Luke 12:32-40
I am always overtaken at this time of year by a deep sense of nostalgia for the back-to-school excitement. I remember fondly the aisles of fresh pencils and bright pens and folders and notebooks in every color under the sun. I loved the feeling of finding the perfect backpack and opening a brand-new notebook to that crisp clean first page. I waited impatiently for the classroom lists to be posted every year so that I could cajole my mother into taking me to wander the busy aisles of the back-to-school section of our favorite stores. I loved every second of it, although I’m sure my parents’ feelings were a little more mixed. I was lucky to generally enjoy and look forward to school, and I have always loved being a student. But there was always something particularly magical about the weeks leading up to the start of school, that getting-ready time when the new year was as full of potential as a blank notebook page and the carefully labeled folders had yet to be filled with papers and assignments. It was the preparing, the getting ready that I most loved. As I reflected this week on our backpack blessings and the first-day jitters that come with starting anew, these words from the Gospel of Luke kept coming back up for me. Jesus is trying help his followers get ready for the road ahead, but as is his way, his instructions need a little more deciphering than a school supply list.
Jesus first offers a word of comfort to his disciples- Do not be afraid, little flock. Then he encourages them to divest themselves of attachment to possessions and to redistribute their wealth to the poor, taking their hearts out of their wallets and placing them in heaven where they belong. This is probably familiar to the disciples and to us- Jesus spends a lot of time talking about wealth and money and the disparities between who has it and who doesn’t, and he encourages his disciples several times to carry less stuff around with them.
But then we get a different image, one that appears to have little to nothing to do with money or possessions. Be dressed for action, have your lamps lit. Stay awake, stay alert, and you will be blessed. Then the image takes a dark turn- from a bridegroom and a benevolent master to a thief in the night, threatening that which the homeowner holds dear. This is a strange collection of verses, like a scattering of stars that can only be seen for the constellation that they are on a clear and dark night. But the message they carry is one worth seeing, if we can slow down long enough to look closely.
Do not be afraid, but be dressed for action. Sell your possessions, but keep your lamps lit. It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, but you must be ready for that kingdom to come unexpectedly.
The call to readiness is one we are most accustomed to hearing in the context of Advent or Lent, times set aside for preparation and contemplation. We don’t often reflect on the constant readiness and anticipation that Jesus calls for throughout the Gospels, even though the letters of Paul make it clear that this was an issue of great concern for the early church. For most of us, this sort of religious vigilance might sound like the stuff of novels and movies and sermons about the Rapture and the End of Days. It’s been 2000 years, how likely is it really that Jesus will come back in our lifetime? And if it were likely, is that really something we want?
Being up all night, keeping the lights on, staying dressed for action and anticipating a disruptive visitor at an unexpected hour sounds like a recipe for anxiety to me. In a violent and unpredictable world, we are constantly told that we need to be afraid. We need to be afraid of our neighbors, we need to be afraid of strangers, we need to be afraid of wild animals and thieves and anyone who approaches our door unannounced. We need car alarms and security cameras and guns and more guns. Being ready in a state of fear looks like body armor and building taller walls and better fences. It looks like listening to every anxious voice that tells us we are not safe, something bad is about to happen, someone is going to hurt us and the people we love.
But before Jesus tells us to be dressed for action, he tells us not to be afraid. Do not be afraid little flock. It is a constant refrain in scripture, God’s wish that we would not be afraid. Over and over again, God reveals Godself through burning bushes and angels and great winds and small voices and pillars of cloud and every time, humanity’s first reaction is fear. Our default posture, learned from a culture of scarcity and competition, is fear. So often, the first words of God to humanity are “Do not be afraid.”
What if, when we hear that we must be dressed for action, we did not immediately jump to body armor and fatigues? What if instead, we got ready for Jesus the way we get ready to see a loved one, or go on a vacation, or start a new school year? What if instead of anxiety and fear, we got ready in joyful anticipation? What if, instead of fear and trembling, we felt butterflies in our stomach and jittery excitement? What if we weren’t afraid?
For one thing, I think we might actually manage to get ready. For another, we might even be able to stay that way, keeping our lamps burning to welcome our Savior to the warm glow of home. Living in a fog of fear and anxiety is not sustainable; in fact it is dangerous and expensive. Instead, Christians are called to look forward to Jesus’s return as we do a homecoming of a loved one after a long journey. We are called to anticipate and prepare for the life of discipleship like students eagerly awaiting the first day of school. We are called to prepare ourselves with the same fervor of a passionate teacher setting up their classroom or an expectant parent adorning their nursery. The Christian life is a life of getting-ready, of looking forward and building a life and a world that makes us proud to open the door to Jesus. Be ready. Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Do not be afraid. We have so much to look forward to.
Mother A Writes 