Interrupted by Luke 12:32 – 40

This will be my next layreading and I should do some prep, whether I can get it by heart or not. By “should” I mean that I enjoy the prep, and there is always a surprise somewhere in the study. I also mean that I have been very slow and slug-like lately, ready to just sit and read and eat. While amazingly blessed to have time to be lazy in the summer — have I gone too far? Will my brain ever shift back into gear?

So at first glance I read the verses in the middle about the servants needing to be alert and ready: “Be dressed action and have your lamps lit”. Indeed! When the “master” is away, isn’t it time to play and rest and relax and take it easy? Do you work as hard when the boss is on vacation? It’s a bit tough to do isn’t it?

The gospel of Luke isn’t full of grounding details — where is Jesus, when is this, who is around — it gets confusing. Since this is mostly, I think, metaphor and imagery and story I think it is saying that God is truly the one we serve, all the time, whatever we are doing. And we don’t have to worry — God has already been happy to provide everything we need. Out of God’s love and joy.

Oddly, what starts this off, way back in the first verse of Chapter 12 is that the crowd is so bid that they are trampling on each other, stepping on each other. Jesus has made the lawyers and scribes angry so at this point the crowd is just full of people. And we get that Jesus is trying that tricky thing of giving the good news — God has already given us everything — and then, in my words, giving the confusing news — that doesn’t mean you get lollygag and follow me and not do your work; it means you get to go away and do your work for the glory of God, not for money and food.

I’ve read an essay that suggests that the question that arises from this is “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”

But perhaps, I wonder, the question should be “How will it change your work (how you live your life) if you do it knowing how much God loves you?” Because most of us can’t just trample out of the life we are in the midst of. So what happens if we can bring joy and less fear into our lives already in progress?