Saturday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time Yr 1 2025
Ordinary Time • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 5 viewsThe world is full of distractions, both positive and negative, both personal and societal. All can keep us from being ready for pressures that would turn us from faithfulness to Christ and thus leave us unprepared to stand before the Son o f Man. That is the warning in Daniel as iin Revelation as in Jesus. The end is a great trial and it is only after that, on the personal or societal level, that the son of Man takes charge. So that is the danger we see in history and that we experience in our history on the person or collective level. Avoid these distractions and be vigilant and praying for strength to endure to stand before the Son of Man.
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Transcript
Title
Title
Beware of Distractions
Outline
Outline
Our worlds are full of distractions
Our worlds are full of distractions
There are the distractions of entertainment, social media, food and drink, and all the rest. There are also the distractions of personal and societal anxieties, which arise not only from our experiences, but also from social and news media. All of this keeps us either in a state of anxiety or in a state of stupor and satiety that are distracting.
Jesus tells us to beware of both
Jesus tells us to beware of both
For otherwise “that day [will] catch you by surprise like a trap.” “That day” is the day of the eleventh king in Daniel, who in the historical perspective points to Antiochus IV Epiphanes who purposed to destroy Judaism and the Jews, as the eighth emperor in Rev ch 17 is Domitian, a Nero redivivus, who makes war on the Lamb in the persons of Christians. In other words, throughout scripture the end is not the gradual emergence of a peaceful kingdom of God but great trial and pressure to defect upon the people of God, a trial that has appeared at multiple times in history under many leaders. The danger is that if we are distracted we “will not have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and [therefore] to stand before the Son of Man.”
Whether in Daniel or Luke the ultimate finale is not the antichrist but the Christ
Whether in Daniel or Luke the ultimate finale is not the antichrist but the Christ
In Daniel this is the end of the evil king and universal kingship coming to “the people of the holy ones of the Most High.” which the collective of the Son of Man. In Luke it is simply the Son of Man himself. Either way the danger is to get so stupefied, anxious, or distracted that God’s people fall in the great test of Satan and fail to “stand [triumphantly in fidelity] before the Son of Man.”
Sisters, that is the danger of history
Sisters, that is the danger of history
Repeatedly the people of God, including Christians, have gotten distracted, either by the affairs of life, both pleasant and unpleasant, or by historical times of crisis so that Christians compromise or crumble under the Antichrist of the day. The call of our texts is to avoid all that distracts us from committed faithfulness of Jesus so that we will not crumble under the pressures of our day, but will be found faithful and worthy to stand before the Son of Man.
We may or may not face the final Antichrist in this series, but we will face distractions and pressures on at least a personal and likely a national level and will need to be vigilant at all times and praying that we have strength to endure of stand before the Son of Man.
