You Ready?

Cpt. John Parker depicted in the Lexington Minuteman monument.
How were minutemen ready so quickly?

While I am not much of one any more, there was a time when I felt like quite the history buff. I loved learning the little details about periods of history and the movements civilizations have made throughout time. The American Revolutionary War stood out as a particular era of interest, especially the overthrowing of an oppressive govern, the founding of modern democracy, and so many wise minds coming together to build more than just a nation but a more advanced way of living. However, one detail of this time always threw me for a loop. How was it possible for the minutemen to be ready to go off to battle at a moment’s notice? HOW?

I know this seems like a tiny detail to question, but I just do not get it. I am a planner. I take weeks to get ready to go out of town for a night. I have packing lists stored on my computer for every occasion, and still I cannot get ready in an hour or two much less a minute. How was it possible for these men to be ready to go off to battle that quickly? I still am not sure the answer, but this same type of precarious question haunts me when I read over this coming Sunday’s Gospel lesson from Luke 12:32-40.

Jesus tells his disciples, “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.” And he also says, “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” How Jesus are we to be ready for the master to return all the time? I can easily detect in these two sentences the vast difference between those who are ready and waiting and those who fall asleep while on watch. And yet, like the minutemen’s quick preparations, the dutiful servant’s steadfast patience leaves me feeling lacking.

Somehow through the real life experiences of when we must wait are teaching me how to be ready and waiting spiritually. When I was a child I often felt like I would die of boredom waiting until it was time to go to a friend’s house to spend the night or play. Later in college I can remember the same feeling creeping into my heart when I was having to be patient until a buddy was finished with a paper, so that we could go grab dinner or a beer. Even now I am learning to wait with friends, family, colleagues, and my beloved wife. All my neurosis when it comes to getting ready weeks in advance does mean that I end up waiting a fair share for others to get to that same point. And yet, in all of this I have slowly been realizing that these moments of practicing patient are not a waste (as much as I want to say that they are). No, God's presence persists just as palpably when I am having to wait, as it does when I am enjoying the thing for which I waited. The key seems to be remembering that every moment, even the ones I deem boring, are not just a gift from God but even something more.

We wait, we practice patience, and we dress ourselves for action with lamps lit, so that we may realize that the Son of Man comes to us. Some will say that moment will happen solely at the End of Days. I am more of the belief that Christ perpetually comes to us knocking at the door of our hearts. Sure, we may more fully realize his Advent on the Last Day or on our last day. Still, our call is not to neurotically prepare with anxiety, so that we might be ready for a trip once in a while, but rather to learn to always be prepared like those minutemen were ready to march out at a moment’s notice. Being ready though requires our diligence (our paying attention). We need a community to form us and teach us. To be prepared calls for us to stumble and mess up, so that we might wake up. Then, late one night or early one morning we might just be ready to recognize that God’s grace is bidding us to see what is always happening... Christ perpetually coming to be with us! You ready?