Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with
dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch
you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of
the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength
to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of
Man. [Luke 21:34-36]
In one episode of Fawlty Towers,
one of the hotel guests dies in his sleep.
Of course, in the morning, when this is discovered by Basil with his
unique ineptitude, we get total chaos. One
of the permanent guests, the Major, asks Fawlty, Stabbed, was he…? No, says Basil, he died in his sleep. Ah, well,
says the Major, you’re off your guard,
you see.
Advent, we are informed in the
lectionary, is about being awake, on guard, remaining alert. It sounds a little tiring to me. People living in Paris at present might have
a better idea what it means to be on guard.
It seems interesting that, according to Jesus, the opposite of being
alert and on guard is dissipation,
drunkenness and the worries of this life.
So, I am confused. In our
contemporary culture, dissipation and drunkenness are widely seen as an
efficient way to forget the worries of this life. So much so, that the surest and quickest way
to have scorn heaped upon you is to say, or even remotely suggest, or even unwittingly
hint, that partying and revelling may not be a good and fulfilling life. It is partly because of the worries of this
life – and they are very real – that a culture accumulates useful avenues of
dissipation.
The worries of this life,
however, depend on who you are and how you’re placed. For a refugee family from Syria or Libya, the
worries of this life are probably about survival, food, shelter and obtaining a
helping hand or two. For some New
Zealanders I can think of, the worries of this life are more likely to flow
from being possessed by their possessions – or in other cases simply paying the
bills, finding employment, saving for retirement. Or the worries of this life may be how to
keep going in chronic ill health or pain – and we can think of yet others for
whom the worries of this life encompass family strife and feuds and ugly
memories, and trying to keep at least the illusion of control of life, events
and the future.
Jesus suggests here that we can
be so preoccupied with ourselves, whether with enjoying ourselves and being
entertained, or with our fears about all sorts of things – or more likely, with
all the things we have to do -- that we spend our lives missing what God and
life are saying. What actually matters
comes from the silence and stillness.
Our very discipline of Christian Meditation teaches that we must be
awake and aware and in the present moment.
We teach mindfulness and attention.
The distractions, as we call them, which inevitably come in our
meditation are simply an opportunity to return, gently but firmly, to the simplicity
of the mantra. It helps us to continue
being fully present and consenting to whatever God may give or change. If we are on guard, it is against whatever
might shift us from life and paying attention.
We are now in a world of frightened people, an ungracious and violent
world. Perhaps it was always so, but now
the media leave us in no doubt about it.
It is a time for steadiness and depth and wisdom. It is still God’s world, and it matters that
God’s people know how to be alert and attentive.
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