God's Sense of Timing

Devotional Reflection, Monday, December 18, 2023

The week of the third Sunday in Advent

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

15‘So when you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), 16then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; 17the one on the housetop must not go down to take what is in the house; 18the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat. 19Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! 20Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath.

You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 939)

AM Psalm 41, 52; PM Psalm 44

Zech. 1:7-17; Rev. 3:7-13; Matt. 24:15-31

David's Reflections

Reading today’s Gospel brought to mind a prayer of Ted Loder’s.

O God of all season and senses,

Grant me your sense of timing.*

    I have been reading these verses and their parallels in Mark and Luke since  childhood.  And, I have heard and delivered sermons on them since first beginning to inflict sermons on congregants at age 16 as a Baptist kid in Louisiana  These chapters in Matthew (23-25) and in Mark (13) and in Luke (17 and 21) have been ill treated by some (including me) and avoided by others.  As a result of the ill treatment and misplaced emphasis on Jesus' return, that entire concept has been rejected by some and simply avoided by others.   

    Most of these verses address prophetically the Roman army’s invasion of Judea and their siege of Jerusalem (66-70 CE).  Jesus foresaw that as the inevitable outcome of Judea's seditious attitude toward Rome, and he spoke of it forty years prior to the events’ unfolding.  Here he warned Christians living in Jerusalem and Judea to flee before the Roman siege encircled the city and sealed its doom. In so doing, he exercised his prophetic gift in a way quite similar to Jeremiah, who predicted the despoiling of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Babylonians seven centuries earlier.

    Only at the end of the passage does he speak of his return.  He foresaw the two sets of events clearly--Jerusalem's fall and his return.  What he himself says he could not foresee was the interval of time between those two moments. (See Matthew 24:36 for Jesus’ words, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”).  In fact the end of this age did not take place immediately after Jerusalem fell, as some in Matthew’s community may have thought.  And, we still await that ending.

    Mark may have been written before Jerusalem's fall and Matthew and Luke after.  Both of the latter Gospels attempt, in the way they shape and present Jesus' teaching, to counteract the misunderstanding that the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple were signs of the immediate end.

    What does this have to do with us?  First, I refuse to allow the ways some abuse and distort the biblical teaching about the end to spoil my appreciation for Jesus' teaching.  Removing that strand from the New Testament would be like trying to remove all of one shade of brown from a fall scene.   We need to live with the sense of an ending and be careful not to base our sense of security and well being on the present order of things.

    Second, we can use a wake-up call here, too.  Our ways of reading have their limits.  Those who misread these texts and produce the sensational books and movies about Christ's coming certainly are not the only ones struggling with less than total success to read the Bible meaningfully.  We can put question marks behind our own pet ideas and beliefs and reread the Bible with more openness to the possibility that we are missing and/or misunderstanding far more than we think.

Ultimately, we can trust God's sense of timing. And, we can give thanks that God’s timeline remains veiled to us, as does so much of what God is up to in and around us. Imagine how we might intrude into God’s space if we knew more. Based on how we already intrude into God’s sense of timing with our speculations, we would only be more intrusive trespassers with more information.

*Ted Loder, Guerillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle (Minneapolis:Augsburg/Fortress, 2005), p. 136.

Collect of the Day, The third Sunday of Advent

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you an the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 212)

A Collect for the Renewal of Life

O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 99)

Of the Incarnation

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 252)

In the Evening

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.   (BCP, 833)

A Collect for Mission

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100, 257)

Daily Office Gospel, Matthew 24:15-31

15‘So when you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), 16then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; 17the one on the housetop must not go down to take what is in the house; 18the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat. 19Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! 20Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. 21For at that time there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 22And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. 23Then if anyone says to you, “Look! Here is the Messiah!” or “There he is!” --do not believe it.24For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25Take note, I have told you beforehand. 26So, if they say to you, “Look! He is in the wilderness,” do not go out. If they say, “Look! He is in the inner rooms,” do not believe it. 27For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 29‘Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. 30Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven” with power and great glory. 31And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer