What’s the “weekly mettle maker?”
Training ideas and info supporting Heritage Arts’ programs — Heritage Self-Defense, Wildwood outdoor skills, Heritage Fitness, and Heritage Spirit.
Mettle Maker #329
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Self-defense and fitness: If not now, when? Have you always planned on participating in Mettlecraft Month each year, but never got your act together and actually did it? Well, no time like the present. If not now, when? If you’re new around here, November marks our Fifth Annual Mettlecraft Month — go here for details! The challenge is to complete Constitutional #86 with perfect form in under 20 minutes: 25 Wrestler’s Bridges, 100 yards of Bear Walks, 25 Bodybuilders, 25 Shots, 25 Clocks, 25 Get-ups and 25 Drop Duck-unders. Last Thursday at the club, me, Morgan, and Jack came in at 21:28 (my personal record is 20:43). Distance learning grad Arman crushed it a mind-boggling 13:11 . Clearly we all have some work to do if we’re going to catch Arman! Please play along — give it a try and share your pics, vids, numbers, and experiences — we will post them here! Interested in a free martial arts or fitness distance learning program? Check out our free programs here.
Wildwood — Gathering your nuts for winter - part 4 (and a water bottle teaser). If not for acorns, the indigenous people of Virginia would’ve probably starved to death. But you can’t eat acorns in their unprocessed state. After soaking the crushed nuts in repeated changes of water for four days, I put them in the dehydrator for 8 hours at 100 F to dry and then ground them to flour (see picture lower left). How do you cook with it? Coming soon: a crossover cooking video on the Two Riders channel. Coming up: how to make a water bottle from a gourd (picture of my gourd drying on lower right). Want to learn more about nature appreciation and survival? Sign up for one of our free distance learning programs.
NOTE: Due to YouTube LIVE processing times, the weekly Holy Communion video is often partial until late afternoon or evening on Sundays. If you attempt to view the video, and running time is less than 40 to 45 minutes, please check back later.
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Homily the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Nov. 13th, 2022 – Archdeacon Mitch
Readings: Mal 3:19-20a, Ps 98:5-6, 7-8, 9, 2 Thes 3:7-12, Lk 21:5-19
Luke 21:5-19 World English Bible Catholic Edition
As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said, 6 “As for these things which you see, the days will come in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.”
7 They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?”
8 He said, “Watch out that you don’t get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he†,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ Therefore don’t follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and disturbances, don’t be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately.”
10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13 It will turn out as a testimony for you. 14 Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict. 16 You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death. 17 You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake. 18 And not a hair of your head will perish.
19 “By your endurance you will win your lives.”
Like the disciples in today's reading, we are always asking, “When? When, Lord, are you going to come in judgment and wipe away the old and establish a new heaven and a new Earth?” Many have there been, and many even now, who incessantly pour over the Bible searching for symbolic meanings and historical clues – and even apply mathematical formulas and obscure numerological fortune telling methods! – to try and discern when the end of days will come. Still more relentlessly search the Bible for proof that the prophetic words of Jesus are speaking of events in the past, such as the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the fall of the Roman Empire, World War Two, and so on. Those who look solely to the future or solely to the past are wide of the mark. They deeply underestimate the power of the Word and its prevailing place at the center of reality. Listen to the words of Revelation 4:6b-8.
In the middle of the throne, and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. 7 The first creature was like a lion, the second creature like a calf, the third creature had a face like a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy* is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!”
“Who was, who is and is to come!” The eyes of the angels are in front, behind and within because they must penetrate all times and all places. Make no mistake, Jesus answered the disciples the way he did in today’s reading, mixing the symbolic and the literal together, for a reason. When he spoke of the temple stones being cast down, was he speaking of his crucifixion? Yes. Was he speaking of the Temple of Jerusalem being destroyed? Yes. Was he telling us to be mindful of our own death? Yes! It's not either/or – it is all three. Were his apocalyptic words about the fall of Babylon? The fall of Rome? The possible collapse of the United States? World War I, World War II, the present war in Ukraine, or the possibility of World War III? Yes! He was speaking about all of this.
Jesus spoke, will speak, and is speaking right now, directly to everyone in all places in all times. In Rev 13:8, he is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Our minds strain with the weight of it, but he died on a cross before the universe was made because he is not bound by the chains of time.
Jesus is the Truth that speaks to all people, in all places, and in all times! The words he spoke to the disciples in today’s reading are eternally relevant! Whenever war, famine, and destruction break into our lives, as they always do, we mustn’t be afraid or allow ourselves to be led astray by false teachers. We will be betrayed by governments, employers, neighbors, friends, even family and loved ones. There is always a coming persecution, because those who behave morally and ethically are always attacked and peer-pressured by misguided souls who resent those they label as “do-gooders.” Betrayal, hatred, and slander are a persistent threat to anyone with a moral, ethical compass. We will always be hated by somebody because of Christ's name.
But here's the good news: the son of man is always “coming in a cloud with great glory.” (Luke 21:27). When the newly-converted soul sees the truth of Christ for the first time, he has come. When we conquer moments of fear and despair through prayer, he has come. Have no fear. Do not prepare your defense before beforehand. Christ came in the past, Christ is here now, and Christ will come in the future to any person who seeks his face. Not a hair on the head of one who follows him will be destroyed forever.
Because ours is the blessed hope of a new life in the world to come.