Foreign Dr.

Brad Miller here with your Daily Bible Refresh, a fresh take on the everyday reading of the Bible.

We are reading from the Revised Common Lectionary, Year c.

It's day 30 of year C.

We're in the Christmas tide season, the season just right after Christmas Day.

And our whole point of Daily Bible Refresh is to make the daily reading of the Bible understandable.

So we read only from the New Testament and we read only from the message version of the Bible to make it as understandable as possible.

The second thing we want to do is make it relatable.

So we have a couple of questions, a couple of points to ponder regarding the Scripture which are relatable to your life.

And the third thing we want to do is make it applicable so we have an action step that you can take as well to apply the text to your life.

Then we have a prayer and send you on your way in 10 minutes or less.

This is our reading for the day.

It's from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1332 through 37.

Reading from the message, but the exact day and hour, no one knows that, not even heaven's angels, not even the Son, only the Father.

So keep a sharp lookout for you don't know the timetable.

It's like a man who takes a trip, leaving home and putting his service in charge.

Each assigned a task and commanding the gatekeeper to stand watch.

So stay at your post watching.

You have no idea when the homeowner is returning, whether evening, midnight, cock, crow or morning.

You don't want him showing up unannounced with you asleep on the job.

I say it to you and I'm saying it to all.

Stay at your post, keep watch.

A powerful message there from the Gospel of Mark.

I think it's really about the underlying message of everything in this passage is stay awake and to find meaning in the present moment.

Where Jesus spokes about staying alert and being present in the moment and how this is interpreted in terms of a kind of through an apocalyptic lens because some people in his day and age were looking for the end of time and were looking forward to that in a way that was not always healthy in terms of how you lived in the present moment.

I think we have some of those same issues here today.

People are looking for something, some apocalyptic thing and they do not pay attention to what's going on right now.

A couple things to think about here, some points to ponder, if you will.

There's the humility of not knowing.

Jesus acknowledges that even he doesn't know the time of future events.

And this is a powerful reminder that uncertainty is a part of the human experience.

Even the divine, even Jesus himself had this limitation.

In our age, with information and all kinds of overload of information and people seeking instant answers, there's a profound wisdom in embracing the unknown and being humble about that.

Secondarily, there's a shared responsibility in community.

We have the metaphor here of servants being assigned tasks, which speaks to our interconnected role in creating positive change rather than kind of passively sitting back and waiting for something to happen, some divine intervention.

We are called to be active participants in building a just and compassionate world that we live in right now in our communities.

Each person has unique gifts and responsibilities and it is a shared work.

It's a shared responsibility.

We're also asked I believe in this passage to be mindful and to keep understand that being mindful is a spiritual practice.

It talks about keeping watch and keeping watch isn't about anxious waiting for a future event.

It's an invitation to be fully present in our present lives.

This means being alert and being aware and being staying awake, having our antenna up, as it were, for any signs of injustice or responding to the needs of other people as they come, as we become aware of them and remain open to moments of the divine, of the bit of the Holy which comes into our lives in our everyday experiences.

A few things to think about here's your action step this week I just invite you to practice intentional presence that is set aside today a couple of times, 2, 3 times during your day just to pause for one minute.

Set your timer on your watch or on your phone if you need to.

But during that minute ask yourself, how am I showing up for other people?

What needs in my community am I uniquely positioned to address?

And just give yourself a check in.

Give yourself a check up about what is really important in your life and how you are engaged in the world right now.

How is heaven and earth intersecting in your life?

Before we have a closing prayer, I just want to remind you that we are in this season called Christmastide, the season which is all about Christmas.

And there is a resource that you may want to have make use of called An Unlikely Advent.

It's about the extraordinary people around the Christmas Story by Rachel Billups.

We'll put links to that in our show notes.

You may want to take advantage of that.

Let's pray.

Loving God who moves through all times and seasons, help us embrace the gift of the present moment when we're tempted to escape into worry about the future or regret about the past grow in us now.

Make us mindful servants in our communities and to opportunities for compassion.

Help us be aware of chances to create justice and awake to the sacred in our everyday lives.

Guide us to use our gifts with purpose, to stay present with open hearts and to trust that even in uncertainty, your love holds us all.

Amen.

Well, that's daily Bible refresh for this very day.

My name is Dr.

Brad Miller.

I'll be with you again tomorrow.

So let's get together then.

Until then, remember that God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up.

It's created new every morning.