For those of you who watch or listen to my Tuesday morning Faith Break video on Facebook, I always end with the same words; Stay Alert! Stay Connected! Stay Grounded in God! On occasion I’ve had someone ask what that means, the “Stay Alert” part. Or they’ll ask why I say that, why should we remain alert? Well, I guess the main reason is that Jesus tells his disciples to remain alert.
There are four times in Mark and Luke, in our New Testament, that Jesus tells his disciples to remain alert. The first time in Mark 13:23, Jesus is talking about how there will always be people pointing to false messiah’s and someone will always be repeating what the false messiah’s say. But Jesus’s word is. “Stay alert.” The word means to be watchful, to not sleep, to be ready, to keep awake. And then, right after telling the disciples to “Be Alert,” Jesus goes on to say, “I have told you everything.” In other words, if the message of a would-be messiah doesn’t line up with what Jesus has said, that’s a sure sign of a false messiah. Be alert, Jesus says!!
Just a few verses later, in Mark 13:33, Jesus once again tells his disciples to “be alert.” This time the message is given in a story about an owner or boss who goes on a journey and doesn’t really know when the return date will be. The servants are left in charge. But the wise servants don’t goof off because the owner is gone. They stay vigilant at their tasks because they don’t know when the head person will be back. So, they are to keep doing what the owner has told them to do.
In Luke 12:35 and following, Jesus again tells the disciples to be alert, like the servants of the person who goes off to a wedding celebration. Weddings were a multi-day celebration in that time period. But again, the admonition is given to stay alert, waiting and watching for the homeowner to return so that the servants can open the door and welcome the owner into the home. When those servants are found faithfully doing their work and faithfully accomplishing their duties, they will be blessed.
Luke 21:36 is the final time Jesus says, “Be alert.” He’s reminding the disciples that there will be difficult or dark days, and that they should “be alert” to be watching out for those moments so they won’t be tripped up or caught off guard. Hang on to your faith and trust in God, is the message. Be Alert!!
So, what does being alert look like? To me, a great example of alertness is our dog, Sophie. The other evening Nancy was gone (and FYI, Sophie really is Nancy’s dog). I was doing some office work for a bit. Sophie came and lay on the floor by me. Then I went to the living room to read for a while. Faithfully, Sophie followed me into the Living Room and again laid down close by. Even though Sophie appeared to be sleeping and totally disconnected with the world, she truly was not. All the sudden she sat up, her ears cocked toward the garage, then I heard it too. The garage door was going up. Sophie ran to the side door and stood there waiting for her master to open the door and greet her, which Nancy did. That is an example of alertness. In the ordinary moments of a dog’s day of wanting to be loved by her human, she was very much alert and waiting.
In our lives of following Jesus, we too are called to be alert. Alert for moments when we can live out God’s Kingdom and Jesus’ love in our world. Alert for the moments to see Jesus in the people that we meet in our day-to-day lives. Alert to moments when Jesus is being falsely represented in the world and we have the chance to not necessarily correct the false messenger, but to live and act as true representatives for Jesus in the world. Yes, there is much for us to be watchful for. So, I’m going to try to be more like Sophie. I’ll go through my day doing my human things…but I always want to be ready for the Jesus moments that might come my way so I, too, might be ready. How about you?? Yes, a good word for us all…Be Alert!!!
Pastor Keith