In today’s Gospel Story (Luke 12:32-48) Jesus is alerting his followers to be ready to recognize him in unexpected times: “at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come”. In an oversimplification, much of the majority report sees this as a warning that we will die unexpectedly and Jesus will come to judge us. This is because for many of us religion’s only purpose is to get us to live in a way that will make sure we get to heaven after when die. This portrays a God who is out there somewhere watching us, and these words are often seen in a threatening and fearful sense.
The minority report, as usual, can be quite personal, if we are open to this. Jesus is telling me to be ready because he comes to me as a surprise, in people and situations I don’t expect. This is not a threat or a warning to be fearful. but an encouraging invitation to me to be trustingly open to Jesus in everything. It’s an exciting thing. The Welcome Prayer can be seen as a spinoff of this, my effort to live Jesus’ words in my own everyday living: “I welcome everything that comes into my life today because it is of You”. Jesus invites me to live by faith, to believe that what he says offers some perspective on how to live. Believing this makes it possible for me really to move in this direction and begin to experience in a very practical way what he is saying to me. It may move me to compassion, to charity, to kindness, even patience with how my days unfold.
These days this makes absolutely no sense at all. How can we say that Abba is in the nastiness all around us? This sounds like we are saying God causes all the evil and suffering we see locally and world wide. I am not saying this. What I am saying is that Abba is in each of us on all sides of any issue, and that we in some way have something to offer to ease the suffering and oppose the evil that is happening. A worthwhile question always is, “Abba, what are you saying to be in all this, is there something you are asking me to do?” This might not lead to what is going on far away, but instead offer an insight into how we can do something in our own everyday living with the people who are in our life. A challenge is if we are so focused on what is going on in Ukraine, Gaza, our own borders, ICE activity, other places, we might miss what the Story is saying to us about how we live with the people we see every day. “Are you saying something to me in this?” is a good way to look at our everyday living. Although, we need to be open to surprise as we ask this question.
I also have to keep myself from imposing my own expectations on Abba as I ask this question. I cannot fit Abba into my limited ideas and expectations. If I chose to deal with this I have to be willing to let go of a lot of what I am comfortable with about Abba and go where the Spirit leads me. This gets to be an exciting journey If I am open to it. To move in unknown ways simply because I feel called by Abba in any given situation leads to a different mindset. I don’t need to be afraid of the unknown, what I don’t know or understand: “be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks”.
Where I live we are experiencing some turmoil with new arrangements that are being “handed down” so to speak. Many of us are upset. Yet if I believe in the Story, I can ask, “Abba, are you saying something to me in this?”, and it becomes a whole new experience. Or, I can just stay angry, fearful, blaming. For many of us Abba is out there somewhere, who may or may not answer our prayers by giving us what we want. Yet when we see prayer as asking Abba what he is saying to us, we might come to a whole different way of looking at this situation. We come to recognize Abba is here with us – residents, staff, management – perhaps, or probably, with each of us in a different way, simply because we are living different roles and relationships in it all. I can’t tell anybody what Abba is asking them to do in all this. I can only look to what Abba is asking of me, and go where it takes me.
In the Story Jesus also says, “where your treasure is, there also will your heart be”. What is my treasure? Feeling safe and secure, having a sense of control over my life, having answers and no questions? I’m coming to experience that these are overrated. Being open to Abba offers a good bit of excitement. I’m finding I don’t have to know much. The big thing is to be open to our loving Abba that Jesus shows us by how he lived. I can’t expect other people in my life to live as I want them to. This is a hard lesson to learn, but a liberating one. Believing that Abba is in everything takes a lot of letting go, but what comes is liberating in the best sense. Life becomes a journey of “we got this” with Abba as new and unexpected things happen, as they are a lot these days.
A Rabbi friend used to say that in his tradition God is not just a name, God is a verb. God, Abba, is happening all around us, even in us. We are distinct from Abba, but not apart from Abba. Not one, not two. In Paul’s words, “in whom we live, and move, and have our being”. This can become an experience, and not just something we believe.
From time to time we all have troubling experiences. Suffering is a part of living. Every one of us is carrying a burden nobody else is even aware of. Sometimes these burdens are pretty heavy. As we move towards asking what Abba is saying to us, we are opening ourselves to the possibility of being Abba’s love and compassion with unexpected persons in unexpected situations. Everybody in our life is with us because in Abba’s providence, we need each other. Jesus says, “more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more”. As we become aware of Abba’s involvement in everything, we become more aware of our responsibility to the other folks in our life, the ones we know, and the ones we don’t know. Every one of us reflects Abba in our own unique way. What this means for each of us is something we learn from asking, “Abba, is there something you are saying to me in this?”. Just sayin . . .