Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Today's text

Luke 21:8-13

But Jesus said, “Take care not to be deceived, because many will come using my name and saying, ‘I am the one’ and ‘The time is near at hand.’ Refuse to join them. And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be terrified, for this is something that must happen first, but the end will not come at once.” The he said to them, “Nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes and plagues and famines in various places; there will be terrifying events and great signs from heaven. But before this happen, you will be seized and persecuted; you will be handed over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name—and that will be your opportunity to bear witness.”

Prayer

You do not count time as we do, Jesus. The time you describe is not one we welcome; it’s an evil time as we judge it. And each of us has known many such times we’d happily do without, times we would pass by had we the chance—and not repeat because once was enough.

We divide our days into good and evil time, painful and pleasurable moments, times to savor and times to run through as fast we can, times of joy and sorrow, of success and failure, of struggle and ease, of hope and despair, of beauty and ugliness. Our lists extend the length of a lifetime, dividing our days into two separable parts, one to be avoided and the other cherished.

And we miss half our life, Jesus. What is left is a kind of half-life in which we have cast aside much of what we are for the sake of comfort, missing, I fear, the deep truth of our days, which is you.

For you make no division. Bright summer days and the hours of tumult and terror are but one time for you, the time to reveal the faithful God who bears all our times in loving hands.

We never know what the times will bring, Jesus. Everything can turn in a single breath. Whatever our days bring, may we receive each moment as an opportunity to witness to you who hold us in every time.

Pr. David L. Miller