Matthew 16:6-12

“Here the Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and to test Jesus, requested him to show them some sign from the heavens.  But he answered: “In the evening you say, ‘It will be fine weather, for the sky is as red as fire.’ But in the morning you say, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is as red as fire and threatening.’ You learn to read the sky; yet you are unable to read the signs of the times! A wicked and unfaithful generation is asking for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.  So he left them and went away. “

Signs of the times.  I think there are many people out there today, looking for signs.  Trying to read the signs they think they see.  

In fact just a few weeks ago, there was a large group of “Christians” who believed the “rapture” was upon us!  Many woke sad because they were still here, they hadn’t been taken off to heaven.  

Do you think they are unable to “read the signs of the times”?  

I wonder if instead of worrying about getting to some far off, out of this world, high in the sky heaven, the signs are really showing us that we need to be working to bring “heaven” right here, on earth, in our own communities. 

Perhaps the signs we are now seeing and honestly have been right in our faces for thousands of years, all point us to more compassion, more kindness, more love, more sharing, more caring. 

Perhaps we “are unable to read the signs of the times” BECAUSE WE are “a wicked and unfaithful generation” unwilling to have eyes to see and ears to hear what is right in front of us. 

I’ll be honest, I don’t really think “perhaps” at all, I just very plainly think it.  There is a large group of people, though I do think it is beginning to shrink a little, who refuse to see the “signs of the times” because that would require them to see themselves and the people they look up to, for who they are, or who they have been.  Self-centered, angry people whose egos have such a grip on them they are blinded to the signs. 

Don’t get me wrong, we are all self-centered from time to time, it’s part of being human, and sometimes we need to get angry to be able to do what needs to be done!  But we have to balance this with love and compassion in order to see what is right in our faces — the suffering, the cruelty, the injustices, and the list goes on.

I think those are signs. Poverty, hunger, illness, racism, misogyny, inequality, discrimination, hate, division, and the list goes on and on and on.  These are the signs we should be seeing and acting on.  These are the things Jesus worked so hard to teach us to work through.  Jesus wanted us to care about each other, he wanted us to love one another, to help one another, to see that we are all the same!  We are all one big family.  This is how we get to heaven, by bringing heaven here.  

What is heaven? I think heaven is a place of peace and contentment and if we were to live a life of compassion, of love, of kindness, of community, wouldn’t this be where we lived?  Right here on earth. 

May we find peace and contentment by recognizing the “signs of the times” and doing our part to bring peace and contentment to each other by living compassion, living love, living in community. May we each do our part to live a life of heaven and be and bring heaven to others.

Until next time…♥️