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.
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