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 Scripture Luke 12:32-40  The Message (MSG) 

29-32 “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.

33-34 “Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bank robbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

35-38 “Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch! He’ll put on an apron, sit them at the table, and serve them a meal, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake—and so blessed!

39-40 “You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be slovenly and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.”

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When I was deciding which Bible version to use for today’s scripture reading, I was struck by the first line in the Message version, “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving.”  I realized that these first two lines are not usually included when this passage is preached, but it seems that Eugene Peterson thought that this bit belonged with the “You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out.” section.    Although the Message is not my favorite version to use, because it is a paraphrase and not as nearly accurate a translation as some, sometimes we need to hear something we have heard a million times in a new way.

I learned that in a 12 Step meeting years ago.  I always had a rough time on Tuesdays.  Every Tuesday was overly busy and stressful and all kinds of stuff went wrong - dinner burned, things like that, so that by the time I got to my women’s meeting in the evening, I was a mess.  People would say to me, “Did you pray this morning?  Because you know what they say.  If I don’t hit my knees in the morning the whole day goes wrong.”  Well, yes I did.  And frankly, hearing that same old line over and over just irritated me more.  Then one night I heard someone say, “When I get off schedule with God, my whole day goes wrong,” and it was like a light bulb went off in my head.  I was off schedule with God!  Yes, I always prayed in the morning, but I was used to praying my gratitude list at dinner time, and Tuesdays were so busy I didn’t have a sit down dinner.  I just fixed whatever in a hurry on my way to the meeting . . . so I didn’t do my gratitude list on Tuesdays.  I was off schedule with God, and I needed to hear it just that way so that I would understand what was going wrong.  After that I started doing my gratitude list in the morning, and I still do.  

I always find the whole section about servants waiting for their master, and his serving them because they were loyal just a little strange, because that just doesn’t make sense in the real world.  Even on Downton Abbey, where the servants did wait up until Lord and Lady Grantham got home, that was their job, and they weren’t served by the master in gratitude for them doing their job.  If they had not been up waiting, they might have lost that job.   So Jesus was talking about something not of this world, something unusual - a situation in which the master would serve those who typically served him - like when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper.  Just like Matthew’s story of the bridesmaids with their lamps, if they were ready at whatever hour he arrived, there would be a reward.  

But even at the time, most of his followers didn’t have servants. Some of them might have been servants.  So Jesus gave another example to make his point.  He said, “You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be slovenly and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.”   And surely, that was easy to understand.   Because of course, we don’t know when the burglar is coming, and we can’t stay home all the time just in case.  So we have locks on our doors, and security systems, and barking dogs, and moats filled with alligators . . .  alright, maybe not moats.  But we do those other things and we join neighborhood watch organizations to help keep our homes and families safe.  

That works for houses, and church buildings, and businesses.  But what do we do to keep our souls secure?  What about that home’s security? For no one knows when the Messiah will return.   No one knows when the end times will come.  None of us knows the day we will meet our Lord.   Oh there are actuarial tables and life expectancy charts for men and women.  Some have been given a diagnosis which comes with a projected end date.  But even so, no one knows the day or the hour.  Even when the end is expected, as when someone has been ill for a long time, the machines have been turned off, they are in hospice care, and the family is gathered, somehow the end, when it comes, is still a surprise.   And we can no more spend every minute of every day wondering if the next minute will be the last than we can sit by the door of our house all night waiting for the burglar to come - no one can live like that.  

How do we keep ourselves ready?  Many of us have a routine of daily scripture reading, prayer and meditation.  We may read a daily meditation or two or three.  Some of the Young Adults have the same Bible app on their phones and are working through several reading plans together.  It is good to have a routine, as long as it does not become so routine as to be meaningless.  Or as long as you don’t over do.  I know - how can you possibly overdo a good thing like prayer and spiritual practices?  When I was in seminary one professor had us design a Daily Rule for ourselves, to include prayer, spiritual practice, and scripture reading, and we were to follow that Rule for a month.  Because I believe that if a thing is worth doing it is worth over-doing, mine got a little complicated.  I prayed a rosary and chanted psalms and prayed intercessory prayers and used several forms of meditation and read scripture and several daily meditation books, and I did these things several times a day, at specific times every day for a prescribed amount of time every day.  I had a color coded chart that I checked off to make sure I didn’t miss anything.  And by the end of the month I was very well aware that all of this over-doing was not bringing me closer to God.  It was just making me crazy trying to get everything done and all of that was keeping me from doing things I should be doing.  Like helping others.  If someone asked me to help with something at lunchtime, I couldn’t  because I had to do my 15 minutes of after lunch prayer and meditation in the chapel.  Let me think - which of those two things might be more pleasing to God?  Hmm . . .  To paraphrase Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase, “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with doing, so you can respond to God’s giving.”  I re-learned the value of having a daily routine for prayer and study - of staying on schedule with God - but I also learned that over-doing even God-stuff is not a good thing.  I was reminded that meditation is about listening for God’s voice with an open mind and heart, not a hoop to jump through.

How do we stay prepared?  How do we keep our home, our soul, secure in preparation for the coming of the Lord?  We ask ourselves in every situation, “What would Jesus do?”  And we remember that sometimes what he did included righteous wrath and whips.  We worship God with all our being - not just sitting and letting the service wash over us, but lifting our voices in song and prayer, serving the Lord’s Supper to our neighbor instead of just passing the trays.  We give generously, sharing what we have with those who have less.   We pray and meditate and follow whatever practices work for us, but we also drop everything to help when we are needed and able.  Remember that the priest and the Levite allowed their religious duties to keep them from helping the man on the road, leaving the Samaritan to do the neighborly thing, the God centered thing.  We open our hearts and our souls to God’s voice and God’s direction, listening for his will for us.   We spend time in silence, shutting out all the many things that distract us from God’s peace.  We spend time in God’s presence, allowing our hearts to be filled with God’s hope, allowing God’s blessing to fill us to overflowing.   And then, no matter when our Lord comes, we will be awake and prepared, and blessed.