A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Jesus, on being asked by the pharisees, when the reign of god would come, replied, you cannot tell by careful watching when the reign of god will come. Neither is it a matter of reporting that it is here or that it is there. The reign of God is already in your midst. Jesus said to his disciples, a time will come when you will long to see one day of the son of man, but will not see it.
They will tell you he is to be found in that place or in this place. Do not go about running excitedly. The son of man in his day will be like the lightning that flashes from one end of the sky to the other. First, however, he must suffer much and be rejected by the present age. And this is the gospel of the lord.
Praise be to you, lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. There's a sentence here this morning that certainly touches home base. When our blessed lord says, the reign of god is already in your midst, and then he says it negatively, don't go about running excitedly when people say he is there or over there. Yet so often, this is the way we act.
We we try to live our lives on the basis, if only our lives were different, If only today was not the day it is. If only I was not in this situation that I find myself. And the reason I find myself in a situation may be very varied. It may be totally my fault. It may it may be my fault.
Not at all. The I think the most significant thing we can take from today's gospel is that simple word, the reign of god is in your midst. It's not a matter of going over here or over there to find it. It's a matter of recognizing it, where we are. So so we all do this.
We live our lives in the fiction. It's the it's a part of the same psychology of saying, tomorrow, I will write that beautiful letter. Of course, it doesn't get written tomorrow. We've been doing this maybe for six months writing that beautiful letter tomorrow. It never gets written.
Or the person and I have I'm not speaking from a vacuum. People who have all kinds of ideas for a book, marvelous ideas. For all I know, they may be wonderful ideas. They may be completely marketable. Not until you have a manuscript, and so often, you never see a manuscript.
People will come and say, what do you think of this idea? I have an I have a book in mind. What do you think of it? So you talk well, you say, that's fine. What have you on paper?
Oh, I haven't come to put it down on paper yet. You see, it's the same kind of thing. If only it was different. If only I didn't have all this work to do, then I would be able to do it. If only my life wasn't this way, then I would be able to serve god better.
If if if if if all contrary to fact conditions. But you see what we're doing, we're we're taking ourselves off the hook. You see, that's what we're actually doing. We're saying, I would be most willing to serve god really. I try to I would try to serve him perfectly.
If only I was in a different situation, but I'm not in a different situation ergo. See, it's a very neat little gimmick to get to ease ourselves out of a trying situation. Let's not do that. Let us realize that the king for me, the kingdom of god is right here, right at this moment. I know nothing about tomorrow.
I don't know anything about tonight. I remember something of yesterday, but what difference does that make? It's gone. So if the kingdom of god is any place, it's gotta be in the present tense, and it's got to be where you are, and it certainly is. But only if you recognize it.
In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.