The Rev’d Lucy Nguyen

Sunday of Week 33 of Ordinary Time (Year C)

Readings: Malachi 3:19-20; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19

Today we are celebrating the penultimate Sunday of the church’s liturgical year. Next Sunday we celebrate the Reign of Christ as the final Sunday in the Church’s calendar.

This is the Sunday to think about endings. And so, the church, through our morning readings, has invited us to think about end times.

What comes to mind when you hear or read the words “end times”?

One of the gifts of being part of a faith community means we can talk about such topics. We don’t need to shy away or be frightened. We are a people of light eternal. We have looked into the tomb; we have faced fear and death and in Christ we are raised to eternal life now and to come.

This does not mean we don’t struggle with earthly death for ourselves and others. We are also hardwired by God to love deeply and to develop strong bonds in our time on earth together.

The gift, I think we have, if we choose to receive it is that in this current age perhaps unlike previous times, this church and many like All Saints Howick are safe spaces to explore our feelings and the framework in which we see ourselves and all creation. To see this grand design in a much larger interconnected context than our forebears. We can grasp a greater understanding of tragedy and disaster and see ourselves in it so often as the cause of the mayhem. The outworking of greed and corruption.

And – we know there is still more than what we see and touch, so we live in the tension of reason and faith – we believe in the risen God, the Holy Spirit, the Eternal God of Love and we hold that tension between being sensible for life here on earth, mindful that our earthly life will not be forever and understanding that how we live ripples on in ways, after we are gone from here. How we live now makes a difference – now and to come.

Today we are asked to remember ‘last things’ in the light of eternity – God’s perpetual light.

As we reflect on our readings it’s helpful to remember that in the early years of the Church it was expected that Christ was returning in glory and in their lifetime. 2 So some of what we read is prophets and disciples trying to explain theology of now but not yet.

Paul, urges everyone in the community to work and pull their weight and not live “irresponsibly”, being a burden on anyone.

This is not an argument against social services. Such comments are directed at those who were so convinced that the end was near, that they were just sitting and waiting for Jesus to come and were even urging others to do the same.
As Paul says of them, they were acting like: … mere busybodies, not doing any work.

Until the day we breathe our last earthly breath, we go on preparing to meet Christ. This living for God is our call woven into the stuff of everyday.

In the Gospel reading,
Jesus lists three instances which will distract us from this way of living –
He says, “Beware that you are not led astray……many will come in my name and say “I am he!’ and ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.
“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified …”
And be self-aware, those who seek to live in peace and caring societies that challenge the status quo of corrupt systems will be challenged. (1)

Jesus’ message is to be ever watchful, to let the thought of what is to come be a reminder of the shortness of our present life.
We are not called to paranoid maniacs.
The Jewish apocalyptic imagery used in the early Church, the regular mentioning of earthquakes, stars falling from the heavens, and the like were used in fact to express hope for world-wide justice at the end of time. 2
Seeing our problems and our successes in the light of eternity, puts them into a new and different lense, we see life through the light of Christ. 2

As one writer puts it, this is not so much a war between good and evil as it is the evolution of the world from chaos and immaturity into beauty, creativity, and maturity in God’s gracious, compassionate purposes. 3

Paul’s message is almost misleading in its simplicity.
When it comes down to it, the very thing that sustains us during the turbulent times, and that ultimately transforms worlds, is the committed, disciplined living of a good, responsible, practical life by people of faith. 3
We do not prepare for the end by guaranteeing our future (we can’t). We prepare by living fully with God and for God at every moment of every day.
We do this by personal prayer, by being the hands and feet of Christ in every place and in every experience of our daily life. The more we live in God’s love the deeper we are intwined in God’s eternal love now and to come. 1

And so, a I started – being in community of faith allows us to crowd source our ideas, our energy, our encouragement for what it is we can do – regular prayer, feeding the hunger, comforting the sad and lonely, challenging local and global systems. Repeated small steps do make a difference, we may not always see the difference, but we keep the faith, do our due diligence and carry on.

I conclude with this prayer – Our Small Difference by John Van de Laar

We may not be able to confront queens,
or challenge presidents;

We may not have the capacity to divert resources,
or uplift communities;

We may not have the voice to silence the noise of war,
or the words to negotiate peace between armies;

But, as we follow you, O Christ, we are able to do something.

And so, we pray that you would inspire us
to commit to and act on
the small difference we can make:

May we bring peace
through small acts of gentleness
and reconciliation;

May we bring wealth
through small contributions
and collaborations;

May we bring safety
through small acts of consideration
and acceptance;

May we bring wholeness
through small acts of care
and service.

And in the small ways, O God,
may our small difference make a big contribution
to your saving work in our world.
Amen. (4)

(1) https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/oc331/
(2) https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/homily-resource/16-nov-2025-33rd-sunday-c/
(3) Sacredise
(4) https://sacredise.com/our-small-difference