May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST 12
PROPER: 16C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 26,2001
TEXT: Luke 13:2-30 – When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord open to us,’ then in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!’ . . . . . . Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.
ISSUE: The passage from Luke is a very daring and abrupt passage. It is frightening when we think of Jesus as the great forgiver, and a man of great compassion. Fact of the matter is that Jesus probably did not make such sweeping condemnation of so many. The passage is greatly influenced by the early church. But it still confronts us with the fact of our mortality, and that there is a final time of reckoning, when we must embrace Jesus Christ, in a very distracting world, if we are to be in partnership with him, and legitimate insiders with Christ at the Messianic Banquet.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
We are faced with one of those rather difficult texts from the Gospel of Luke today. Someone comes to Jesus asking, ‘Will only a few be saved?” We get a feeling from Jesus’ response that indeed the entrance is narrow, and a significant number of people may well be left out side in the cold. It is frightening to be left out, left behind, or forgotten. Most of us from the time we are very young can be quite devastated if we are left out, or don’t get an invitation to a birthday party, or don’t get picked to be a cheer leader or a member of the varsity team. Being a part of certain social groups and organizations is important to us. I remember well being forgotten by an old college buddy with whom I had been close in school. It was a real put down when I ran into him re-introduced myself to him. “David who?” he said.
In Jesus’ time there were two schools of thought concerning the Kingdom of God. There was the overall Palestinian view that the Messianic Banquet of God, when the Messiah would come and end of time was imminent that all Jews, by virtue of their status as the chosen race, would be worthy of the Kingdom of God. The Pharisaic party held a much narrower concept of participation in the Kingdom. They believed that only a remnant of Israel would remain worthy to enter the Messianic Kingdom of God. So, someone puts the question or issue before Jesus, “Lord, will only a few be saved.” Jesus does not give a direct answer, but as usual proposes several parables. The entrance to the Kingdom is through a very narrow door, and there is likely to quite a traffic jam on the day of reckoning. Some will make it others will not. Finally, the door will be closed. Some who are standing outside will demand entry. And the master of the house will say, “I don’t know where you come from.” And they will reply, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” You see the belief was that if you ate and drank at table fellowship with someone, you were an insider with them, and they feel worthy to enter. But still, the master will say, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evil doers.” This scene and parable is much like the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Five of whom on waiting for the bridegroom are not prepared for his arrival, and must go in search of oil for their lamps, and get locked out of the wedding reception. (From Matthew’s Gospel.)
Most biblical scholars are in agreement that such a sweeping statement of condemnation is not typical of the kind of thing that Jesus would have said. By the time Luke and Matthew were writing their accounts of the Gospel, the Judean religious sect was separating itself from the Christian sect of Jews. The Christians lay a real insult on the Judean sect saying, “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you se Abraham and Issac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.” They see their fellow Jews as evildoers by their injustice and their involvement with the Romans, and their refusal to accept Jesus as Lord.
Today we must be very very careful about our interpretations of these passages. They can come across as anti-Semitic, condemning our Jewish brothers and sisters for not accepting Christ and seeing them as evildoers. Adolph Hitler had a hay day with these kinds of racial slurs and interpretations. These passages in Luke and Matthew were written at a time of great crisis of the Jewish people. Their land was conquered by the Romans, and they were oppressed and the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. People in stress cling fast to their ancient beliefs. The early Christians being thrown out of the synagogues for their belief in Jesus as Christ, and separated from their families created enormous stress for them. As a result you have these conflicts reflected in the Scripture. We have to sort out what was basically the point for Jesus who proclaimed and looked forward to the day of the realization of the Kingdom of God.
Basically, Jesus says that the door to the Kingdom is narrow. Salvation, belonging to God and being with God in a very distracting, corrupt, noisy world, requires careful aim. There’s a lot of pushing and shoving that goes on. You must take careful aim. The bull’s eye on the target is small compared to the overall target. When you want to see the moon or the stars through a telescope; you have to focus in on the object to see it clearly, otherwise everything is blurred. To view the sights through binoculars, you must focus and bring in the object carefully in focus. Without careful aim and clear focus you will miss the bull’s eye, you will not see clearly what you are longing for. Another way of understanding what Jesus was talking about is the fact that if you have too much baggage you can’t get through the narrow door in the crowd. When Moses and the Jewish community left Egypt to go to the Promised Land, they girded up their loins, but they didn’t take the pyramids with them! The Promised Land was sufficient unto itself.
We must eradicate the anti-Semitic aspects of this passage and focus on its meaning for us as the church in the world today. The passage declares that the way to the Kingdom of God, the Realm of God is to be close and intimate with Jesus Christ as our Lord. We are called upon to have more than a mere acquaintance with Jesus Christ. The people in the parable claim to have eaten with Jesus and listened to him teach in the streets. Even today many people believe there was a Jesus and have heard of him, but the issue is not mere acquaintance; it is in knowing him, and trusting in the ways and teachings of our Lord. It is in doing the Word, and not being passive listeners only. The issue is a matter of being transformed in our being as compassionate, merciful, loving and caring people.
The way to Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God today is difficult because we do carry so much baggage with us. We have the idea that wealth and possessions are a matter of and the measure of our success. That American, Western, obsession can keep us from hitting the target of what is truly meaningful in life. An obsession with working to have so many benefits, a world of addicts to success, can play havoc with our family life as well as our time for spiritual life and reflection on what is really important.
In many of our Christian and Episcopal Churches today, we become very comfortable with our forms of worship, our traditions, and our relationship with the church buildings. We see our churches as holy places. But what is so important is that the liturgies and the beauty and comfort of the church buildings, and our emotional attachments to them don’t become an end in them selves. Instead of the liturgy and the church building, and our traditions becoming the means of proclaiming the Christ and the Kingdom of God, the tradition becomes the end in itself. We saw that happen some years ago when we changed the Prayer Book. The Book became the idol for many of us. Archbishop Cramner was probably turning over in his grave at all the commotion. In its time the Prayer Book met the needs of the reformed church in 1549, putting the worship, liturgies, scriptures into the language of the people that was manageable for the time. The Book was never intended to be the eternal expression of the church’s worship. Nothing is eternal and everything changes. Today we have to find new ways to know Jesus Christ and to express that message of love, forgiveness, transformation, resurrection and new hope.
Unfortunately many who are terrorists excuse their actions on the basis of and in the name of religion: Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. Intensely fixed and unbending morality can lead the way to vicious self-righteousness. We were all once slaves and sinners who come to know the forgiveness and love of God.
The church building becomes an idol. A kind of sentimental attachment gives us a false sense of well-being. We become connected with the Christian faith in a vicarious way. If great grandfather worshipped here, or was baptized in the font, then we feel a sense of Christian belonging, or if our great Aunt was the organist here for 40 years, that gives a false sense of privilege as a Christian. Becoming attached to these kinds of things, without union with Jesus Christ we drastically miss the point. We, as Christians, are not a chosen people by virtue of our heritage. Our Christianity is not based upon mere acquaintance with Jesus’ teachings or with participation in prescribed liturgical forms. Neither are we Christians worthy of the Kingdom of God in terms of what we did in the past. I was an acolyte when I was a kid, or I used to teach Sunday School was a fine contribution to the church, but we live in the present. Jesus Christ lives now, and we must continue to live in him.
We are living in a world in crisis today, and we must be careful about what we embrace. Not too unlike the time of Jesus and the old Roman world, paganism is a reality. Virtuous living, common decency, and civility are not exactly the concerns of our world. There are many things that distract us from what God in Christ calls us to be and do as partners in the Kingdom. Consumerism, busyness, a whole host of demanding events would consume us, but the gate to the Kingdom, the Realm of God, is narrow. On the other side of the gate is the feasting of love, of compassion, mercy that imposes new hope for the world. We might be truly astonished at who is there from the east, west, north, and south, but finding ourselves missing the mark.
Eugene Peterson’s translation of this passage is worth hearing:
Sunday, August 26, 2001
Sunday, August 19, 2001
PENTECOST 11
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST 11
PROPER: 15 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 19, 2001
TEXT: Luke 12:49-56 - Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" . . . . . . . . . .You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
ISSUE: Jesus comes to enliven the world. He is the fire and catalyst to awaken the world to its need for a new understanding of God as love and compassion, and even more specifically for an awareness of a world in crisis. The church today along with its members is often lulled into being passive. We look for a peace and quiet, not a peace that his vital to the well being of all of God's creation. We know how to interpret and think, but are passive about the being channels through which God's grace may flow effectively. We stand under the judgment of being or not being the faithful followers of Christ Jesus.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
One of the interesting things about our worshipping together here in the Parish Hall, while the entrance to the main church has been blocked by the construction of the new entrance and ramp, has been in some of the remarks some of our people have made. I know it is not the most worshipful kind of setting, but a number of people have remarked at how good it is for us to have had during the summer this intimate setting. We long for and enjoy camaraderie, peacefulness, and harmonious activities. It’s even been nice to have the kids in the other close by section, and enjoy last week the installation of new acolytes with the other acolytes standing behind them in support. The activity of our children helps us, I think, to know we are alive. We also are inclined to think of our church as that peaceful place where we come to be set apart from the anxieties, the stresses and strains of our lives to find comfort and peace.
To that hope for peace and quiet, for fun, welcoming, and harmonious fellowship comes this reading from Luke that seems to shatter any hope of peace and quiet. Luke has Jesus saying, "Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you but division." These are some of the discomforting words of the Gospels, which we do not particularly like to hear, and which many preachers do not like to preach about, particularly on a day like today in our hopes for unity and peace in the parish. We cherish the more comfortable aspects of the Scriptures and prefer to avoid the more troublesome passages. Yet it is still our Bible and we shall have to live with it. Since so many of us are here today, maybe it is good for us to be challenged by some of the more difficult aspects of the Scriptures, because maybe we do come for solace only and not for strength, for pardon only, and not for renewal, repentance and change. Maybe we do gather here even for social reasons and support among like thinking people, and people of our own class and status.
The passage begins with Jesus saying, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" Fire is often a symbol of judgment in the Scriptures. John Pilch, a biblical scholar and student of Middle Eastern Culture, has an interesting interpretation of this saying attributed to Jesus. The word in for "earth" in Aramaic (the native language of Jesus) and in the context of his passage may also mean “earth-oven.” Thus, the passage can read, "I came to bring fire to the earth-oven.” The earth-oven was a common stove in the Jesus' time. It was made of earth and lined with salt. The salt was a catalyst, which held in the heat and was also mixed with the fuel which was camel dung to make the oven stay hotter longer.
Remember too, that Matthew's account of the Gospel has Jesus saying to his disciples, "You are the salt of the earth, (possibly earth-oven), but if salt loses its saltiness there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it." (Matt.5:13 and Luke 14:34 is similar) Thus, the salt is the catalyst that makes the over hold heat and makes the fuel burn steady, long, and hot. Now putting these things together what you have Jesus saying in effect is that He is the fire to light the oven, and his people are the salty catalyst that keeps the energy and the vitality of the mission of Christ, of God, alive, vital and intense. There is that partnership of Jesus and his disciples who are to be the extension of his mission that is an integral part of this passage. There is also a verse in the Psalm (82:6) that strikingly reinforces this whole concept: "Now I say to you, 'You are gods, and all of you children of the Most High.'" You have Christ Jesus coming to enliven his own and uniting them in his mission. He is the fire; his people are the catalyst, and out of Christ working in them the oven bakes the bread for the Messianic Banquet in the Kingdom of God which is to come. The bread in the oven of God will feed God’s people.
The Messianic Kingdom, however, does not come easy. Just as the Jewish people left slavery in Egypt, their pilgrimage to the Promised Land was not with great cost to them. The fought others as well as fighting and complaining within themselves. Yet the distant goal was the Promised Land, a land of eventual peace and hope. In Jesus period of time for anyone to follow him, it meant great sacrifice. It meant giving up a great deal of security. It created tremendous uproar. It often meant sons being against fathers and fathers against their sons. It meant contention and fighting among mothers and daughters and all the daughter-in-laws within a family. To step out of or challenge one's assigned place was to risk death. A strict social hierarchy was what characterized this period in history. Jesus' ministry was establishing a new order: "My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and obey it." (Luke 8:21) Jesus' ministry and mission created significant havoc and challenged the culture of his time significantly. It was a significant risk to leave the old order behind and join in the new community of Jesus Christ.
Now many of us like what we call peace and quiet. The very idea that Jesus' ministry and being in union with him brings turmoil is not a comfortable picture for us. As Episcopalians we are noted for saying that peace is a matter of doing things decently and in order. Peacefulness in the Scriptures was anything but orderliness. The Biblical Middle Eastern culture was one of noisy, active, and spontaneous. According to John Pilch, kids screaming and yelling, adults shouting and quarreling, people singing, and everything in delightful disarray was peace. Peace and quiet might be nice for a spell, and an occasional Sabbath rest is important. But life can become very dull, uninteresting, even deadly, if we become too interested in decency and order, still quietness, and maintaining outmoded traditions. Real peace is to be in union with God, and servants with Christ as the channels of God’s grace for the world.
Jesus brought fire for the purpose of purification, energy, vitality, and renewal. He calls his people into that partnership. When lives become too quiet and peaceful, we refer to ourselves being in a “rut.” Churches and Christians that become cozy and comfortable may well be in a rut, and missing the vitality of their calling to be involved in human need and the vivacious spreading of the Gospel. We miss and/or dismiss the part about being on fire with Christ, the catalyst of Christ in the community and world. In so much of our modern life, the religious life is set apart from the world rather than involved in its commotion. We permit a chaplain to pray at Congressional gatherings, but we often resist having the chaplain criticize government. Presidents, like George Bush, Sr. will call upon church leaders, like the former presiding bishop, to bless their wars, but they do not want to hear or welcome protestations of their wars.
It was not easy for the Jews to leave Egypt behind. Once they left on the road to freedom they often reminisced about the past and the good things they had left behind. It is not easy for us either to leave behind old traditions and comfortable settings to face the uncertainty of the future, and to become involved in human needs and concerns. Yet a fiery Lord calls us to a mission that challenges the times and to be outspoken and energetic in our efforts. “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” Jesus said. He knew well the possibility of his demise. Passages and events like this Gospel reading today were the stuff of what his crucifixion was made.
Around us is a world that is violent, that has little respect for human life as a precious gift from God. The tragic death of the woman robbed and murdered this week, and the children killed by stray bullets in our streets is an example of a lack of concern for human life that has infiltrated our society. Understanding of what is best for the common good, for the poor is often thwarted by greed, and an outrageous obsession many people have for their own proud individualism, obsessive needs. We've come from a background that has not been ecologically concerned, and the potential for ecological disaster is very real. Constant fish kills in the Chesapeake Bay, and declining species may well be signs and signals of pitiful future for the earth. Vicious acts of racism, brutality, abuse, reveals a land in crisis. In so many instances we are seeing the decline of men, fathers, who are not being with their children in such a way as to bear witness to spirituality and faithfulness their children need. In many of these areas a battle needs to be waged that challenges the world to hear and experience the Word of God. The faith needs to be promulgated in our homes as well as in our chambers of government and local communities that extends the hope of a loving compassionate God to all people. There can be no real peace until the battle has begun, until the fiery Christ is allowed to lead us.
The passage concludes with Jesus telling his people they are not stupid. You can tell, he says, when it is going to rain. When the wind is blowing in off the Mediterranean Sea, the clouds on the horizon in the West, you know well it's going to rain. If the wind is from the south, off the desert regions, you can predict it is going to be hot as hell. If you have sense enough to figure these things out, why aren't you bright enough to know that your present way of life is in need of change, and you have to do something. If it's going to rain you get out your umbrella. If it's hot you prepare to crank up the air-conditioning. If you sit in a church where there are only 12 people in the pews at the main service, you have to know something has to happen, or change. If you live in a country of violence, where children murder one another, you know there is a need for recovering and renewing values that teach the sacredness of life and respect. Peace and quiet and going into retreat is neither the calling of the Christian nor of the church. Jesus said, "I have come to bring fire to the earth-oven." John the Baptist declared "I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." (Luke 3:16) Today's reading is one not about grace, and forgiveness, and love in the strictest sense. It is about Judgment. And Judgment passages are always the more uncomfortable ones. But we are in fact under the judgment. We have been given the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ. We have been given a real and living Lord to be with us and in our midst. We have been called into a wonderful and meaningful partnership with our Lord. To stand outside of that calling and ministry is to place us into a position of a meaningless peace and solace. Do any of us really want to rest in peace? Eternity is a very long time. Yet to live as members of Christ, to be the salt of the earth, to be the catalyst for good, for hospitality, for the yearning for peace isn't that more like real living. To be mothers and fathers who witness to the magnificence of God in their children’s lives, and to encourage them in their awe and wonder of God has to be one of the greatest callings on the earth. To be people who yearn for an end to racial injustice and an end to prejudice, and who work for a blossoming earth are grand callings. To enter the fray of violence, abusiveness, and injustice is surely terrifying. Yet to enter it with Christ is our peace. To be truly at peace is to be with God with the feeling that we are at one with God and his Will is real peace. To join in the noise and the yelling and the screaming, the singing for joy, to join in the arguing and the struggles to know what God in Christ would have us do is the real peace with Christ and in Christ.
We're gathered today enjoying the closeness and intimacy. But it's not just in knowing one another that's so important, as it is to see ourselves as a community of people who are in the journey and the pilgrimage to be partners in the way of Christ. Come Lord Jesus, and light our fire!
(This sermon is a re-working of PN11-15C, August, 1998)
SEASON: PENTECOST 11
PROPER: 15 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 19, 2001
TEXT: Luke 12:49-56 - Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" . . . . . . . . . .You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
ISSUE: Jesus comes to enliven the world. He is the fire and catalyst to awaken the world to its need for a new understanding of God as love and compassion, and even more specifically for an awareness of a world in crisis. The church today along with its members is often lulled into being passive. We look for a peace and quiet, not a peace that his vital to the well being of all of God's creation. We know how to interpret and think, but are passive about the being channels through which God's grace may flow effectively. We stand under the judgment of being or not being the faithful followers of Christ Jesus.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
One of the interesting things about our worshipping together here in the Parish Hall, while the entrance to the main church has been blocked by the construction of the new entrance and ramp, has been in some of the remarks some of our people have made. I know it is not the most worshipful kind of setting, but a number of people have remarked at how good it is for us to have had during the summer this intimate setting. We long for and enjoy camaraderie, peacefulness, and harmonious activities. It’s even been nice to have the kids in the other close by section, and enjoy last week the installation of new acolytes with the other acolytes standing behind them in support. The activity of our children helps us, I think, to know we are alive. We also are inclined to think of our church as that peaceful place where we come to be set apart from the anxieties, the stresses and strains of our lives to find comfort and peace.
To that hope for peace and quiet, for fun, welcoming, and harmonious fellowship comes this reading from Luke that seems to shatter any hope of peace and quiet. Luke has Jesus saying, "Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you but division." These are some of the discomforting words of the Gospels, which we do not particularly like to hear, and which many preachers do not like to preach about, particularly on a day like today in our hopes for unity and peace in the parish. We cherish the more comfortable aspects of the Scriptures and prefer to avoid the more troublesome passages. Yet it is still our Bible and we shall have to live with it. Since so many of us are here today, maybe it is good for us to be challenged by some of the more difficult aspects of the Scriptures, because maybe we do come for solace only and not for strength, for pardon only, and not for renewal, repentance and change. Maybe we do gather here even for social reasons and support among like thinking people, and people of our own class and status.
The passage begins with Jesus saying, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" Fire is often a symbol of judgment in the Scriptures. John Pilch, a biblical scholar and student of Middle Eastern Culture, has an interesting interpretation of this saying attributed to Jesus. The word in for "earth" in Aramaic (the native language of Jesus) and in the context of his passage may also mean “earth-oven.” Thus, the passage can read, "I came to bring fire to the earth-oven.” The earth-oven was a common stove in the Jesus' time. It was made of earth and lined with salt. The salt was a catalyst, which held in the heat and was also mixed with the fuel which was camel dung to make the oven stay hotter longer.
Remember too, that Matthew's account of the Gospel has Jesus saying to his disciples, "You are the salt of the earth, (possibly earth-oven), but if salt loses its saltiness there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it." (Matt.5:13 and Luke 14:34 is similar) Thus, the salt is the catalyst that makes the over hold heat and makes the fuel burn steady, long, and hot. Now putting these things together what you have Jesus saying in effect is that He is the fire to light the oven, and his people are the salty catalyst that keeps the energy and the vitality of the mission of Christ, of God, alive, vital and intense. There is that partnership of Jesus and his disciples who are to be the extension of his mission that is an integral part of this passage. There is also a verse in the Psalm (82:6) that strikingly reinforces this whole concept: "Now I say to you, 'You are gods, and all of you children of the Most High.'" You have Christ Jesus coming to enliven his own and uniting them in his mission. He is the fire; his people are the catalyst, and out of Christ working in them the oven bakes the bread for the Messianic Banquet in the Kingdom of God which is to come. The bread in the oven of God will feed God’s people.
The Messianic Kingdom, however, does not come easy. Just as the Jewish people left slavery in Egypt, their pilgrimage to the Promised Land was not with great cost to them. The fought others as well as fighting and complaining within themselves. Yet the distant goal was the Promised Land, a land of eventual peace and hope. In Jesus period of time for anyone to follow him, it meant great sacrifice. It meant giving up a great deal of security. It created tremendous uproar. It often meant sons being against fathers and fathers against their sons. It meant contention and fighting among mothers and daughters and all the daughter-in-laws within a family. To step out of or challenge one's assigned place was to risk death. A strict social hierarchy was what characterized this period in history. Jesus' ministry was establishing a new order: "My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and obey it." (Luke 8:21) Jesus' ministry and mission created significant havoc and challenged the culture of his time significantly. It was a significant risk to leave the old order behind and join in the new community of Jesus Christ.
Now many of us like what we call peace and quiet. The very idea that Jesus' ministry and being in union with him brings turmoil is not a comfortable picture for us. As Episcopalians we are noted for saying that peace is a matter of doing things decently and in order. Peacefulness in the Scriptures was anything but orderliness. The Biblical Middle Eastern culture was one of noisy, active, and spontaneous. According to John Pilch, kids screaming and yelling, adults shouting and quarreling, people singing, and everything in delightful disarray was peace. Peace and quiet might be nice for a spell, and an occasional Sabbath rest is important. But life can become very dull, uninteresting, even deadly, if we become too interested in decency and order, still quietness, and maintaining outmoded traditions. Real peace is to be in union with God, and servants with Christ as the channels of God’s grace for the world.
Jesus brought fire for the purpose of purification, energy, vitality, and renewal. He calls his people into that partnership. When lives become too quiet and peaceful, we refer to ourselves being in a “rut.” Churches and Christians that become cozy and comfortable may well be in a rut, and missing the vitality of their calling to be involved in human need and the vivacious spreading of the Gospel. We miss and/or dismiss the part about being on fire with Christ, the catalyst of Christ in the community and world. In so much of our modern life, the religious life is set apart from the world rather than involved in its commotion. We permit a chaplain to pray at Congressional gatherings, but we often resist having the chaplain criticize government. Presidents, like George Bush, Sr. will call upon church leaders, like the former presiding bishop, to bless their wars, but they do not want to hear or welcome protestations of their wars.
It was not easy for the Jews to leave Egypt behind. Once they left on the road to freedom they often reminisced about the past and the good things they had left behind. It is not easy for us either to leave behind old traditions and comfortable settings to face the uncertainty of the future, and to become involved in human needs and concerns. Yet a fiery Lord calls us to a mission that challenges the times and to be outspoken and energetic in our efforts. “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” Jesus said. He knew well the possibility of his demise. Passages and events like this Gospel reading today were the stuff of what his crucifixion was made.
Around us is a world that is violent, that has little respect for human life as a precious gift from God. The tragic death of the woman robbed and murdered this week, and the children killed by stray bullets in our streets is an example of a lack of concern for human life that has infiltrated our society. Understanding of what is best for the common good, for the poor is often thwarted by greed, and an outrageous obsession many people have for their own proud individualism, obsessive needs. We've come from a background that has not been ecologically concerned, and the potential for ecological disaster is very real. Constant fish kills in the Chesapeake Bay, and declining species may well be signs and signals of pitiful future for the earth. Vicious acts of racism, brutality, abuse, reveals a land in crisis. In so many instances we are seeing the decline of men, fathers, who are not being with their children in such a way as to bear witness to spirituality and faithfulness their children need. In many of these areas a battle needs to be waged that challenges the world to hear and experience the Word of God. The faith needs to be promulgated in our homes as well as in our chambers of government and local communities that extends the hope of a loving compassionate God to all people. There can be no real peace until the battle has begun, until the fiery Christ is allowed to lead us.
The passage concludes with Jesus telling his people they are not stupid. You can tell, he says, when it is going to rain. When the wind is blowing in off the Mediterranean Sea, the clouds on the horizon in the West, you know well it's going to rain. If the wind is from the south, off the desert regions, you can predict it is going to be hot as hell. If you have sense enough to figure these things out, why aren't you bright enough to know that your present way of life is in need of change, and you have to do something. If it's going to rain you get out your umbrella. If it's hot you prepare to crank up the air-conditioning. If you sit in a church where there are only 12 people in the pews at the main service, you have to know something has to happen, or change. If you live in a country of violence, where children murder one another, you know there is a need for recovering and renewing values that teach the sacredness of life and respect. Peace and quiet and going into retreat is neither the calling of the Christian nor of the church. Jesus said, "I have come to bring fire to the earth-oven." John the Baptist declared "I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." (Luke 3:16) Today's reading is one not about grace, and forgiveness, and love in the strictest sense. It is about Judgment. And Judgment passages are always the more uncomfortable ones. But we are in fact under the judgment. We have been given the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ. We have been given a real and living Lord to be with us and in our midst. We have been called into a wonderful and meaningful partnership with our Lord. To stand outside of that calling and ministry is to place us into a position of a meaningless peace and solace. Do any of us really want to rest in peace? Eternity is a very long time. Yet to live as members of Christ, to be the salt of the earth, to be the catalyst for good, for hospitality, for the yearning for peace isn't that more like real living. To be mothers and fathers who witness to the magnificence of God in their children’s lives, and to encourage them in their awe and wonder of God has to be one of the greatest callings on the earth. To be people who yearn for an end to racial injustice and an end to prejudice, and who work for a blossoming earth are grand callings. To enter the fray of violence, abusiveness, and injustice is surely terrifying. Yet to enter it with Christ is our peace. To be truly at peace is to be with God with the feeling that we are at one with God and his Will is real peace. To join in the noise and the yelling and the screaming, the singing for joy, to join in the arguing and the struggles to know what God in Christ would have us do is the real peace with Christ and in Christ.
We're gathered today enjoying the closeness and intimacy. But it's not just in knowing one another that's so important, as it is to see ourselves as a community of people who are in the journey and the pilgrimage to be partners in the way of Christ. Come Lord Jesus, and light our fire!
(This sermon is a re-working of PN11-15C, August, 1998)
Sunday, August 12, 2001
PENTECOST 10
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST 10
PROPER: 14 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 12, 2001
TEXT: Luke 12:32-40 – “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.”
ISSUE: The passage for the day calls the Christian Community to a faithfulness, or loyalty, to God. It calls us to the appreciation of a new wealth and hope for the future, a new lifestyle. We must not allow the world to burglarize the Gospel of its generous love and compassion and our trust in the way of God, who comes to serve us as Christ serves his disciples and parties with them.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Each of the readings for this day is really a call and reminder for the Christian Community to be strong in faithfulness, loyalty, toward God. They call us to trust the love and compassion of God as our way of life. Our lifestyle is to be one of faith, a grasping and holding on to the way of God. The Hebrew Scripture lesson is about Abraham believing and having faith in God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. His salvation is in his faithfulness, and even in his old age, Abraham becomes the father of many nations, whose descendants are as many people as there are stars in the sky.
The same call to faithfulness, and loyalty was a significant part of the early Christian Community. The reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews was again a reminder of the faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham & Sarah. Their faith brought them to a new land and to new hopefulness. Martin Luther’s teachings, which triggered the Reformation, were based on the fact that salvation comes from trust, loyalty, faith, in God, beyond anything else including good deeds. The impact of the teaching is that our life style as Christians is based on trust in God.
Jesus’ teachings were also clearly a call to faithfulness, trust, loyalty, and a constant union, alertness, and readiness for participation in the Kingdom, or Realm of God. It was believed by the early church that the Christ would come again to usher in that Kingdom for the faithful. The problem for the early church was that most people had very little sense of future. By the time that Luke is writing, there was concern that Christ had not yet come. For the people of this time, there was greater concern about the past, but things changed so slowly, and life’s imperatives were with the present. The great issue for these people was with getting their daily bread for this day. But again Luke’s Jesus challenges his followers to an on going anticipation of the future when the Kingdom of God would come. They were to remain faithful, loyal, and fixed.
The gospel lesson calls upon the disciples to be unencumbered, and be faithful to what God calls them to do and be. Jesus encourages his followers to be unencumbered. Sell all your possession and compassionately give to the poor. Recall and recover what true wealth is. Make for yourselves purses that don’t wear out, the spiritual purse of faith in the treasure that is God’s.
Jesus as was his usual custom, sets up a parable. Be ready for the Kingdom of God, the treasure of God, in the same way servants prepare for a bridegroom to bring home his bride for the great party and reception. Keep a watchful eye, be alert, dressed for action, and keep your lamps lit in the event he comes in the middle of the night. Have the house ready for his arrival. Be ready to open the door immediately when God’s the bridegroom comes and knocks. Like so much of Jesus’ teaching, here comes the great reversal in this parable and beatitude: “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.” What this beatitude is saying is that the coming of the Kingdom of God, the coming of the Christ is nothing less than one grand party for the faithful! “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Dump everything that gets in the way of that great gift of his compassionate love and grace.
The passage concludes with one more saying attributed to Jesus: “If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let is house be broken into.” That makes sense. If you know there is going to be a burglary, you protect you property. Now what is the meaning of all of these statements for the world today?
Let me suggest that we all have our cherished and firmly embraced life styles. Many of us enjoy a relatively affluent life style, especially as Americans. We like big houses and big cars, and big bank accounts. Some people’s life style is an all out devotion to their career. Some people choose a single foot-loose and fancy-free life style. Some people are very family devoted. We are quite adamant about finding that which makes us most happy and personally satisfied, and that life style is what we treasure. But the gospel address to our this world treasure is that it not exclude the love and compassion, and the incorporated life style of God that is revealed in the lifestyle of Jesus Christ. This is the lifestyle of faith in God and in Jesus Christ, which reveals a treasure that is at the very heart of the meaning of life. This lifestyle is the one that reveals that love of God is at one with the love of others, and the way of compassion, the way of forgiveness, which is the way of the Kingdom of God. What is at the heart of selling all you possession is a matter of dumping everything that keeps us from being the people of God and servants with Jesus Christ. This faithful servanthood and service is our basic treasure where our heart is meant to be.
Like the servants of the bridegroom, we as Christians in the world today are called upon to be faithful servants trusting and living in a way that facilitates the constant perpetual coming of the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ into the world. Morning, noon, and night we remain aware of what Christ brought and continues to want to bring to the world, that renewing love and faithful servanthood. In the parable of the bridegroom who comes to his servants you can’t help be startled by the fact that he serves and services his servants. He ties his girdle up tight and waits on them and turns the servants into the honored wedding guests. In the same way that Jesus who shares in that last supper with his disciples, ties a towel around himself, gets down on the floor, and begins to serve his disciples washing their feet. This action is not based on their goodness; they weren’t particularly good. But for the most part they were faithful to him. He throws them a party, gives them food and drink and washes their feet! Ever since that time, Sunday after Sunday for thousands of years now, the faithful have been invited to the Eucharistic party to be fed by the loving and compassionate Lord, Jesus Christ.
Be careful folks. If you suspect the thief is coming, you stand on guard to protect your property. You install a burglar alarm. You don’t want what you value to be stolen. We Christians today have to be care, alert, on guard, and committed in our faithfulness to Jesus Christ our Lord and the continual coming of His Kingdom, lest we allow the world to burglarize the Gospel treasure that we embrace to be so incredibly valuable. It is the Gospel faith that liberates the oppressed and demands justice and human dignity for all. It is the Gospel that calls for love of all people. It is the gospel that tells us we are never beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness and God’s undeserved grace. It is the Gospel that leads us to love one another, that is loving others, and knowing that we ourselves are valuable and loved.
This gospel gets burglarized by apathy, and by other values that seem to be important like consumerism and wealth, cherished possessions, and traditions sometimes. Jesus constantly challenged many of the traditions of the Pharisees and Sadducees of his time. Our obsessive infatuation with Prayer Books and rituals, and other such traditions have often stifled and stolen away our ability to see more important things. Our holding on to racial jokes and slurs, steals away the Kingdom of God’s love for all in our present world. Our desire to solve every national threat or problem with powerful weapons hardly contributes to peace without vengeance in the world. Our greed for more than our share of the resources of the world with gas guzzling cars and the castles that are built as single family dwellings steal away the awareness of our call to be a generous people of God. There are many community organizations, and athletic events that steal away our time to be in Christian community and our time with God. Fast moving technology steals away the time it takes to evaluate what we are really doing regarding human life, and where it will take us.
If we are faithful and loyal to God through Jesus Christ, be on guard, be watchful, and know what the real treasure is. Live in the Kingdom now, and anticipate the ongoing coming of Christ into our lives, that guides us, and desires to party and with us, lest we allow what is the world’s thievery to steal it away and leave us in the darkness of emptiness.
SEASON: PENTECOST 10
PROPER: 14 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 12, 2001
TEXT: Luke 12:32-40 – “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.”
ISSUE: The passage for the day calls the Christian Community to a faithfulness, or loyalty, to God. It calls us to the appreciation of a new wealth and hope for the future, a new lifestyle. We must not allow the world to burglarize the Gospel of its generous love and compassion and our trust in the way of God, who comes to serve us as Christ serves his disciples and parties with them.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Each of the readings for this day is really a call and reminder for the Christian Community to be strong in faithfulness, loyalty, toward God. They call us to trust the love and compassion of God as our way of life. Our lifestyle is to be one of faith, a grasping and holding on to the way of God. The Hebrew Scripture lesson is about Abraham believing and having faith in God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. His salvation is in his faithfulness, and even in his old age, Abraham becomes the father of many nations, whose descendants are as many people as there are stars in the sky.
The same call to faithfulness, and loyalty was a significant part of the early Christian Community. The reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews was again a reminder of the faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham & Sarah. Their faith brought them to a new land and to new hopefulness. Martin Luther’s teachings, which triggered the Reformation, were based on the fact that salvation comes from trust, loyalty, faith, in God, beyond anything else including good deeds. The impact of the teaching is that our life style as Christians is based on trust in God.
Jesus’ teachings were also clearly a call to faithfulness, trust, loyalty, and a constant union, alertness, and readiness for participation in the Kingdom, or Realm of God. It was believed by the early church that the Christ would come again to usher in that Kingdom for the faithful. The problem for the early church was that most people had very little sense of future. By the time that Luke is writing, there was concern that Christ had not yet come. For the people of this time, there was greater concern about the past, but things changed so slowly, and life’s imperatives were with the present. The great issue for these people was with getting their daily bread for this day. But again Luke’s Jesus challenges his followers to an on going anticipation of the future when the Kingdom of God would come. They were to remain faithful, loyal, and fixed.
The gospel lesson calls upon the disciples to be unencumbered, and be faithful to what God calls them to do and be. Jesus encourages his followers to be unencumbered. Sell all your possession and compassionately give to the poor. Recall and recover what true wealth is. Make for yourselves purses that don’t wear out, the spiritual purse of faith in the treasure that is God’s.
Jesus as was his usual custom, sets up a parable. Be ready for the Kingdom of God, the treasure of God, in the same way servants prepare for a bridegroom to bring home his bride for the great party and reception. Keep a watchful eye, be alert, dressed for action, and keep your lamps lit in the event he comes in the middle of the night. Have the house ready for his arrival. Be ready to open the door immediately when God’s the bridegroom comes and knocks. Like so much of Jesus’ teaching, here comes the great reversal in this parable and beatitude: “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.” What this beatitude is saying is that the coming of the Kingdom of God, the coming of the Christ is nothing less than one grand party for the faithful! “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Dump everything that gets in the way of that great gift of his compassionate love and grace.
The passage concludes with one more saying attributed to Jesus: “If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let is house be broken into.” That makes sense. If you know there is going to be a burglary, you protect you property. Now what is the meaning of all of these statements for the world today?
Let me suggest that we all have our cherished and firmly embraced life styles. Many of us enjoy a relatively affluent life style, especially as Americans. We like big houses and big cars, and big bank accounts. Some people’s life style is an all out devotion to their career. Some people choose a single foot-loose and fancy-free life style. Some people are very family devoted. We are quite adamant about finding that which makes us most happy and personally satisfied, and that life style is what we treasure. But the gospel address to our this world treasure is that it not exclude the love and compassion, and the incorporated life style of God that is revealed in the lifestyle of Jesus Christ. This is the lifestyle of faith in God and in Jesus Christ, which reveals a treasure that is at the very heart of the meaning of life. This lifestyle is the one that reveals that love of God is at one with the love of others, and the way of compassion, the way of forgiveness, which is the way of the Kingdom of God. What is at the heart of selling all you possession is a matter of dumping everything that keeps us from being the people of God and servants with Jesus Christ. This faithful servanthood and service is our basic treasure where our heart is meant to be.
Like the servants of the bridegroom, we as Christians in the world today are called upon to be faithful servants trusting and living in a way that facilitates the constant perpetual coming of the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ into the world. Morning, noon, and night we remain aware of what Christ brought and continues to want to bring to the world, that renewing love and faithful servanthood. In the parable of the bridegroom who comes to his servants you can’t help be startled by the fact that he serves and services his servants. He ties his girdle up tight and waits on them and turns the servants into the honored wedding guests. In the same way that Jesus who shares in that last supper with his disciples, ties a towel around himself, gets down on the floor, and begins to serve his disciples washing their feet. This action is not based on their goodness; they weren’t particularly good. But for the most part they were faithful to him. He throws them a party, gives them food and drink and washes their feet! Ever since that time, Sunday after Sunday for thousands of years now, the faithful have been invited to the Eucharistic party to be fed by the loving and compassionate Lord, Jesus Christ.
Be careful folks. If you suspect the thief is coming, you stand on guard to protect your property. You install a burglar alarm. You don’t want what you value to be stolen. We Christians today have to be care, alert, on guard, and committed in our faithfulness to Jesus Christ our Lord and the continual coming of His Kingdom, lest we allow the world to burglarize the Gospel treasure that we embrace to be so incredibly valuable. It is the Gospel faith that liberates the oppressed and demands justice and human dignity for all. It is the Gospel that calls for love of all people. It is the gospel that tells us we are never beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness and God’s undeserved grace. It is the Gospel that leads us to love one another, that is loving others, and knowing that we ourselves are valuable and loved.
This gospel gets burglarized by apathy, and by other values that seem to be important like consumerism and wealth, cherished possessions, and traditions sometimes. Jesus constantly challenged many of the traditions of the Pharisees and Sadducees of his time. Our obsessive infatuation with Prayer Books and rituals, and other such traditions have often stifled and stolen away our ability to see more important things. Our holding on to racial jokes and slurs, steals away the Kingdom of God’s love for all in our present world. Our desire to solve every national threat or problem with powerful weapons hardly contributes to peace without vengeance in the world. Our greed for more than our share of the resources of the world with gas guzzling cars and the castles that are built as single family dwellings steal away the awareness of our call to be a generous people of God. There are many community organizations, and athletic events that steal away our time to be in Christian community and our time with God. Fast moving technology steals away the time it takes to evaluate what we are really doing regarding human life, and where it will take us.
If we are faithful and loyal to God through Jesus Christ, be on guard, be watchful, and know what the real treasure is. Live in the Kingdom now, and anticipate the ongoing coming of Christ into our lives, that guides us, and desires to party and with us, lest we allow what is the world’s thievery to steal it away and leave us in the darkness of emptiness.
Sunday, August 5, 2001
PENTECOST 9
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST 9
PROPER: 13C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 5,2001
TEXT: Luke 12:13-21 – Parable of the Greedy Farmer
“Take care! Be on guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
ISSUE: The parable of the rich fool, i.e. greedy pagan, tells of a man who is given a miracle. Grace upon grace has been poured upon him. His assumption is that it is all his own doing, and stores it all up for himself. Meaninglessness is the result. It speaks to us of how grace and gifts of God are bestowed upon us, and how we need to consider living our lives. Christ the giver of grace died, only to rise again. His life is the life of meaning.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There was a TV show a few years back called “Early Edition.” It was the story of guy who could miraculously know the future by reading a mysterious newspaper, which told the news events of the following day. He would then work at changing the bad news of the future, saving persons who were to die in a fire, or some such impending doom. David Buttrick, an homiletics professor, and author tells a similar story of a man who had the gift of reading the newspaper on one occasion that gave him a miraculous advance warning of the future, one year in advance. In David Buttrick’s story, the man turns immediately to the Business Section to read the stock tables. He plans carefully what stocks to buy for the future so that he can make a real killing in the market by the end of the year. He then notices in the Obituary Section that his name appears listing him as having died the day before. The story sounds a little bit like the parable of the Rich Farmer in today’s gospel reading from Luke.
Luke’s parable is set up by having two brothers come to Jesus to arbitrate an inheritance dispute. Such disputes at the time could lead to bloody feuding. The brothers asking him to arbitrate their conflict honor Jesus. However, Jesus takes a more humble stance by refusing to be seen as a judge. At the same time he is really avoiding being caught in the middle of a conflict over greed. He uses the occasion to teach a parable about greed, and the uselessness of the abundance of possessions, at least greed according to the culture of that time.
Jesus tells of the farmer who has a remarkable, bountiful harvest of crops. The land miraculously produces a very abundant crop. The crop abundance is so enormously abundant that the farmer does not know where to store it all. He decides to do what every good capitalist would do. He has the small barns torn down, and builds much larger barns. He is very proud of his good sense. He then says to himself, or to his Soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But then God speaks to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things have prepared, whose will they be? So it is with those who store up treasure for themselves, but are not rich toward God.”
We modern Americans may have some trouble understanding what’s going on in this parable. We find it very acceptable to save up and prepare for the future. We like the idea of relaxing, being merry, and having a secure nest egg prepared for our future retirement and old age. Money in the bank for us is usually considered to be a sign of success, achievement, and status in our culture. People who do not prepare for the future are seen in our culture as the real fools. Some people will go to extremes to attempt to store up wealth, and become very anxious about their future, even participating in illegal schemes and conniving to accumulate wealth for themselves. But I would suppose that the most of us are fairly honest, but we really do have an affection for financial stability that keeps us guarded and cautious in our dealings, spending, and giving.
In the first century, however, the thinking was very different. By and large the Gospel of Luke says in effect that anyone who is wealthy or greedy cannot be a Christian. “Blessed are the poor, but woe to you who are rich.” (Lk. 6:20ff) Also in Luke when it comes to discipleship, Jesus says: “None of you can by my disciple unless he give up everything he has.” Remember also the Rich man who comes to Jesus and declares that he has kept all the commandments, but what should he do to gain eternal life? And Jesus replies: “There is still one more thing you need to do. Sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven: then come and follow me.” But when the man heard this, he became very sad, because he was very rich. Anyone who gains any wealth in this period and who was an honorable person, a godly person, living in this very limited economy would share the wealth. The Rich Farmer in the parable is not punished for building barns by dying. Dying is a part of life. But his life is not an honorable one, because he is just greedy keeping the wealth all for himself. He is totally self-centered. God speaking in the parable refers to him as a “Fool.” A fool in the Bible is a person who does not believe in God, and has no spirituality. Psalm 14:1 reads: “Fools say to themselves, ‘There is no God.’” The Hebrew Scriptures in Leviticus declare that the land belongs to God, and the people are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it. (Lev. 25:23) The rich farmer has stolen from God and kept it all for himself without giving and sharing with those in need. He could have made something honorable and made his life honorable and worthwhile, but he is a pagan fool.
In our world that sees the Rich Fool as responsible, it is hard for us to translate the meaning of the Parable of Jesus and the thinking of the early church into some kind of relevance. We are inclined to think that the Bible and teachings of Jesus can be dreary. Why not do some eating, drinking, merry making, and saving for the future? After all a little paganism is fun, never hurt anybody, and we Americans have and do work hard for the good life. On an Apartment Building complex and advertisement was written the slogan, “You deserve the life style!” Why not rent a limousine for the prom or squander some money in Atlantic City? We deserve the fun, and religious teachings ought not be so up tight.
My understanding of the ministry of Jesus and his teachings hardly come across to me as particularly up-tight, or lacking in joy. Repeatedly Jesus is found at the heart of banquets, and wedding feasts. He even challenged the more up-tight types, Pharisees and Scribes of his time. But his teachings and parables at times were annoying by their startling nature that dared to challenge people to examine their lives and lifestyles.
The Parable of the Rich Farmer tells of a miracle. Droughts were often the curse of the time, and years of poor and modest crops were common. Jesus tells of a miracle crop that a farmer is given. It is far more abundance than he could possibly of dreamed to be possible. There was not enough room to store it, and the usual barns are not big enough. I suggest that Jesus is not talking merely about material abundance, but about grace. The farmer is given more than he knows what to do with. God’s land and ground has produced more than he knows how to handle. But the poor soul tries to keep it all for himself rather than to share it.
Needless to say, many people today are very taken with their affluence, and use the abundance of the moment to indulge themselves in so many possessions that they don’t need. We have become as Americans a very self-centered, self-indulging pagan hedonistic culture. The parable demands that we look at that wealth and our lives and our self-giving with the same attention we give to our self-indulgence.
What we Americans have today is based not so much on their own hard work, but on the hard work of their ancestors. Some of our richness comes as an inheritance. Invested wealth is also multiplied not by our own doing but by the hard work of poorer laborers in our own country and in foreign lands. There is a sense in which in spite of the great pride we have in ourselves, we are all actually welfare recipients in one way or another. The hard work and bounty of others has fallen to us without our deserving.
The parable is about grace, the bounty of God that comes to us without our work or deserving. God’s grace comes to us and through us that we can extend it, and be channels of the grace of God. We are stewards not of our own, but stewards of what God has given to us. Everything we have is by the grace of God. And God’s chosen are the channels and agents of the grace. The Rich Fool Farmer doesn’t get it. Often we don’t get it either.
What are we meant to be as a church, as a community of God’s people? We have been given a faith that tells us we are forgiven for our sins and loved by a compassionate and merciful God. And we are called upon to proclaim by word and deed that message of bountiful grace. Visit the sick, raise the dead, give food and drink to the hungry and thirsty. Go to the world with the message of love, baptize, immerse the world in that love. Yet we often maintain the message for a select few, and indulge ourselves with the deadly saying, “Isn’t it nice to be a part of a small church.” But if anybody should find their way here and drop in, we’ll accept them, so long as they don’t want to change anything.
We are all so richly endowed with life itself, with bodies and minds that think and reason. We are given the bounty of rational thinking, with talents and abilities, and even with considerable wealth. We have so much to share that God has given to us, and such a wonderful spirited message to proclaim. We keep it to ourselves. We have to maintain our own buildings and grounds. We have Bible School for ourselves. We train our own, but do we train them in the real message of seeking and loving others. Taking up the cross, willingness to die for others, to give to others is the spirituality and the way and the very thing that Jesus himself did. In pouring out of himself and God’s redeeming grace, we see real life with meaning, purpose, value, worth. Investing in the world, he saved the world and brought the grace of God’s love and forgiveness for all.
SEASON: PENTECOST 9
PROPER: 13C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 5,2001
TEXT: Luke 12:13-21 – Parable of the Greedy Farmer
“Take care! Be on guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
ISSUE: The parable of the rich fool, i.e. greedy pagan, tells of a man who is given a miracle. Grace upon grace has been poured upon him. His assumption is that it is all his own doing, and stores it all up for himself. Meaninglessness is the result. It speaks to us of how grace and gifts of God are bestowed upon us, and how we need to consider living our lives. Christ the giver of grace died, only to rise again. His life is the life of meaning.
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There was a TV show a few years back called “Early Edition.” It was the story of guy who could miraculously know the future by reading a mysterious newspaper, which told the news events of the following day. He would then work at changing the bad news of the future, saving persons who were to die in a fire, or some such impending doom. David Buttrick, an homiletics professor, and author tells a similar story of a man who had the gift of reading the newspaper on one occasion that gave him a miraculous advance warning of the future, one year in advance. In David Buttrick’s story, the man turns immediately to the Business Section to read the stock tables. He plans carefully what stocks to buy for the future so that he can make a real killing in the market by the end of the year. He then notices in the Obituary Section that his name appears listing him as having died the day before. The story sounds a little bit like the parable of the Rich Farmer in today’s gospel reading from Luke.
Luke’s parable is set up by having two brothers come to Jesus to arbitrate an inheritance dispute. Such disputes at the time could lead to bloody feuding. The brothers asking him to arbitrate their conflict honor Jesus. However, Jesus takes a more humble stance by refusing to be seen as a judge. At the same time he is really avoiding being caught in the middle of a conflict over greed. He uses the occasion to teach a parable about greed, and the uselessness of the abundance of possessions, at least greed according to the culture of that time.
Jesus tells of the farmer who has a remarkable, bountiful harvest of crops. The land miraculously produces a very abundant crop. The crop abundance is so enormously abundant that the farmer does not know where to store it all. He decides to do what every good capitalist would do. He has the small barns torn down, and builds much larger barns. He is very proud of his good sense. He then says to himself, or to his Soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But then God speaks to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things have prepared, whose will they be? So it is with those who store up treasure for themselves, but are not rich toward God.”
We modern Americans may have some trouble understanding what’s going on in this parable. We find it very acceptable to save up and prepare for the future. We like the idea of relaxing, being merry, and having a secure nest egg prepared for our future retirement and old age. Money in the bank for us is usually considered to be a sign of success, achievement, and status in our culture. People who do not prepare for the future are seen in our culture as the real fools. Some people will go to extremes to attempt to store up wealth, and become very anxious about their future, even participating in illegal schemes and conniving to accumulate wealth for themselves. But I would suppose that the most of us are fairly honest, but we really do have an affection for financial stability that keeps us guarded and cautious in our dealings, spending, and giving.
In the first century, however, the thinking was very different. By and large the Gospel of Luke says in effect that anyone who is wealthy or greedy cannot be a Christian. “Blessed are the poor, but woe to you who are rich.” (Lk. 6:20ff) Also in Luke when it comes to discipleship, Jesus says: “None of you can by my disciple unless he give up everything he has.” Remember also the Rich man who comes to Jesus and declares that he has kept all the commandments, but what should he do to gain eternal life? And Jesus replies: “There is still one more thing you need to do. Sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven: then come and follow me.” But when the man heard this, he became very sad, because he was very rich. Anyone who gains any wealth in this period and who was an honorable person, a godly person, living in this very limited economy would share the wealth. The Rich Farmer in the parable is not punished for building barns by dying. Dying is a part of life. But his life is not an honorable one, because he is just greedy keeping the wealth all for himself. He is totally self-centered. God speaking in the parable refers to him as a “Fool.” A fool in the Bible is a person who does not believe in God, and has no spirituality. Psalm 14:1 reads: “Fools say to themselves, ‘There is no God.’” The Hebrew Scriptures in Leviticus declare that the land belongs to God, and the people are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it. (Lev. 25:23) The rich farmer has stolen from God and kept it all for himself without giving and sharing with those in need. He could have made something honorable and made his life honorable and worthwhile, but he is a pagan fool.
In our world that sees the Rich Fool as responsible, it is hard for us to translate the meaning of the Parable of Jesus and the thinking of the early church into some kind of relevance. We are inclined to think that the Bible and teachings of Jesus can be dreary. Why not do some eating, drinking, merry making, and saving for the future? After all a little paganism is fun, never hurt anybody, and we Americans have and do work hard for the good life. On an Apartment Building complex and advertisement was written the slogan, “You deserve the life style!” Why not rent a limousine for the prom or squander some money in Atlantic City? We deserve the fun, and religious teachings ought not be so up tight.
My understanding of the ministry of Jesus and his teachings hardly come across to me as particularly up-tight, or lacking in joy. Repeatedly Jesus is found at the heart of banquets, and wedding feasts. He even challenged the more up-tight types, Pharisees and Scribes of his time. But his teachings and parables at times were annoying by their startling nature that dared to challenge people to examine their lives and lifestyles.
The Parable of the Rich Farmer tells of a miracle. Droughts were often the curse of the time, and years of poor and modest crops were common. Jesus tells of a miracle crop that a farmer is given. It is far more abundance than he could possibly of dreamed to be possible. There was not enough room to store it, and the usual barns are not big enough. I suggest that Jesus is not talking merely about material abundance, but about grace. The farmer is given more than he knows what to do with. God’s land and ground has produced more than he knows how to handle. But the poor soul tries to keep it all for himself rather than to share it.
Needless to say, many people today are very taken with their affluence, and use the abundance of the moment to indulge themselves in so many possessions that they don’t need. We have become as Americans a very self-centered, self-indulging pagan hedonistic culture. The parable demands that we look at that wealth and our lives and our self-giving with the same attention we give to our self-indulgence.
What we Americans have today is based not so much on their own hard work, but on the hard work of their ancestors. Some of our richness comes as an inheritance. Invested wealth is also multiplied not by our own doing but by the hard work of poorer laborers in our own country and in foreign lands. There is a sense in which in spite of the great pride we have in ourselves, we are all actually welfare recipients in one way or another. The hard work and bounty of others has fallen to us without our deserving.
The parable is about grace, the bounty of God that comes to us without our work or deserving. God’s grace comes to us and through us that we can extend it, and be channels of the grace of God. We are stewards not of our own, but stewards of what God has given to us. Everything we have is by the grace of God. And God’s chosen are the channels and agents of the grace. The Rich Fool Farmer doesn’t get it. Often we don’t get it either.
What are we meant to be as a church, as a community of God’s people? We have been given a faith that tells us we are forgiven for our sins and loved by a compassionate and merciful God. And we are called upon to proclaim by word and deed that message of bountiful grace. Visit the sick, raise the dead, give food and drink to the hungry and thirsty. Go to the world with the message of love, baptize, immerse the world in that love. Yet we often maintain the message for a select few, and indulge ourselves with the deadly saying, “Isn’t it nice to be a part of a small church.” But if anybody should find their way here and drop in, we’ll accept them, so long as they don’t want to change anything.
We are all so richly endowed with life itself, with bodies and minds that think and reason. We are given the bounty of rational thinking, with talents and abilities, and even with considerable wealth. We have so much to share that God has given to us, and such a wonderful spirited message to proclaim. We keep it to ourselves. We have to maintain our own buildings and grounds. We have Bible School for ourselves. We train our own, but do we train them in the real message of seeking and loving others. Taking up the cross, willingness to die for others, to give to others is the spirituality and the way and the very thing that Jesus himself did. In pouring out of himself and God’s redeeming grace, we see real life with meaning, purpose, value, worth. Investing in the world, he saved the world and brought the grace of God’s love and forgiveness for all.
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