Watch and Wait

Watch and wait!  That is the cry throughout the ages, throughout the pages of Scripture, and that cry still goes out from pulpits across Christendom.  It is the final Sunday of the church year.  We end with an eye to the sky as we await the return of our Lord in glory.  But that topic – watch and wait – isn’t a great one.  Is there anything worse than waiting?  We like everything instantly in the internet age!  There are air fryers, insta pots, and door dash!  But let’s see what out God has to say about this topic.

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.  These verse from Luke 12 talk about the culture surrounding weddings.  There is nothing wrong with Jesus’ example, but I don’t know if it really speaks to our culture.  What if we change the venue from the wedding chapel to the ballfield?

Get your glove ready.  Baseball is fairly well known to us.  Little kids love playing sports, but it’s hard to focus for the little ones.  Experts say that a young child should be able to focus two to fives time the year of their age.  So if your coaching up a five year old baseball team, you have about ten to twenty minutes before they start making grass angels in the outfield or volcanos of sand by second base.  Get your glove ready is the cry of the coaches as the pitch is thrown.  Because is there anything worse than having a ball hit your way while you’re watching the birds fly over your head?

We end up at the same place – Jesus is coming again!  We’ve spent the past few weeks talking about the details and the glorious reality of our righteousness, but we need to address specifics about the waiting, don’t we?

This theme of waiting is all over the place in Scripture – we’ll just stay in the gospel of Luke.  For starters, classic “get you glove ready” example go to Luke 2 – And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  That was their job to wait and watch.  Sheep have a nasty habit of disappearing if you don’t keep an eye on them.

Getting your glove ready changes gears to the spiritual:  Luke 17:3 So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.”  That sounds straight forward but we can miss the daily work of Christianity if we aren’t watching.  Just a few verse before Luke 12:15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

The warning of get your glove ready is a little more involved because you aren’t just looking at the batter – there are balls possibly coming from every direction that can whack you right in the soul.  Don’t think that if you miss one that goes right through your legs God will kick you off the team.  Understand that your place in the kingdom of God is reserved by the blood of Jesus.  No sin is so great that your God can’t forgive.  Jesus’ admonition to watch and wait mean don’t lose your faith.  Continue to worship, keeping God in the #1 place in your life.  Feed your soul with his word and sacrament.

Watch and wait – get your glove ready because the tables will turn.

Want to hear more – including a comment on MAID in Canada?  Watch this week’s message from Luke 12 – Watch and Wait.