The once famous collegiate humorist, Tom Lehrer, was perhaps best known for his timeless song, “Be Prepared.” Lehrer was not John the Baptist redivivus, for sure, the one who announced, in King James English, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” But Lehrer got it right, biblically speaking. “Be prepared” could be the Word of the Lord for our time and perhaps for all times. The question, of course, is: prepared for what? Or – for whom?
For what? Perhaps, with Benjamin Franklin, prepare yourself for death and taxes. Those are the great American certainties. Consider the first. When I was a young pastor, I once hosted an exchange student from Kenya. And I took him up to what was then the largest of Boston’s skyscrapers, The Top of the Hub. He looked down on the Southeast Expressway (known to locals even then as the Southeast Distressway), and, innocently, asked: “Where’s everybody going?! And why so fast?!” At that moment, I decided not to mention all the regular crashes on that highway.
I want to ask you this now: what are such commuters prepared for? Brace yourself. As you imagine yourself looking down on that rush hour traffic, recall that all, not just those commuters, are headed, sooner or later, into the embrace of the Grim Reaper, Death. All those commuter cars are headed for the Abyss – and so are you and so am I.
I suppose that it might be prudent, then, to give some thought to what that prospect might mean for your life and mine, here and now, as we commute through this life. Whether I, for one, die in my sleep tonight, or in a multi-car crash on the Southeast Expressway next month, or in some other way at some other time, I imagine that it might make some sense for me right now to prepare for that – certain – eventuality. Like every other humanoid, Death has been at my doorstep since the day of my birth. Better deal with that existential factoid asap, right?
To that end, I have a recommendation. Get yourself to Church, and confess your sins, as a first step. If you’re a Catholic go to Confession. If you’re of a Reformation persuasion, as I am, you could set up an appointment with your Pastor for the Rite of Confession; or, if that sounds too ominous, go to Church next Sunday. Betcha that the Liturgy you enter into then will begin with a ritual of Confession of Sins. That’s the first step, I believe, once you’ve opted to be prepared.
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