Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19);
Luke 11:1-13
I don’t know how you live, whether you lock your doors in the day or in the night. When I grew up nobody seemed to lock anything much. It is the custom now often to alarm houses and lock them, though often the back door stays unlocked during the day, especially if you live in the country like we do.
We still trust our neighbors to look out for us. They do. Whenever we are away from home we know Josephine, who lives over the road, will keep an eye on our place and will check out even the sound of someone coming on our property. There are some funny tales from friends about her care. She is our 70+ year old security alarm.
We seem to be increasingly a culture of fear. Once we told fairy tales…Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Bean Stalk. They all have a motif of fear. If you are not good, not careful, something will get you. If you are ingenious enough you will get free.
Just before we got obsessed on TV with who has talent, there came police dramas, Vampire movies, where even the innocent should be afraid. Yet wait long enough, good and just things happen.
Perhaps this strengthens us when real fear comes. We know where to turn…Police, fire, ambulance. Perhaps it also makes us numb to the cost of fear. We grow less sensitive to the stranger as a possible source of good. Perhaps it stunts our compassion, our actions of kind regard.
If you think about it fear is often used to control us…fear of punishment, of embarrassment, of loss of place in society. Fear underlies peer pressure, the notion we will not fit in or be cared for.
The upside of this fear is it is more like regard. Show regard for better choices and you will be fine, unpunished, valued.
When Scripture speaks of “Fear of the Lord” it is this sort of fear.
It is better translated as reverent regard for the Lord. It holds out an understanding that we live inside a relationship of expectation. God expects something of us and we, of God; behaviors that display who is superior and who is dependent. Right relationship yields what we might expect.
In the Isaiah reading we see God in a judgment stance. The people’s worship is viewed as empty and thus rejected. This is worship without the attendant actions…justice and care for the weak.
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Isaiah 1:16-17
If this was a political sermon I would be raising issues about the choices our government is making to lower human services. But I do not know you that well and will not go there.
There is an invitation to argue this out with God. It is an invitation into relationship. The promise is that the people will see their sin and find forgiveness (Sins are crimson but will be cleaned to the white of wool) and growth are the reward.
In the Gospel two weeks ago, Jesus spoke of God, who cares for daily needs.
In last week's Gospel we learned how greed offends God in the story of brothers fighting over possessions; in the farmer who had an over abundance and so built bigger barns. Thus his occupation with greed obliterated God from his life.
Jesus warns if this is your life, woe to you when the end comes if you have neglected a charitable outlook and actions. He ends on a note of fear which is correct if one forgets daily regard, God’s charity, kindness reflected in one's actions, and thus falls prey to God’s justice.
Then in today’s Gospel Jesus speaks to his closest followers thus:
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. (Abandon greed, avoid over attachment to possessions, care for the poor and those in need). Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:32-34
In this world where we alarm our houses and alarm our hearts, Jesus says be careful you may lose something of greater value, your relationship to each other, to God, to eternity.
This is no empty or easy teaching for Jesus. It is already clear that the religious authorities are set on edge by Jesus’ teaching. They will arrange his arrest and take his life. They will take it because the reign of God is costly and He is proclaiming its demands and its power to save our deepest persons…our souls, that part where we long to align with God’s will.
Jesus' followers will be equally disturbing to those in authority. Choices will have to be made and these will set some at dis-ease.
They might expect others are out to get them. The early followers will choose to sell possessions to aid each other. That will be the cost of discipleship, following Jesus.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That treasure is relationship.
This then is followed by two teachings on preparedness for God’s coming and God’s will. Light the lamps of charitable care, be vigilant and action-ready for the call of God as if you are waiting for a master’s return. Jesus states that God always comes at God’s schedule. No one expects the coming, but one cannot be ready and active unless you live ready and active.
Elsewhere in the Gospel Jesus teaches that those who enter God’s reign are not the ones who could see no one in need to whom they should respond. Rather it is those who actively clothe the naked, feed the hungry, house the homeless, and/or visit the bereaved or the lonely. In other words those who look out for the powerless, the broken, those in any need. Actions of mercy are essential to God’s people and reign. Remove the alarms from our hearts, he teaches, and then act.
There are things we fear in life. Our health can vanish away. Sometimes we fear that our homes will be made unsafe. We seem always to fear the unknown terrorist these days.
There are criminal elements…and also police and firemen and medical teams. You can stay stuck in this fear if you want.
Or you can live by its antidote: Regard God, care for your neighbor, look for those who hurt or have less than you, care for them.
That care is like a lamp and it will lead you to the heart of God.
There alone you are always safe.
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