11-26-21 - Alert!

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here. Scroll down for news about an Advent "Spa for the Spirit" December 11.

Jesus certainly paints a frightening picture of the end times in the portion of Luke’s gospel we hear next Sunday. Perhaps his mood was colored by what was coming next for him – betrayal, arrest, trial, torture and execution, suffering the full range of human capacity for cruelty. But the apocalypse he foretells is one all of his followers would face. Whether that prophecy was realized in persecutions wrought by the Romans, or whether it is a cosmic cataclysm still to come, he urge them to stay alert and prayerful:

"Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

The end of the world has come many a time upon people and families and communities and nations. It comes in natural disasters and in man-made horrors like war and famine. Haitian, Sudanese and Syrian people have been enduring it for far too long, to name just a few. Is there a final “end” for which we are to be ready at all times?

The early Christians thought so. They took Jesus’ words at face value and thought his return would be imminent. This assumption led some to religious rigor, and others to licentiousness – if the world is going to end any minute, why bother with rules? As weeks turned to years and then to decades, Christians realized they needed to focus on living in the now, releasing the power and joy that are our inheritance as beloved of God. So Paul, writing to the church in Thessalonika (in a passage appointed for Sunday), says:

"May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints."

This is another way to prepare ourselves to “stand before the Son of Man” – to learn to love more wholly, to train our hearts in the ways of holiness, to practice repentance and forgiveness, and excel at showing love and hospitality when it is challenging to do so.

We don’t have to wait for the end of the world to stand before Jesus, though one day, we’re told, this present reality will end and we will face him as judge. If we turn our hearts toward that relationship in the here and now, the “then and later” will become something to anticipate, not to fear, no matter how traumatically it occurs.

Practice in your prayer today. Stand before Jesus and say, “Make me ready. Make me ready for your life in and around me.” I believe he will answer that prayer in amazing and wondrous ways.

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Advent Spa for the Spirit - Saturday, December 11

Taking the Advent theme of awakening, we'll explore how we can wake to the still voice in our own spirits, to the lives of others, and to the Life of God all around us. 

We'll gather on Zoom at 9 and be done around noon. You can register here - more information and the link will be sent. Please invite others who may like to come.

11-2-20 - Drowsy Bridesmaids

You can listen to this reflection here.

This coming Sunday, we hear one of Jesus’ more confusing stories, about the wise and foolish bridesmaids. No, this isn’t the Kristen Wiig flick of a some years ago; this is Jesus telling a story to explain something he’d told his followers: “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” (Matthew 24:42)

To teach them about being prepared, Jesus compares God’s realm to bridesmaids awaiting a tardy bridegroom:
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept.”

So, why were the bridesmaids going to meet the bridegroom? Where was the bride? And why did they need lamps? The story makes more sense if we know a little about what scholars think might have been marriage customs in Jesus’ day. Some say that in and around Bethlehem, in the time of Jesus and later, wedding processions would go through the towns at night. Bridesmaids would greet the bridegroom and escort him to the bride, dancing with lit torches.

If so, the “lamps” in the story were really more like torches, rags soaked in oil and put in a bowl on a stick. Once lit, they’d last about 15 minutes, and then more oil would be needed to keep them lit, because the dance was longer than that. Maybe that’s why these wise bridesmaids had not only their lamps, but extra oil, so they could do the whole fire dance, whereas the foolish, shortsighted ones would be unable to fulfill their dance.

It’s a good metaphor for being faithful and ready – especially for disciples called to be bearers of light, bearers of the One who said he was the light of the world. Today let’s play with the image of being ready when what we’re waiting for seems so long in coming (election outcome, anyone?). We can sympathize with the bridesmaids becoming drowsy and dropping off to sleep. How often do we feel that God is too long in coming, or too long in answering our prayers in a way we desire to see?

The bridesmaids' drowsiness might represent a spiritual condition called “acidie,” a kind of spiritual ennui, when our love for God has grown tepid, nothing feels fresh or passionate. Protracted pandemic, rampant racism, debilitating division, anxious anger can foster such feelings. If our relationship with God is lukewarm, it’s hard to praise, hard to get excited about service or sharing our faith with others. Living so far from the events we read about in the Gospels, it can all seem ho-hum unless we have new encounters with Jesus in prayer and worship and service.

If that’s where you are, tell Jesus that in prayer. If you are in a more connected, passionate faith place, rejoice in that. Either way, spend some time with today with the One whom John the Baptist referred to as the Bridegroom.

We are invited this week – and always – to take on the mantle of bridesmaid, one who dances the Bridegroom to his bride. In Christian metaphor, the bride is the Church. What might it mean to dance Jesus to his church, which so badly needs him now?

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