Theme: Here is all you and I need to know about the future: It will be filled with Christ’s Presences, and fulfilled with his Promises. This is our destiny as disciples of Jesus: filled presences, and fulfilled promises.

Exegesis: “The Word-Made-Flesh . . .”

The gospel text for this Sunday before Thanksgiving Sunday continues the theme of last week’s lectionary reading: predictions of impending destruction and the approach of the end times. Though it is not explicitly stated, the presumed audience here is Jesus’ disciples, who were last mentioned in chapter 20 (v.45). As Jesus begins this series of prophetic utterances, it is almost as if he is asking his disciples then (and now): “What do you want first? The bad news or the worse news?”

Jesus’ first bit of “bad news” is the complete d…