Transmission

by j. Snodgrass

Matthew 24:42-44 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

The Lord, breaking into your house at night. Expect the unexpected.

My wife is in medical-school, and has learned that in Emergency rooms across the country, legends abound to tell the exploits of that mythological character known only as “Some Dude.” “Yeah, I was just minding my own business, and some Dude shows up with a baseball bat and starts whaling on me.” “Yeah, this lady asked me to hold her purse for her, and I was, and then some Dude came up out of nowhere and beat me down, and gave the purse back to the lady…who had asked me to hold it.” “Yeah, I was just having a smoke outside my building and some Dude shot me five times.”

Oddly enough, if Emergency Rooms had existed in the times of the book of Genesis, Jacob would probably have showed up with the following story: “Yeah, I was just crossing the river with my two wives, two girlfriends, eleven sons and all my stuff, when some Dude jumped me! And he beat on me all night, and pulled my hip out of its socket. I never saw his face, ’cause it was dark. As the sun came up he said ‘alright, I’ve gotta go,’ but I said ‘Dude, you’re going nowhere till you’ve blessed me.’ And the dude said, ‘Alright, from now on your name is Israel.’ And then he was gone.”

True story, paraphrased from Genesis 32. The name he was given by this mysterious Dude was “Israel,” meaning “Struggled with God.”

God jumped Jacob. Expect the unexpected.

Earlier in the book, Genesis 19, a man named Lot was living with his wife and two daughters in the city of Sodom… And looking out his doorway one day he sees these two guys walking around and invites them into his house. But the Sodomites see the guys go in, and a great mob gathers - they start banging on Lot’s door, demanding the opportunity to give these visitors a proper Sodomite welcome. Lot says everything he can think of to make the mob go away, but it’s no use.

Genesis 19:9-11 They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

It turns out these two Dudes happened to be angels of the Lord. I can just see the scene in the Sodom Hospital Emergency Room - “Yeah, we just wanted to give these dudes some presents and they blinded us!” Of course, the Sodom Emergency Room would have had bigger concerns, what with the entire city being destroyed later that evening.

Expect the unexpected. Is this going to unexpectedly tie in with the theme of Advent?

I don’t know what kind of prenatal care they had in Bethlehem around the time of Jesus’ birth…I know he was eventually born in a barn. But it must have been a fascinating scene when Mary told her fiancé Joseph she was pregnant with the son of the Most High God. “Yeah, I was just minding my own business when some Dude showed up, told me I’d be getting pregnant by the Holy Spirit.” Somehow I doubt that Joseph was so impressed with this - in fact, according to the Gospel of Matthew, old Joe started hatching plans to let her go. Couldn’t call that unexpected. But a few days later, Joseph came to Mary and said “Hey, everything’s cool. We can still get hitched and then we need to leave and hide out in Egypt for a while, because the powers that be are gonna be looking for this kid.”

That was unexpected. Joseph? The Biblical character best known for what he didn’t do? And just how did Joseph come across this information?

Yup. Some Dude told him so.

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Written for the Marble Collegiate Church, Marble Connection (Young Adults in Their 20s & 30), Sunday Conversation, November 25, 2007

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