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     Any effort to understand the "apocalytic" preaching of Jesus that has been featured in the Gospel of Luke for the past few days must come to terms with the task of the evangelist and then come to terms with the way in which he accomplished it.  His task was to tell the story of Jesus Christ to a particular community at a particular point in history.  He had a number of materials at hand:  the Gospel of Mark, a source known by scripture scholars as "Q," and other traditions that he knew of that do not appear in the other "synoptic gospels" (Mark and Matthew).  However, a "gospel" is not a biography.  It is a preaching and Luke has a message he wishes to convey to his audience about how God has intervened in history to save the world beginning in Galilee, moving to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to Rome (the world).  Like the other evangelists (John has a very different approach), Jesus' apocalyptic preaching is placed at the end of his ministry, just before his passion, death and resurrection.  Thus, the story combines the past, present and future.  Luke is talking about what Jesus said in the past about the future and is telling it to a community living in the present - a present that included persecution and hopes for a return of Jesus in the near future!

     By the time Luke wrote his gospel, Jesus' prediction about Jerusalem had already occurred!  But this calamity, bad as it was, was not to be seen as a sign of the end of time.  It is only when the community "will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" that the end of time will occur.  As I write this, that event has not yet occurred!  We continue to wait in hope.  Generations of disciples before us and after us lived, live and will continue to live in that hope.  We continue to read the gospels and tell the story throughout the liturgical year, which will begin anew this coming Sunday with the First Sunday in Advent. Our "world" is much larger than that envisioned by Luke, but we still face the same task, telling the story with all the scriptures and our traditions.  The gospel remains the "Good News" about Jesus Christ.  Our job as disciples is to make it known.  AMEN