NewCreation

Homily for 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Welcome, my sisters and brothers, to this the homily for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, the penultimate week of the Church's year. And today we have part of Luke's apocalyptic speech. Actually, in Luke there are two apocalyptic speeches: one to do with the coming of the kingdom, and the other much more to do with Jerusalem and what will happen after the fall of Jerusalem. But we have the first half of the second of these, and it's much more to do with the shift in attitude that is required of us when faced with apocalyptic happenings. It's a lesson in signs, as I would say. So today's Gospel starts after Jesus has been teaching in the Temple — his last teaching in the Temple. He's left the scribes and the Pharisees with a question about the Son of Man. He's observed a poor widow putting money into the treasury. And now some people speak to him about the Temple. In Luke's Gospel it's not necessarily the disciples; it's just some people were speaking about the Temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God. And the gift dedicated to God — that's the same word as we have for anathema. So the gifts are also, by being dedicated to God, become the kind of sacred other that can't be touched by anyone else. Anathema. The violent sacred is very much at work in what's going on with the Temple. A gift is also an anathema. And he said: "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." Now, before we go on, I just want to step into that a little. The Temple in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus was one of the great wonders of the world. It was made with huge pieces of brilliantly polished and bright stone. It was of extraordinary wealth. Because of the gold plate on the dome, when the sun shone it would be seen from the coast — so, you know, 70 kilometers away. It was an astounding construction, and not only noted for its beauty but also for the fabulous richness of its treasury. It was one of the richest places in the whole of the Roman Empire. It was hugely important for the economic life of not only Jerusalem but the Middle East in general. It had an amazing collection of title deeds to property, which were usually the security for loans. It was of enormous importance for the agricultural industry, for the obvious reason that so many sheep, cattle, doves, and so on were sacrificed there. In other words, it was something much closer to being a mixture of the financial center of the city and the religious center of the city — and a bullring. and an abattoir all at once — was all of those things put together. Realities which have become separate in our world were there at the time. The reason I'm bringing this out is because it was the center of fascination. Anything to do with God was associated in a fascinating way with this Temple, which was not only appreciated but also very much resented. There were a significant number of people for whom the Temple was run by crooks who used its financial clout in various unjust ways, and whose subjugated bondsmen they were because of the debts, which meant that the Temple held their title deeds. So a place of extreme fascination, in which people would come, and of course with lots of prophecies about whether it will be destroyed or not, which are circulated — and indeed the famous prophecies from Zechariah talking about this destruction. Remember, which had already happened once: the first Temple had been destroyed. The second Temple was not even in the same physical place as the first Temple had been. So when people are speaking about the Temple and its beauty, and the anathemata — the gifts, stroke anathema things, the sacred or cursed things that were there — it brings out the nature of the fascination, that it's an ambivalent fascination. And it's also clear that Jesus is not using prophetic language when he talks about it. He doesn't go into a prophetic rage talking about the Temple. "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another, or will be thrown down." There's a strangely laconic way in which Jesus talks about it. He doesn't use at that point the prophetic imagery which does appear in the prophets concerning destruction and throwing down of great signs. So the people who are with him ask him, "Teacher, when will this be? And what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" And the word for "about to take place" even has a hint of intention — when this is programmed to take place, when… the notion that there is someone else doing the work behind this, like maybe God. In other words, they are very much within the world in which the Temple is a very significant player in the divine sign game, that which has to do with God. And naturally the destruction of the Temple would make a massive difference to that world. It would destroy, blow apart, a center of fascination. It was the most fascinating thing that could possibly happen — up there in our world with revolutions and magnicides, regicides, and so on and so forth. And Jesus's response — he doesn't answer the question "What will be the sign that this is about to take place?" He says, "Beware that you are not led astray." In fact, Jesus' so-called apocalyptic discourse is really a "how not to be run by an apocalyptic imagination" discourse. It's how not to be fooled by this world of fascinating signs. "Beware that you are not led astray, for many will come in my name and say, I am he." Many will come – what is exactly there, and go look, here exactly, the Greek – yes, it is literally "in my name," meaning trying to represent my person, my persona, and saying – the Greek says "I am," which could be "I am he," but it could also be standing in the place of God. People who want to give off the notion of being a fascinating sign, a God-given sign, people who will protect me, pretending themselves prophet, the Messiah, the Christ: that's one of the things they'll say. And the other thing they'll say is "the time is near," and that's a direct quote from Ezekiel. Ezekiel 7 is a passage about the time becoming near and the threat of the anger pouring upon the people. So please notice what Jesus is doing: he's trying to get people off fascination with charismatic people, fascination with the Temple and the notion of God's anger associated with it. He's saying, pay no attention to such things, do not go after that. Then he says, "when you hear of wars and" – our translation here is "insurrections"; in some translations it's "revolutions," in some translations it's "disturbances," and that's it, "upheavals" – "when you hear of wars and upheavals, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately." In other words, there are going to be a whole lot of quite traditional things that actually happen in the world, but that's not part of the divine meaning either. These are just things that will happen, and in part they will maybe even happen more frequently because of what I am about to do – I, Jesus, am about to do. But these things must take place, but the end will not follow immediately. That's just part of the going on of things. Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues, and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven." Now, rather than us imagining that Jesus is saying that that's what's going to happen, in fact he's quoting four different prophetic tropes, if you like: about nations fighting against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms, about earthquakes, about famines and plagues, and about portents and signs from heaven. These are from the prophet Isaiah, the prophet Jeremiah, the prophet Daniel, and the prophet Joel – particularly the prophet Joel. Several are more or less direct quotes. But what's interesting is, if you look at those, each one is part of a world of a prophecy in which anger rains down upon a particular group. a particular out-group. So "nation will rise against nation" is in a prophecy against Egypt; there's another prophecy against Samaria. It's what's wrong, if you like, with this world of signs and fascinations: we look at a particular struggle or a particular upheaval and think about it in terms of it giving us meaning by there being another bad guy who are being destroyed, so we must be the good guy. And the trouble with that, of course, is that if you think that, you're failing to notice what is actually going on in your own group. You're still being run by the need to justify yourself over against another group. So each one of these is not Jesus saying "this is what's going to happen." He's saying these kinds of quotes, these kinds of attitudes to prophetic happenings — those are all the wrong way of looking at things. That's all something in the midst of which you must learn a certain indifference. Those are not real signs. And then he says, to make it clear what is the real sign, "but before all this occurs" — so before this general series of upheavals, before all this occurs, in other words from starting from very soon, in fact starting from his crucifixion, which is not long down the road from this point — it's within the next week — "but before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you, they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons." And again he makes reference to certain nuances here, because the arresting of you — he says "they will arrest you" — actually it's "they will lay hands on you." The "lay hands on you" can be in the way one lays hands on the scapegoat, and it can be arrest, but both the meanings are covered there. "They will arrest you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors." And the words here for the bringing forth are the same word as, for instance, Joseph was brought before Pharaoh — it's the same verb as that. And then he says, "this will give you an opportunity to testify." "Give you an opportunity" sounds like, okay, this is what you've been waiting for, now's your chance to give your spiel. It's much more: "this will turn out to be an occasion for you to testify," because the verb is to turn, to go away, to turn out — as in "this will turn out to be for your witnessing." In other words, it won't look to anybody like you're witnessing. They will think that they're just beating you up, but in fact in the midst of it you will be witnessing. So "make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance." Why? Well, because if you prepare your defense in advance, the chances are that you are part of the violence of what is going on, and that you are taking part in it as one of the rivals in a struggle of some sort, and therefore your mind is going to be completely colored by the struggle in which you think you're taking part, you will be being run by the sign that is the fake creation of meaning by violence. But — and here it says, "Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance" — but actually what it says is, "Place it therefore in your hearts not to prepare your defense in advance." So the notion is that in the midst of all this we should be learning to live with a certain indifference, using the Ignatian understanding of indifference as not allowing rivalry to push my buttons. That kind of indifference is what therefore enables us, curiously, to be creative and actually free in the midst of whatever is going on, and bearing witness to another reality, something that is not run by the violence of the scapegoating of this world. He said, "For I will give you mouth and a wisdom." "I will give you mouth" — I will give you the facility of being able to speak — "and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict." Well, of course not. They will not be on the same level at all as you. They will be engaging in what they think is a victory, and you as an enemy, but in fact you will be bearing witness to the coming into being of something entirely different, something new, something amazing. "You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death." In other words, it's not only in the big political sphere that these fake signs and violence work, but even comparatively close in family matters — being run by family belonging, by kinship ties, by supposed friendship — you will actually find yourselves becoming hated, because you will be bearing witness to a different reality coming in, and they will still be being run by might makes right. "You will be hated by all because of my name." You're saying what you will do as you come to imitate me is that you will find yourself in the center of a lynch. What is a lynch? A lynch is an all-against-one. "You'll be hated by all because of my name." In John's Gospel, "They hated me without reason" — the Psalm, "They hate me without cause," is quoted. It's the same here. But — and this is Jesus's promise — "not a hair of your head will perish." Now it's a very odd promise, given he says that some of you will be put to death. He's talking about us being held in being by a power much, much greater than us, presumably one not run by death. "By your endurance" — your patience, your perseverance — in other words, by your standing in the midst of all this, not being run by it, and so bearing witness to that which is being brought into being, "you will gain your souls." That is what being brought into being as a son or a daughter of God looks like. It looks like being turned into a witness of another sign, a completely different sign, instead of the world of temple. of violent sacred fake goodness, of political and even of tribal and family violent construction of goodness, in the midst of all that, working through it all, not run by its meaning, being given the meaning that comes from God — that is the living of the kingdom. So this is what the Lucan account of Jesus offers us in the penultimate week of the Church's year, before we come next week to the feast of Christ the King. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen.