One of my friends in seminary had a sticker on her car that read, “Who Would Jesus Bomb?” I chuckled the first time I read it, but I still wonder about that question today. Other phrases might not cause as many questions, like one that has recently faded off the back of my car. “Blessed to be an Episcopalian,” read the sticker, but the “to be an” was in very small lettering, so it looked like, “Blessed Episcopalian” from far away. A little presumptuous, I know. Another statement I once read on the back of a minivan has hung with me in an eerie way, it simply stated Jesus is Coming, Act Busy.” I did not ever get to meet the people in this van, so I do not know if it was said tongue in cheek; however, regardless of the amount of sarcasm attached, this phrase pokes at a deep seeded dilemma within me and within today’s gospel.
The difficulty within leaves me wondering, how hard do I have to work for Jesus to accept me into his Kingdom? Act busy for Jesus is coming and you better be doing something when he gets here. That is the default tendency somehow innately programmed within me.
In today’s gospel, Jesus uses a household from his day as a parable. He explains, “Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives.” What I hear is this message of act busy the master is coming! At this time of year when we have so much going on around us, I believe that we might get swept up in this message too. We might believe that our worth in not just our own eyes, but our family’s eyes, and even God’s eyes is determined by how much we do. Yet, if all we take from today’s message is the bumper sticker, “Act busy, Jesus is coming,” then we miss the point.
In this parable those who are wicked are the ones who know the master is delayed in coming and instead of taking care of one another, they get drunk and act violently towards one another. Both drunkenness and violence are addictive distractions of power. They tend to make us believe that we are more powerful than we are and they distract us from that which the good servants are focused: relationship. Those who are wicked are not wicked just because they are drunk or violent, they are wicked because they have substituted the healthy relationship with something that is distracting, demeaning, and destructive. The good servant on the other hand is “hard at work,” but not in the sense of being “busy.”
“Act busy, Jesus is coming,” might be just as dangerous as drunkenness or violence. This is the superficial message from today’s gospel that leads to bumper stickers being printed. Instead, the “work” that God gives us, his servants to do, focuses upon being in relationship with one another, taking care of one another, and not getting distracted by the many things that might make us think that we have “power.”
In today’s somewhat distracting reading from John’s Revelation, we hear of “the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside.” Day and night without ceasing they are singing, “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” These creatures who have sight within themselves as well as outside of them, are aware enough to just be with God. Their focus is upon praising God, night and day. They do not get distracted by addiction or power, instead, they continually hold their intention as praising God.
God is continually faithful to us. Our charge is to be wise and faithful servants of God. To do this does not mean that we act busy, rather it is for us to be un-busy. I do not mean that we all quit meaningful work to sit around and sing “Holy, Holy, Holy,” all day long, but in this season of Advent while we wait for God’s coming there are many distractions. The work we are given to do is to prepare space for God to come; to slow down, to be quiet; to stop, to listen; to be present to the God who is coming to be with us. Jesus is coming, act un-busy.
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