It's About Time
Isn't it funny how some things take a lot longer than you think they will?
A close friend was telling me that she thought most people have a Planning Problem. The problem is, they don't plan, they just let things come at their own pace and suddenly realize what still needs to get done, won't.
I know that I am constantly reminding myself that I need to get something done as soon as I get back home, to my desk, to wherever, only to have something else suck up all my time, pushing that important thing to another pile, or another day.
My wife is a lot better at tackling something when it strikes her as important, rather than planning to do it later. She will stay focused on that one thing until it can be crossed off the list. "Get it behind me," she says. It is as if she is saying, "I'm done with you."
It reminds me of Jesus telling Peter to get behind him. Do you think he meant it the same way?
He did call him Satan, so maybe he wasn't kidding.
I like to think Jesus had a plan, that he wasn't just wandering around looking for people to heal and trouble to get into. That may make for good weekly episodes, and that may be the way we hear the stories every Sunday in church, but these aren't snippets of wisdom to be sent out in 140 character text messages. There is a much bigger picture here that can be quite awesome and amazing.
For me, Jesus wasn't just a good storyteller with a knack for crafting puzzling and entertaining situations with strong characters we can relate to easily. Yes, his parables do draw us in and make us think of ourselves as each of the actors in them. But I have to ask why.
Why did he bother? He wasn't out for ratings, though thousands would gather wherever he went.
He wasn't charging people to come see him. In fact he fed those who came.
You could say he wanted us to change, but so did John the Baptist, who spoke of the need to be repent.
No. There is more to this story than what we may take away in our Sunday installments. There is in Jesus, a personal invitation to experience all that God has offered to us, his kingdom.
It is a difficult concept for us, living in this modern century. We don't particularly think of the world as comprised of kingdoms, and no one would be impressed at the idea of a godly government or nation.
But the people of Jesus's day wanted a king of their own, someone who would save them from oppression and lead them to victory over their enemies.
What Jesus offered instead was a completely different picture of a kingdom. The metaphors in the parables may be helpful to give us a glimpse of God through Jesus's eyes, but what's the plan?
What is going to get us from where we are (and we are still stuck in it, nearly two thousand years later), to where we could be?
If it was just about listening to the stories each week and being good, we would see this kingdom with our own eyes. But I believe it is deeper and more involved than that.
I think we need to envision the goal to make it real.
The plan may not be clear in the stories. It may have to be written by us, taking our cues from what God, through Jesus has given us as incentives, those micro-visions of the world of God we fail to see.
How do we get started?
Well, I think Jesus expects us to come together with others and figure that our. It isn't an exercise we can do alone. The command to love one another is not a passive statement, but a command to action.
So, let's get started. It's about time.