Being Ready
Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren
Pastor Katie Shaw Thompson – August 7, 2022
Being Ready – Luke 12: 32-40
During those early months of the pandemic my computer began sending me messages. They would pop up when I opened my computer and let me know it was time for an update. “When would I like to update and restart?” it would ask. Day after day, week after week, I hit “remind me tomorrow.” Then I would do it again tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. I was too busy for an update. I feared unplugging and letting my computer restart. What if I missed something or lost something? I just didn’t feel like I had the time.
Well, it turns out, computers like bodies will eventually make the time. One Sunday morning, I logged onto Zoom worship with many of you–I don’t remember which morning it was or if any of you remember but–just as I was formally starting worship my computer went blue, logged out, updated, and restarted. It seems it had had enough. I was forced to make the time. And I was humbly reminded that being ready is often undermined by being worried.
Today’s scripture selection ends ominously: “‘But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.’”
This message was likely meant to wake up complacent hearers in Jesus’s day and in the days that came after when followers who had once expected Jesus’s imminent return were beginning to wonder if he was ever coming back. Perhaps it can serve that purpose for us today, too. At its best it may be able to wake us up, update, and restart us in the places we have grown sleepy and complacent.
Out of balance though, I fear this text may set us unnecessarily on edge. Those of us given to worry, may find this text one more piece of kindling for our anxiety fire, which may already be piled high with the news of the day and the uncertainty of life. Yet, as many times as Jesus and the angels tell disciples to not be afraid in the Gospel of Luke, I feel confident in saying the main take away of this passage would not be best understood as “be afraid” or “be worried.” Rather, the message I hear in today’s scripture text is “be ready.”
Be ready for the hereafter. Sure. I hear that in the text. But I also hear: be ready for the here and now. For I believe we can glimpse the hereafter and experience eternity in single, solitary, sacred moments even in this life while we yet breathe.
It’s hard to do that though if we let the wakeful message of a scripture like this one tip us over into unmitigated fear, over worry, and over work. Like my simple, silly computer story, that’s not being ready, that’s being worried.
In her book Unstressed, writer and researcher Dr. Alane Daugherty writes of how her practice of paying attention to her body’s stress signals kept her ready for an important moment in her life. As a busy professor, Alane was having one of those days where the stress and the pressure were setting off tell-tale trouble signs in her body.
Do you all experience any of those? Racing heart? Stomach pains? Digestive distress? There are so many.
Well, the subtitle of Alane’s book, Unstressed, is How Somatic Awareness Can Transform Your Body's Stress Response and Build Emotional Resilience, and she was beginning to believe her own research which told her about the benefits of noticing those signs of stress and taking even just a little time to give herself a reset. So, she paused. She did a breathing exercise she appreciated, and she moved on to her next task which was meeting up with her dad between classes and meetings.
Because she had taken that reset, she was able to be very present with her dad. They stood in the rain. He held an umbrella. They shared stories and smiles. He told her he wasn’t feeling too well, so he was going home to rest. At home he had a massive heart attack. That was the last time she saw him alive. She writes of being grateful that because of that practice of noticing and resetting, she was able to really appreciate that lovely last moment with him, rather than letting stress overrun the moment.
In the middle part of today’s scripture passage Jesus teaches:
“‘Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.”
There are some more bits about slaves and masters in the following verses and the rest of the chapter, which I can only understand to be descriptive of the time and place in which the historical Jesus lived and not as lending any legitimacy to the practice of slavery or even self-martyrdom. No, the teaching that most captures my heart here is the command to “keep our lamps lit.”
While it is a good safety practice to keep fresh batteries in our flashlights, I receive these words as encouragement for the metaphorical lamp of my spirit. I know some of us are finding the oil in our lamps pretty low these days. Maybe others are feeling pretty full but also wondering how to keep that up amidst the challenges life will surely bring our way.
Being and living “ready” with full lamp oil is going to look different for all of us. We have different challenges, different resources, and different preferences. But if this scripture is to be believed, keeping our lamps lit is not merely an optional activity if we want to experience the fullness of the realm of God. It is a lifestyle. It is a practice. Not one we will always get right. But one with deep, life changing, and yes, live saving rewards.
I loved the story I read on social media this week. It was short. Maybe some of you read it, too. It was from a parent who was helping their child with the first week of school homework for fourth grade. The child was asked to describe themself and wrote: “I am kind. I am brave. I am a good writer.” The parent cried reading those sweet, self-affirming words and gave thanks for the teacher from third grade, who told their child those words so often the child took them deeply in and believed them.
When we live ready, with lamps full of holy love, we not only shine, others around us shine, too. We’re not going to be perfectly full of light and love all the time. But if we show up as often as we can, God will surely use us to make the world around us a more whole and holy place.
I look for others around me who shine like this. They inspire me to shine, and they include so many of you. They also include incredible colleagues like one female colleague who takes on heavy leadership at the denominational level. This summer I watched from a distance as a man approached her clearly upset. I could tell by his body language that he had a deeply felt complaint to share. And this woman, her body language was clear, compassionate, and calm. Even without hearing the words exchanged, I was impressed by how she navigated that conflict.
So, I called her this week and asked her how she keeps the lamp of her spirit lit. Sure enough, she has some foundational spiritual practices in her life like exercise, prayerful scripture reading, and mindful breathing. She also, wisely, has a couple of trusted folks in her life to whom she can blow off steam and who help fortify her with care and courage when she doesn’t handle conflict well and needs to make amends.
But then she pointed to another colleague who taught her a thing or two about shining. That mutual friend of ours had a practice in her camp ministry of very persistently telling everyone around her that “Everybody is a beautiful child of God. Everybody. Everybody. Everybody.” That was the guiding principle this woman leader named, that helped her show up as often as she could with care, confidence, and compassion. That’s where she set her heart. And to me it shone very clearly this summer.
“Do not be afraid,” Jesus teaches, “Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Are we ready for a reset? Are we clear in where we set our hearts and where our treasure lies?
I pray that we will not be afraid, that we will help each other live ready, and that we will shine in ways that give glory to God and serve our neighbors’ good.
May it be so. Amen.
