Watch: Luke 12:35-40

Luke 12:35-40 (NRSV)

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

“But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

I admit that you might read this text as bad news. I know I used to.

I was always a fidgety kid. I struggle sometimes even now to sit still, be calm, relax, and especially to be attentive to things I am not in the least interested in. 

Or sometimes even things I AM interested in!

So the idea of being ready for something to this level - dressed and ready to hear that knock - always struck a bit of fear in my heart.

What if I wasn't ready?

What if I missed it?

Is there a threat that hangs in that idea of the Son of Man coming at an unexpected hour?

Or is there a promise in that coming? A promise that readiness will make all the sweeter?

Sometimes I admit I still get some anxiety about the idea of watching and waiting with an alertness I don't always feel.

But more than anything I trust that promise. The promise of the coming. The promise that the wait will be worth it.

Even for those of us who are fidgety.

Lord, help me to be alert and attentive, and when I'm not, forgive me and maybe give me a little reminder! Because I know that more than anything you are worth the wait! Amen

Watch: Psalm 59:9

Psalm 59:9 (NRSV)

O my strength, I will watch for you;
    for you, O God, are my fortress.

Last year at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Exton we began a new tradition. We started our Advent season on the first Sunday after All Saint's Sunday. I won't go into all the reasoning here (if you are interested, you can find Pastor Mark Singh-Hueter's helpful explanation here in our newsletter: http://www.stpaulslionville.org/monthly-newsletter.html)

Suffice it to say here that it has been a wonderful experiment with a lengthening of the Advent season for all intents and purposes to seven weeks rather than four, with the last three spent in joyful celebration that coincides with what the rest of the world is doing in preparation for Christmas.

But for most church folk, Advent began today. Yet whether you are spending your Advent season with liturgical orthodoxy or with liturgical flexibility, either way, we all are still waiting for the Christ child to come.

Advent is the season of waiting. And four words signify the ways in which we wait for Christmas Eve and Life to come. So for this Advent proper season, we'll wait together with those words that will remind us to pause with bated breath for God to come into our midst.

The first word for this week is "Watch."  We wait for God, but we wait with eyes open. We are like watchmen at their posts in a posture of anticipation and expectation. Alert.

Waiting for the one who is our strength and fortress.

So this week, let's be alert for the one to come!

For the Light to come into the world!

Open our Eyes Lord! We want to see you! Amen

Taking a break

With meetings, a conference, and vacation coming up, I'll return after Thanksgiving!

Ecclesiastes 12:9-14

Ecclesiastes 12:9-14 (NRSV)

Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly.

The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd. Of anything beyond these, my child, beware. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Two things as we close Ecclesiastes...

First, and perhaps this is a minor thing, but look who is talking now? Or rather who is not. Suddenly the teacher is being talked about in closing, rather than being the speaker. The teacher we are told is wise and spoke the truth. So, here - and in other places apparently - there was much to be learned from him.

And then a bit about what wisdom does.  It is like a goad.

According to the dictionary, a goad is something that stimulates or annoys to provoke an action or reaction. It badgers us. Hounds us. 

Incites.

Prods.

And makes us grow. 

Change.

Learn.

Branch out.

So what goads you?

What goad has stimulated your faith?

If, as the teacher tells us, everything is vapor, what is it that keeps you going?

What do you think about the idea that God annoys us to move us to action?

So what goads you?

So as Ecclesiastes ends we are left perhaps still to wonder what the meaning of life is. We are to wonder how God will goad us and what wisdom will shape and mold us.

And who we will be in the end when all is said and done.

As I said, maybe we are left with more questions than answers. And those questions are goads set to move us along.

Meaningless?

I don't think so!

Lord, you make meaning out of meaninglessness. Open my eyes and heart to see it and move along with it in this wonderful state of becoming! Amen

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8(NRSV)

Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with the rain; in the day when the guards of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly; when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low; when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets; before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.

We are nearing the end of the Teachers musings on life.

And still all is vanity.

So where in the end is life meaningful?

Where is wisdom?

Why is wisdom important? 

What is a well lived life?

Does the teacher ascribe any meaning?

Whatever meaning we see here is not one of the eternal variety. It is grounded in the now and present. And the meaning from it comes from God.

What does that say about faith?

About eternal life?

What does it say about living our life with only eternity in our hearts?

In the end, maybe Ecclesiastes brings about more questions than it answers.

But is that a bad thing?

Lord, teach me to love questions and not simply answers! Amen

Ecclesiastes 11

Ecclesiastes 11New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Send out your bread upon the waters,
    for after many days you will get it back.
Divide your means seven ways, or even eight,
    for you do not know what disaster may happen on earth.
When clouds are full,
    they empty rain on the earth;
whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
    in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
Whoever observes the wind will not sow;
    and whoever regards the clouds will not reap.

Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything.

In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all; yet let them remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclination of your heart and the desire of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Banish anxiety from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Or you could say: youth and the dawn of life are meaningless.

Are vapor.

They are here. Present.

And then they are not.

And you could look at that as terrifying, or, as the teacher chides the reader, you could let anxiety about that be banished from your mind.

It simply is.

And that's not meant to be terrifying.

If anything, it perhaps is liberating.

As Michael Gungor, podcaster and an co-founder of the band Gungor, as well as Bloom Church in Colorado, says: God makes meaning out of meaninglessness.

All of that that fades away: youth, pleasure, pain, age, joy is meaningless until God takes a hold of it and drives meaning right through the heart of it.

God takes pain and brings growth.

God takes suffering and creates humility.

God takes both youth and age and brings about wisdom.

What today are you fearful of losing?

What today seems meaningless to you?

A vanity? Vapor.

Look again and see what meaning God is giving it!

God of mystery and meaning, open my heart and eyes to what is before me so that as it slips away, I am ready to grasp on and go where you lead me next! Amen