Texts: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matt. 24:36-44
May the word of God dwell in us richly as we, in our spiritual poverty, open ourselves to the in-breaking of holy truth. May my words and our meditations this day be acceptable to the one God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
A few thoughts on our Scripture lessons as we begin this new year:
First, Isaiah’s invitation: “In the days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains….Many people [meaning people of all nations, and all religions] shall say…Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”
One wishes that somehow the Middle East Peace talks could be understood as an invitation to dwell on the deepest truths that have emerged from that holy land, and not on ancient grudges and desires for vengeance.
At the United Nations building in New York, to the right of the main entrance doors, there is a small room of utter simplicity, empty of all furnishings save one, an altar set in the middle, upon which a single beam of light falls from the ceiling. The altar is of a curious dark-colored stone, that is actually a block of iron-ore. It is an inspired piece of symbolism. Iron, the symbol of war, has been made into an altar, the symbol of sacrifice, communion and peace. It is intensely Scriptural in its derivation: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore’ (Isaiah 2.4).
We live in a time when there have been more wars, and more death from war than at any other century in human history, yet we tend to think of ancient times as a savage and uncivilized time. A little humility might be seemly as we begin yet another year.
The two readings from the New Testament speak to us of time. Paul says to the Romans: You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first became believers.” And Matthew puts a different spin on time: “About that day and hour no one knows… for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming…”
We sort of know what time it is in our own lives. We can count the years. But we don’t know how many more years we really do have. And regarding the world’s history, the future of this little planet: We have no idea if or when it might end. Will Christ return? if so, When? When will God act? What will happen in the future? Nobody can know the answer to any of these.
More than anything else, the reading from Matthew is about not knowing. Past experience is no guarantee of future performance, the stockbroker ads warn hurriedly at the end of their pitch.
Theologian Paul Tillich famously said that the most painful human reality is that we don’t know, yet must choose. Every day, we must make important decisions on the basis of very partial information — at best. Our most informed choice is never more than an educated guess. I can understand the past, but the future remains a mystery until it has happened. Certainty is not something we possess, not about anything and certainly not about God.
So it is wise to be ready for more than one thing to happen. You might have
decades left to live, but the end could come later this afternoon. Will today be a day suitable to be the last day lf your life? Will what you do and how you comport yourself be important, worthy of being the AMEN to your whole life? Who will Christ find, when he finds you? Maybe we can’t know when we will die, but we can at least know who it is who is dying.”
St. Paul suggests that the present time is one in which it is urgently important to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”—by which I take it he means to look at the world as we might imagine Jesus looked at it; to relate to other people as we imagine Jesus related to them; and that we not worry about all those impulses to gratify our consumer wants, or maybe even our much more human wants of a life without stress.
Paul says to “live honorably as in the day”—meaning the day when God brings to fruition the heavenly vision for the earthly creation. I take that to mean that every day we live is a day that counts. We need to live so that it may it be one in which any regrets are not regrets you caused, to yourself or to anybody else.
So may this season be for you a time of hope and possibility. Amen.
