Rev 14:14-19 / Luke 21:5-11
A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock.
It is an ancient tool that is effective for reaping and harvesting. But when modified and used as a weapon it is deadly and dangerous.
In the 1st reading, the word "sickle" is mentioned more than just a couple of times and the sickles are described as being sharp sickles.
The sickles were being used for a harvest of a different sort; it was the harvest of the earth, and symbolically it means the judgement of the earth.
The image portrayed is rather terrifying as the whole vintage of the earth was harvested and put into a huge winepress, the winepress of God's anger.
The imagery given in the gospel is not that consoling either, when Jesus said that the time will come when not a single stone in the Temple will be left on another - everything will be destroyed.
These descriptions are rather terrifying and they portray a reality that will happen, or maybe is happening even.
Terrifying as it is, it is also meant to awaken us from our complacency and our indifference to the call for repentance.
To turn away from sin is as good as good as letting God cut off sin from our hearts with a sharp sickle, and it can be painful.
But He who hurts is also He who heals (Job 5:18). But when sin is cut off from our hearts, what we will reap is a harvest of joy.