I am reluctant to tackle this because it has so many apocalyptic associations—so often interpreted in the sense that the world doesn’t matter; God will save me in the end. So, I wish to set aside questions of the Lord’s coming, how the Lord comes, when, and so on, because I do not want to concentrate on this as a worldwide, historical event, an event in the flow of history; rather, I see it as an event always already present.
In that sense, I think the passage can mean, don’t be discouraged from faithfulness to what you believe to be true. We must not act like frightened sheep in the face of terrorist threats, natural disasters, and war. The alternatives given to us then, and the leaders that emerge then, arise from the blinkered context of a particular situation and the fear of threat to the status quo (fear, that is, for those for the status quo is beneficial).
But we are called to take a longer view, a broader view; we are called to see beyond immediate self-interest, and to act with the courage that defies even the fear of death. For, paradoxically, while “they will put some of you to death,” “not a hair of your head will perish.” Does this mean that you will be rewarded for holding right beliefs by being translated to heaven? I think not. I think that “by endurance you will gain your souls” now, in the present travail, rather than live as soulless shells in fear of speaking out against injustice (national, human, and environmental) that is often at the root of human disasters.
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