Wednesday 20 September 2017

Psalm: Psalm 86

Background

For the Early Church the expectant and fearful longing for thereturn of Jesus as judge and ruler resolves into a way of livingthat is to be 'prepared and ready'. Some in those early days livedin daily expectation of the end times and when this did notmaterialise they were confused and disturbed. Peter reassures them.God's time scale is different from our own. If God is slower inreturning than was expected it is because God wants them to haveplenty of time to put things right. God will come though,unexpectedly like a thief. This is an extraordinary image, as athief invades your personal space and rendering you both vulnerableand exposed. Our boundaries of self are challenged, our preciouscastle of self is to be conquered. It is bad enough when visitorsare coming to your house and you feel a pressure to clear and cleanand prepare. We cannot keep the thief that is coming out of ourdomain, for they dissolve the elements! All we can do is live'prepared and ready'.

There is something uncomfortable about God! Psalm139 speaks of a God who hems us is in. The write asks, 'Wherecan I escape from this awesome presence?' (Psalm139:7) If God were not loving and the one who creates us withcompassion this knowledge, 'too wonderful for us' (Psalm139:6), would imprison us. There is this sense of being trappedwhen the thief who comes. If the thief were anyone else, thisinvasion would be a violation. But the one who comes, for whom oneday is as a thousand years, knows us as 'beloved'. God will come inGod's own time, and all we can do is joyfully accept God'ssovereign will, and live prepared and ready.

To Ponder

• If Jesus were to return this day, would you be ready?

• How does the promise of God's presence make you feel?