December 10th, 2021
Matthew 23:27-39
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’]”
Praying through the Apocalypse
We like to think that the apocalypse is about the end times, but really it is about revelation. We all have been wondering of late, “what is revealed when things end?”
We have endured/are still enduring a period of great ending. These pandemic months have ended friendships, good habits and bad. Jobs have ended, life as it was once lived was ended.
And what was revealed?
A great revelation for us all was that we can do hard things. We can adapt and shift, which is incredibly difficult, and yet, we did it.
For me, prayer was a constant presence through the great revelations of the past many months. And while I would never wish to repeat a global pandemic, there has always been something about praying through the revealing moments in my life that brought me closer to God. In this great revealing I have been led again and again to the reminder that God is, to quote Jeremiah, “in the midst of us” (14:9).
As we continue through the season of Advent, expectantly waiting for the revelation of God among us, may we remember that we are well practiced in praying through the end of life as we know it. May we apply this practice in praying our way into new beginnings as well.
The Very Rev. Katie Churchwell
Dean, St. Paul’s Cathedral
Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma