Interpreting Signs of the End Times

Luke 12:49-56

Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:

father against son

and son against father,

mother against daughter

and daughter against mother,

mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, `It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"

        My cats know the signs.  My wife Cindy and I have two cats: Donovan and Coco.  Donovan is a big black cat with a touch of white at the tip of his tail.  Coco is a calico.  We got Donovan at the Parkway Animal Hospital in Cary.  He had been found and given to the vet.  We think that this might be the reason why he goes crazy before meal times.  He runs around madly meowing.  And he knows when it is time to eat.  He knows the time of day, and he knows the signs.  As soon as Cindy clinks her spoon in her empty cereal bowl, Donovan starts meowing for his breakfast.

We got Coco when she was a kitten.  She is not worried whether she’ll get her next meal.  She patiently waits for her food, but Coco likes to give me kisses.  I pet her and she licks my arm.  She especially likes to do this when I have been gone all day.  One day this cool August week, when we had the windows open, Coco was sitting on a chair by the screen door.  When she heard my car, she looked toward the cul-de-sac, where I park.  She then hopped off the chair and walked to the carport door, where I come in the house, and waited for me. Coco knows the sound of my car.  She knows the signs.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the crowds that they know how to interpret the earth and the sky but they do not know how to interpret the present time.  Jesus exhorts them and us to discern how God is at work in our world.  He tells us to learn how to read the signs of God’s guiding hand in our lives.

The context for today’s Gospel is Jesus’ warning about the end times.  A few verses before our lesson from Luke, Jesus says, “You must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour" (Luke 12:40 NRSV).

Early Christians believed the end of the world was imminent.  They associated the end of the world with two events – the first and the second coming of Christ.  The first coming of Christ actually is the one that ushered in the end times.  The presider says in Eucharistic Prayer B, “For in these last days you sent [Jesus] to be incarnate from the Virgin Mary, to be the Savior and Redeemer of the world.”  The second coming of Christ culminates the end times.

While some people are fixated on determining a date for the second coming, more important is the one who is to return – Jesus.  The challenge for us is to walk in the way of Christ, to be faithful to Christ in a world that is at times indifferent or hostile to faith.  The challenge, as Jesus says, is to discern the present time, which means to discern how God is acting in the world and in our lives, to discern how we can faithfully follow him each day.

As you know from when I was with you before, I am in transition.  I left St. Michael’s, Raleigh in May and am now discerning my next call.   As part of my discernment I recently read Parker Palmer’s book Letting Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation.  The phrase “letting your life speak” is a Quaker expression that means discerning your gifts and passions.  God has created each of us uniquely and given each of us unique talents and interests.  Palmer retells an old Hasidic story in his book.  When he was old, Rabbi Zusya said, “In the coming world, they will not ask me why, ‘Why were you not Moses?’  They will ask me, ‘Why were you not Zusya?’”   Essential to discerning the present time, essential to discerning how God is acting in the world and in our lives, is discerning God’s purpose for our lives.  This is not something imposed on us from without.  It emerges from our very being, from our DNA.  The prophet Isaiah says, “The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me” (Isa 49:1 NRSV).  God created us uniquely for this present time!  He gave us particular gifts for it.  The first step for each of us in interpreting the present time is to discern our God given talents and passions.

The second step is to discern the leading, the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our daily life.  When I was a student at UNC Chapel Hill, one day I was returning from visiting my parents who lived in Mebane.  As I drove my 1972 Carolina Blue Super Beetle on Weaver Dairy Road, I felt led to turn into the retirement community Carol Woods to visit Will Henderson.  Will was an Episcopal priest in his 90s.  He had served as a priest associate in Christ Church, Roanoke, Virginia, where I grew up.  A few moments after I entered his apartment and was talking to his wife, the phone rang.  Will’s car had broken down on Highway 86 outside of town.  I went and brought him back to his apartment.  The apostle Paul said that we live and move and have our being in God.  The Holy Spirit is always with us.  We only need to be attentive to the promptings of the Spirit.  Often these small moments over time lead us in a certain direction.  One prompting leads to another that leads to another.  In time, we can see how God’s hand is at work in our lives.

What are your unique God given talents?  What are your passions?  Where is the Holy Spirit prompting you?  What has God called you to do in your faith community, in your family and in your city or town?  God has given you unique gifts and passions.  God has a purpose for you.  The Holy Spirit is at work in you.  This week I invite you to reflect on your unique talents and passions.  Reflect on where the Spirit might be prompting you.  While it will not always be easy, when we know our God given gifts, when we understand what excites us in life, when we are open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we can discern how to serve the Lord; we can see God’s hand at work in our lives; we can interpret the present time.

(This sermon was preached at St. John's, Henderson, August 18, 2013.)