Psalm 62
Luke 12:35-40
INCUBATION
If
Jesus rose from the dead, and I trust and believe that He
did, it seems like I ought to do something pretty
magnificent in response to that. After all, it was done in a
way to make it clear to you and me, not to Him. That is, if
it were just about Jesus going on to eternal life – if it
were about Jesus going to Heaven – then He would simply have
done that, and none of us would have heard or known anything
about it, at least not directly. But no, everything about
the Resurrection puts it in front of us in a way that makes
us know it is about us too. We are invited. This is our
destiny too. Get ready. “I go to prepare a place for you.”
(John 14:3) A truth that high, if I take it to heart – if I
take it into my life – ought to make a difference in me so
big that you could see it for at least five miles around.
Don’t you think?
Sadly, that is exactly what some of you think – maybe not so
much for me, but for yourselves. Such is the nature of
Christian impatience. For every spiritual breakthrough,
Satan designs and sets a trap for us. If he did not, he
would have gone out of business long ago.
There are not very
many things you can do that are destructive to a person who
has caught the fire of the Spirit. If you experience the
presence of the Living Christ (the Holy Spirit), know the
confidence of God’s personal support, and get a true glimmer
of the endless future that lies ahead, then it is clear that
fear will turn to confidence, anxiety will be replaced by
enthusiasm, and the energy to live and love and learn will
increase dramatically.
So Satan scratched
his head and said, “What in the heaven can I do with these
Easter People?” He tried frightening them again with bigger
fears and worries, but they just laughed. He sent them
people with terrible problems to depress them and weigh them
down, but they only converted those people. He sent them
enemies to destroy them, but they sang hymns and thanked God
for the honor of serving or the joy of going home sooner.
They even prayed for their enemies, and converted some of
them too.
So Satan went apart
for a while to ponder the situation. When he returned, he
was all smiles. He picked from the Easter People those who
had the most obvious talents for success and leadership in
the natural world. Then he did a strange thing. He started
cooperating with God in moving them into positions of
prominence. With Satan’s help, the way was smoothed so that
they advanced quickly and easily into wealth and influence
and prominence. That took care of about eighty-five percent
of them. They did not give Satan any more serious trouble.
They grew busy with their own plans and goals and pleasures
right here on earth. Soon Christ’s Kingdom was only a dim
memory, a sideshow in their consciousness. Of course, the
other fifteen percent were worse than ever for Satan, but it
was still well worth it.
It worked so well
that Satan wanted to make all the Easter People rich and
prosperous. But this is a finite and temporal realm, and
even Satan’s resources are limited. So he had to devise
another strategy for the vast majority of us. Again Satan
did what you might think is surprising. He began to play
God’s advocate. Actually, if you had known him of old, you
would realize that he had only reverted to his best and most
ancient role, with a slight twist thrown in.
So Satan began to
whisper in the ears of the faithful: “After all that God in
Jesus Christ has done for you, you aren’t doing nearly
enough in return. Isn’t it obvious that just helping one or
two people isn’t going to make any difference in a world
like this? Forget these two. Go do something big and
important!”
In these and many
similar whisperings, Satan began a campaign to make the
Easter People impatient. He always encouraged their
enthusiasm, applauded their efforts, and urged them to take
on more and more projects. He encouraged a spirit of
competition. Which person or group was doing the most for
God? Who is growing fastest, converting the most, making the
biggest splash?
Satan took some of the very best words, the very words he
was most afraid of – commitment, devotion, dedication,
sacrifice, service – and he filled them with chaotic energy,
and with stress and haste. He subtly added to them the note
that is his trademark: Accusation. “You are not good enough.
Nothing you do is ever good enough. You are not truly
dedicated. You are not really accepted, or acceptable.” You
see where it leads? “God does not really love you
yet. But maybe someday – if you work hard enough.” And Satan
started jumping up and down in the minds of everyone who
would listen, crying, “Prove your worth! Prove it! Prove it!
Prove it!”
In this way, Satan
undercut the Gospel, the Cross, the Resurrection. Not by
fighting it, but by encouraging it, cheering it, stretching
it. In impatience and haste, the love withers. In guilt and
fear, the love shrivels. The community turns to form and
ritual and creed and program, and the real sharing and
caring begin to fade away. Love, beauty, and truth all take
time. Satan speeds things up, with fear and stress,
until there is no time for truth, or beauty, or love.
The Easter People work harder and harder, blame each other,
take on more, hurry faster. The motive is perfect: They only
wish to love God and serve God’s Kingdom. Nothing could be
wrong with that! Just do more, work harder, go faster! If
you cart your kids to one more activity, it means you love
them more.
The Spirit whispers
also: “You are already loved. Please come spend time with
me. Do not be afraid. It is not your job to save the world.
Do not be anxious. Work from gratitude, not from judgment.
Love, and let it turn out any way it wants to. If you feel
driven, it is not coming from MY peace. Do not ‘win’ people;
bond with them because they are mine, as you are mine. Trust
ME for the outcomes. This world is temporal and will not get
perfect. You can get better, but on spiritual levels it will
not get better here, except in moments that will not last.
Check in with ME every morning, or you will not be able to
remember these things.”
But who can hear
quiet, peaceful whispers, when the soul is on the run? The
saints have told us that “The road to Hell is paved with
good intentions.” But we think this means we should work
harder, instead of letting it remind us that we are saved by
the mercy of Christ, not by anything we do. The
saints have told us that “Actions speak louder than words.”
But we think this means it depends on our actions and that
we should increase our deeds, instead of remembering that
our actions show whether we work out of peace, or out of
fear and stress and accusation.
We
have two ways to miss the pilgrimage, to miss the WAY of
following our Risen Christ. One way is to procrastinate – to
see the Path but never get around to walking it. That is the
problem for some, but that is not the problem for most of
you. Even those of you who put off the steps of the
pilgrimage, is it not because you are too busy, and driven?
You are already trying to serve thirty-two gods. To preach
to you about being lazy misses the spot.
The other way to miss the pilgrimage is to get on the Path
with haste and impatience. With that way, you will get
everything off track and change the dynamic of the Path
itself. Soon you will get sick of it and rush off to other
more important causes. Therefore, if you wish to belong to
the Easter People, you must learn patience. Only, that does
not put it correctly. It makes it sound like we have to get
something we do not want. I want to learn patience! I
desire to be a being of peace. I know that patience
is one of the qualities of the pilgrimage. Trying to be a
Christian without patience is like trying to be a cook
without any pots and pans. I long for patience. Don’t you?
“O Lord, give me patience – and I mean right now!”
Incubation, then,
becomes a principle of life for us. Instead of kicking
ourselves for being too slow, we compliment ourselves and
each other for a growing calmness. Always, in every
endeavor, there will be a time for waiting and watching.
Like a runner on third base, I will not watch the field, I
will not watch the ball, I will not listen to the crowd. I
will watch the third-base coach. When he signals, I will go.
Until he signals, I will not go. For the time being, the
game is none of my business. Batting and pitching are none
of my business. Even if I am myself a pitcher, for the
moment that does not matter. Selling peanuts to the crowd is
not my business. Running the television cameras, keeping
score, and getting the cars out of the parking lot after the
game is over are all important matters, and somebody must
attend to them. But my business is being ready to run. Oh
yes, I can run if I am ready. But often, my only business is
to watch for the signal from the third-base coach. I must
learn to wait and watch.
Christendom is full
of great runners. Their stride is beautiful, their technique
is amazing, they slide with grace and beauty and style. But
much of the time, they get tagged out and lose the game.
They will not wait for the signal.
Today we have a
marvelous parable to remind us of such things. We are to
wait and watch as if waiting for the bridegroom to return.
When the bridegroom comes, he will have the bride with him,
as well as many guests. Of all times, he will want
everything to be ready and wonderful. The bride and groom
will consummate the marriage while the guests (many times,
the whole village) continue feasting and celebrating. Then
the party and feasting will continue for seven days. But
there is no telling when they will arrive back at the
groom’s house.
The groom has
walked, or ridden his beast, off to wherever the bride
lives. There may be matters to discuss; he will gather with
his friends; she will get ready. Then everybody will join in
a big parade to the groom’s father’s house, where the
ceremony will take place. Who knows when they will all get
back to the groom’s house? It may be days.
There are no microwave ovens or refrigerators or vacuum
cleaners. Keeping ready for the groom to bring his bride
back to his house is no easy task. Jesus probably told this
parable to refer specifically to the moment He would make
His own bid for the Kingship – what we know as Palm Sunday.
Over the years, it has come to refer only to the Second
Coming. What a waste to keep this parable for one event in
the past, or one event in the future. We do not have to take
it away from either of those meanings, but let it also be
instructions for your very next contact from the Holy Spirit
– for the next guidance or instruction that will come to you
from the Christ. Wait, and watch. Be ready! Do not let your
life get so tangled up that you cannot respond when the next
contact comes.
We
do not get fresh messages every time we pray. Sometimes we
just feel the presence and support. Sometimes it takes us a
long time to complete the previous assignment. New
revelation would only confuse us, or throw us off course.
But new instructions will come, when it is time. That
is certain. So we go on with what we are doing – and doing
the best we can. But we also wait and watch for that other
“phone” to ring.
Now the Good News:
For us, the big wait is already over. We are not waiting to
find out if we will survive. We are not waiting to discover
if life has any meaning. We are not waiting to learn if
Messiah will truly come. The agony and despair of the big
WAIT are already over. He is risen! God is with us. The
Gospel is proclaimed and revealed. Our salvation is already
won, demonstrated, sealed, guaranteed. This is not a perfect
realm, but the perfect God has made the plan clear enough,
and we have God’s presence already. The big weight is over.
(You can spell that any way you like.) Sing Hallelujah!
The mop-up operation – incorporating it all into our way of
thinking and feeling and doing and being – that is the phase
we are in. Patience and peace must still be claimed and
learned. I remember the first time it came clear to me that
it had been eight or nine years between Paul’s Damascus Road
conversion and his first missionary journey. I was
staggered! I was amazed. I was relieved. After the first
flurry in Damascus and Jerusalem, he had been sent home to
Tarsus. We did not hear another peep out of him until eight
or nine years after his conversion. Incubation.
Paul was not what
some people would call a patient man. But he was learning
patience. And when he came out of that incubation, he truly
knew how to wait and watch. He did not try to steal bases
anymore without the signal. He was afraid the Spirit would
send him home for another nine years! And frankly, we learn
more about patient endurance from this once-impatient
man than from anyone else in the New Testament.
In the Old
Testament, I think of Jeremiah, who waited, as far as I can
tell, for close to forty years. Yet he KNEW: “The time is
coming, says the lord, when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel ....” (Jeremiah 31:31)
He knew it. He could feel it. He had been told. But all of
his life, his nation, and his people moved away from it. He
could only wait, and point toward and live for a thing he
would never see. This stuns me. If Jeremiah’s life could be
like that, do I not get to rethink my own impatience? And he
did it with the big WAIT still before him.
Unbelievable!
Oh, I want you to be happy and prosperous and promoted, or
whatever that would mean in your context – I truly do. I
pray about it, and sometimes for it, when I can get
permission. I have more ambition and eagerness for some of
you than you have for yourselves. I know I am confessing
sin. But what I hope for even more – for you, for myself –
is that we will learn to be patient and content where we
are ... UNTIL the Holy Spirit decides to move us.
We
must concentrate on waiting and watching – watching for the
signal – from where we are. And when the time is right, the
Spirit is more eager than we are to move us. Do you know
that? When we are impatient, not only do we mess things up,
we also miss what is going on where we are. How do you know
when you will be in the most important place of your whole
life on earth? If you are impatient, you will never
know, and you will surely miss the very reason you were sent
here.
Now Jesus shifts
gears in the parable. If no one is at watch, a thief could
dig through the mud-brick walls of a dwelling (this would
not make a lot of noise) and make off with whatever he could
find. The larger the estate, the greater the possibility,
unless someone is on watch.
But in the symbolism of the parable, what could the thief
steal from you if you are not alert and watchful?
That’s right! Your faith – your confidence in Christ’s love
and presence. You will get busy and go off to other affairs,
intending to come back of course: Yes, of course. Soon. It
will only be for a little while. Just this one project or
interlude or relationship, and then we are coming right back
to wait and watch and be faithful. He is risen! Hold that
thought; I’ll be right back.
But time is
also a thief. How do you know when the bridegroom will come,
needing you for a favor or a service? How do you know when
the thief will come? And if he steals your faith, will your
identity and destiny go with it?
Every Sunday is supposed to remind us – to keep us close to
Easter. We are the Easter People. Rejoice! Remember the
victory! Know that Christ’s help is with you, and for you,
always.
Only, we have
noticed that sometimes we get tired of the truth and its
disciplines, and the patience that is required. We do not
like periods of incubation, or waiting, or watching. And
Satan will steal the peace and power of the Resurrection
from us, if we do not learn patience.
What is your hurry? Are you not already loved and accepted
and saved? Have you not already been promised eternal life?
What is your hurry? Our hurry is the most consistent mark
and proof of our sin – our separation and alienation from
God.
Copyright 2009 by
Bruce Van Blair. All rights reserved.