Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth once
famously stated that preachers of God's word ought to preach with the Bible in
one hand & the newspaper in the other.
Barth understood the relationship between the word of God and the word
of the day, that they are intrinsically bound together in such a way that one
always interprets the other. Today's
Gospel from Luke addresses how some in Jesus' day could interpret the weather
from the clouds and the appearance of the earth, but were not able to discern the
signs that Jesus put before their very eyes in his proclamation of God's
kingdom. And isn't it even more true
today? We are so technologically advanced, we pride ourselves in all the scientific
advances we have made, yet we so often miss the message that God is trying to
convey to us. We are looking for God to
speak to us in a certain way in our lives, and we might be missing the way God
is present to us right before our very eyes.
“The signs of the times” was an important message of the Second Vatican
Council, as it called us to interpret God's Word through the signs of our
modern era, yet to also be true to the original message of Jesus and the
message preached by the early Church fathers.
We are in the early stages of celebrating the Year of Faith as declared
by Pope Benedict XVI. We are called to
discern where God is calling us to live our faith, especially in light of the
documents of the Second Vatican Council.
As we get ready to vote for a president and other elected officials in
our country in less than two weeks, may we ask for the wisdom to be able to
discern where God is calling us today.
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