Matthew 24:37-44
The Gospel for the first day of Advent comes as a wake-call, as a summons to be awake, alert, and watchful for the coming Christ. Jesus moves us to be ready: “Therefore, keep watch!”
But the passage also carries a more subversive, less-anticipated image for the coming God. God is like a thief who comes to break into your house in order to steal from you. What a strange way to begin Advent!
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." (Matt. 24:42-44)
In spiritual stories, house is often a symbol for your life; therefore, those things inside your house are the various aspects of your life that you consider to be yours . . . your beliefs, your attitudes, your ways of being in the world, your essential framework for doing life. In short, inside your house is your entire inner world, both the parts of you that heal and give life, as well as the parts of you that are detrimental to you, others, and the world.
God is the thief who breaks into your house to steal from you . . . to steal your hatred . . . to steal your bigotry and prejudice . . . to steal your judgmental spirit . . . to steal your greed . . . to steal your miserliness . . . to steal your bent toward destructiveness.
The point seems to be that if you want to hold onto who you think you are at the moment – to your anger and your weapons of destruction and your jealousies and your ego-centric behaviors – you had best lock your doors securely and not allow God inside. Because once God gets in, God is going to steal those things you refuse to let go of, those things you cling to for life.
I know this to be true. God has been a thief, stealing from me for over two decades . . . anger, life-stealing behavior patterns, judgments, preconceived notions about life which were not true. Time after time I have found God to be a thief who takes from me what I thought I had locked away securely. God has stolen from me things that diminished my capacity to love and things that compromised my ability to act mercifully.
One of my mentors says this is essentially what the dark night of the soul is . . . God stealing from us in the darkness what we will not hand over willingly to him in the light.
Advent is here! The Thief is coming . . . jiggling the door handles of the rooms you and I have secured, in order to gain entrance . . . to steal from me and you yet again.
For Reflection:
• Are you bothered by the image of God as a thief? If so, you may want to sit quietly for a moment and explore with God why you are bothered by the image.
• What is your experience of God as a Thief?
Showing posts with label watchfulness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label watchfulness. Show all posts
Monday, December 2, 2019
Sunday, November 27, 2011
The First Sunday of Advent -- November 27, 2011
Mark 13:33 - 37
Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with an assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
You cannot read this passage for the First Sunday of Advent and not be jolted by Jesus' calls to alertness, watchfulness and wakefulness. "Take heed!" he says.
"Stay alert!"
"Don't go to sleep!"
The repetition itself catches my attention. Jesus obviously was well aware of the human tendency to drift mindlessly, without aim and intention. How easy it is to fall into the rut of tearing pages off the calendar, watching the days slide by without an awareness of God, ourselves, or others. I sleepwalk.
In my prayer, the passage invites me to consider where I am sleeping. In what ways am I merely passing time, trying to get through one thing in order to give attention to the next?
I realize, for instance, that I can look forward to a certain event on my calendar so much that I miss the days leading up to the event. Sometimes it's a vacation or a particularly significant retreat or an opportunity to hear a certain speaker . . . I get so focused on the thing I'm looking forward to, that other days become pages on a calendar that are ripped aside in order to speed along the days. And those are days that will never be returned to me. It's one significant way I sleepwalk.
My work can be that way, also. I can invest most of my attention in teaching a class or leading a retreat or being with a small group . . . and miss other things that are going on around me. And sometimes the work events are not even that exciting and energizing, but I find myself lunging from one to the next, laying aside what I've just completed in order to race toward the next thing. To me it feels like survival, not alertness.
In this text for the first day of Advent, I hear an invitation to wake up, to be alert. I hear God inviting me, at least for this Advent season, to stay awake.
And I'm asking God to show me what spiritual practices or disciplines I can carry through this season that will serve to help me stay alert.
Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with an assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
You cannot read this passage for the First Sunday of Advent and not be jolted by Jesus' calls to alertness, watchfulness and wakefulness. "Take heed!" he says.
"Stay alert!"
"Don't go to sleep!"
The repetition itself catches my attention. Jesus obviously was well aware of the human tendency to drift mindlessly, without aim and intention. How easy it is to fall into the rut of tearing pages off the calendar, watching the days slide by without an awareness of God, ourselves, or others. I sleepwalk.
In my prayer, the passage invites me to consider where I am sleeping. In what ways am I merely passing time, trying to get through one thing in order to give attention to the next?
I realize, for instance, that I can look forward to a certain event on my calendar so much that I miss the days leading up to the event. Sometimes it's a vacation or a particularly significant retreat or an opportunity to hear a certain speaker . . . I get so focused on the thing I'm looking forward to, that other days become pages on a calendar that are ripped aside in order to speed along the days. And those are days that will never be returned to me. It's one significant way I sleepwalk.
My work can be that way, also. I can invest most of my attention in teaching a class or leading a retreat or being with a small group . . . and miss other things that are going on around me. And sometimes the work events are not even that exciting and energizing, but I find myself lunging from one to the next, laying aside what I've just completed in order to race toward the next thing. To me it feels like survival, not alertness.
In this text for the first day of Advent, I hear an invitation to wake up, to be alert. I hear God inviting me, at least for this Advent season, to stay awake.
And I'm asking God to show me what spiritual practices or disciplines I can carry through this season that will serve to help me stay alert.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
The First Sunday of Advent -- November 28, 2010
Matthew 24:37 - 44
"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
The Gospel reading for the first day of Advent is a call to readiness. To hear it, I first of all have to un-hear it.
In the church of my youth, this passage was used as an evangelism tool. There was even an evangelistic movie that was popular at youth night events which depicted groups of people going about normal, daily activities. Suddenly one person from among the group would disappear. Several scenarios all had the same result: One person, always the "Christian" would disappear, while all the "heathen" youth would remain. The goal of the movie was to scare persons to faith in Jesus. If Jesus came to gather his people, no one wanted to be left behind.
More recently others have traded on those same ideas -- and gotten ridiculously wealthy doing so -- by marketing for the masses passages like this one.
[Intermission: During my college years I asked a youth leader why he felt the need to scare young people to Jesus. It seemed like faulty motivation to me, especially when I saw that a number of those who were "scared to Jesus" didn't "stay with Jesus." His reply was that it was better they get scared to Jesus than not to come to Jesus at all. I contended that being "scared to Jesus" was probably not "coming to Jesus" at all, and made authentic relationship with God even more difficult down the road for these young people. I still believe that.]
So first of all, do what you need to do in order to un-hear this passage. Read it without baggage from your past. Hear it without the whispers of some other Bible interpreter shaping your listening. Just listen to what it says without the interpretive baggage you're carrying with you.
The passage is about preparedness. It affirms the watchfulness and alertness that are inherent in getting ready.
There are different ways to get ready for some event. One is to quit what you are doing and simply wait. Some folks take this track. Through the years as the "second coming" of Jesus has been proclaimed and heeded, persons have quit their jobs and looked to the skies. In the days of my youth I remember the group who stopped working and climbed atop their houses to wait for Jesus, apparently wanting to meet him from the housetops before the rest of us on the ground could greet him.
To sit idle on a housetop or in a field or even at a church's altar is one way to wait and watch.
But another way to wait and get ready is to do what you do, to continue in whatever life is about for you, but to do so with a sense of mindfulness and watchfulness. The tip-off is that in "the days of Noah" persons were engaged in everyday activities, in eating and drinking, marrying and loving, working and tending responsibilities. It is possible to do those things without any sense of mindfulness or watchfulness, and so to miss the advent of Jesus.
The point, though, is that in these very mundane and ordinary life-events the presence of Jesus is experienced. It doesn't necessarily have to be the Bach concert, or the stunning Gothic architecture, or the beach at sunset, or the chorus of "Shout to the Lord."
I believe the Gospel really gets at watchfulness and awareness. They are the spiritual disciplines few people want to talk about. It is difficult to be present where you are to life as it unfolds in you and around you. It takes time and intention to cultivate the capacity to notice and be watchful, to live mindfully.
In fact, I believe that the obsession in some circles with the Second Coming of Christ is a shield to buffer us from the discipline of a daily, moment-by-moment attentiveness to the presence of Christ in the world. It is so much more glorious to envision some grand, heavenly scene accompanied by trumpet blasts and fanfare, angel masses and disappearing Christians. In reality, I think the coming of Jesus is much more subtle, much more ordinary.
Besides, by focusing solely on a glorious second appearance of Christ in our world, we act as if there has been this huge vacuum in our world between his birth and his future mysterious "second coming." While the Christian spiritual tradition insists that he has come and will come, it also does not overlook that he continues coming back into our world at every millisecond. He comes and shapes and creates all things momently. So his Second Coming -- in glory -- may be a pretty big deal, but his 459- gazillioneth coming into our every day is a pretty big deal, too.
So you must be ready. You must watch as you eat, as you talk, as you play. You must be alert. Today, Jesus will come in ways and at times you do not expect him.
"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
The Gospel reading for the first day of Advent is a call to readiness. To hear it, I first of all have to un-hear it.
In the church of my youth, this passage was used as an evangelism tool. There was even an evangelistic movie that was popular at youth night events which depicted groups of people going about normal, daily activities. Suddenly one person from among the group would disappear. Several scenarios all had the same result: One person, always the "Christian" would disappear, while all the "heathen" youth would remain. The goal of the movie was to scare persons to faith in Jesus. If Jesus came to gather his people, no one wanted to be left behind.
More recently others have traded on those same ideas -- and gotten ridiculously wealthy doing so -- by marketing for the masses passages like this one.
[Intermission: During my college years I asked a youth leader why he felt the need to scare young people to Jesus. It seemed like faulty motivation to me, especially when I saw that a number of those who were "scared to Jesus" didn't "stay with Jesus." His reply was that it was better they get scared to Jesus than not to come to Jesus at all. I contended that being "scared to Jesus" was probably not "coming to Jesus" at all, and made authentic relationship with God even more difficult down the road for these young people. I still believe that.]
So first of all, do what you need to do in order to un-hear this passage. Read it without baggage from your past. Hear it without the whispers of some other Bible interpreter shaping your listening. Just listen to what it says without the interpretive baggage you're carrying with you.
The passage is about preparedness. It affirms the watchfulness and alertness that are inherent in getting ready.
There are different ways to get ready for some event. One is to quit what you are doing and simply wait. Some folks take this track. Through the years as the "second coming" of Jesus has been proclaimed and heeded, persons have quit their jobs and looked to the skies. In the days of my youth I remember the group who stopped working and climbed atop their houses to wait for Jesus, apparently wanting to meet him from the housetops before the rest of us on the ground could greet him.
To sit idle on a housetop or in a field or even at a church's altar is one way to wait and watch.
But another way to wait and get ready is to do what you do, to continue in whatever life is about for you, but to do so with a sense of mindfulness and watchfulness. The tip-off is that in "the days of Noah" persons were engaged in everyday activities, in eating and drinking, marrying and loving, working and tending responsibilities. It is possible to do those things without any sense of mindfulness or watchfulness, and so to miss the advent of Jesus.
The point, though, is that in these very mundane and ordinary life-events the presence of Jesus is experienced. It doesn't necessarily have to be the Bach concert, or the stunning Gothic architecture, or the beach at sunset, or the chorus of "Shout to the Lord."
I believe the Gospel really gets at watchfulness and awareness. They are the spiritual disciplines few people want to talk about. It is difficult to be present where you are to life as it unfolds in you and around you. It takes time and intention to cultivate the capacity to notice and be watchful, to live mindfully.
In fact, I believe that the obsession in some circles with the Second Coming of Christ is a shield to buffer us from the discipline of a daily, moment-by-moment attentiveness to the presence of Christ in the world. It is so much more glorious to envision some grand, heavenly scene accompanied by trumpet blasts and fanfare, angel masses and disappearing Christians. In reality, I think the coming of Jesus is much more subtle, much more ordinary.
Besides, by focusing solely on a glorious second appearance of Christ in our world, we act as if there has been this huge vacuum in our world between his birth and his future mysterious "second coming." While the Christian spiritual tradition insists that he has come and will come, it also does not overlook that he continues coming back into our world at every millisecond. He comes and shapes and creates all things momently. So his Second Coming -- in glory -- may be a pretty big deal, but his 459- gazillioneth coming into our every day is a pretty big deal, too.
So you must be ready. You must watch as you eat, as you talk, as you play. You must be alert. Today, Jesus will come in ways and at times you do not expect him.
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