Pentecost 11

The heavy yellow coat hangs on its hook. The helmet is in its place. Boots sit at attention, ready to be donned. The engine is clean, in perfect repair and full of fuel. Everything is ready. The tools of the fire fighter are always prepared.

There’s more though to a fire department being prepared for the next call. The fire fighters spend ten to twenty hours a month practicing various skills they will need. In the midst of a fire, at an accident or dealing with some other emergency, there is no time to check the manual or even think about what to do. It must be ingrained and instinctive.

Even with all this preparation, it’s always important to be alert - alert for the siren, for the signal, for the call. When the time comes a fire fighter can’t say "I’m not ready." - "I wasn’t paying attention" - "I’ll be there when I can". He or she must always be prepared to respond. Life may hang in the balance.

If this is true for fire fighters, it’s even more true for Christians. Just as a fire fighter had better not think that what he learned initially in fire school will be enough preparation for life, so too Christians need to understand that religious education cannot end with confirmation.

There are always new things to learn. As we get older and more mature we are able understand subtleties that were beyond us earlier. Furthermore, just as a

fire fighter must practice and practice and practice in order to make important actions become second nature, so does the Christian.

If our first response in time of temptation or trouble is going to be drawn from our faith, we must practice and practice and practice what we have been taught in Sunday school and church. We must also deepen our knowledge and practice putting what we learn to good use.

Along with that, we need to develop new skills in prayer. As has been stated in previous sermons focused on Colossians, prayer is far more than asking God for things we want. It is a relationship and a sharing within that relationship.

We can tell God anything - our deepest needs, our most painful wounds, our most humiliating failures, our darkest secrets, as well as our joys, loves, what we are thankful for and our hopes. We need also give God time to respond and tells us what we need to hear.

This kind of prayer will help us become increasingly alert and prepared both for Jesus presence with us now and for His coming in all His glory. He may not come in a way that we envision, sitting on a throne, floating down on a cloud with angels blowing a fanfare on their trumpets.

All that practice and prayer will make us ready and will enable us to correctly identify the signal, hear the call. It will equip us with all that we need to meet any contingency.

After all, who would want to say, "I’m not ready" or "I wasn’t paying attention" to the ruler of the universe.

And all of this may be important because life may hang in the balance for us too.

I don’t mean with that statement to imply that anything we do can earn eternal life for us. But, what if it turns out that when we die or when end of the world comes we suddenly realize all that we could have had spiritually in this life. What if the times we’ve said, "I’ll be there at church or Bible class when I can" and then failed to follow through becomes a source of regret in our new life?

How will we face the Master when He invites us to sit at the table and starts to serve us, if we have a lifetime of excuses hanging on us. And from our Gospel lesson that’s what seems to be ahead.

In a grand reversal of the way things are done in our world, where the master sits down and is served, in the life to come, the Master will be serving us. He will host this wonderful banquet and we are all invited. He only asks that we be always prepared.

So, learn from our dedicated firemen and women. Keep learning about your calling, practice-practice-practice, and be ever alert for Christ’s coming in your day to day life and for when He comes as the Master inviting you to the great banquet. Be always prepared. Amen.