November 28, 2024, Thanksgiving

Luke 21:20-28

Today because your child is sick, you feel the pain of a mother.  This pain of a parent for their child is among the worst that people endure, and this was the pain that Mary felt as Jesus was handed over, beaten, and crucified. This is the sword that pierced her heart. This is the pain of parents in Gaza and other war-torn places. This too is the pain that Jesus refers to in this Gospel passage from Luke, in which he talks about woe to pregnant and nursing mothers during the fall of Jerusalem and future calamities.

Again the message continues that this world that we love, this earth that nurtures us and cares for us, where we feel safe and at home, is not forever.  And in the midst of that chaos, death, and destruction comes the Son of Man, Jesus, from his heavenly home, and we should stand and look towards him.  Our minds cannot understand it entirely. 

These predictions are both the short and the long view.  The short view was the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, and the long view is the one yet to come.  Basically it puts everything in perspective:  be in the moment, and keep our minds tuned to peace, love, compassion, and doing what is right by others.