Active Lurking "Stake out," "lurk," and "eavesdrop"… hardly words with a positive, spiritual meaning. They imply devious behavior—secrecy, plotting and surveillance. However, if we take them in a morally neutral way, they suggest focused attention without being noticed. You can download the audio
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Nicholas Connolly
Pastor of First and Grace United Methodist Churches
The Third Sunday in Advent
December 13, 2009
The names of the Sundays are taken from
The Bible Through the Seasons: A Three-Year Journey with the Bible
Scripture: Matthew 11:2-11
On the internet, the term "lurking" is used for those who read messages of others, but do not respond to them. Some folks hang around the internet: "browsing" and "surfing" are the words used when web pages are visited like drops of water bouncing as the wind rocks a spider web. To make it more appropriate that lurking is OK, the term "Active Lurking" is used to describe the more than casual attention that others give to internet postings, without necessarily responding. I may never know how many around the world might be nudged by the Spirit when they read a Bible Breath that I post on Twitter. I need to let go of needing to know!
How might we use this term when reading Scripture? I suggest that "active lurking" here means that we place ourselves in the scene of a Bible story and lurk there actively looking, feeling, listening, eavesdropping to allow the spiritual aspects of the story to move deeply within us, drawing us into the graces that are flowing there.
The only two spaces where we find John the Baptist are in the desert or in prison—assertive in both. John moves from leaping with joy in Elizabeth's womb, to crying in the desert, calling for repentance, and confrontating Herod Antipas. Like Zechariah, all John had was silence. Yet from the silence he is reminded of the promises of Isaiah about the deaf hearing, the blind seeing, and the poor having the Good News preached to them.
What about us as our senses are drenched in news other than the ones that Isaiah brings forth? Headlines are not going to give the evidence of Isaiah. However, faith is the evidence of things not seen. For example, Dorothy Dagdellen, an incapacitated member of Grace Church in a nursing home, has brightness in her eyes that bear witness to her determination to walk again.
Let us lurk at deeper levels of faith. Here are the places of divine communication through the silent presence of God at each moment.
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