I’m sitting here as my hands dry. The cat has decided that it is wet outside and it is his duty to rub the moisture he as acquired in his crepuscular inspection of the garden (looking mainly for prey) with me.
Sometimes it is not better to receive.
I look at the statistics, and note that the most cynical post of the week — which I sat on for a while, and only completed yesterday — got as much traffic as the lectionary posts combined. 200 hits So. far, and it is only 7 AM.
But I am back in the lectionary. In part, the daily readings are a spiritual discipline. And in part they are a five-finger writing exercise.
There is nothing bad about this. I start viola practice by playing simple airs and scales. You have to do the small stuff to get good at the big stuff.
32“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.34Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
36“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.40Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 42Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
45“Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their allowance of food at the proper time? 46Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. 47Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. 48But if that wicked slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49and he begins to beat his fellow slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. 51He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
We can all to easily get distracted.
One of the ways this can happen is a concentration on end times, and a discussion of how it will happen. We can discuss pre or post millennial,, pre or post tribulation, (four options there), Calvinism versus Arminian, Roman versus Orthodox.
God. does. not. care. We do not know when he will return. He wants us doing what he has us here to do.
That, for much of the time, means doing. your. duty. Getting up and working. Feeding your kids. Caring for your spouse. Not neglecting each other’s needs, nor disappearing down the rabbit hole of social media. Tweetdeck is as much of a problem as chick porn such as 50 shades of grey (or the most common porn porn — gossip magazines with starlets photoshopped until their friends do not recognise them).
We are not called to great excitement most of the time. We forget that adventuring means you are a cold, hungry and miserable (at best) and terrified or dead (at worst). We are called to do out job, where we are, in the situation we find ourselves… not to pretend that if we had “only this” thing we covet things would be better.
For we do not control the destiny or fates of nations, let alone the time of the end. God does. And he has chosen to leave this as something that is opaque.
Some of us do read your lectionary posts. But I guess garbage attracts flies.
🙂