Hmmm. "Wars and insurrections, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, famines and plagues...arrests, persecution, some put to death...days of vengeance...great distress on the earth...People will faint from fear and foreboding..." Whoa! What season are we in? What about "Peace on earth and mercy mild?"
Actually, BOTH images are at play this morning. Yes, Christmas is coming - a beautiful time. But juxtaposed against that is a life of great uncertainty for all of us, a time when our institutions, those entities in society upon which we have depended, our temples, are crashing down around us - not one stone left on another. We are left with rubble and trouble. In Luke 21, the last scene of Jesus' public ministry, he stands at the temple entrance and paints this stark p…