READY

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

I’ll be ready when you are!

No, I’m not ready, this is my first cup of coffee!

I’m as ready as I’ll ever be!

 

are we ever ready?

for anything?

 

can we ever be truly, completely ready?

 

I remember, in my younger days

those intense souls who literally

put the fear of God into me (and so many others)

 

Jesus is coming back

the day of the Lord will come like a thief,

“the heavens will pass away with a roar

the elements will be destroyed with intense heat,

and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Peter)

 

and if you are not ready?

well, it is conscious eternal torment for you!

 

and to be ready?!

what did that mean?

 

enter the world of unclarity

Jesus did in fact talk about being “ready” (Luke 12)

be “clothed”

keep the lamps burning

(and this is really the punch line)

be ready to serve (ah, there is that servant thing again)

 

be wise

know what God wants

and do what is generous and right

 

oh, and there was one more thing

don’t be a jerk

don’t be a bully

don’t be a person who abuses power

and takes too much for themselves

 

so what does it mean to be ready?

does it mean to spout a formula?

does it mean embracing the right creed, or ideology

does it mean going to ‘church’? (the ‘right” church)

 

is it about performance?

 

does living in the shadow of Advent

mean we have to keep looking over our shoulder

for the arrival of an angry, cruel, and retributive God

who will punish us if we are not prepared?

 

if that is what it means can we ever, ever, be “ready”?

no wonder some feel Christianity is a religion based on fear

(it has certainly been made such)

 

what I get from Jesus is this

that I simply need to be connected to the Sacred

however that happens

 

I need to be a branch connected to the source of life of a love

and so connected, be filled with life and love

(let’s call that the Spirit)

and then I need to be open enough to (imperfectly to be such) let life and love

flow from me to others

 

and that should be my goal, every, single, day

 

to be a person who lives love

oozes love and grace

who does the work entrusted to them by Jesus

(of taking care of others, read the parable)

until at some point

Advent

 

That moment when the unmistakable, unavoidable presence of Love

will once again be

incarnate

 

and because it will be the arrival of Love

it will be good news

for all the people

 

I’m ready