Written by Hugo Olaiz
Luke 21:6 (NRSV) As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.
When I was a missionary in Paraguay, I was assigned to work with a local young man named Neri. He had barely finished high school, and I was a college graduate. We were poorly matched.
Neri’s lifelong ambition was to become a beekeeper. “When Jesus returns in all his glory, civilizations will collapse,” he explained. “Farming and beekeeping will go on forever.” Neri’s reading of prophecy struck me as misguided. “Too urgent and literal,” I thought. Or maybe not.
When I drive through Cincinnati, I see entire neighborhoods in decline. At the corner of Gilbert Avenue and Taft Road, there used to be a Presbyterian church, and today it is a place where Jesus’ prophecy is being fulfilled literally—except for one tower, the grand Neo-Gothic edifice is completely gone.
Is it possible that in today’s lesson from Luke, Jesus is referring to a curse we inflicted on ourselves? And what should be our response when we see neighborhoods, cities, and nations in the throes of collapse?
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