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2024
The gathering joySunday, November 28, 2004
Matthew 24:40-44 "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." 
With calendars and clocks we manage time. We have our birthdays and anniversaries. I look back at several years of these devotions, written on one first Sunday of Advent after another. Every year it comes around again. And on December 25 we will once again commemorate the coming of Jesus, a long time ago, thousands of years ago. That was the first time he came. He tells us he will come again, later. At an unknown hour, an unexpected day, an unplanned moment in what we call "time." This kind of thing is, of course, unmanageable. We can't predict it or plan it. So Jesus tells me to be alert and watchful at all times. All times ... like when I am delivering papers at 5:00 am, like when I am standing in a long line to buy Christmas gifts, like when I have just been in a stupid accident and am watching the policeman write out my ticket, like when I am praying about successful surgery for my Aunt Mary, like when it's time to wash the dishes, sweep the floor, fix the leak in the roof. At all times. Jesus' simple request clears up quickly the confusion between what is urgent and what is important in my life. The heart-stopping grip of my small urgencies loosens as I open myself to this next coming of Jesus. As I watch for him, listen for him, talk to him, be with him even before he's here. His spiritual presence, so near my spirit, heats up my mind and body. I am excited and when I don't expect it, joy fills me up. I am surprised over and over by this joy, coming in the midst of all the "stuff," all the tiresome and repetitive and predictable workings-out of daily life, which really can seem important until I remember the words of Jesus, quietly calling me to himself, now and always. Jesus, put my mind back where it belongs. Waiting, watching, thinking of you. You come soon. |