Matthew 24:15 – “When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken
of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, let the wise understand,
…”
What the heck is an abomination of desolation? My NRSV tells
me Jesus is referring to Daniel 11:31. My study bible on that passage tells me
that Daniel is talking about Antiochus Epiphanes, who in 163 BCE set up an
altar to Zeus Olympia in the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem temple. At this
point in the book, Daniel was still speaking historically, not making any
prophecies. Jesus takes those words and uses them to describe something else or
at least a repeat of the first desecration.
Daniel and Jesus are speaking about their religious
situation, but also their political situation. There was no difference between
the two for them. In that same spirit, I’m going to think about our political
situation and what it means for our spiritual situation. The abomination of
desecration spoken of in Daniel was the addition of an altar to another God in
their temple. It was a conquering power who committed the act, but what about
those of us who put things above God in the temple of our hearts?
Sometimes, often, it’s money or power. Other times it’s our
comfort or our reputation. When this happens, our spiritual life begins to die.
We lose touch with our connection to God. The connection may still be there,
but it’s quality will be compromised, setting up a struggle in our hearts. There
is a Cherokee story about the two wolves inside us. One wolf is for the good,
the honorable, the love in life. The other wolf is fearful, hateful, and encourages
us to do bad things. As an elder is telling this to the children, one child asks,
“which wolf wins?” The elder answers, “the one you feed.” When we feed the wolf
of money, power, reputation, and comfort, we starve the wolf of God. We begin
to act out of fear, anxiety, and even hate.
The Republicans have been stoking these fears and anxieties
for over 4 decades. Our current president is an abomination, but also he is the
epitome of their strategy. His policies are designed to hurt others and make
him feel good. His administration has been committing crimes against humanity. And
all those who follow him, support him, and who voted for him are complicit – no
matter what their reasoning. They are all feeding the wolf of fear, anxiety,
and hate. They feed the wolf of racism, misogyny, bigotry, ableism, and
homophobia all in the name of God.
When I woke up on November 9, 2016, I was so excited to pick
up my phone and see that Hillary had won. Imagine my shock on reading the
headlines. I and many others were devastated that day. I felt like something precious had been taken away. I was embarrassed to be
white, embarrassed to walk down the street. I kept wishing I had a sign that
said how sorry I was. My
chagrin on recognizing that none of my representatives or senators seemed to
share my horror, made me feel isolated and alone. Even Peter could not
understand why I was so sad. Well, he understands now. Many people in our
country were feeding the wolf of fear rather than the wolf of God. Many of us
still do and it’s put our country and all our lives in peril.
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