Advent Devotional Resource - San Francisco Theological Seminary

Thursday, December 17Matthew 24:1-13This is a passage I would rather skip over. It offends my sensibilities. Instead of being life-giving, itis death-invoking. Instead of providing hope, it anticipates despair. The text is full of suspicion anddread. In line with other apocalyptic texts, the author assumes the world must end for a new world tobegin.But what sensibilities does it offend? Those of a white woman, living a comfortable suburban lifein a wealthy county in a prosperous nation governed by a system that mostly works for me. TheChristmas season for me is about the beauty of the Christmas story, getting cozy, and celebratingabundance with family and friends.But Advent has nothing to do with tinsel, hot cocoa, and gift-buying. It is a time of listening andjoining in solidarity with the voice of this text that is waiting for freedom and justice. Politically, theauthor is living in an occupied land, oppressed by taxes and discrimination. Scholars largely agreeMatthew was written in Antioch, a dirty and crowded city—more crowded than anything we canimagine today. Religiously, the central place of worship, the Jerusalem temple, has been destroyed.And within Judaism, the author is marginalized as a follower of Jesus. When you imagine the situation,these words are less offensive. Everything is falling apart and there is no thread to hang ontoexcept the “good news of the kingdom.”And what is that good news? Throughout Matthew, we hear a consistent message. It is to love Godand love our neighbor. It is to be to others as we would have them treat us. It is to feed the hungry,give water to the thirsty, and visit the imprisoned. It is to live life right side up in a world that isupside down in active hope that the systems of this world will work for the good of all people,not just the powerful, beautiful, and wealthy. This season, I pray we will listen to the voice of themarginalized, long more deeply for justice, and renew our commitment to the good news of thekingdom incarnated by Jesus.Ms. Jenny WarnerSFTS M.Div., Senior