Now is the Time

Matthew 24:30 – “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn (lament!), and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds in the sky with power and great glory.”

All the peoples of the earth will mourn. That seems odd. Many people look forward to Christ returning and here Jesus explicitly says we will mourn. What will we mourn? Perhaps we have unfinished business with family or a loved one and now it won’t be finished. Or perhaps there is so much crap happening and maybe we stood by. Or, and this is maybe the real reason, we all know our faults and how they manifest. Perhaps we mourn because we know we’re not worthy.

The good news here is that some of these things can be addressed in the here and now. Jesus is describing a day in the future. We have time now to lament the oppression perpetrated on the most vulnerable in our name. We have time now to love our neighbors and to remember the everybody is our neighbor. We have time now to express our resentments in hopes of clearing the air, to resist Donald and Mitch’s designs for the US, to work to close the illegal and immoral camps at the border, to work to end gun violence – by police as well as mass shooters, to spread love and peace and joy in whatever way we can. Now is our time.

Lament the latest shooting in the US, the border camps, police violence against Black people, and all the other corruption going on. Feel the fear and the sadness, pray for support, and continue to push back in any way we can. Even if that entails smiling when we’d rather argue.

Lament and spread love today. The world needs it. Always.

B