The Present Times...

Cityscape of Manhattan

How do we discern our present times?  
And having once discerned these times, how as individuals can we contribute to the needs of the day? 

In the picture of the cityscape, how is our present time different than when Jesus walked the earth?  What makes it the same? How does each view speak to our call to participate in the world?

In the Lectionary lesson for today, August 15, we look at passages from the book of Luke 12:49-56. Here Jesus speaks of fire and division coming to the people of Israel. What could he be referring to when he speaks of recognizing"the times."

Luke 12:49-56
12:49 "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

12:50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!

12:51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!

12:52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three;

12:53 they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

12:54 He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens.

12:55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens.

12:56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?


Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line