Why do we edit the reading to end at v.11. Is it simply getting too close to the bone? Have we reached a stage where lectionographers will 'rate' Scripture like films & videos? Print warnings like, 'Some readers may be disturbed by the following verses....'?!  Is this what Jesus means when he talks of 'hard sayings'?!

Where I live, 'be alert (but not alarmed' has become more a joke about frig magnets dished out by foolish (as many believe) politicians & the way they're waging their  'war against terror' than an issue of real world wholeness / well-being / safety / salvation. What kinds of spheres do we need to be alert in where we live? One where  we certainly need to be spiritually alert & informed & alarmed & discerning is the multitude of religious cranks out there on the right, peddling extremist, fundamentalist versions of what Jesus is on about. Not just in 'extremist' churches, either. No doubt they said to Jesus, "It'll never happen!" But it did! It does! And it will!

How can we live in our time & God's time at the same time, in the world & in the church as Christ's Body, & do it free from fear? ('Perfect love casts out fear' says dear S. John.) Persecution of Christians these days in some of our societies is just as likely to come from fundamentalist (protestant or catholic) factions within churches as from outside. On the other hand, those out there in the big wide margins probably think the best way of persecuting us is to ignore us as not worth bothering about! All the fun's gone out of the game! But it still lingers within in some quarters. Where misguided people try to draw margins that tightly exclude fellow Christians of a different ilk. Or just plain human beings of a different ilk! Isn't it ironic that that's the way Jesus' warnings may be fulfilled today?!

That Jesus (in the Greek) speaks of wars & earthquakes & famines as 'the beginning of birth-pangs' could be a helpful way of exploring pains that our world still. as always, is labouring under to bring something worthwhile to birth. Needs to bring something worthwhile to birth. (Paul knows what he's on about in RO 8:22-24)

As distinct from theological philosophising, what practical & constructive steps can we take, as congregations & as individuals to 'endure to the end'? End of what? End for whom?