God is up to something - Redeemer Episcopal Church (11 Pentecost)

 Let us pray. Merciful God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of each heart here before you be good and acceptable in your sight. Amen. 

Can you feel that? 

The semester starts this week at UNF. Freshmen have moved into the dorms. We have a kick off party on campus this afternoon… Duval County Schools have started again. Traffic is absolutely awful again. 

Can you feel it? The city is buzzing again. Things are starting to feel about halfway normal. 

Can you feel it in here? In this place? This congregation? This community? 

The buzz I feel here is a little different, a little slower to boil, but it’s there. And I don’t think it’s traffic or school starting. I think it’s the Spirit. 

God is up to something. Can you feel it? 

Now, God is never NOT up to something. We are taught this from a very young age in Sunday school, in Bible studies— even if we don’t say it exactly like this— God is active in all of narratives we know by heart. From the very beginning, God formed the oceans and the dry land, the sun and the moon. God created human beings, God promised new life and new creation after the flood, God led God’s people out of slavery— throughout all of history: God is up to something. 

Here we are introduced to a woman of no great importance in the grand scheme of things. She is no queen, no prophet, no mother of a noble. Yet she gets this whole introduction about having a spirit that crippled her and her bent back being unable to straighten for 18 years. 

18 years. Those freshmen I said who moved into their dorms this weekend? The majority of them are 18 years old. Young to us, perhaps, but imagine being bent over for that long. Imagine yourself 18 years ago. That was more than half my lifetime ago. Imagine being bent over and unable to stand for that long. More than that, imagine being afflicted with a spirit of sickness for that long. 

After 18 long years, is this woman supposed to wait one more day to be healed? When she finally encounters God in the person of Jesus Christ, is she supposed to wait for the proper time? Is Jesus supposed to tell the woman to stay on the margins of society, afflicted and condemned, for one more day? Just a little longer, until all the right conditions have been met. 

I love this story because it reminds me that our teaching is nothing without our action. Jesus shows us this first hand.

You see, Jesus isn’t just an observer in the synagogue that day— he is teaching. He is likely in the middle of a crowd of faithful Jews who know God’s story of redemption by heart. And Jesus brings this woman into middle of the crowd, right in the middle of his teaching. As soon as he sees her suffering, he calls her over from the margins of the community and brings her into the center. 

This is very specific language in the story— Jesus immediately stops his formal teaching and actually brings this woman— a woman who has likely been ignored for the majority of the last 18 years because of her physical appearance— he brings her into the center of attention because he notices that she is in need of healing, she is need of wholeness. 

He was probably teaching and preaching about God’s grace. Jesus was probably telling a story about how God set the captives free and liberated the oppressed. And then he sees this woman and recognizes the opportunity to practice what he’s preaching. He sees that he can demonstrate God’s incredible grace right there in that place and free this woman from the spirit that has crippled her for so long. 

And so he does. Jesus stops doing what is seen as “proper” and “legal” in order to do what is most important in the moment. 

…

Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with rules and laws. They are important to keep us safe and keep our society from being plunged into total chaos. The laws that God has given us in the Old Testament are meant to be gifts, not oppressive restrictions. So when what we believe is proper or legal begins to diminish the incredible power of God’s grace, we have to look again at our own intentions. I mean, when we encounter a situation in which a donkey is treated better than a woman… well, then it might be time to re-evaluate how and why we follow the rules and laws. They begin to no longer be gifts if they are not framed in the grace and love of God. 

It seems that the leader of the synagogue lost sight of that. He was indignant that Jesus would heal on the Sabbath. 

But the bottom line here is that Jesus saw a need and he fulfilled it. He intimately knew the grace of God and he embodied it in his actions. He saw a woman imprisoned and he set her free. This is the most important thing that God in Jesus does for us in this world— sets us free. 

I want you to hear those words: You are set free. This is what our God does. This is the promise that has been made to us. This is the gift of Sabbath and the gift of Jesus. You are set free. 

I don’t know exactly what that means for us here at Redeemer, but I can feel the Holy Spirit stirring. I can tell that God is up to something in this place. 

And we don’t have to wait for a better day or a more appropriate day— we don’t have to wait for a more solidified strategic plan, for a better definition of what “liberation” or “freedom” mean, we don’t have to wait until we have all the right answers for all the right people— we are called to act as God has taught us through Jesus. We are called to be witnesses to the liberation of Jesus. Can you feel it? Are you ready for it? 

…

When God is up to something, prepare to be set free, prepare to be unbound: whether from confining diseases, or social norms, or back breaking work, or the lie of busy-ness. God keeps showing up, drawing the circle just a little wider and unleashing a divine horizon that turns to rejoicing over the loosing of every human bondage in every time and place. And for that, and our own renewal this day and always, we praise God. Amen. 

Do not be afraid - Redeemer Episcopal Church (9 Pentecost)

Luke 12:32-40

32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Watchfulness

35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39 But understand 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, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

The time from Pentecost to Christ the King Sunday— this season that we are in right now— is considered the “time of the church.” It is when most of the readings deal with what it means to be a community that confesses Jesus as Lord. What it means to be a community together. In other words, this is the time when we learn about discipleship. How to follow Jesus. 

These couple of verses in the gospel text this morning feel sort of disjointed and like the beginning of Jesus’ self-help book “How to be a Christian.” They don’t seem to have much in common, and even more than that, they don’t seem to tell a story that makes much sense. 

There is a thief… but is the thief Jesus? Is it the Spirit? Is a thief a good thing in this story? Or someone we should protect ourselves from? Should we be excited about the coming of the Kingdom of God, or should we be frightened by the prospect, guarding our home against it? And who are we? Are we servants? House owners? Thieves along with Jesus?

I remember in seminary, my New Testament professor spoke so quickly had said so many wonderful and ground-breaking things that I could never write or type fast enough. When I went back to try to read my notes and make sense of what he was saying in class, it just ended up being a bunch of disjointed sentences that maybe formed a whole thought at one time, but didn’t make a whole lot of sense anymore. 

And, of course, it leads me to way more questions than any answers. 

That’s what this passage feels like to me. You’ll notice this, because this sermon is mostly just a series questions.

So what could these pieces and parts of Jesus’ lecture to his friends tell us about discipleship? What could they tell us about what it means to live in community with one another? 

“Do not be afraid, little flock” is how Jesus begins, “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” 

What more is this than identity? This is what God promises us in the waters of baptism, in the very beginning of our journey. Do not be afraid. Because we are God’s children, God’s little flock. And it is God’s pleasure to give you the Kingdom. We are the ones who are able to walk through the world without fear because we have been promised something greater. We have been promised a new creation, a new life in Christ. 

This is the beginning of discipleship. It starts with our identity as children of God, washed in the waters of baptism, and created anew as those who will inherit the kingdom of God. 

But then we move on to this conversation about treasure… sell your possessions, Jesus says, and give alms. Know that your treasure is in heaven and not on earth. Know that your heart will follow wherever you understand your treasure to be. 

What does this have to do with discipleship? Is Jesus really expecting us to sell our possessions? All of them? Some of them? Maybe just the most expensive ones? Maybe just the ones that are most important to us? I don’t know. If you heard 50 different preachers talk about this text, you would probably hear 50 different sermons about what you should do with your possessions. 

What I think is most important is that Jesus understands the human condition. Jesus knows that we have a tendency to invest ourselves in the things of this world. We have the tendency to attach ourselves to possessions, things that we can see and touch and grasp. And what he seems to be saying here is that we must learn to detach ourselves from possessions so that we can get rid of the fear we have of losing them. As disciples of Christ, we must begin to understand where our treasure lies. 

That is the core of discipleship, isn’t it? Once we have found our identity in Christ, once we have fully understood ourselves to be children of God— then we have the chance to examine our lives and begin to wonder where our hearts lie and where we find our treasure. Once we understand the gospel promise— that God loves us enough to promise us the Kingdom— then we can start to understand what we value. 

Perhaps that will lead us to selling our possessions. Perhaps it will leads us on a pilgrimage. Perhaps it will lead us to an entirely different path in life. The gospel has a way of doing that sometimes. But first, it starts with identity, and then what we do with that identity. 

Finally, Jesus moves on to this interesting monologue about being prepared. My Bible titles this passage “watchfulness.” 

But what are we watching for? Jesus seems to be talking in circles here. Are we servants waiting for our master? Are we the owners of the house? Who is the thief? Jesus? The Holy Spirit? And if the thief is Jesus, then is the thief coming a good thing? Something we should be excited for? Or is it something we should be afraid of? 

I guess that depends on the answers to our last questions… do we still have treasure in this world? Do we have things that we are afraid might be stolen by a thief in the night? 

Or perhaps we are a part of the heist. Perhaps we are accomplices on Jesus’ holy mission as a thief coming into the house at an unexpected hour. 

It does sort of sound like that, doesn’t it? “You must also be ready.” Maybe we aren’t the owner of the house, keeping the thief away. Maybe we are inside the house, staying up at night, and waiting for the right time to light the lamps, unlock the doors, and prepare the house for the thief. I kind of like that… holy mischief perhaps… mystery and sneakiness on behalf of the Kingdom.

Of course, Jesus isn’t actually breaking into someone’s house. But the Holy Spirit is breaking into this world, and we are here to help that happen. We are here to stay awake and notice where the Kingdom of God is coming into this world.

Because of our new identity in Christ, because we do not have to fear the thief in the night, we can look with anticipation and excitement at what God is doing in the world. Because we know where our treasure lies, and we aren’t afraid of it being taken away… we can bring others into this exciting anticipation too. 

This is the core of discipleship. This is the start of the church and our community with Christ. 

Do not be afraid. Sell your possessions. Be prepared. 

Know your identity as a beloved child of God. Know what you value. Notice the Kingdom of God. 

Amen.