The Gospel for November 18, 2004 (Hilda of Whitby)
Luke 17:20-37
Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was to come, he gave them this answer, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God does not admit of observation and there will be no one to say, “Look, it is here! Look, it is there!” For look, the kingdom of God is among you.’ He said to the disciples, ‘A time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of man and will not see it. They will say to you, “Look, it is there!” or, “Look, it is here!” Make no move; do not set off in pursuit; for as the lightning flashing from one part of heaven lights up the other, so will be the Son of man when his Day comes. But first he is destined to suffer grievously and be rejected by this generation. ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it also be in the days of the Son of man. People were eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all. It will be the same as it was in Lot’s day: people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but the day Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and it destroyed them all. It will be the same when the day comes for the Son of man to be revealed. ‘When that Day comes, no one on the housetop, with his possessions in the house, must come down to collect them, nor must anyone in the fields turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Anyone who tries to preserve his life will lose it; and anyone who loses it will keep it safe. I tell you, on that night, when two are in one bed, one will be taken, the other left; when two women are grinding corn together, one will be taken, the other left.’ The disciples spoke up and asked, ‘Where, Lord?’ He said, ‘Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather.’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
A Study
Verse 20's "The coming of the kingdom of God does not admit to observation" is one of those quotations from Jesus that escapes the minds of those who would point to one social ill or another as the "proof" that the end is near. Jesus tells us that His coming again will be known to all, everywhere, and it will be completely without need for interpretation.
But the main point of the first half of this text is that for those living there, back then, the kingdom had already arrived, in the person of Jesus, and survives, even today, through His great Grace.
The writers of Mark had already assumed, however, that when the Temple was destroyed, that was to be the sign. Luke re-interpreted the destruction of the Temple as one of many signs through which we must persevere until He comes.
The second half of the text is to clarify that the location of the parousia cannot be predicted, but that everyone, everywhere will know that the event has occurred: when we see a corpse with vultures picking at it, we know that death has occurred; it will be that obvious.
A Reflection
One of my secular heroes is Norm Augustine, former Chairman of Lockheed Martin. His book, Augustine's Laws, is a classic of tongue-in-cheek observations about reality. What made me think of his book in this context is his law that states, "Trailer parks cause tornadoes."
Of course, the fact is that tornadoes happen, and not because a trailer park was created. Someone with incomplete knowledge, having observed scene after scene of tornado-ravaged trailer parks, might conclude that trailer parks do, in fact, cause tornadoes.
Just as tornadoes happen, God may decide in His good time to bring to a conclusion His creation of the experiment we call Earth, or humanity. There was no predictor for the first coming, and we would be presuming on God's intent to assume that there will be a predictor for another coming.
But instead of agonizing over the reappearance of Jesus, shouldn't we be agonizing over our inability to carry out His simple commands to us?
"For look, the kingdom of God is among you." If we take the time to analyze what this simple proclamation is telling us, we can extract that Jesus is in us and in every other person. Jesus is telling us to love one another -- and that by extension, we will also be loving Him, and through Him, the Father.
If we concentrate on loving one another, we will be ready when He comes again in great glory.
The Collect
O God of peace, by whose grace the abbess Hilda was endowed with gifts of justice, prudence, and strength to rule as a wise mother over the nuns and monks of her household, and to become a trusted and reconciling friend to leaders of the Church: Give us the grace to respect and love our fellow Christians with whom we disagree, that our common life may be enriched and thy gracious will be done, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
6:45:44 PM 
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