Look Busy, Jesus is Coming - July 14

Today’s Readings - Psalm 26, 28; Joshua 2:15-24; Rom. 11:13-24; Matt. 25:14-30

 Years ago, there was a popular bumper sticker that read, “Look busy, Jesus is coming..The implied meaning was that we as Jesus’ followers are supposed to have been productive, busy doing the work Christ left for us to do while he was gone. The popular message however is, “look busy” not “get busy.” Implying that if you haven’t been productive then at least look as though you have. As if Jesus wouldn’t know the difference.

Occasionally when I was little my mother would leave my big brother and I at home by ourselves. She would usually leave us a list of chores to do, like clean up our rooms, or vacuum. She’d tell us that if we got these things done then we finished we could watch tv or go over to a friend’s house.

Of course, she wouldn’t be out of the driveway good before we’d try to figure out how long we had until she returned and then we’d wait until the very last minute and scurry around getting as much done as we could, so that it at least “looked” as though we’d been busy. The problem was that if she looked very closely, she could tell we hadn’t spent much time on the chores she’d given us to do. Rather than hanging neatly in my closet my clothes would be shoved under my bed. I came to realize that she didn’t care as much about the chores getting finished as whether or not she could trust us. If she couldn’t trust us with small insignificant things then how would she ever be able to trust us with larger more important things.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is trying to explain to the disciples, to us, that there are “chores” that will need to be done once he’s gone, and that it will matter how seriously we take these tasks; that we will have resources, gifts to use and that it’s up to us to use those gifts wisely. Of course, my mother cared that instead of hanging neatly in my closet my clothes were going to need to be ironed – again. But what I didn’t understand was that she cared more about trying to teach me how to be responsible, accountable for my actions. I not only was attempting to deceive my mother, but I was hurting myself. I was learning how to be lazy, to be one of those people who try to skirt around responsibility, just doing the bare minimum.

In addition to those talents and gifts we consider as resources, we also have faith, also a gift from God. We can choose to exercise our faith, to share so that as we share it, it multiplies each time. If we hide our faith or deny it when life gets hard or uncomfortable we cut ourselves off at the knees, denying ourselves the one thing that can heal the wounds, make hope possible, straighten crooked paths. It matters how we live out our role as disciples, as children of God. Take the time to be earnest in all things, those seemingly insignificant “chores” and the ones that can make all the difference. In the end what we accomplish during this short life, the relationships we forge, the love we share is all that matters.

Faithfully,

Sally+

Questions for Reflection and Challenge - If you were going to write a slogan for a bumper sticker about your life as a disciple of Christ, what would it say? How has the way you’ve lived your life been accountable to Christ’s wishes for us? What could we all do to be a better disciple of Christ?