Fr Robert Hendrickson
Daily Bread
Robert Hendrickson — November 14, 2021
Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!”* and they will lead many astray.
Dear Friends in Christ,
Our Gospel today begins pointing us toward Advent. Jesus starts to tell the disciples of ends and beginnings and warns them about false teaching and teachers. He is preparing them for what will come — and helping them imagine how they will respond.
There have been false prophets and teachers long before Jesus and up to our very day. They will always be with us — even up to the end it seems.
Yet what worries me now is less any one false teacher than the kinds of things, forces, and voices that people allow to teach them. The proliferation of conspiracy theories, online hate, and more have all claimed the imagination and interest of too many. Even more than that though, we have allowed things to become our teachers shaping our imagination and claiming our hope.
Whether it’s advertising that tells us what to buy and who we ought to be or whether it is politics and partisanship claiming our allegiance, we too easily fall into the trap of letting our faith become one more way by which we sort into tribes of one kind or another.
It’s too easy these days to let our faith become one more consumer good in our lives as we forget that our God is a consuming fire. God is the ground of our being and the source of our hope yet, in so many ways, we make faith another consumer experience. We always run the risk of reducing faith to a good or service rather then letting it be the place where we seek the good and from which we are sent out to serve.
We may not hear someone claim, “I am he” as Jesus warns. Even so, we’re increasingly at risk of letting so many things in our lives become false messiahs — a source of false hope. Whether it’s success, achievement, money, politics, or more, there are many clamoring voices eager to lure us into believing we’ve got it right. May the Advent before us become a time when we’re reminded of the power of the one who knew us before we were born and who gives us true hope for life eternal.
Yours in Christ,
Fr Robert