When Calamity Strikes - Luke 21

When Calamity Strikes

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Reflection based upon Luke 21: 5-19, Isaiah 65:17-25

Opening Prayer

When I read this lesson, for some reason it invokes memories of scenes from Ghostbusters (1980s version) when the guys are trying to make the case to the mayor about what was unleashed onto New York by predicting end of times biblical disaster. All we need is Bill Murray to chime in with “Cats and dogs living together! Mass hysteria!”

Still the question is, What happens when…?  Why are we waiting for catastrophes and disasters to break loose on Earth?  What are you waiting for?

This isn’t just a warning but a reminder to be ready.  

This lesson is difficult to hear or read because it reminds us that calamity is mere moments away. 

Question for us should not be ”what happens when” but instead “what are we doing to prepare for that day, that hour, that minute when our breath is no more?” 

My dad in his last days would raise the question of whether he did all he could - to be in the good graces of God, family and friends.

Why would we wait until our last hours before doing the good work, the preparations, the loving, the welcoming?  It seems to me those last hours are kind of too late, and at that point, we are asking the wrong questions.

So yes this reads like an ominous warning, but if we wait to know the signs or what to the hour of our death, then we have wasted so much time that could be used for the good stuff that God calls us to do.  

Then, Jesus lays out the life of love and religious discipline is not an easy path, but instead one that invites challenges, arguments, and even betrayal. Something that Jesus would was all too familiar with. Is Jesus speaking about himself or telling us the wisdom of fickle people, destructive  politicians, and hypocritical religious leaders (the truth of our broken world.) 

It is true that people tend to think about themselves selfishly - that is when are left to our own devices and desires. When people vote in elections, they see taxes as a personal cost rather than a way to collectively pay for roads, schools or help the poor.

Not that paying taxes is fun and nor do I want to pay more than my fair share. Same thing with giving to the church.  It is not a cost but a way that we collectively care for people in the community, how we collectively teach and grow with the community as church. 

Yet, if we only think about ourselves, if we only hold our personal interests as important, then we miss so much that God wants for us - that for us to be the church - to do church. 

God wants us to be in community - teaching and growing with people.  There, we will witness the good dimensions of people, in the lives that are born with us and our hearts, and the life inside us gifted by God.

That life, that love of Christ, that peace does divide communities because there are people that want to take advantage of others and want to hoard money and property. They operate on the idea of scarcity - there isn’t enough to go around, so I have to get as much as I can and then I will be in a better position to dictate terms. How Christian is that?

That isn’t want God wants for us.  Yes God wants us to be successful and to prosper, but God does not want us to ignore those around us - those we agree and those we disagree.  Why? Because we are all God’s children at heart. 

That, beloved, is how we prepare ourselves for the end times.  We prepare by living these times , today, this hour, this breath - with God’s people here on Earth. We bring that welcome, that love, that faith, that hope and peace. 

That is why I could answer my dad and say yes that he had done enough because he served in the community and brought life to people - even to those in prison. 

When we do that, we don’t have to worry about having done enough or saying the right things.  When we do that today and every day of our lives, we give from ourselves back to the realm that God has given to us. We give back because we get so much - because we have been given so much - and yes there is enough of God’s love to go around. There is enough peace, hope, faith, and love to fuel us and everyone we meet.  

That, beloved, is…

Thanks Be to God.