4  Their sound has gone out into all lands,

and their message to the ends of the world.

Luke 17:26-37 (Revised English Bible):

[Jesus said to his disciples,]

As it was in the days of Noah, will it be in the days of the Son of Man.  They ate and drank and married, until the day that Noah went into the ark and the flood came and made an end of them all.  So too in the days of Lot, they ate and drank, they bought and sold, they planted and built; but on the day that Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained from the sky and made an end of them all.  it will be like that on  the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

On that day if anyone is on the roof while his belongings are in the house, he must not go down to fetch them; and if anyone is in the field, he must not turn back.  Remember Lot’s wife.  Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life will gain it.

I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed:  one will be taken, the other left.  There will be two women grinding corn:  one will be taken, the other left.

When they heard this they asked,

Where, Lord?

He said,

Where the carcass is, there will the vultures gather.

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The Collect:

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Consider this:

Ah, you who wish

For the day of the LORD!

Why should you want

The day of the LORD?

It shall be darkness, not light!–

As if a man should run from a lion

And be attacked by a bear;

Or if he got indoors,

Should lean his hand on the wall

And be bitten by a snake!

Surely the day of the LORD shall be

Not light, but darkness,

Blackest night without a glimmer.

–Amos 5:18-20, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

Here I am, following a lectionary and writing nearly six months ahead of schedule.  And, on May 20, 2011, one day before the alleged Judgment Day Harold Camping has announced, news of which I cannot evade, I get this reading from Luke 17.  The dark and apocalytic reading is appropriate for late Ordinary Time, near the First Sunday in Advent, during which many Lutherans, depending on their denominational affiliation, identify as either a sub-season (Propers 26-29, the four Sundays before Advent), as the Missouri Synod does, or the End Time Season (Reformation Sunday-Last Judgment-Saints Triumphant-Christ the King), as the Wisconsin Synod does.  Indeed, this Canadian Anglican lectionary in Year 1 will end with the apocalyptic Luke 21 and readings from Daniel.

The reading from the Wisdom of Solomon speaks of idolatry.  I am convinced that longing for the apocalyptic end constitutes a form of idolatry, for an idol is anything that distracts us from God.  An icon, on the other hand, is something through which we see God.  We are here on planet Earth to be good stewards of it, to love God fully, and love ourselves and each other as we love God–in other words, to live the Golden Rule, and to glorify and enjoy God.  We ought not give up on the world.  Yet those who have given up on the world, who have abandoned hope, are often likely to long for the dreaded day of judgment.

God is in charge of such matters, and I have neighbors to love.  That will occupy my time quite sufficiently, with no space left over for longing for the apocalypse.  No, I need to look around more often and see Christ in those around me and feel God in the breeze.  Count me among the optimists.  God is in charge; I need not concern myself with many details.

KRT

http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/longing-for-the-end-of-days-is-counterproductive/