A Dark Text

1st Sunday in Advent, Year C
Texts: Jer 33.14-16; 1 Thess 3.9-13; Lk 21.25-36

When we read this gospel lesson in Bible Study this week, the first comment was, “Wow, that’s dark.” This is a dark text; it may be hard not to feel a bit frightened or discouraged by it. Nations confused by the roaring of the waves, people fainting from fear and fleeing to escape calamity, the powers of heaven themselves—the sun, moon and stars—being shaken. Maybe it’s hard for you to hear any good news in this; nothing Jesus talks about sounds like anything we’d be anxious to experience. And yet, he says, “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” That’s all we have to hang our hat on in these dark, bleak images: the vague assurance that somehow it heralds the coming of our redemption.

What Is Truth?

Christ the King Sunday (Reign of Christ Sunday), Year B
Texts: Dan 7.9-10, 13-14; Rev 1.4-8; Jn 18.33-38

What is truth? What is the truth? The truth is that, as Pilate observes, it is Jesus’ own people, his own chief priests, who have handed him over to the Romans. It’s that the head of the religious institution are the ones who say, with one voice, “We have no king but Caesar,” in clear contradiction of millennia of religious doctrine that God is their king, and that their job as the priests is to mediate between God and God’s people.

The truth is that the problem isn’t just the Judeans in this story, but all of us. When it suits us, we are all ready to follow the person with the biggest stick, the strongman savior who can Make America Great Again, or who can help us Build Back Better. The truth is that, in order to keep what we have and get what we want, we’ll take just about any bargain we can get.

That’s what the chief priests did. It’s clear from this story that they want something from Caesar. They could have done what Pilate suggested: taken Jesus and killed him themselves under their own blasphemy laws. That’s what they did to Stephen in the book of Acts. But had they done that, Caesar wouldn’t know about it, wouldn’t know that they were loyal. No, they needed Caesar to know that they were firmly in his corner, that they had no king but Caesar. Why? Maybe because they were afraid of him. Maybe because, as the High Priest himself said, if Rome didn’t see them act definitively to reject this Jesus character, the whole nation could perish.

The End

25th Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 33), Year B
Text: Jer 20.7-13; Rom 6.1b-11; Matt 10.24-39

This story begins the section in the synoptic gospels that is known as the “Little Apocalypse.” Maybe you can see why. Jesus starts talking about wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, the temple itself being thrown down. In the verses to follow, he’ll foretell persecution of his disciples, the arrival of false messiahs, and the signs and portents that will accompany his own return, omens such as the sun being darkened and the falling of the stars from the sky. Seems pretty apocalyptic, doesn’t it?

Looking Forward with the Saints

All Saints’ Sunday, Year B
Text: Isa 25:6-9; Rev 21:1-6; Jn 11:32-44

There is a rich tradition surrounding the life of St. Lazarus of Bethany. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, tradition states that he fled Judea because of plots against his life (which St. John the Evangelist mentions later in his gospel narrative) and comes to the island of Cyprus. There, he is appointed the bishop of a town called Kirion by St. Paul and St. Barnabas. He lived there for 30 years before being buried for the second and final time.

In Kirion (now called Larnaka), a tomb which was discovered in 890 with the inscription “Lazarus the friend of Christ.” The saint’s remains were transferred to Constantinople by Emperor Leo VI, who built the Church of St. Lazarus over the tomb for the people of Larnaka. There is also a St. Lazarus Chapel in Pskov in Northwestern Russia where a Russian monk returned with relics from the church in Larnaka in the 16^th century.

In the Western Church, the tradition holds that Lazarus, along with his sisters, St. Mary and St. Martha, were put in a boat by hostile Judeans with no sails, oars or helm and that, after a miraculous voyage, they landed near Provence in France. Supposedly, the family all went different ways, preaching throughout Gaul. Lazarus went to Marseille, where he became the bishop. During the persecutions under the reign of the emperor Domitian, he was beheaded. His body was laid to rest in Autun, in central France, under the Autun Cathedral, but in Marseille, they still claim possession of his head, which is, of course, venerated.