Readings (Year B):
Deuteronomy 12:1 – 3
Psalms 16:5, 8, 9 – 10, 11
Hebrew 10:11 – 14, 18
Mark 13:24 – 32
Reflection: Hope sees what is
It is the weekend before Thanksgiving, and it is time for a bit of confession. Are you ready for some soul searching? Who has already put up your Christmas tree or is planning to do so this weekend? Evergreen Christmas trees are beautiful reminders of hope, of life, even when things are bare and almost everything seems lost. We all need hope. So, if you’re rushing the season a bit, it’s ok. Lean into hope.
When I was little, my sister and I wanted a tree of our own. One year, my dad went to the brushy fence line on our farm and cut down a 4-foot maple. There weren’t evergreens on the fence line or in our woods, so a bare maple it was. And we were thrilled. It became a tradition, a strange one perhaps, but beloved, nonetheless. A bare, seemingly lifeless maple—reminiscent perhaps of our readings today: “In those days when the sun is darkened. And the moon does not give light…No leaves on the fig trees or the maples…and the stars falling from the sky.” It is “a time of unsurpassed distress.” These are dark images, but they are truth-telling. It’s important that we look at our lives and the life of our communities—look at the life of our nation and our world.
It’s important that we look at reality and speak plainly about the distress and deep division among us. Speak plainly about climate change, war, gun violence, hunger, in our own communities and in the world. It’s important that we speak plainly about how all these things are connected. These are the days we are living in. We must speak plainly. And we must move forward. Neither Jeremiah nor Jesus leaves us in darkness. This is not our call. Their truth-telling sets the stage for the real action.
“At that time,” Jeremiah says. At that time, you will look and find a way forward into freedom.
At that time, when you look plainly, you can see a way forward in love. “And then!” Jesus says!
And then! You will see Christ coming to be present among you. “Look for new life,” Jesus says.
And then, you see it is coming. Move toward new life. Don’t swirl in the darkness. Look for the light of love and move toward it. See it in others. Be it yourself. This is what hope looks like. Hope holds a bare maple tree alongside the evergreen. Hope sees what is and looks for signs of new and everlasting life. Hope takes a step toward new life in love. Hope walks the journey together and with each step moves into the light.
No one knows the day or the hour when all our hope will be fulfilled. And yet, each day we can choose to move toward our hope. And then, we will shine brightly like the splendor of the heavens and those who lead the many to justice will be like the stars forever.
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