Provoke One Another*

My favorite waiter is a sort of lapsed Roman Catholic. I doubt he has been to mass in decades, although really I don’t know. I do know he has a sort of terror about apocalyptic scripture; every year as Advent approaches he gets scared about the lessons he would hear were he actually to go to mass. I find it humorous and also a little awe-inspiring. I always try to tell him what I’m going to try to say here, but he doesn’t believe me.

Jesus is very clear in this Gospel (Mark 13:1-8), that as the decision-point approaches there will be wars and famines and earthquakes.

Well, 2000 years on we still are having wars and famines and earthquakes. What you need to try to grasp here is that that is not the important part of Jesus’ message. The important part is the last phrase “this is but the beginning of the birthpangs.” You see, our whole lives are made up of sequences of wars and famines and earthquakes. Trials come and go. It is the nature of human existence. And yet, how often do we fall to pieces in the midst of these trials, thinking it somehow is the end? Instead, we must see these trials as beginnings, as places in life where we begin to see the truth about our existence and our relationship with God, which is our relationship with each other.

As it says in the letter to the Hebrews “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without ever wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.” We must understand that through our trials our love for one another deepens, and as a natural consequence of that, our relationship with God strengthens.

LGBT people in America have just won several important victories. We have won votes for basic marriage equality in three more states. An out lesbian has been elected to the United States Senate. It is a kind of morning, like a new day, except it is the result of something like a cross between a war and a famine and an earthquake. And so we see it is the beginning of a birthpang, of justice. Justice my friends is the one thing God always delivers.

So “let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds … and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). Yes, indeed, let us consider how to provoke one another to love.

It is Thanksgiving in America. As a citizen of the world, I always am surprised to discover how little people in other countries understand what this week means to us. And as I grow older and older I understand ever more just how important Thanksgiving is for us. Because it is our once-a-year time to pause, and consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.

Happy Thanksgiving!

©2012 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Proper 28 (1 Samuel 1:4-20; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Hebrews 10: 11-14 (15-18) 19-25; Mark 13:1-8)