Today presents us with two extremely challenging readings.  The Book of Revelation always stretches my brain because of the imagery, some of which is quite violent.  Today’s reading ends with the tribe of Judah triumphing and ruling over the whole earth.  But then in the Gospel we have Jesus weeping over the coming destruction of Jerusalem.

In a day when people thought of things in terms of military conquests (not that we have completely lost that) the imagery makes some sense, particularly to the audiences for which the readings were written.  In Biblical times in which whole peoples (notably the Jewish people) were enslaved by militarily superior powers, it was easy to see having God on your side as likely to manifest itself by God smiting down your enemies and conversely turning your back on God resulting in a crushing defeat.

I do my best to try to take something out of readings that I can apply in my own life.  I know that in my own life that when things are going well it’s easy for me to think less about God and to confine the exercise of my religion to an hour on Sunday.  But when things aren’t going as well I will flip the switch and want to lean on God more.  I think what the readings are trying to tell us is that our relationship with God needs to be as strong as we can make it, whether times are good or bad.