Preserving the Right Things

There are those vultures again.

The Pharisees begin today’s passage with what could be an otherwise innocent question concerning the coming of the Kingdom of God.

I think sometimes we take the details of Jesus’ answer to mean that we have to look and figure out the code of the signs of the times to know the answer. I wonder this morning, as I read it, if he’s actually saying the signs are quite obvious. A flash of lightning is not something easily missed. And when it happens, it’s quite illuminating.

Further, Jesus is certainly telling his disciples - whom the passage switches to rather than the Pharisees - what our posture should be. This doesn’t seem to be a posture for later, but for any time. He’s been consistently telling them not to be weighed down by possessions (especially in Luke).

Don’t try and preserve the wrong things.

And then there’s that line about vultures again. Remember, the Greek word here can mean both “vulture” and “eagle.” The eagle was a symbol of the Roman empire - as it has been for empires in general, including the current US one, interestingly. Empires are prone to capitalizing on the spectacle of death and the fear that comes with its threat. And empires do it right underneath the promise of peace. The pax Romana did just that. “Peace” was maintained be virtue of the threat of death.

When seen in the greater vision of the Kingdom that Jesus has delivered throughout the gospel, his disciples must remember the overall nature and characteristic that Jesus had taught and demonstrated.

It is not built on fear. It is not sustained by the threat of loss or death (though sacrifice is indeed called for). It does not draw attention through spectacle or power, but through faithfulness, humility, and a kind of life that often goes unnoticed by the systems of the world. If the empires around them relied on control, visibility, and force to maintain their version of peace, then the Kingdom of God would look quite different. It would not need to prove itself in the same ways. It would not need to be defended by the same means. And so the call to the disciples is not to decode the signs or react to the noise, but to live in such a way that they are not shaped by those competing visions at all.

Luke 17:20-37

Pharisees asked Jesus when God’s kingdom was coming. He replied, “God’s kingdom isn’t coming with signs that are easily noticed. Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you.”

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “The time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Human One, and you won’t see it. People will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Don’t leave or go chasing after them. The Human One will appear on his day in the same way that a flash of lightning lights up the sky from one end to the other. However, first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be during the days of the Human One. People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building. But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. That’s the way it will be on the day the Human One is revealed. On that day, those on the roof, whose possessions are in the house, shouldn’t come down to grab them. Likewise, those in the field shouldn’t turn back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to preserve their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in the same bed: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left.”

The disciples asked, “Where, Lord?”

Jesus said, “The vultures gather wherever there’s a dead body.”

Prayer

God,

There is so much around us that demands our attention. So many voices telling us what to fear, what to hold onto, what to preserve. And yet you keep pointing us somewhere else. To see Jesus in the world.

So help us to see clearly. Not to chase signs or get caught up in speculation, but to recognize what is right in front of us. Keep us from holding onto the wrong things. Free our hands from building our lives around what will not last. Form in us a different kind of life. One that is not driven by fear or spectacle, but shaped by trust, faithfulness, and your presence.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.