As the Little Flock Awaits

Call to Worship:

L) The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets.

R)  From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.

L)  Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages.

R) He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people:

L)  “Gather to me this consecrated people, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

U)  And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice. Psalm 50:1-6

Let us prepare our hearts for worship.

Invocation:

Mighty God, everything you do reveals your glory and majesty. Open our eyes to see what you are doing in our lives. Let us marvel at your good gifts and your wise provision. Your acts are amazing Lord. We can not comprehend the number of blessings you pour out on us from day to day. As we gather today to worship and praise your name, we pray that you would fill our hearts, our minds and our souls. Transform us Lord, and make us more like you. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

As the Little Flock Awaits

Today’s scripture lesson, taken from the gospel of Luke can feel like a bit of whiplash. It seems at first glance that Jesus is sort of all over the place in his message. Or perhaps it’s the way that Luke compiled his gospel, taking certain sayings of Jesus and putting them together in a not altogether clear enough order for a message to jump out at us. Matthew may have done a bit of the same thing, in his gospel, compiling Jesus sayings into a cohesive gospel telling, and he was probably a little better at it than Luke was. Nevertheless, from what we will read today, as bumpy as it may seem, I think we can glean a central message, one of perhaps many in this passage that gives us another lesson on what God expects of us as followers of Christ in our time on earth.

If you would like to join in the reading, please turn to Luke 12:32-40, found on page 737 of your pew bibles, and hear first a blessing in Jesus’ role as the Good Shepherd, and then his instructions on making ourselves ready for the ultimate time to come. As we read these verses, try to place yourself in the sandals of Jesus’ disciples, as they hear these words, not knowing, as we do, what is coming as Jesus is still making his way toward his destiny in Jerusalem. From the gospel:

32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

35 “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

39 “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Just previous to this passage, Jesus had told the parable of the rich fool that we read last week, that the things we possess on earth really mean nothing in the context of eternity. He tells them that God values them, humans, more than all other things in nature that God provides for, so there is no need for worry about storing up possessions. In his role as the Good Shepherd he tells them, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Jesus is telling them that they have been liberated from the clutches of pursuing and holding onto possessions and all that that can lead to, and that they can be enabled to reorder their lives.

He encourages them to lighten their load of unneeded possessions, and to “give alms.” The NIV words it, “give to the poor.” But, in this context, it may be more appropriate to think of what Jesus is encouraging them to do by considering what “giving alms” meant. Almsgiving was more than just giving money to the poor in a transactional way. Just a good gesture to buy someone a meal. It was more an expression of true solidarity with others that refuses to let the systemic inequalities of the economy to stand. It is more than just correcting abuses or disadvantages, although those changes are also immediately needed. Jesus’ vision is more radical than that. We’ll come back to this in a little bit.

Jesus was not a stranger to the ancient teaching technique of using hyperbole when he spoke, or exaggerated statements to make points that were not necessarily meant to be taken literally. In ridding themselves of possessions, or lightening their load, Jesus is not telling his disciples that they need to live lives of deprivation or asceticism, a concept of living in severe discipline whereby one must strip oneself of anything that may be considered indulgent or not absolutely necessary to survival. That’s not where he was going with them. Jesus was pointing them toward giving and investing in others, looking beyond themselves and their own needs to helping provide for the needs of others, metaphorically making purses that would store up treasures in heaven forever which would usher them into an unimaginably greater existence.

In one of the whiplash moments of seemingly and abruptly changing the subject, Jesus instructs his disciples to make themselves ready for an upcoming event. Because we know how the story turns out, we know that Jesus is talking about his return in the end times. But, since Jesus knew that the disciples may still have been trying to comprehend some of what he had been saying, particularly about his being betrayed, and killed, he gave them another parable to ponder, actually a couple, one being a parable within a parable.

He used the analogy of a wedding, illustrating for his disciples that they needed to be like the slaves or servants of the master of the household in the parable. Likely, the wedding was being held in the same household where the master lived, with the servants anticipating their master’s return home, or to his bed chamber, from the party. He tells them they need to be ready, dressed for action or service, with lamps lit, and ears attuned for the master’s knock at the door so that they can immediately open it for him. Within this short part of the parable, symbolism abounds. Dressed ready for action, would be like today saying, “roll up your sleeves” to go to work. For the people of the time, it was said to “gird up your loins” which meant pulling up their robe hems, and tucking them under one’s belt, leaving the legs and feet ready to move quickly and more efficiently than if their robes were all the way down. Keeping the lamps lit, would allow the master to enter without being in the dark, and so the servants could see to do their work for him. This sort of reminds me of an advertisement several years ago, you may remember, for Motel 6 spoken by Tom Bodett that used to say, “We’ll leave the lights on for ya.” Symbolically, keeping the lamps lit may be Jesus’ way of telling us to not allow the lamp of the gospel to grow dim.

Remember how we talked a couple of weeks ago that one of the ways to approach a parable is to look for what may have stunned or shocked the listeners of the time? Jesus said that if the servants were found to be in such a ready state when the master came, they would be blessed and rewarded. The shocking part for the ancient listeners is how the master tells the servants, or slaves, that if they are found to be immediately ready for his return when he knocks on the door, he will make himself ready for action, gird up his own loins, tuck in his own robes under his belt, and serve them. That would have been unheard of in those times. A reversal of roles that would be a drastic upset to the established societal pecking order. He may have brought food from the wedding banquet, and he promises that he will reverse roles with the servants, and allow them to recline at the table where he will serve them. This may sound much like Jesus serving his own disciples at the Last Supper, and washing their feet. The master further blessed the servants if they were to be found to be this ready for his return, no matter what time early or late, that he comes. Again, Jesus has radically upset the conventional thinking. For the servants, it was a sure thing that the master would be coming, but they didn’t know when that may be. They just knew that they needed to be attentive, vigilant, ready for their master’s knock.

Using this imagery in the parable, Jesus is telling his disciples, us, that God’s faithful should behave as the household servants, being ready for the coming of the Son of Man at any time. But, no one could know when that may be. Now or thousands of years down the road.

Then Jesus turns on his heels and tells the parable imbedded in this first parable. He uses the image of a householder who doesn’t know that a thief is planning to burglarize his house, and so is not ready when it happens. The warning he gives is perhaps more obvious than the first parable, at least for us. It is stated in the last line of the verses. “You must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

For some, this can be cause for anxiety. Is Jesus telling us that we are to sit around fretting? Are we to only look toward the end times with bated breath? How are we to ready ourselves for the return of the Christ?

Jesus’ instructions in these verses underscores four things:

1) the certainty of his return

2) the uncertainty of its timing

3) the present time being an opportunity for faithful service, and

4) the relationship between our present vigilance and future rewards and punishments.

Number 3 is where today’s scripture places us in the context of number 4. We are in a time that holds opportunity for faithful service to God even as we anticipate the time of eternity. We are not to just look to eternity only without serving God’s purposes in our time on earth. But, what constitutes “faithful service”? How are we to remain ready as Jesus illustrated and do anything else? In just a few short words, he told us in the first verses we read today.

First, to ward off anxiety about Christ’s return and what it will mean, Jesus said, “Do not be afraid, little flock.” The Father wants you to have the kingdom. In my own life, I know I could do so much more, be more confident in myself, and go farther when someone for whom I had love or respect told me they wanted me to do well, that they were in my corner. That is what God feels for us. God wants for us to do well what he knows we can, and God will be delighted to give us his kingdom. That is the grace of God once again being revealed through Christ’s life and words. Lighten your load, and don’t get owned by your possessions by placing too much importance on them in lieu of the kinds of things that turn your heart and mind toward the things that God values. And give alms. Earlier we said that almsgiving is more than just giving money to the poor. And while that kind of giving can help someone in the short run, Jesus meant so much more. His vision was more radical than that.

Norwegian theologian Halvor Moxnes writes, “Jesus wants nothing less than “a reversal of the world as it is presently known and legitimized.” In other words, Jesus calls for a shift away from a world in which some people survive only because more privileged people chose to act morally from time to time. Almsgiving isn’t just about offerings that help those with less money; it is also about sharing power and advantage; working for justice in our systems that too often ensure some will have, but some will not. We’ve heard this stated in other ways in other stories of Jesus, one being “the first will be last and the last will be first.” —Jesus calls for a complete transformative reversal in the world, like the shocking reversal of roles of the master and slaves illustrated in today’s scripture lesson. A reversal in the world which creates “unfailing treasures in heaven”.

Instead of people regarding the lack of clarity about the timetable for the return of Christ as being a problem, perhaps we should see the Lord’s imminent coming as an incentive to constant faithfulness. Jesus encouraged believers to be ready for his return at any time, but to act responsibly and faithfully in the present, knowing that the best preparation for the final day is in conscientious attention to the tasks at hand that reveal the love of Christ in the world. Amen

Pastoral Prayer:

Dear God, we thank you for all the good you have worked in the world, and the blessings you have made possible in our lives. We pray that you bless the offerings we have given earlier this morning to the work of your church, and that our hearts may be revealed to you and that they are found to be faithful to your Word.

Dear God, merciful and gracious Lord, we lift up the names of some who are healing because of your loving touch, and all that you have brought together in their medical teams, knowledge, skills, and medicines that they may be restored to health. We thank you, Lord, for the successes we can see and understand, and we thank you for the prayers that are answered in ways be may not understand. Your wisdom and compassion, we are assured, are always present through your Holy Spirit, in hospital rooms, rehab and therapy centers, that treat not just the physical body, but also the mind and emotions, and also at home where family caregivers lovingly do what they can for their loved ones as they walk these journeys together. We pray for strength, endurance, and patience dear God, for both those who are healing, and those who care for them. And dear God, we thank you for loving us so.

Father, we pray today for peace in the world. War has since humans have inhabited the earth, plagued our existence, and has been the cause of so much heartache, injustice, trauma, and loss. Today, our modern weapons of war have become so powerful, that our very existence is threatened by their deployment. We pray dear God, for an end to war, and that those weapons that spell such disaster, may be not only silenced, but eliminated, never to be built again. We pray that we may find new and better ways through diplomacy, building strong and trusting relationships between countries, through recognizing and acknowledging our differences, and not exploiting them. May our nation and the world work toward more just systems where all people are able to live in dignity, with respect for who they are, with the means to provide for themselves and their families, with healthcare for all as available as the air we breathe. Help us, dear God to remove the reasons we go to war, power struggles, border disputes, financial inequities, and distrust. Be with our leaders to guide them, to illuminate the decision paths you would have them follow so that your will might be done.

Likewise, Lord, we pray for an end to the violence that pervades our nation. Help us to find solutions that will remove the means of violence, and the necessary legislation that will expand mental health care, and systems that can better prevent those who should not have weapons from accessing them. Let us take a break from pursuing how more weapons can be carried onto the streets of our country, to consider what our past decisions have led to. We can’t make these things happen by ourselves, Lord, and we pray that in your wisdom your will may come to pass to save humanity, and your creation. We trust in you, dear God, and you are the reason for our hope that better days can be possible to live free from fear.

Lord, it seems that we live in a time when uncertainty abounds in so many parts of our lives. We may not know what the future holds in our health, in our finances, in our relationships, in being able to remain independent, in the direction our nation may go. Each of these things can be cause for great anxiety in our lives, and we find ourselves struggling sometimes to cope with that which we seem powerless to change. But, when we have these thoughts, these feelings, these fears, we can take comfort in the words of Christ, “Be not afraid”, for in you, we have the assurance of your everlasting and steadfast love and promise. We know that you are here with us now, and at any moment of the day, or night, no matter where we are, no matter what we may be doing, we know that your Holy Spirit never leaves us alone; it’s always there to guide us, to teach us, to comfort us, and to be our constant companion as we navigate each step of our lives. You, dear God, are the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, the never-dimming light of our lives. May we always let your light shine through us, so that in our time here on earth, we may do good for our neighbors, serving and leading others to know you, through Christ our Redeemer, in whose name we pray. Amen

Communion:

We know that one day, Christ will return and claim his kingdom on earth. In the meantime, we live looking toward that day, but doing God’s work for each other. And one of the things we are called to do to, what we are invited to do, what we are utterly blessed to do is to come to the Table where God calls us to bask in the presence of the Risen Savior as we remember that he gave himself to free us from fear, from sin, from anxiety to assurance that God reigns on earth. All are invited to partake of the elements in communion with Jesus Christ our Lord....On the night that Jesus was betrayed...

After communion:

Lord, at this table, you have shown us the right way, the way of salvation. Here we give our thanks. Help us go into the world and live our thanks. Amen

Benediction:

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen (2 Peter 3:18)