Prepared for Action

We are in a financial crisis. A common feature of the ongoing arguments about how the current crisis might best be resolved is criticism of the Government for not being better prepared for the global economic downturn. Why, opposition parties ask, was money not set aside in the good times for a time such as this? Meanwhile, as the political debate drags on, we must all prepare for tough times ahead. We must watch the pennies all the more closely when the pound can’t look after itself. And it happens that we must do so even as we prepare for Christmas, until now a celebration increasingly characterised by financial excess as opposed to restraint.

Looking ahead to the New Year, workers at Honda’s factory in Swindon must prepare to find something else to do with their time for the two months when it will close down due to the drop in demand. And rail users must prepare themselves for yet another significant increase in the price of their fares.

The repeated emphasis in our readings this week is the need to be prepared for the second coming of Christ. Put differently, our adherence to a biblical worldview, wherein it is certain that Christ will one day come again, has implications for the way we live now. And they are practical implications. True, we’ll hear Jesus telling us to ‘keep watch’ for his coming, but – as his parable of the talents and teaching about the final judgement using the imagery of a shepherd separating sheep and goats makes clear – that’s far from a summons to complacency and inactivity. On the contrary, our confidence in Christ for our salvation, and our certainty that he will return is to provoke us to bold, imaginative transformative action.

If we are prepared at all for the future coming of Christ, it will be demonstrated in our willingness to act in his name in the here and now.

Nigel Hopper