Like Angles in Heaven

 This Sunday's Gospel is Matthew 24:37-34.  It is a reading we are all familiar with: two men out in the field, one will be taken; two women grinding at the mill, one will be taken.  So be prepared for the day the Lord will come.

But I want to focus not just on the idea of being prepared, but also on what Jesus explains about the progression of humanity.  

In this reading, Jesus talks about the days of Noah where people were "marrying and giving in marriage".  And then he talks about the day the Lord will come, seemingly a reference to the Resurrection.  

Now, two chapters earlier in Matthew, verse 30, Jesus tells us that at the Resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage.  Rather, they will be like angels in heaven.  

Moral of the story: humanity progresses in the arc from earth into heaven.  We get so caught up in who people are in this earthly world, their possessions, their station, their nationality, their gender, who they love, what they do for work.  But in the end, God washes that all away.  

So, be careful how we categorize, how we divide, how we limit.  In the end, we are all angels in waiting.  In the end, we will be stripped of all but the core of our existence, i.e., that we are children of God.  No other identifier or limiting term means anything, and all such distinctions are fraught with the peril of allowing the devil to drive wedges between and among us.

So be prepared to avoid such pitfalls of division.  For at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

God's peace.