Be Prepared!
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"Be Prepared" is the motto of the Boy Scouts and of the Society of Jesus. It's also the title of songs from the Lion King, Valencia, Hoodwinked, and comedian Tom Lehrer, and of a TV episode of "That's So Raven."
Someone once asked Lieutenant General Robert Stephenson Smyth, Baron Baden-Powell, the founder of scouting, "Be prepared for what?"
"Why, for any old thing," the baron replied.
Baden-Powell believed that the training the boy scouts received would help them live up to the motto. If someone had an accident, they could give him first aid. They could rescue him if he fell into deep water and couldn't swim. He wanted each scout to become a productive adult citizen, to give happiness to other people, to be "physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight," to meet whatever challenges they faced, to live happily and without regret, knowing they had done their best.
In three words, to be prepared!
To be prepared is to have a plan, a goal, a purpose in life, to provide for contingencies in case one encounters unexpected obstacles. It means acting according to your expressed beliefs and promising only what you intend to do, no matter what. Much of today's social problems are caused by people not preparing themselves with a good education and job and social skills. People who had children without preparing a family for them, or bought a house they weren't prepared to pay for or who didn't prepare economically for catastrophe or old age are now suffering the consequences - and so is a government that didn't prepare for a generation of self-centered, narcissistic, "me generation" baby boomer voters, not to mention a President and various members of Congress, who grew up thinking that someone else owed them a living.
That may be why the Bible tells us so often to be prepared.
The word "prepared" occurs 103 times in the King James Bible, and "prepare" occurs 81 times. God is described as having prepared a kingdom for the good (Matthew 20:23; 25:34, John 14:2, 3, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Hebrews 11:16, and Revelation 21:2), bad places for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41), and honored places next to Jesus (Mark 10:40).
John the Baptist's mission was to prepare for the coming of Jesus (Matthew 3:3; Matthew 11:10, Mark 1:2, Luke 1:17, 76; 3:4; and 7:27), who gave his disciples instructions to prepare for the Last Supper (Matthew 26:17, Mark 14:12-15, and Luke 22:8-9). He exhorted them always to be prepared for unexpected happenings (Matthew 24:15-18; 25:13, Mark 13:33-37, Luke 12:33, 40; 17:31; 21:36), and pointed out examples of what could happen if one was not prepared (Matthew 24:43; Mark 14:38, and Luke 12:36-39, 47.)
The theme of being prepared is also found in the parable of The Faithful Servant, Luke 12:35-48, The Wedding Feast, Matthew 22:1-14, Luke 14:16-24, The Friend at Night, Luke 11:5-8, The Rich Fool, Luke 12:16-21, The Ten Virgins, Matthew 25:1-13, The Unjust Steward, Luke 16:1-9 and Building a tower and waging war, Luke 14:28-33).
At about 3:03 PM on January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 had just taken off from New York's LaGuardia Airport when a flock of birds flew into the path of the Airbus A320, disabling both engines. The pilot, C. B. Sullenberger, set the powerless aircraft down gently in the Hudson River, saving all 155 persons on board. Captain Sullenberger was superbly prepared by training and education for an emergency of this type, even though he never expected anything like it to happen in his entire career. The aircraft was also well prepared, with a "ditching switch" that closed all openings in the hull to keep the aircraft afloat and an auxiliary power unit backed up with a Ram Air Turbine (RAT) that continued to power the controls when the engine power failed. The airline had also prepared the airplane with life rafts and inflatable life vests for each passenger and crew member.
The passengers and crew owe their very lives to the captain and aircraft manufacturers who knew how important it was to be prepared.
Many years ago, I attended Sunday church when the priest followed his gospel reading with this statement:
"I apologize for not preparing a sermon for today's reading, but I'm not going to compound that and insult your intelligence by trying to make one up on the spur of the moment. Let us all together recite the Creed."I was impressed by the man's honesty. Most clergy I know in the same situation will either ad-lib or keep the congregation captive by inviting them to "meditate on the word of God," or some such, as if they couldn't do that after breakfast at home. Sometimes it's difficult. With so few clergy nowadays, many preachers of the Gospel have to work overtime, all the time, to discharge their various duties. Sometimes they just can't do it all, and have to accept the consequences of not being prepared. Occasionally, it's inevitable.
Be that as it may, the days when the residents of the whole town, with nothing else to do, gathered at the local gothic cathedral on Sunday, hopefully to be inspired, are gone with the wind. Life today is much faster. Churchgoers have to budget their time, often between the requirements of their faith and the requirements of other people who depend upon them, such as their families, small children, the sick and elderly, rides waiting outside, and kids waiting for mom to cook dinner. Many have to go to work on what should be their "day of rest" to make ends meet. A common theme among clergy I have known is that "you can certainly afford to give God 'one hour a week'," but that's one hour, not one hour of worship plus unscheduled extra time for "guest speakers," political diatribe or sermons or homilies that take up too much time.
Just before Christmas, our pastor informed his congregation that somebody had sent him a "homily timer," hopefully to allow him to be prepared not to run overtime. It doesn't appear to me that he uses it. I wonder why.
It is just as important to end on time as it is to start on time, and liturgical leaders of any denomination who abuse their parishioners by taking up extra time are being rude and disrespectful, to say no more. This is especially true when the overworked congregants are forced to leave early because their preachers were unprepared to stick to the schedule. It is a sin against charity to use up "God's one hour a week" haranguing a captive audience about the preacher's current pet interest.
And while I'm on the subject, anyone whose profession involves preaching has an obligation to know that perception of time varies by age. This is especially important when one is preaching to children. A good rule of thumb is the length of the sermon in minutes should never exceed 3/4 of the average age of the congregation in years.
(By the way, the average of the US population is 37.2 years. A sermon more than a half hour long is not properly prepared.)
One preacher I know carries around a book by Texas preacher and author Max Lucado. Regardless of where he is or how otherwise unprepared he might be, this clergyman always has a well thought out, highly inspirational sermon available. In addition to being always uplifting, it also provides his congregation with a valuable cross-pollination of professional moral philosophy from an alternate denominational perspective.
A good contingency plan is to always have a homily or two, general enough to apply to just about any Scriptural reading, like this one, ready to go if other preparation is not possible. It's called "contingency planning," and it's the soul (a little clerical humor, there) of the discipline of safety engineering that saved all those people on Flight 1549.
It's nice to have a fresh, new homily always prepared ahead of time, but it's even more important, when there just isn't enough time, to be prepared.
The Parables of Jesus are always a source of inspiration and education. No doubt that's why Jesus used them. Besides those listed above, There are the following: