In the Star Wars movies, occasionally we come across the sentry in the tower. You know, the guy wearing the long helmet standing in a narrow pod high up in the trees?

The sentries in Star Wars play a vital role in the Rebel Alliance’s defense strategy, acting as a first line of warning against the evil Imperial forces. They use hand-held scanners to check transponder codes and get eyes-on weapons status of incoming ships.

But I have a problem with that image.

With all the high tech involved in Star Wars, including hyper-speed travelling spaceships, light sabres and tractor beams, you’d think that the radar and other digital visual systems should be enough to identify incoming threats from afar. Why do you need someone standing atop the trees outside? It seems a bit odd, given the science fiction genre of the story. After all, wouldn’t it be too late if enemy fighters came zooming in from outer space at high speed when the sentry first identifies them?

The argument is that the sentry’s position is hard to spot nestled among the trees, presuming the location of the Rebel Alliance’s base remains a secret. Good point.

I realized I needed to go beyond what was an initial, critical reaction or response. I needed to engage in a dialogue with someone else, which I did on a discussion website.

There is also something odd I find in this Gospel text for today (Luke 12:32-40). The general theme of the parable is about what we value, and about being alert. The logic fails a bit in this last part. For me, the parable ends by floating a bit off the ground of reality, like one of those hovercrafts in Star Wars.

It’s like captain obvious. Everyone needs sleep. Therefore, it’s impossible to prevent theft. Obviously if the house owner knew when the thieves would arrive, he would stay up and wait for them. Is Jesus setting us up for failure? Surely he’s not saying we need to stop sleeping or never rest.

The friction in my mind made me move. I dug a little bit into the way Jesus taught. Maybe Jesus set up the story in this way in order to evoke a reaction, a response, so that the reader or listener participates in the meaning-making exercise?

We have to remember Jesus’ role as a teacher in his Jewish lineage. To understand Jesus as a teacher is to remember that even those with great authority teach within a long line of communal interpretation (Bass, 2021).

When Jesus preached, he didn’t give sermons from behind lecterns and pulpits. He engaged his listeners so that together, in their dialogue, they would create the message (Nabhan, 2021). He would evoke from the listener the relevant meaning for them.

So, if you are like me, maybe we have to start with our initial reactions or responses to the parable, then engage each other and God in prayer to uncover, discover and appreciate God’s message to us today. In this way we encounter a living text, reflecting that we are the living body of Christ today in this world.

So, with this understanding of our union in Christ, let’s start with the themes of being prepared, of staying alert, of paying attention; and, of where our treasure is, what are our values.

Let’s contrast the world’s values with the way of Christ – the kingdom of God. We live in that tension all the time.

Are “being on high alert” and being “asleep at the switch” our only alternatives? Like I said, I don’t know anyone in the history of humanity who never slept or rested. So, maybe it isn’t either/or. A better question to ask, then, is how we pay attention.

Imagine a dial whose needle leans one way or another.

So, what would being alert look like according to the ways of the world? Being on high alert may push the needle towards the ‘control and certainty’ side of the dial. Being on high alert means being fixated on something clearly and unequivocally defined. As the sentry in the tower does, we look for a specific threat and what that clearly, unquestionably looks like: An Imperial ship – the bad guys, or an X-wing – the good guys. We are on the lookout, especially for the bad guys.

Over time, we develop a way of looking – a perception – that imposes our deliberate will, and projects our unconscious fears, on whatever we encounter. We begin to believe that the world is a dangerous place, and we proceed to view anything we meet as threatening and dangerous.

In the end, perhaps the house owner is asleep at the switch when the thief arrives precisely because he has been looking for that thief for so long and so hard (Schlafer, 2010).

On the other hand, what does staying alert and awake look like according to the values of the kingdom of God? Rather than ‘certainty and control’, the needle leans towards the other side of the dial, towards ‘anticipation’. Our watchful waiting cultivates a kind of peripheral vision.

We’re not so much on the lookout for something specific. Leaning towards ‘anticipation’ means we develop a sixth sense, an awareness of what is good.

And so, we can sit loose with what we are naturally disposed or conditioned to see as the enemy. Because thieves come in all manner of shapes, sizes, forms and means. Saint Paul wrote, “the devil comes disguised as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). On the other hand, the good will sometimes come to us not in ways we expect. In short, we cannot predict the future no matter how prepared we are.

This kind of vision translates into a different way of growing in faith. We may consider counter-intuitive ways of dealing with problems and challenges in our life. We curate a more creative approach. For example, in taking a break, we encounter a breakthrough. Fresh insight comes not when we are looking (for something specific), but rather when we are not looking (for something specific). Counter-intuitive.

I think it starts when we are honest with our sacred stories, the sacred scriptures. It starts when we pay attention to the reaction we have when we read something that doesn’t initially make sense. We honour that. But then we need to stick with it so we can go deeper and discover sources of wisdom we never expected. It’s best not to do this alone, but with one another.

Perhaps we too will be surprised by the answers God gives us when we can let go of our preconditioned responses, can loosen our grip of control, and can practice trust in the midst of the world’s uncertainty. Just because we live in uncertain times does not mean we are far from God’s graces.

We can notice the beauty in moments that would otherwise rush us by. We can see the good where in haste we would dismiss. Our developing sense of awareness notices the glimmers of love and goodwill from strangers, neighbours and everyone in between.

Perhaps this Gospel today reminds us that it’s ok to stop. It’s not just ok, it’s vitally important that we do take breaks, that we rest, that we slow down and loosen our grip on things. It can be scary to let go.

But on the other side is a newfound joy, purpose and a life that is worth living because God’s grace, love and mercy are bigger than anything we can ever ask for or imagine.

Let’s be the lookout. Because there is always something good to find out there.

References:

Bass, D. B. (2021). Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as friend, teacher, savior, lord, way, and presence. HarperOne.

Nabhan, G. P. (2021). Jesus for farmers and fishers: Justice for all those marginalized by our food system. Broadleaf.

Schlafer, D. J. (2010). Luke 12:32-40 Homiletical perspective. In D. L. Bartlett & B. B. Taylor, Feasting on the word: Preaching the revised common lectionary, year c volume 3 (pp. 335-339). Westminster John Knox Press.