Tomorrow’s readings suggest that the world is about to crack unless God’s rule takes charge. There is a recognition that although we face real danger, we can look beyond that with hope and confidence.
The gospel reading sounds the alarm: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.” These and other words of scripture have tempted thousands throughout history to claim that the world will end on a specific date. The infamous Rasputin for example, that strange Russian mystic who died in 1916, prophesied a storm would take place in 2014 and would destroy most life on land. Clearly, he was wrong.
Mistaken claims, however, do not mean that we can ignore texts like these given the signs of the times and the fact that science tells us that planet earth does have a limited lifespan.
These words of Jesus, spoken some 2,000 years ago, relate to a world which was in a mess then, is in a mess today and will always be in a mess as long as human dishonesty, greed, and violence reign. When we look at the scale of the problems facing us today whether they be about a rapidly deteriorating environment, a world economy designed for the few, or the possibility of nuclear war in Ukraine, it is difficult not to feel troubled and concerned.
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Someone has said that courage is fear that has said its prayers and in tomorrow’s readings the prophetic voice of hope and reassurance is heard as God speaks through Isaiah: “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” That hope and reassurance is given substance in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ where the things we fear most, suffering and death, are defeated. This is the promise of a God who, as Hans Küng points out, “does not make empty promises for the hereafter nor trivialise the present darkness, futility and meaninglessness, but who himself in the midst of darkness, futility and meaninglessness invites us to the venture of hope.” We must, however, be honest and acknowledge that a promise is only a promise, but Christians take it seriously because of what has been revealed to them in the scriptures and even more so in the person of Jesus Christ and their own life experience.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus warns that there are risks for those who sign up to his message: “They will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons … You will be hated by all because of my name.” The threat to people of faith nowadays is not so much that of violence but apathy and indifference. The resistance derives from the fact that the demands of the Christian gospel are a threat to the self-interest of those who prefer the status quo where wealth, privilege, and power reign, interests too often associated with the churches themselves. St Paul foresaw the danger: “We hold these treasures in earthen vessels.” But no matter how flawed the churches have been the message of hope entrusted to them is not diminished because it is God sourced not human sourced.
In Reasons of the Heart, the American theologian John S Dunne writes: “When hope does awaken, an entire life awakens along with it. One comes fully to life … One awakens to a life that is eternal in prospect, a life that opens up before one all the way to death and beyond, a life that seems able to endure death and survive it. When one first enters upon the spiritual adventure, hope rises where there was no hope before, and life rises too, the life of the spiritual adventure, the sense of being on a journey in time. There is something to live for where before there was nothing.”