Rested and Ready
[Jesus said to them,] “Beware, keep alert, for you don’t know when the time will come. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” – Mark 13:33, 37 (NRSVUE)
Against my better judgement, there I was: downtown on New Year’s Eve in 1999, joining the countdown when I should’ve been in a bunker. “10, 9, 8…” Just several more seconds until … something? Surely existence itself set its clock to Eastern Standard Time, and the stroke of midnight would usher in the End of History. “3, 2, 1…” Nothing. Y2K came and went. The countdown was a letdown after such a buildup.
What did we think would happen at such an arbitrary time? It seems kind of silly now. And yet there are those who remain alert and hyper-vigilant, prepared for the worst. Calendar coincidences, astronomical and astrological events, wars and rumors of wars lead us to calculate apocalyptic dates. But we can never know when the time will come.
Constant vigilance is exhausting and counterproductive. And being caught unaware and unprepared is a risk. Our reality is less about a divinely ordered end time and more about human-caused existential threats. We can’t close our eyes to these things, yet injustice-induced insomnia leaves us too depleted to respond when the moment arrives. So how can we be rested and ready?
What if rather than keeping awake, we kept prepared and connected? Instead of stockpiling canned goods, let’s stockpile our communities with mutual care. Some will keep awake while we rest, and rest while we keep awake, trusting that all will be prepared when the moment calls.
And for this, there is no mysterious future date—because the time is now.
Prayer
Call us into connection and community so that we are rested and ready for a time such as this. Amen.
About the AuthorChris Mereschuk (He/Him) is the Director for Legacy and Church Redevelopment for the Southern New England Conference, UCC.