Sermon 56 - Situationally Unaware
Matthew 24:50
The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of.
Psalm 65:8
The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.
Military and law enforcement people talk a lot about situational awareness. Working in security, we get to hear about it too. The main concept of situational awareness is that you are aware of your environment, and particularly the threats and the risks in your environment. Being situationally aware, you pay attention to the environment, and what in the environment is a risk, or what in the environment may become a threat. You also pay attention to any changes in the environment, changes that might introduce a threat or a risk into the environment. Being aware of the risks you can then do a risk analysis, and manage the risks and not be vulnerable particularly vulnerable to any threats.
This is a concept, as I say, that comes primarily from the military, and has been passed down to law enforcement, and then has come to us in security. But, as I frequently say, an awful lot of security is simply risk management, and the management of any business involves two things; management of risk, and management of people. This applies to life as well, so the idea of situational awareness is something that more people should be aware of.
As I have mentioned, I am the only pedestrian in Port Alberni. And, as I have also mentioned, the drivers in Port Alberni are the worst in the entire world. And, having studied the situation, at close range (sometimes literally), I think I have figured out what the problem is. As I say, the drivers of Port Alberni are the worst in the entire world. I have taught all over the world. I have taught on six continents. I have seen lots of drivers, in lots of places, with lots of different characteristics. There are places in the world that have faster drivers. There are places in the world that have more *aggressive* drivers. But there is no place that I have ever been, in the entire world, where the drivers are more situationally unaware than in Port Alberni. When driving, you have to pay attention to things that are outside the windows of your car.
So, the concept of situational awareness applies to life. It applies to different aspects of life. Situational awareness obviously applies to driving. But situational awareness also applies to us in the church.
So, in respect of the Christian life, of what is it that we have to be situationally aware? Well, not to put a point on it to find a point on it, everything. Everything, and even more so. We have to be aware of everything in our lives that we would normally be aware of, and some additional factors as well.
We are in this world. We may not be of it, but we are definitely in it. God has created the world for us to be in. God has created us, and the world, and the entire universe, and any other universes that there may be. And, because God created them, God must have had a purpose in creating them. So everything that happens in our life is something that we have to be aware of. The Bible, very often, talks about seeing God in the works of his hands: in the works of nature, in the stars in the sky, in the heavens above us, in all of the landscape that is around us, and all of the beasts that walk upon it, or crawl upon it, or fly over it. God created all of them. And God had a purpose in creating them. And God may be speaking to us, through them. So we need to listen to God. And part of the way that we listen to God is by being aware of what is around us. Because he created it.
That isn't the only way that God speaks to us, of course. God speaks to us most directly, and most reliably, in his word: the Bible. So, in addition to everything that is around us, we need to be aware of what the Bible says about it all. How often are we aware of what the Bible says? Of what God says to us, everyday, written down, in a kind of an owner's manual for the universe, if only we would read it.
Sometimes, of course, God has a specific verse, just for us, speaking to us and to our situation, as if God was speaking directly to us. It just pops into our mind, and it directly addresses the situation that we are facing. God is directing us. But, of course, it doesn't just pop into our mind. It pops into our awareness, out of our memory. But we only remember it, if we have read it in the first place. How often do we read the Bible?
Well, of course, we are all busy. And we may not have time to take an evening off, every week, to go to a Bible study, where the Bible study might discuss possibly four or five verses out of the tens of thousands of verses in the Bible. And of course, there is the preparation time to get ready for the Bible study, and then there is the time driving to the Bible study, and then there's the time for the study itself, and then, of course, there is the necessary socialization time. So, yes, it might not be a completely efficient is of our time to spend two or three hours, per week, delving into four or five verses of scripture.
But, then again, it's awfully hard to find any justification in the Bible that indicates that God is at all interested in efficiency.
But, if you want efficiency, there is more than one way to read the Bible.
It's quite possible just to read it.
I recently had a conversation with a young parishioner in one of the churches in town. She told me that it was her ambition to read the Bible all the way through. It's a good ambition. And I gave her a few tips. I told her that you can buy One Year Bibles. I know that these Bibles exist in at least two translations, the New International Version, and the Good News Bible. I know that, because I have both of them. And, with those One Year Bibles, you get a bit of the Old Testament, and a bit of the gospels, and a bit of the epistles, and a bit out of the Psalms, everyday. You get a bit of a mix, so that you're not faced with chapters upon chapters of Jewish dietary law, all at one go, but you get to read through the entire Bible in one year. In one year, you can read through the complete Bible.
In fact, you don't need one of the One Year Bibles. If you read four chapters, every day, you can get through the entire Bible, in possibly just a little over a year. If you read five chapters, every day, you will get through the entire Bible in slightly less than a year. If you read ten chapters, every day, you will get through the entire Bible in five months. And reading ten chapters, everyday, generally will take you less than half an hour. Okay, if you are into Jeremiah, Jeremiah has fairly long chapters, and he and Isaiah, well ten chapters of them might occasionally edge you over the half hour limit. Even so, when you get into the Psalms, ten Psalms might only take you ten minutes. (Well, OK, except for Psalm 119. But then, Psalm *117* is the *shortest* chapter in the Bible.) So, on average, about twenty minutes a day will get you through the entire Bible in five months.
And then what?
Well, I just start all over again at Genesis. It's funny: every time I read the Bible I come across a verse that I don't recall ever having read before. Every time I read the Bible, even though I have read it over more than twenty times, I find something that sounds new. And that speaks to me. In my particular situation. You'd think that, by this time, I would have memorized the darned thing. But apparently not.
So, the Bible is something else of which we should be aware. And aware of on an ongoing basis.
And there are other things of which we should be aware. Possibly not things that we should build into, but we should be aware of the possibilities. The Bible speaks of powers that are ranged against us. That is, if we are on God's side. There are powers that are ranged against God. If we are for God, those powers are ranged against us. Those powers fight against us. Now, this is definitely not an area of expertise for me. It's not even in an area in which I am interested. After all, the Bible also says that we should not be too terribly interested in these powers. We should not serve them, and nor should we ask them for help. We should not call them up. We should not be associated with people who try to call up those powers. C.S. Lewis, in "The Screwtape Letters," notes that there are two mistakes that people make with respect to the Devil: the first mistake is that people are too afraid of the Devil. After all, we do have God on our side. Or, rather, we are on God's side, and God takes care of his own. The other mistake that people make is to become too interested in the Devil. So, no, I have not studied in this area, and I do not recommend that you study it, either. It is an area fraught with peril. And that peril is not merely physical, but spiritual. But the Bible does say that these powers exist. In fact, it mentions that these powers exist, and warns us against them, many more times then it mentions homosexuality, or abortion. Combined. So, it would be foolish not to be aware of the possibility. Not terrified by it. The Bible does not provide us with details, and God probably has a reason for that. But we should be aware of the possibility: not terrified, and not too terribly interested. But aware.
One more thing of which to be aware: you. What do you need? What drives you? What do you want? Why do you do the things that you do? No, you can't just copp out and, with Paul, say, "wretched man that I am!" Be aware of what traps and triggers you. Be aware of what builds and fulfills you, and "think on these things." We seem to go to great lengths *not* to be aware of ourselves. We aren't supposed to think about ourselves. That's selfish, and selfishness is bad! Therefore, we reject thinking about ourselves. But God thinks about you. God loves you. So, while trying not to go *too* far down the path of self-centredness, maybe you can try and see yourself as God sees you? Something, some*one*, to be loved, and protected--and trained up in the way we should go.
Be aware of everything around us, even mundane things, which don't seem to be spiritual, but which may be. For example, when we find that someone is in distress, the right thing to do is always to help them, if we possibly can. "If we possibly can" covers a lot of ground. So, anytime we see that someone is behaving oddly, even just seeing that someone is behaving oddly may indicate that they are in distress. Maybe we can help. Even just listening to their distress can help. Be aware of these opportunities that God is giving you. All too often we are busy, or find this person annoying, or this person just doesn't fit with our particular preferred life. And so we decide to make ourselves situationally *un*aware. We decide to deliberately ignore what God is showing us. Because what God is showing us is an opportunity to help. But it also means that it takes away our time that we would much prefer to spend watching television, or going out for a meal, or chatting with a friend, who isn't in distress, and so our chat is unlikely to demand anything of us. And we can get off by saying well, we didn't know! And there's a verse about that, in Proverbs ...
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