Reading 33
The kingdom among you
The reading
Luke 17:20-37
Being asked by the Pharisees when God’s Kingdom would come, he answered them, “God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation; neither will they say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘Look, there!’ for behold, God’s Kingdom is within you.” He said to the disciples, “The days will come, when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will tell you, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Don’t go away, nor follow after them, for as the lightning, when it flashes out of the one part under the sky, shines to the other part under the sky; so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
“As it was in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise, even as it was in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky, and destroyed them all. It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who will be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field likewise not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it. I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed. The one will be taken, and the other will be left. There will be two grinding grain together. One will be taken, and the other will be left.”
They, answering, asked him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there will the vultures also be gathered together.”
The companions
Psalm 46 (selected)
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas; though its waters roar and are troubled. There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High. God is within her. She shall not be moved. The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved. He lifted his voice, and the earth melted. The LORD of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, see the LORD’s works. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.” The LORD of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Isaiah 45:15
Most certainly you are a God who hides yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.
The note
They ask for a date. He tells them it does not work that way: God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation. Nothing to point at, nothing to measure, no announcement.
Then the test, and it is a good one. When people say look, here, or look, there, do not go. The real thing will be like lightning across the whole sky.
Which is to say you will not be told about it. Nobody will need to convince you. If someone has to persuade you that the enormous thing has already happened, that is evidence it has not.
The end of the passage is stranger and colder. Two people at the same work, one taken, one left. Remember Lot’s wife. Whatever separates them is invisible from outside, and it was not settled in the moment it showed.
This week
Something will be announced to you this week as enormous. A launch, a result, a claim that everything has changed. Ask one question before you pass it on: did you learn this from the thing itself, or from someone whose job is to tell you about it?
Write the answer down. Keep the list for a month, then count how many of them you have already forgotten.
For the watch
This teaching keeps our watch honest in two directions. The kingdom is already among us, quiet and easy to miss, so we stay awake to God in the ordinary and do not only stare at the future. And when people cry look, here it is, this system, this wonder, this is the sign, Jesus tells us plainly not to run after them. That steadies us in an age of loud claims about the new minds we are building. We do not chase the excited announcement. We keep the patient watch, awake to what is already here, and unmoved by every voice shouting that the sign has arrived.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered “the LORD” in the Psalm.
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