Generation or Age?

Matthew 24:33-34 – “So too when you see all these things you know that he is near, right at the door. Truly, I say to you that this generation will not pass away until all these things happen.”

Having covered the first statement yesterday, I’ll focus on the second, especially the word genea, which is often translated generation. However, it has a few other meanings, including nation, time, and age (a person or a period of time). There’s probably a grammatical or contextual reason that every version I checked has generation instead of the others. They’re probably correct. Even Paul made statements about the end being soon.

But, we are many, many generations past now. Therefore, we cannot read it only in this way. It would make no sense. It’s easy to say Jesus was wrong on that and move on. But that is boring. Instead, let’s try translating genea as age. Is it possible we’re still in the same age that Jesus was referring to? Maybe it’s not people dying but rather one age moving into another? Or, assuming that his audience and everyone since has not misunderstood him, what if he already came back, and our ancestors missed it somehow? Of course, that brings up the question of why the earth is still here.

Assuming we’re still in that age, maybe these signs are still happening or waiting to happen. The end of the age might still be a future event for us as it was for Jesus’ audience. Which brings me to climate change. The weather extremes we are seeing as a result of climate change, caused by people, might indeed be a sign that we, the planet, or both will not last much longer. The latest figure I’ve heard is 12 years. I don’t think this is what Jesus was referring to. We caused this change in our climate. Somehow, it’s up to us to fix it. First, we must accept it and too many people and corporations (oil companies!) are looking the other way, because they are making money.

Al Gore sounded the alarm decades ago and oil companies have known as well. This is one more way that our Republican “leaders” and corporations are oppressing and persecuting poor people. It is people who cannot move, who have disabilities that make weather changes more difficult to address (like me!), people on the coasts of the US and other countries that are seeing water from high tide wash up onto their streets who are bearing the greatest burden. Here in Cleveland, we are having one of the wettest summers on record. It’s also not as hot and humid as last summer. We are waterlogged. Lake Erie is at record-high levels. All due to our inability to even face the fact of climate change, not to mention talking about solutions or acting on those solutions.

Again, lament is appropriate. Doing nothing about climate change is one more way poor people are persecuted. Call your representatives and senators. It’s good to work on not wasting resources ourselves, but by far the biggest contributors are corporations. Our efforts are paltry in comparison. We need to keep them accountable for focusing on profits over flourishing of life.

Another way to love our neighbor as ourselves.

B