'YOUR REDEMPTION IS AT HAND."

Homily for November 29^th, 2018: Rev. 18 & 19; Luke 21:20-28.

          Both of our readings today are difficult. Both speak about a “time of troubles.” In our first reading it is Israel’s great enemy, Babylon, which experiences these troubles. More than five hundred years before Jesus’ birth, Babylon had carried off Israel into exile for four decades. The first reading tells of an angel who lists all the disasters which will befall Babylon. 

          The gospel reading tells of even greater troubles when Jerusalem is conquered and devastated by enemies – which happened in the year 70 A.D., 27 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and Resurrection, according to the traditional dating. Christians at the time, and ever since, have viewed the disasters which followed as a warning about the time of troubles which will precede Jesus’ return in glory and the world’s end. 

          Both readings say also that the sufferings which they predict will usher in a time of joy for those who are faithful to the Lord God. The angel who proclaims Babylon’s fall says at the end: “Write this down: Happy are they who have been invited to the wedding feast of the lamb.” A wedding banquet is a familiar image in the Bible. Israel=s prophets speak often of God inviting his people to a wedding banquet. That was the prophets= way of saying that their people=s sins would not always estrange them from the all-holy God. There would come a time when God would take away sins, so that his people could enjoy fellowship with the one who had created them and still loved them. And in the New Testament Jesus performs his first miracle at the wedding banquet in Cana, changing water into wine.

          Today’s gospel reading proclaims something far greater. “Men will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming on the earth.” But then comes the proclamation of good news, the gospel: “Men will see the Son of Man [Jesus] coming on a cloud with great power and glory. When these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, for your redemption is near at hand.” That is the Lord’s message to us, right now!