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Thursday, November 13, 2008
Ready Or Not
Psalm 78:1-7; Matthew 25:1-13
Jesus is coming. Look busy!
So went a popular bumper sticker of a few years back.
The hope, or longing, or fear that Christ will return one day to finish what he began -- like, say, the salvation of the world, the righting of all wrongs -- began even before his first coming came to an abrupt and brutal end on Good Friday.
This week's Gospel story has Jesus telling one of his own stories... About a wedding, and how everybody needs to be ready to attend and celebrate the great event. His punchline is a challenge to stay on the alert, because not one of us knows "the day or the hour" of his appearing.
My sermon includes three answers to the musical question, "What day, exactly? Which hour, in particular?"
First, I believe he's speaking prophetically to the religious leaders right then and there. Second, for 2,000 years this story has been understood as a prediction of the Second Coming. And third, it can mean a spiritual visitation by Christ at the moment of death.
Any of the three interpretations includes the serious warning: Be absolutely prepared to welcome Christ when he comes into your life! Give no room to presumption, distraction, or complacency.
In God's timing, the week I prepared this sermon included a lot of preparation for the funeral of a dear member of our church family who exemplified that kind of readiness to meet the Lord.
Rayoal Blose's long good life ended in a long hard illness. Even towards the painful end, she radiated grace and kindness whenever I visited her. "Hi, Jack!" she'd say, beaming with joy. She always asked about my wife Joanne and our daughter Sharon, both of whom she had a special liking for.
Rayoal especially liked Sharon's love for children and her desire to have one or more of her own someday. For Rayoal had taught kindergarten for decades back in the day. And she said more than a few times that she'd love nothing more nowadays than to volunteer again in our Sunday school ministry, "'cause I just love those little children so."
Her countless stories of life with her husband Orville and their son Curt made crystal clear what I'd already considered to be an obvious truth. Rayoal was ready to welcome Christ at his coming here at the painful end of her life, exactly because she had been ready for his appearing every day of her life.
Perhaps she'd never say it this way, but she lived each new day as if it were her last day. And so she was on the lookout, you could say, on her toes and ready to join the joyous dance upon his grand arrival.
When I wound up my sermon with her story, nobody in the room could miss the point -- about Rayoal, or about the story Jesus told about being ready when he comes.
Are you ready?
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:42 AM
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