Word to the Wise
Thursday, November 11, 2010 - St. Martin of Tours, bishop
[Philemon 7-20 and Luke 17:20-25]Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, "The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, "Look, here it is," or, "There it is." For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you! [Luke]
There were no clocks in Jesus' time. People in the society of his day measured time by seasons and the position of the sun. But that didn't stop some from being "clock watchers!" The Pharisees wanted to pin Jesus down on this "kingdom" that he was preaching. Of course, information like that might be useful for currying favor with the Romans, but the Gospel of Luke was written after the fall of the temple in 70AD. The gospel author used this incident to assure the new Christian community in regard to the kingdom. There is no question that there was anxiety about WHEN Jesus would come again. The gospel, in effect, says that the question is not as relevant as we might think because the kingdom has ALREADY come. The kingdom arrives with every faithful Christian who lives that faith. Despite this gospel passage and others, there are folks who imagine an event like the scenes described in Daniel 7 or in the Book of Revelation. Neither of these was written with the idea of predicting how time and space would end and the "kingdom" would be established. But triumphalism is a powerful tonic for believers who are as anxious about who will be "included" as they are about who will be "excluded." The words of Jesus in today's gospel passage are a warning against triumphalism. If we want to know when the kingdom will arrive, we should start with the nearest faithful Christian. I hope that person can be found in any of my beloved congregation! AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
70 ms
4
