do not be afraid: 12 sunday after pentecost

Other readings for this week also referenced:

Genesis15:1-6

Hebrews11:1-3, 8-16

the holy gospel according to luke, the 12^th chapter.  glory to you, o lord.

³²Do not be afraid,

       little flock,

              for it is your Father's good pleasure

                     to give you the kingdom. 

       ³³Sell 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. 

       ³⁴For where your treasure is,

              there your heart will be also.

             

³⁵Be dressed for action

       and have your lamps lit; 

³⁶be 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. 

       ³⁷Blessed 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. 

       ³⁸If he comes during the middle of the night,

              or near dawn,

              and finds them so,

                     blessed are those slaves.

             

³⁹But 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. 

       ⁴⁰You also must be ready,

              for the Son of Man is coming

                     at an unexpected hour."

the gospel of the lord.  praise to you, o christ.

-----

 

a while back, i heard a riddle filled with wisdom that kindergarteners could get in a heartbeat, but confounded many adults who heard it:

what is greater than god, more evil than the devil, the poor have it, the rich don't need it, and if you eat it, you'll die?

do you know the answer?

while i disagree with the middle part about the poor and the rich, the answer is:

nothing.  nothing is greater than god; nothing is more evil than the devil; and if you eat nothing, you’ll die.

so in the face of that wisdom, that nothing is greater than god, what do we have to fear?

“do not be afraid.”

over and over, it seems, god reassures us that we do not need to be afraid.  perhaps we are a bit slow at catching on.  there are, after all, plenty of reasons in this world to be afraid.

politics seem to be based in fear mongering—or maybe it’s just a fear that nothing can get done in dc.

the weather grows ever more extreme and erratic.

for me, the list of things i need to do—from packing, cleaning, and good-byes to approval interviews, first call paperwork, classes, and assignment—seems to get scarier every day.

do not be afraid.

i only have so much money, so many resources, so much time left.  it’s not enough—it’s never enough. 

there are so many things in life to fear: spiders, heights, violence, an unlived life, injury, unemployment, death, and disease.  and even still, jesus says, “do not be afraid, little flock.”

"do not be afraid, abram, i am your shield; your reward shall be very great." 

do not be afraid, abram. "look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." "so shall your descendants be."

do not be afraid for god, your god, is the architect and builder of the great heavenly city, prepared for you.

do not be afraid, little flock, it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kindom. 

do not be afraid, [names], emily, for i am with you.

the thing about fear is that although it can get a bad reputation, it can also be necessary—even helpful to our evolution and development.  my fear of spiders, for example, keeps me from getting bit by poisonous spiders.  other fears are evidence perhaps of a lack of trust and might need to be overcome.  that’s where faith and courage come in.

you see, you can’t have courage or be courageous unless you first have fear.  and fear is a natural first response to an unknown or something we’re not familiar with.  courage is acknowledging our fears and facing them—doing it anyway.  when we were at confirmation camp, the campers and adults had the chance to do the high ropes course.  while i was watching them, the most impressive ones weren’t the ones who did the course or the climbing wall the fastest, but rather the ones who were afraid, and still made the climb—still tried to do the course—facing their fears head-on. 

in today’s reading from genesis, abram comes out with his fear that he will have no offspring—that his heir will not be his own child.  he tells god, and when god responds, he trusts in god’s promise for his life.  that is faith: trusting in god and in god’s promises for our lives, even when it’s hard or scary.

do not be afraid, god has already given you all that matters.  do not be afraid, salvation is for you all.  do not be afraid, money and possessions, or the lack thereof, are not greater, or more important, or more powerful than god.

god’s desire for us all is abundance—love and community.  and god provides this.  jesus’ words of comfort are that  “it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kindom.” 

all that is left is to sell our possessions and give alms. 

while i think that that would be easier than packing up the parsonage to move to chicago, i don’t know how practical that is for my ability to live in chicago.  but, if the invitation is to re-examine my attachment to my possessions—to figure out where my treasure—and therefore my heart—is; is it in heaven?  in my room?  in a bank?  i can wrestle with those questions.

i can think seriously about what material possessions i value, what non-material things i value, and then think about where they are.  do i store them up here on earth?  do i store them in a bank vault or safety deposit box?  do i keep them, like fine china, packed away waiting for an occasion nice enough to use them?  or do i entrust them to god?

when i figure out where my treasures are, then i can consider where my heart is and where i want it to be.  it is our promise from god that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

that’s how our treasures can come in really handy.  it is hard to just start trusting god or to simply decide to love and trust god more.  there’s a lot going on that can make us fearful and distrusting; that can make it hard, but one of the ways we can begin to put our trust, our faith, our heart in god is by putting our treasures there.  giving our money to god, giving our families and ourselves back to god in baptism.  giving our fears and insecurities over to god in prayer.  there are many treasures in all of our lives from toys and money to people and memories.

what is keeping me from entrusting my treasure to god? 

what is it about my treasure that i cling to it so tightly? 

what power closes my hands around my treasure so that they will not open to receive god’s grace: the body and blood of christ, given for me?

there is a quote from archbishop fulton sheen, who lived and served in new york in the early 20^th century.  in the quote, archbishop sheen points out that “you must remember to love people and use things, rather than to love things and use people.”  in our culture we easily learn how to love things and use people.  and perhaps that is why we keep coming back each sunday. 

because it is here that we learn to use things, water, bread and wine, with god’s word, in order to love people.  each week god pours unconditional love and grace upon us, loving us more fully than we can understand, so that we might learn also to love others, and merely use things.  so that our treasure becomes relationships and people, which we can entrust to god along with the things we use.

as i’ve been getting ready to leave this place, to move my things and find new relationships, there are a lot of unknowns in my future, yet each week i am reassured that god knows me, loves me, and feeds me—inviting me anew each week and each day into the waters of baptism and a life of grace.  and so, just as we ourselves have been entrusted to god since our baptisms, all that we have and all whom we love can be put in service to lead our hearts ever closer to god, our Ultimate Treasure.

thanks be to god.

god's abundance is for all-together: 11th sunday after pentecost

the holy gospel according to luke the 12^th chapter.  glory to you, o lord.

¹³Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus],

       “Teacher,

              tell my brother

                     to divide the family inheritance with me.”

¹⁴But he said to him,

       “Friend,

              who set me to be a judge or arbitrator

                     over you?”

¹⁵And he said to them,

       “Take care!

       Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;

              for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

¹⁶Then he told them a parable:

       “The land of a rich man produced abundantly.

              ¹⁷And he thought to himself,

                     ‘What should I do,

                            for I have no place to store my crops?’

              ¹⁸Then he said,

                     ‘I will do this:

                            I will pull down my barns

                            and build larger ones,

                            and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

              ¹⁹And I will say to my soul,

                     ‘Soul,

                            you have ample goods laid up for many years;

                            relax,

                            eat,

                            drink,

                            be merry.’

              ²⁰But God said to him,

                     ‘You fool!

                            This very night

                                   your life is being demanded of you.

                            And the things you have prepared,

                                   whose will they be?’

       ²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves

              but are not rich toward God.”

the gospel of the lord.  praise to you, o christ.

-----

a man is successful.  his land grows more than enough crops and he has nowhere to stockpile the extra harvest.  so, what does he do?  well he doesn’t seek out the advice or guidance of friends and family.  in fact, he doesn’t seem to consult anyone but his own soul as to what to do.  

in a 5-verse parable, he refers only to himself and he does it 13 times! 

in jesus’ time, there were many, many people barely scraping by—or even dying of starvation, because they didn’t have the same access to resources and land that provides abundantly.  so those hearing the parable would be abundantly familiar with: scarcity and with landowners like the one in the parable.  yet, this man never considers them. 

god is the creator of all goodness and life—the one to credit for the harvest, since jesus makes clear that it was the land who provided an abundant harvest, not the man’s farming skills.  god’s appearance must have come as a big surprise then to the man, since he didn’t even thank god for the harvest—let alone giving some of it back to god.

to be clear, some people have more money, more opportunity, more resources than others.  that is the way this world works right now.  it doesn’t make them inherently bad or foolish, nor does it make them inherently good or wise.  what matters and what makes a difference is what happens next. 

this rich man puts his life, his soul into building bigger and better storage areas.  he builds and he builds and when he finally has the large storage facilities he wants, god shows up.  what does god have to say?  “those things into which you have poured your soul are now requiring your soul.”

this man put all his efforts into storing up more and more for himself, without care or concern for his neighbors—without care or concern for the marginalized and impoverished in his community—without care or concern for god who is the creator and source of all things—even this man’s abundant crops.  his sole care and concern is for himself.  he puts so much of himself into these material things that those same material things demand his soul—his life—his being.

he begins the exchange of his life for material gain with a seemingly simple idea for how to keep more of his crop and slowly but surely that selfish concern—that fear of not having enough—that theology of scarcity—consumes him, so that there is nothing to do but inform him that his soul is being demanded of him and it has gotten to the point where there is nothing he can do about it.

rather than trusting that god will continue to abundantly provide for him, the rich man is like the israelites in the desert who tried in vain to save manna only to find it spoiled the next day.  he tries to hoard what he has, unwilling to share or to extend the generosity he first received from god.

we too live in a culture bound up in the sin of materialism.  we always seem to “need” more, bigger, and better things.  we can all fall victim to it in different ways, whether it’s always buying the newest book or dvd, the best technology, the biggest car, or the brightest toy. 

materialism is a problem, made all the more real to me of late as i begin to repack my whole material life up to move back to chicago in two weeks.  materialism is intricately linked with a theology of scarcity.  there is never enough, and what we have is never good enough, so we always “need” bigger and better.  the two go hand in hand.

this theology of scarcity consumes the man in jesus’ parable.  he has plenty and is equipped with more than enough for what he needs, but when he encounters abundance, as the land produces abundantly, he forgoes trust that god provides abundantly, he forgets anyone but himself, and, motivated by a theology of scarcity, he decides that he must build a bigger, better building to accommodate and keep all his grain and crops for himself—for later, for the future.  and once he has finished, the greek states that they—the possessions, the new building-barn—demand his soul—they consume him.

like it or not, he is a part of community.  we all are a part of community.  we are all connected.  what affects one, affects us all and what you do and how you do it affects more than just yourself.  while this man may have only thought of himself, his actions still affected others.  martin luther would call this inward focus “incurvatus in se” or, being curved in on oneself—navel-gazing.  it is typical of many people, and it is luther’s interpretation of the original sin that plagues humanity.  this inward focus can put up blinders to the rest of creation, but it doesn’t stop the inwardly focused person from affecting the rest of creation.  it informs how we understand and process everything from money to relationships to care of creation. 

how do you as an individual think about what you have and what you’re going to do with it?  with the money, resources, and opportunities that you have, do you, as martin luther would say, curve in on yourself—thinking, like this man, only of yourself?  or do you open outward, like a flower in bloom, to focus on your source—your creator—and on those around you?

how do we as a congregation think about what we have and what we’re going to do with it?  are we concerned only with what’s within these walls and the goings on inside this building or do we lift our eyes?  when we as individuals and as a faith community tithe, or give money to the church, we refute the materialistic claim of our culture that our value is in what we possess and we look upward to god. 

we refute the man in today’s parable who trusts and invests in the material things that end up consuming him.

when we make god a priority in our lives, trusting in god’s abundance and god’s economy, we refute the theology of scarcity that rules this world, trusting that in god there is enough and more than enough.  when we trust that god will provide for the ministries god calls us to, we are able to be bold and take risks to follow where god is calling us.  and in this way we lift our eyes from being curved in on ourselves—concerned only for us—to focusing upward toward god, and outward toward our neighbor.

this week i was privileged to join with low-wage workers and faith leaders from across the kansas city metro area to stand up to employers who operate out of a theology of scarcity—unwilling to pay a living wage to their employees.  i couldn’t help but recall this parable with the rich man thinking only of himself.  

together low wage workers, faith leaders, and community members entered into the parable, interrupting the rich man’s self-focused thoughts to show him another way—to tell him that all people need to live and eat.  and the grain he is unwilling to share would go to good use with these workers, who continue to work up to 4 jobs just to make ends meet!

we stood up together against the rich man of our culture, the corporations, those who have curved in on themselves.  we asked him to consider others beside himself.  we stood up and said that there is enough for all people to earn a living wage—that we all deserve human and economic dignity—that we are a part of community.

last week jesus taught his disciples the lord’s prayer.  each week when we worship together, we pray together, “give us today our daily bread.”  as we join together, we are brought into community.  we pray not for my daily bread or my salvation, but for our daily bread—that together we might all have enough, we might all be saved, we might all—together—experience god’s abundance.  and god does provide.  for you and for me and for all of god’s beloved children, if only we are able to lift our eyes upward and outward to share in god’s goodness.

amen.