Matthew 16:1-4
Rrrrrrrrrr! So you hear a loud siren rushing past on the road outside your house. It’s an emergency vehicle, an ambulance, a fire truck or a police car. What does that siren signify? What does it mean? Some of you will say “a siren means that someone’s in trouble”, but others of you will say “a siren means that someone’s trying to help”. So we hear the same thing, a siren, but it may signify different things, depending upon who we are. In the Gospel, Jesus talks about the importance of “signs of the times”, the importance of people like us knowing them and interpreting them. What is a “sign of the times”?
Let’s think about this. A “sign of the times” might be something you see in this morning’s news headlines on CNN, something that we can all relate to. Or a “sign of the times” could be something that you were the only one to see while taking a walk in your garden. Is a “sign of the times” the collapse of the Qaddafi dictatorship in Libya, or the mold on the leaves of my tomato plants. Is a sign of the times something obvious to everyone, or something that only a few are able to see?
Everyone complains about the collapse of American economy, but then so many go shopping at stores that sell nothing except products manufactured in China. The weak economy is obvious to all, with a lot of people suffering or worrying that they may be the next to lose their job or home - is that a “sign of the times”? But people then buy the very things that accelerate that trend, at the expense of their own jobs. Maybe that’s the sign of the times, that we may be digging our own graves by our ill-considered consumer habits. Not so obvious, but maybe that’s the sign of the times.
I think it’s hard to know which things, which events, which trends are in fact signs of the times. The stock market acting like an out-of-control roller coaster? War in Afghanistan? Starvation in Somalia? School districts running out of money? These are obvious. Others are more subtle – things that most people don’t notice at all – like ozone depletion, increasing numbers of diabetics, bees disappearing.
Jesus talks about “signs of the times”, of identifying them and interpreting them. Robin and I were in New York City a few weeks ago, and we took a cab through Times Square and then down 42nd Street in midtown. Talk about signs! They were everywhere, bright flashing lights and big letters telling us about one of the Broadway shows, or one of the latest movie releases, or whatever product they were trying to sell. It looked like every square inch was covered with signs. Are these signs of the times? I admit that I often fall for the idea that ”signs of the times” must be big, attention-getting things, but then I remember how Jesus has lots of stories of small things as containing all the evidence you need for understanding the purposes of God. Yeast in the bread dough, mustard seeds, a single pearl … these don’t seem to match what we see on CNN or in Times Square at all. Maybe these “small” stories give us a valuable clue for knowing where to see “signs of the times”.
So I find “signs of the times” in places you might not notice at all – in July working with Jordan, Mike and Ben scrubbing freezer shelves at Cameron Community Ministries in Rochester. If these three guys can spend several hours doing this awful job scrubbing grease and grime instead of playing video games, sleeping in or eating pizza, then a whole new world opens in front of my eyes, they are a “sign of the times”, and I find a lot of hope and promise for all of us. I find “signs of the times” in places you might not notice at all – every week this summer Pam and usually Michaela have been bringing backpacks of food to farm worker children living in trailers off Transit Road. No one but Pam and Michaela even know where these homes are. As I hear their stories of how the children come running out the door with delight, I think this is definitely a sign of the times, and I begin to imagine how our entire community can be healthier and stronger.
I find “signs of the times” in places you might not notice at all – there are terrible stories of terrorist attacks, bombings, explosions, mass graves, and worse in daily headlines. But I heard about our friends Kathy and Laura training to become first responders, joining with Wendy and Eric and others in our town as EMTs for the Byron Rescue Squad. It’s a lot of work, calls in the middle of the night, stomach-wrenching accidents, and often unthanked, but that people are willing to do this is a “sign of the times” I am privileged to see with my own eyes. If people in our town are ready to help like this at a moment’s notice, I know we can all face the future with hope.
The second part of understanding this reading from the Gospel is even more difficult – not only identifying signs of the times, but interpreting them correctly. Be careful when you do this. A few weeks ago week Pat Robertson, a conservative religious broadcaster, trumpeted the fact that the recent East Coast earthquake left a crack in the Washington Monument. This became proof for him that God is angry at liberals, which he happily explained to all of his viewers. But I couldn’t help but notice that a week or so later Hurricane Irene aimed directly at Virginia Beach, where Robertson’s broadcasts originate. I wonder if he took note of THAT “sign of the times”? Of course, that points out a weakness many have, of seeing signs of the times as confirming my view of the world, while condemning your view of the world.
For example at dinner last night when I asked for an example of a “sign of the times” one of the first answers was “the damaged economy”. The economy could very well be a wake-up call to us, this could be God trying to get our attention, this could be God trying to move us into action. But if we think that the economy is a “sign of the times” we are missing the fact that for the poorest ones the economy has been in terrible shape for a very long time. If economic stress is a sign of the times, we’ve managed to overlook it for a long time, and we’re only paying attention to this sign of the times now because we might be the ones affected. My friend Jack Nelson one wrote a book in which he described his first visit to India. He was so upset with the poverty and hunger he saw on his first day there that he retreated to his hotel room and cried out to God, “How could you let this happen?” And Jack heard an answer from God, “Why has it taken so long for you to notice?”
So, I hope you have not concluded that signs of the times are too slippery to handle, and that we should leave well enough along. Just keep your head down and keep slogging ahead as best you can. No, I believe Jesus is onto something important. Though it may not be easy to identify and interpret the signs of the times, Jesus urges us forward to do our best. To compare what we have seen. To compare our interpretation. What are the “signs of the times” that have gotten your attention? And how have you interpreted them? This is why we’re here.
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