\tThis just in\u2014Jesus is coming back. So look busy. You\u2019ve seen those t-shirts. And the bumper stickers: In case of the rapture, this car will be unmanned. I\u2019d take away that person\u2019s license right now! Just kidding. But you know what I mean.<\/p>\n
\tJesus is coming back. That\u2019s the promise he made. And today\u2019s Gospel asks us to be ready for his return. \u201cLet your belts be fastened around your waist and your lamps be burning ready. Be like those waiting their master\u2019s return from a wedding, so that when he arrives and knocks, you will open for him without delay.\u201d Does that scene spark any memories for you? It ought to sound a little like our Easter vigil. Gathered outside, candles in hand, we await Christ\u2019s return. \u201cShould he happen to return at midnight or before sunrise, it will go well with them.\u201d That\u2019s a vigil: waiting through the night for Christ to return.<\/p>\n
\tNote that this vigil, both in the Gospel, and in our Easter observance, finds us waiting alert, but without fear. When you hear some people talk about Jesus\u2019 return, you can hear fear in their voices. The fear that the world isn\u2019t ready. That when Christ comes, he will bring harsh judgement. And underlying that, I think, is the fear that in the ensuing battle between Good and Evil, there is the possibility that we will be caught in the middle, and could be squashed like bugs.<\/p>\n
\tBut we don\u2019t need to live with any such fears. We can be free of fear both because of what we know, and what we don\u2019t know. What we don\u2019t know is the day or the hour of Christ\u2019s return. Jesus in the Gospels tells is that we won\u2019t know, it\u2019s going to be a surprise, and even he doesn\u2019t know when he\u2019ll return. So, any time you hear someone claiming to know the day of Christ\u2019s return, walk away. They have been deceived. All of the parables of the last days, and the direct questioning of the disciples, make it clear that we cannot know the time of Christ\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
\tWhat we do know ought to relieve our fears. In today\u2019s Gospel, what does the master do when he returns from this wedding banquet? Does he line the servants up and grill them on how they\u2019ve been wasting their time? Does he demand that they run him a hot bath and prepare his supper? That would seem reasonable. But instead, he sits them down, and proceeds to wait on them. His return doesn\u2019t appear to me to involve much harsh judgement. [In the longer version of today\u2019s Gospel] there is some punishment to be meted out to the servants who were misbehaving in his absence. But that\u2019s God\u2019s justice at work. We expect those who do wrong to face God\u2019s justice. That\u2019s not harsh judgement. And it\u2019s not something we ought to fear. What we have to do is stay alert for his return.<\/p>\n
\tOne reason we await his return without fear is that he\u2019s never been entirely gone. We do not believe that God has ever abandoned the world to the power of evil. Christ has never left us alone. It\u2019s not like God has had his back turned, and is going to whip around to see what we\u2019ve been up to. Christ is present to us today, and every day. Christ is present when his disciples gather, present when we break open the Word together, and present when we break the bread. And we have the presence in our world\u2014in our selves!\u2014of the Holy Spirit. God\u2019s Spirit dwells in us, nurtures us, and guides us. With so many ways that God has chosen to remain with us, why should we fear his return?<\/p>\n
\tOur preparation for Christ\u2019s return, is to do what he asked us to do: to live in service of one another, to seek justice, to forgive one another, and to proclaim to the world the salvation that God offers us in Christ. We know what God wants; we hear it proclaimed every week. For those who hear, and understand, and make a choice to do otherwise, there will be consequences at the final judgement. For those who struggle to serve, to seek to forgive, and who share the love of God, there is no need for fear.<\/p>\n
\tThere\u2019s also no need of any special preparation. We know that we should be living every day alert and ready for Christ\u2019s return. We don\u2019t have to retreat to a mountainside and wait for the Rapture to come and vacuum us all into heaven. Because, after all, Christ may not return this afternoon, but I could step off a curb and be hit by a bus, right? So, the right thing to do is to live each day, ready for Christ\u2019s return, or for my return to Christ. That shouldn\u2019t make anyone afraid. Today\u2019s Gospel begins, \u201cDo not live in fear.\u201d But it should keep us alert, engaged in the world around us, using the gifts God has given us to carry out the work he has given us. That\u2019s what is means to be a faithful servant, ready for Christ\u2019s return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This just in\u2014Jesus is coming back. So look busy. You\u2019ve seen those t-shirts. And the bumper stickers: In case of the rapture, this car will be unmanned. I\u2019d take away that person\u2019s license right now! Just kidding. But you know what I mean. Jesus is coming back. That\u2019s the promise he made. And today\u2019s Gospel asks us to be ready for his return. \u201cLet your … Continue reading Homily for August 8, 2010 (19th Sunday C)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[13,14,10],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies","tag-eschatology","tag-fear","tag-homily"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5FUlW-N","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}