Don't worry, be ready

God of all Hope and Expectation-- We come together because we need you, Because we need each other, And because we need to hear your Word. And if we hear it here, May we be so possessed by it That we become servants of it out in your world. In the name of the Christ who was, and is, and is to come. Amen.

Baruch ata Adonai eloheinu melech haolam zokef kefufim.

Baruch ata Adonai eloheinu melech haolam zokef kefufim.

Blessed Are You our Eternal God, master of the universe, for raising the [what is] bent.

Baruch ata Adonai eloheinu melech haolam zokef kefufim. Amen

This prayer contains multitudes. Said in the morning, it sees not just that we are flawed, and human, and that we fail, and that we self-inflict all kinds of suffering, and that relationships make us vulnerable to inflictions by and with others of our kind, but also that bones and our backs might hurt, and that God will raise and straighten and heal and give hope.

This prayer is only one of, quite literally, countless prayers that punctuate the lives of many observant Jews, and have done so for, quite literally, several thousand years. The prayers are countless because they are simply constructed. The first part, a blessing of God, does not change:

Baruch ata Adonai eloheinu melech haolam

Blessed Are You our Eternal God, master of the universe; and what comes after that is as changeable as the moments of a human life

Who give us bread to eat,

Who commands us to wash our hands,

Who makes us curious to learn

And so forth.

This practice might seem like a lot of interrupting of one’s daily life to pray, but it’s

not that at all. This practice is protection against straying from God’s embrace, to be sure, but it is much more than that. It declares that in God and with God, every human action is itself a prayer. Even buttoning your shirt is a prayer, or laughing at a joke or gassing up your car; properly understood, to our Jewish ancestors, every action great and small was a prayer, and no action whatsoever is trivial or inconsequential. Hold onto that thought.

In this morning’s passage from Luke, the disciples are instructed in no uncertain terms to "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. . . be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour" This passage has given birth to some wonderful songs and also some frightening apocalyptic visions of the Master returning and being displeased with what he finds. What makes the songs wonderful is that in the songs the return of the master is yearned for, and the readiness to receive him is the work of Love. What makes the frightening flip side is the door it opens for human frailty; am I ready? I

think I am. What if I think I’m ready but I’m not because I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do and God is mad at me and it’s too late to get ready, whatever that means? That’s what happens when we pluck soundbites from scripture, and in doing so we separate the call from the response, or the yin from the yang, or the chocolate from the peanut butter. In this case Christ’s call to readiness is paired with and balanced by an assurance of grace, the assurance of things hoped for as we heard in the Epistle this morning, the conviction of things unseen.

This assurance comes a mere seven verses before the beginning of the bit we read aloud this morning. We started at Luke chapter 12 v 32. In Luke 12 25, the Lord asks:

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?  . . .

Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  28  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it.   . . .Seek the Kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

This assurance is followed directly by the command to be ready, to keep our lamps trimmed and burning, for the time is drawing nigh.

Ok, so it’s not ‘don’t worry be happy,’ but ‘don’t worry, be ready.’ Seek the Kingdom, and

everything you need will follow from that, and let us remember, too, the same Gospel according to Luke, Jesus hands his disciples the map to the Kingdom, as it were. In chapter 17 He says “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed,   nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” I have cited this passage before, and I will never tire of repeating it because it is central – it’s the cheat code – to living in the Way of Christ. Seek the kingdom which is within you, don’t worry, be ready. And how are we to achieve this readiness? By making every action a prayer. Our Jewish ancestors showed us how:

Baruch ata Adonai eloheinu melech h’aolam Mi shebeirach avoteinu, m’kor hab’racha

l’imoteinu.

[Blessed be the Lord our God, Master of the universe, who is the source of strength, who blessed the ones before us, who helps us find the courage to make our lives a blessing,]

Wrap your minds around it: every action is a prayer and the Kingdom of Heaven is within us— if this is so, then we are ready for the master to return. We are ready and we don’t have to wonder or worry about it.

Baruch ata Adonai eloheinu melech haolam Mi shebeirach avoteinu, m’kor hab’racha

l’imoteinu. Amen