He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work
Jesus ascended and left his servants in charge. We are these servants, a people anointed by his Spirit to be priests, prophets, and kings. His purpose for us is to perform "good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (see Ephesians 2:10). He gave us a mission, not just as an institution performing good deeds, but as individuals, finding the places where our unique gifts can meet the world's greatest needs.
Yet we have not always been good stewards of the gifts and graces with which God entrusted to us. We often forget about the plan God has for our lives and fall back to making our own plans. We can tell this has happened when we are no longer "on the watch", when the horizon of our lives has narrowed to a limited, timebound perspective, forgetful of eternity, without reference to the return of the Lord of the house.
If we have fallen asleep we need the Lord to awaken us. The visions of dreams we see while sleeping only serve to reinforce a transient and ephemeral version of reality. We may have a sense that these dreams lack substance. They lack the concreteness of deep and lasting truth. Yet we cannot avoid slumber without the aid of the Spirit and it is only the Lord the can rouse us from sleep.
Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,
and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?
Hardened hearts and hearts that slumber share this in common: that they are unresponsive to God, unable to direct their will based on what the Lord desires, unable, to possess the wisdom that only comes from fear of him.
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your heritage.
We would seem to have a conundrum. We need the Lord to come and wake us up but we don't want to be found asleep at his coming. If we want to go "to meet your Christ with righteous deeds", as the Collect of the mass prays, we cannot rely on our own efforts. The good news is that we don't have to. When the Lord placed his servants in charge he anointed us with his Spirit and thereby gave us what we need to fulfill our task.
I give thanks to my God always on your account
for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
that in him you were enriched in every way,
with all discourse and all knowledge,
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Spirit himself is the supernatural stimulant who helps us to stay awake, who beckons us when we do lapse into unconsciousness, and who guides and strengthens us to be ready for the coming of our King. The Spirit calls out to God for what we need and creates the space in our hearts to receive it.
we are the clay and you the potter:
we are all the work of your hands.
Our God is not a tyrant, nor finally a thief, nor even primarily he a master. He has made himself our Father. He desires us to desire his coming, not to fear. He wants us to stay awake from excitement and anticipation, not from intimidation. And so he has given us hearts that can do so, by the power of his Spirit.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power,
and come to save us.
No comments:
Post a Comment