Our first reading comes from Psalm 50, verses 1 through 8, with 22 and 23.
Psa. 50:1 The mighty one, God the LORD,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.
Psa. 50:3 Our God comes and does not keep silence,
before God is a devouring fire,
and a mighty tempest all around God.
4 God calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, that he may judge God’s people:
5 “Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
6 The heavens declare God’s righteousness,
for God Godself is judge. Selah
Psa. 50:7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
Psa. 50:22 “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver.
23 Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me;
to those who go the right way
I will show the salvation of God.”
Our second reading comes from the Gospel according to Luke, reading from chapter 12, verses 32 through 40.
Luke 12:32 “Don’t be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights in giving you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to those in need. Make for yourselves wallets that don’t wear out—a treasure in heaven that never runs out. No thief comes near there, and no moth destroys. 34 Where your treasure is, there your heart will be too.
Luke 12:35 “Be dressed for service and keep your lamps lit. 36 Be like people waiting for their master to come home from a wedding celebration, who can immediately open the door for him when he arrives and knocks on the door. 37 Happy are those servants whom the master finds waiting up when he arrives. I assure you that, when he arrives, he will dress himself to serve, seat them at the table as honored guests, and wait on them. 38 Happy are those whom he finds alert, even if he comes at midnight or just before dawn.g 39 But know this, if the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he wouldn’t have allowed his home to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Human One is coming at a time when you don’t expect him.”
The word of God for the people of God
Thanks be to God.
Don’t be afraid…. I’m never sure what to think when I read a passage in scripture where some divine messenger opens by saying Fear not – or do not be afraid. Usually, what comes next is an announcement of some bit of news that will turn the world upside down. Fear, I would think, is a perfectly natural reaction in those cases. Change after all, can be terrifying. But fear is not an excuse to not listen and fear should not be an excuse to keep on keeping on as though there was never an announcement or a message at all.
Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. More simply Fear is an emotional reaction to an unexpected situation – which might be the most positive way I can phrase it. Fear can also be interpreted as caution – a way of keeping ourselves safe or comfortable. I mean, our own fight or flight responses are a reaction to strong emotions – such as fear . This is normal. Fear has a close relative we call anxiety – That close relative to fear comes with a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about imminent events or something where we are uncertain of the outcome.
Our Fight or Flight response enables us to react quickly with appropriate actions: to run away, to fight, or sometimes freeze to make ourselves a less visible target. It is a normal response, but one which can be triggered by things which we perceive to be a threat. A decent analogy to think about is a smoke alarm. A smoke alarm is designed to alert us to the danger of fire but it cannot distinguish between steam from the shower, smoke from burnt toast or a house fire. While the first two examples are not real threats – the third is and the alarm does its job. It gets our attention. It might trigger some fear – but it gets our attention and it causes us to pay attention. Those alarms are useful to us.
Sometimes I feel like we are living in a constant state of alarm – messages come along regularly that are trying to trigger our fight or flight reactions and prey on our fears. I feel like all I have to do is open my email, or watch the evening news to hear and see these different messages – messages where we are bombarded by the information that we ‘should fear’ – we should fear change, we should fear people, we should fear any difference, anything we do not understand.
Those messages seem to be growing in frequency and volume. It’s not hard to find a quote or read an article from some politician or talking head that tells me we are being overrun, that we should stop giving aid to our neighbors, that we should be afraid for some new undefined reason.
Friends, some of these messages telling us to fear come cloaked in language of concern. Some of these messages are outright fear mongering with no purpose other than to maintain the status quo. Some of these messages, I do not doubt are genuine in their concern and desire to help. All of these things – these messages – they generate a fearful response. But again – fear is not an excuse to not listen and fear should not be an excuse to keep on keeping on as though there was never an announcement or a message at all.
It is interesting to me that many of the messengers that come to us in scripture tell us to fear not. Do not be afraid. Sometimes, like in today’s scripture, we hear from Jesus directly – telling us not to fear, speaking in direct opposition to the overwhelming barrage of messages we hear everyday.
This particular passage, which once again begins with – do not be afraid – is fascinating. It presents what might be interpreted as two conflicting ideas. How else do we explain a reading where a thief is described as an abstract threat in verse 33 and creation’s salvation where God and change show up like a thief in the night in verses 39-40? How else can we account for metaphors that shape shift from verse to verse—particularly in relation to the Divine?
There are other layers to pay attention to in this passage as well. For example, It is not just the timing of God’s apocalyptic appearance that remains mysterious. It is also the function and character of that appearance—and the identity of God’s very self. Is God a thief that comes to steal, or is God the thief that brings salvation? Is God’s arrival to be longed for or dreaded?
Wakeful readiness is key in either scenario; that much is clear. What is unclear is the mood of that hair-trigger anticipation. What is at stake? And who is this divine Mystery—this shepherd who breaks into homes, this master who returns from weddings to serve food to bleary-eyed servants?
I think this passage invites us to imagine who we are and who we want to be. Much like the passage portrays God as the thief that comes unexpectedly in the night, and as the thief that brings salvation, Our own identities shift in the passage as well. In the first line we are described as frightened sheep and told we are heirs to the kin-dom. We are keepers of treasure, and we are servants. Depending on how we read the passage and where we see ourselves in it, we are either owners of a house or accomplices to a great heist.
It is possible to read the following verses as if we were trying to keep a Holy Thief from plundering our possessions. “But know this, if the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he wouldn’t have allowed his home to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Human Oneh is coming at a time when you don’t expect him.” If the homeowner had known that a thief was coming, that change was coming, he would likely have been home, with the doors locked. All, servants and landlord, would have been safely locked inside away from the thief. Away from change.
If that what we want if the thief in the night is God’s holy presence?
But that command to be “ready” where Jesus says “you must also be ready” gives me pause. When I read through the passage again – that command to be ready makes us sound complicit in this divine caper — perhaps as though we are creating a disturbance in the kitchen to distract others or perhaps turning a lock to open a door when we hear a soft knock. Telling us to be ready makes it sound like we have a part to play in the Son of Man’s stealing back of creation. I think that is part of what is going on here – God is coming to steal back creation from everything and everyone who thinks they are in control – that might even include us.
In my imagination I hear Jesus telling us to not be afraid because God is in control while God is stealing control of all of creation back from all those voices that are telling us to be afraid. God, quiet as a thief, is coming to reset and reorient where we are headed. God is slipping in unnoticed by the masses, laying the groundwork for change – preparing us to be servants of the kin-dom. In the words of Alyce McKenzie – God’s Holy Thief is a “burglar…who returns to steal our false priorities and overturn our unjust structures.” When that holy thief breaks into our house, we will never be the same.
So Jesus tells us to not be afraid – that God delights in caring for us and giving us the kingdom. He knows that fear sometimes makes us do unpredictable things – things that do not serve to build the kin-dom. Jesus, with the wisdom of a patient shepherd, diagnoses the key factor in discerning one thief from the Other: Fear. Then he tells his little flock how fear can be overcome. “Sell your possessions” and “give alms” Make for yourselves wallets that don’t wear out—a treasure in heaven that never runs out.”
It can be hard to hear this call from Jesus – to let go, to give and to serve each other, but in participating in this work of kingdom building, we are accomplices to God’s holy thief – the ones who comes not to destroy, but to reset and reorient us toward the work of salvation – not just individually, but also communally. Much like we heard last week – our gifts are given to us in order to be shared with one another to make some noise in our communities. That is – to change the world. We are called to resist, to change the messages that tell us that we should be paralyzed by fear, and to resist the message that change comes to destroy us and all that we love.
In the face of that message, God’s holy thief comes to engage us in helping to steal creation back from the forces that would destroy it and that engage us in destroying one another. Jesus encourages us to not be afraid – and to be ready, taking every opportunity to create room for the holy spirit to dance and to breathe on all of creation, re-orienting us toward the work of building the kin-dom of God.
Friends, shortly we will come to God’s table to be fed and prepared to go out as agents of the living God, assured that God will care for us, God will continue to provide for us. We will be fed at God’s table, reminded that God is present with us, preparing a meal for us – delighting in giving us the kingdom.
So friends, let us prepare together. Let us be ready – and let us live into Jesus’s assurance to NOT be afraid, to sell our possessions, to give alms and share our many gifts with one another. Share with wild abandon the love and grace we have been given and that we have the privilege to reflect into the world. DO not be afraid to build the kin-dom and to reclaim creation – DO not be afraid to share the message to NOT be afraid, because fear is no way to live into the abundance of God’s good creation.
Amen.
Matthew Messenger 