Advent
December 2, 2018
Scripture Reading: Luke 21:25-36
‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’ Luke 21:34-36
I am going to skip drunkenness; it could be an issue all to itself. I do want to deal with being weighed down with dissipation (spread out to the point of destroying an original identity) and the worries of this life. I get a sense that many are struggling with both.
Has Christianity been claimed by so many interpretations and viewpoints that it has lost its original identity? If so, how do we find common ground to reclaim our common identity? There are things being done in the name of Christ today that are foreign to me and I am sure that my practices are just as foreign to others who identify as Christian. How did this happen?
One of evil’s greatest tools is divide and conquer. It is primarily a military strategy that has been adopted by political functionaries and that has seeped into faith organizations. It is not new; it is as old as time itself. We should recognize it immediately, but the process always deals with our dearest beliefs or ideas and we get pulled into its grip. When divisiveness is pulling peoples apart, their best course of action is to identify the things on which they can agree and move forward together with them. He worse result of divide and conquer is probably not the issue at hand but the stalemate that results regarding getting anything done about anything else. We need to consider who benefits from that.
Worry has many different meanings, but I think the one that plagues us most is to subject to persistent or nagging attention or effort. The Greek word translated worry here describes cares of life*. Turning something over and over in our minds burns a whole lot of mental and emotional energy. In many instances, we worry about things over which we have no control but wished we did. I think of Jacob wrestling with God as a good example of this. Giving something over to God is probably the best way to deal with things over which we have no control that is easier said than done and takes a lot of practice on our part and I fear a lot of patience on God’s.
Prayer: Lord, journey with us through our daily struggles as people of faith and individual followers. Grant us your peace. Amen.
*https://biblehub.com/greek/3308.htm