A Solitary Egg
Malachi
3:19-20 II Thessalonians 3:7-12
Luke 21:5-11, 25-28
To the church in the diaspora[1]
& to the church of the unchurched[2]
Gospel
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading from
the holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you,
Lord.
While some people were speaking about how the
temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, "All that you see here--the
days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will
not be thrown down."
Then they asked him, "Teacher, when will this happen?
And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?" He
answered, "See that you not are deceived, for many will come in my name
saying, 'I am he,’ and 'The time has come.’ Do not follow them! When you hear
of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen
first, but it will not immediately be the end." Then he said to them,
"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will
be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome
sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.
There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars. On
earth, whole countries will be in despair afraid of the roar of the sea and the
raging tides. Men will faint from fear as they wait for what is coming over the
whole earth, for the powers in space will be driven from their courses. Then
the Son of Man will appear, coming in a cloud with great power and glory. When
these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads, because your
salvation is near.”
The Gospel of
the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus
Christ.
----------------
Introduction
End Time readings
(Apocalypses)
On
December 31, the Western World ends its old year. On this 33rd
Sunday of Ordinary Time, the church sounds the ending of her liturgical year with
End Time readings, sometimes called Apocalypses. An apocalypse is a literary form
which appeared two centuries before and three centuries after Christ. You write
an apocalypse in the face of hopelessly depressing news like the casualty count
in
At
first glance, an apocalypse seems to paint a foreboding picture of the End Time:
There
will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars.
On
earth, whole countries will be in despair
afraid
of the roar of the sea and the raging tides.
Men will
faint from fear as they wait
for what
is coming over the whole earth;
for the
powers in space will be driven from their courses.
(Lk21:25-26)
At second glance, an
apocalypse is not about destruction and annihilation but about consummation:
Then the
Son of Man will appear,
coming
in a cloud with great power and glory.
When
these things begin to happen,
stand up
and raise your heads,
because
your salvation is near at hand.”
(Lk 21:27-28)
An apocalypse is about a
consummation which will put an end to all the hopelessly depressing news and will
fix, once and for all, what we cannot fix for ourselves. It is about a consummation
which will wipe away all tears from our eyes and put an end to all crying and
dying (Rev 21:4).
Advent ahead
Next Sunday the church will celebrate the feast of
Christ the King as a grand finale to her liturgical year. The Sunday after that
will be New Year’s Day in the church with the arrival of the first Sunday of
Advent in preparation for Christmas 2007. Cathedral Square has already
constructed a towering Christmas tree to lighten up a world darkened by the war
in
Faithful Thanksgiving
On the Thursday between this 33rd Sunday
which speaks to us of the End Time and the 34th Sunday which crowns
the liturgical year of 2007 with a feast in honor of Christ the King, the nation will celebrate Thanksgiving.
That is the nation’s most popular feast. It is also the nation’s purest
feast. Unlike Christmas and Easter which have gone astray, Thanksgiving has
remained faithful to an original inspiration: giving thanks at the family table. Thanksgiving
still sends us all hastening over the river and through the woods to the family
table. At Thanksgiving sons and daughters, brothers and sisters (scattered all
over the country) crowd our airways and highways, as they hurry home,
uncluttered with any other gift but themselves.
At one time they could not fly the coop fast enough.
Now they can’t wait to get back, momentarily at least, to the nest called home.
There they find warmth and welcome in a cold world. There they find
encouragement and affirmation in a dog-eat-dog world. There they do not have to pay for every last
thing, because grace and gift abound at home. There they do not have to prove
anything because they are loved, even though family knows them very well.
Thanksgiving does not gather us around the family
table to give thanks for high-tech toys like ipods, iphones, gps, play-stations,
plasma TV, etc. It gathers us to give
thanks for the basics of life – like family and friends, a roof over our heads,
a warm bed to sleep in, food aplenty to eat, good health and tender loving care
when we are ill. Thanksgiving still remains faithful even to the very menu
itself: turkey (whether you like it or not), cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and
sweet potatoes.
A mystic approach to holidays
Garrison Keillor, author of
It was sorrow and sadness
that made Thanksgiving and Christmas for Jane Nook, a Presbyterian missionary
in
Once I was in a remote
An egg! Not a coin, but a
life-sustaining egg! The diet of the Indian villager is notoriously deficient
in protein. This woman needs this egg, I thought. In the economy of her
village, this one egg costs a woman like her about three hours on the road or
in the fields. Even if she is lucky enough to own hens, she sells their few
eggs and buys rice to fill the stomachs of her family.
Conclusion
A solitary egg
That missionary lady
continued,
So this holiday season as we
prepare our 18 pound turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, peas, cranberry sauce
and mincemeat pie at Thanksgiving, as we festoon the trees with tinsel and
lights or wearily shop for gifts or scowl at the assault of canned Christmas
carols on our ears [or stampede the shopping malls to get our hands on the latest
toy retailing at $500.00], I shall remember
a solitary egg (A.D. Magazine for Dec. 1974)!