Walk Us Into the Emptiness Oh Lord, Where We Can Become Expectant

Week of November 27, 2016

In the Gospel it tells us that when the Son of Man comes, two will be out in the field, one will be chosen and one will be left.  The same will happen to those grinding at the mill.  One will be chosen, one will be left.  Did you ever have that feeling of not being chosen?  A lot of times when sides were being picked, we all hated to be the last one waiting.  Or sometimes even worse when they said, “You can have both of them”, because the other team did not want you and they packaged you with someone else who was unskilled as well.  It was agony.  Eyes would become pleading as the captains picked and your self-worth went down every time your name was not called.  What a weight the captains carried, without even knowing it.  Picking teams was never easy.  The criteria changed and sometimes it all came down to friendship, not skill.  Sometimes it was hatred, not worth.  The longer you waited to hear your name, the more you felt the pain.

The Lord Jesus invites us into that pain today.  He wants us to realize that we must prepare if we are to be chosen.  We have to get into touch with those emotions of being left behind.  When we do, we can be triumphant when He calls our name.  He will call our name.  He will choose us.  We are worthy.  Unlike the playground games of old, He longs to set our lives on a new course.  He longs for us to be jubilant in hearing our name.  With the sound of angels, with a whisper to our heart, He longs for us to know we are chosen.  The challenge is not in His desire to call us, but in our ability to hear our name being called.  This is the real challenge.

The voices of society are loud.  The sounds of the season and what will make everyone happy can deafen us to the gentle whisper of the Son of God.  In preparing in this first week, we must seek the quiet to hear our name.  We must turn off the calendar of dates that dictate who we must see, how we are to get to every concert, every gathering and meet with every group that pressures us to be in the holiday cheer.  To become expectant we have to wait to hear our name being called.  We want it to be called.  We long to be chosen, we want to get in the line and not be left out.  But to do that we have to empty our ears of all the noise.  We have to silence the negativity and the voices that tell us we are unworthy.  The silence is profound when we can clear the mind.  It is a whisper that will tell us, it is a joy that will lead us, it is a voice that will fill us.

This week we are to find the emptiness of quiet so we may know, Jesus chose us, loved us, redeemed us and longs for us to be one with Him.

Be still and know He is God.

Reverend John J. Ouper