Luke
12:32-40
32 "Do not be afraid,
little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33
Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not
wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no
moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 35
"Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 be like those who are
waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open
the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those slaves
whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his
belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he
comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed
are those slaves. 39 "But know this: if the owner of the house had known
at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken
into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected
hour."
On farm-to-market road 185, just across the Coryell
County line in Central Texas sits a little white church with a graveled parking
lot. The sign in the church yard says, “Osage Baptist Church: Founded 1874.” I
pastored that small congregation for the three years I was in seminary, and
right across the road from that church is a big pasture, and a ways off the
road in that pasture is a big, ranch-style house. It was the home of a young
couple in our church; the husband was a part of one of the largest farming
families in Central Texas, so a great deal of the land around the church
belonged to them (including a portion of the church yard, which they weren’t
too bashful about reminding the rest of us every so often).
Well, as it
usually goes when you’re the new pastor, folks would have us over for lunch
after church, and this couple invited Sallie and me across the road and the
cattle guard to their home one Sunday. I remember it being a nice, big house. The
outside was covered with stone like a great many of the houses in Texas. Big,
metal stars decorated the outside of the house and John Deere tractors
decorated the inside on wallpaper and fabric. I distinctly remember their
dining room table: it was long enough to sit ten or twelve people, a custom
made piece of furniture for big, family meals. But what really stands out in my
mind about their house was what they called their “safe room.” It was a room in
the very center of the house, ten feet long by ten feet wide, with poured,
reinforced, foot-thick concrete walls and ceiling, and a one-inch thick steel
door with two bolted locks. What was inside that room, however, proved to be
even more interesting to me: there were large cans of food, big croker sacks of
beans, several five-gallon bottles of drinking water, more than a few guns
(rifles, shotguns, and pistols), ammunition boxes, and at least two tanks of
oxygen. At first, they told me it was their storm shelter, but when I pointed
to the guns and asked if the tornadoes shoot at you in Texas, or when I pointed
at the oxygen tanks and asked why they’d need those after a tornado, they said,
“Well, it’s more of a safe room,” and (with a tone of complete seriousness) the
wife said, “We want to be ready.” “Ready?”
I remember thinking, “Looks more to me like you’re not ready, but afraid.”
There are a lot of folks these days who are afraid.
You know, the
Bible says something to the effect of “Do not be afraid” over 100 times (there
are some folks who count as many as 365),[1] yet it seems to me as if
fear is the trending topic of our day, as if being afraid is on par with being
wise. Sure, the Bible tells us that God says “Do not be afraid,” but there are
just so many things we’re told
to be afraid of: terrorists, climate change, ISIS, illegal immigrants, gay
marriage, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, refugees, the Zika virus, Pokémon,
Muslims, and whatever new threat has come across the wire today. We’re supposed
to be scared of so many things these days that I’m just glad you all had the
courage to leave your homes this morning! The Scriptures say at least 100 times
“Do not be afraid,” yet we’re told everyday about one more thing of which we
ought to be scared, and the sad news is so many of us who call ourselves
Christians are terrified!
Now, we say we’re scared of the sorts of things I’ve
already mentioned, things cable news and over-paid, over-exposed preachers tell
us to be afraid of, but you know, I can’t help but ask why we’re afraid of such things. Perhaps we’re afraid we’ll
be harmed, that something bad will happen to us, that our homes and all our
possessions will be taken from us, that our lives will somehow be made worse.
If that’s the case, if we’re afraid of losing our stuff, then the words of
Jesus in verse 33 ought to give us a
bit of instruction: “Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that
do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and
no moth destroys.” Here, Jesus reminds us (as he so often does) that this
way of life, this “kingdom living” isn’t about possessions anyway; it isn’t
about storing up for ourselves treasures on earth. In fact, Jesus goes so far
as to say, “sell all you’ve got and give what you make off of it to the poor.”
I’m sure that was about as popular then as it is now! He also says, though, to
make purses that won’t wear out—not because those of us who follow Jesus are
going to make bank on this whole “being a disciple” thing, but because the
treasure of God’s kingdom is more than you can count and more than you could
spend—mostly because it isn’t a currency of monetary value; it’s a currency measured
in faith, hope, and love, and those things never wear out. They’re the sorts of
things you can only have more of the more you give them away.
I think it’s what Jesus says next, though, that gets to
the heart of our fear really: “For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.” You see, I’m convinced that if our “treasure” is
in our stuff—our possessions, our titles, our opinions, our sense of
self-righteousness—then that’s what we’ll really care about when the pressure
is on; we’ll want to protect our stuff, to make a stand to protect our opinions,
to protect ourselves and our so-called “way of life.” But the message of the
gospel is so radically counter to that, so emphatically opposed to “self.”
That’s hard for us to get over, because for so long so many of us were told
that the gospel is about me! That it’s simply about going to heaven when we
die, about protecting ourselves from the eternal torment of hell. For some of
us, the gospel is about getting the treasures of this world in the next one,
about getting all that we’ve ever wanted on earth when we get to heaven. Is it
any wonder, then, that when we hear tough words like these from Jesus we try to
explain them away, allegorize them, say they’re only symbolic or a metaphor? Is
it any wonder then, that we’ll say things like, “Well, what Jesus really means here is...” in an
attempt to get out of giving up ourselves?
Really, though, I think that’s what lies at the heart of
our fear: selfishness. I’m finding the longer I live that most (if not all) of my
problems can be traced back to that need to promote and protect self (I may
even go so far as to say it’s the true “original sin”). Therefore, I think the
way we cure our fear is by letting go of self; the way we prove the gospel to
the world is by letting go of self. You see, it’s by denying self that we can
truly be ready: ready to share
the love of Christ with a world that needs to hear the hope of the truth of
God’s love, ready to be the hands and feet of Jesus in those places in the
world where children are hungry, where people are lonely, where families are
sick, where people are marginalized and tortured, ready to bring God’s kingdom
on earth as it is in heaven. Ready, because we’re no longer concerned about
what is safe or profitable or secure. Ready, because that is what we are called
to be: ready, not afraid.
I mean, Jesus begins this section with the words "Do
not be afraid,” and then in verse
35 he seems to change direction: "Be dressed for action and have your
lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the
wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and
knocks.” “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus says, “Be Ready.” "Be
dressed for action and have your lamps lit:” don’t be like those who
scour the pages of Scripture looking for codes, for signs, for numbers, and
hidden messages that will reveal when the world will come crashing to a
gruesome end. Be ready now for the work before you even now! Don’t be like
those who cramp their necks from staring at the sky, waiting for the stars to
fall and the elect to be called up to heaven, get busy bringing heaven and the
love of God to folks on earth now! Be ready! Be like those who are waiting for
their master to return, those who are about the work of straightening up the
place, or setting things right, of doing what the master has called them to do.
Be ready like them, not sitting on the couch, staring out the window so you can
look busy when you see his car pull in the driveway. Be ready now by doing what
the master has already called you to do!
Jesus says, “Do not be afraid…Be ready.” But he doesn’t mean
stockpiling rations or ammo, or building a zombie-proof bunker. He doesn’t mean
making sure you’ve got all your doctrinal “I’s” dotted and all your theological
“T’s” crossed. No, what he means is be ready to be found doing what we as
disciples of Christ have always been called to do: share the love of God with
the whole world. And here’s the crazy part to all of this: when we are found
ready, found doing what Christ calls us to do, it is then that Christ returns
that service back to us yet again. Listen to what he says in verse 37: “Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes;
truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he
will come and serve them.” It’s a complete reversal of roles! The
master—upon finding his servants ready—serves them! Our reward for being ready,
for being about the work of God’s kingdom, of bringing about the kingdom on
earth as it is in heaven, is the selfless service of the God of the universe;
the ever-deepening relationship God has established with us in Christ continues
on into eternity.
Now, the final verses of our text this morning lend
themselves to “doomsday prophets” and those who like to use the “end of days”
as a tool of fearful manipulation. They are, however, words from Jesus that are
about so much more than making sure one has his or her ticket when the train
for heaven blows its whistle. No, Christ’s words are about being ready, about
doing the work he has called us all to every day, for we don’t know when our
time may be up. Jesus says, “But know this: if the owner of the house had
known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be
broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an
unexpected hour." It’s a bit of a shift from his previous words,
but the message carries over. Be ready doing the work of the kingdom, for you
don’t know when Christ will return, when your time is up, when you’ll have to
give an account for what you’ve done with the gift you’ve been given, when you
may have to answer for your selfishness or for the selfless ways you’ve given
hope and shown love.
Honestly, I think it boils down to this: Are you afraid,
or are you ready? Are you afraid of the woes of the world as they’re told to
you from your television of computer screen, or are you ready to fearlessly
welcome the stranger, love your enemy, and pray for those who are different?
Are you afraid of the eternal separation from God that is hell, or are you
ready to spend every day from this one on living in the light of eternal love
that only grows as you give it away? Are you afraid of losing everything you
have, afraid of being hurt, afraid of being broken, afraid of being wrong,
afraid of letting go, or are you ready to give away all you have, ready to risk
loving those who may not love you back, ready to be broken so the light of
Christ may shine through, ready to be a fool to the world so you may be wise in
Christ, ready to let go of all that seeks to drag you down to keep you from
doing and being what you know Christ is calling you to, ready to love and be
loved by the God who knows you far better than you could ever know yourself?
Are you afraid, or are you ready?
"Do not be afraid…for it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God wants you to have
the hope, joy, and love that comes from a life lived in the reality of the
kingdom of heaven. It’s God’s good pleasure for you to have that reality even
now, even in the midst of all that might scare you. "Do not be afraid,” for
God has come near in Christ Jesus, and Christ is calling each and every one of
us to “be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."
Are you afraid, or are you ready? Amen.
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