Earlier this week, the person in front of me got a phone call. Looking at their caller ID, they blurted out “Jesus Christ!” While my sarcastic brain thought “Oh goody, he’s early this year” the person answered the phone with an abrupt “What do you want?”
Oh dear, I thought, still a little punchy. That’s not the best first question to ask Jesus…
Which made me reflect on what question I would first ask of Jesus, if he were to ring my phone or drop by the office.
I’d want to make it a good question: reasoned, intentional, ideally profound and deeply theological, like the meaning of life..
Or would I? Maybe I’d instead want to ask something fun and spurious: Can you explain the platypus? Who’s your favourite author?
All in all, I would want the conversation to be meaningful – and important.
Which would mean that I would need to articulate what is important to me, in my relationship with God. How do I consider what is important and what is not?
I think, if the conversation were to be fruitful, I would want to stay to topics that are enhancing my faith life, and my actions as a Christian, and how to engage with the world in love and faithfulness – and how to avoid those things that are depleting that engagement.
It doesn’t mean we wouldn’t also chat dogs, and hockey, and canoeing, and… because those are things that I enjoy, that make this life happier.
Perhaps as we continue our Advent journey, we can all spend some time focusing and re-focusing on our spiritual priorities – what would we ask Jesus about if he called our phones for a chat?
And what matters of importance (and the importance of relationship!) do we discuss with the Christ we see in the people God has put in front of us?
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