August 11, 2013
© 2013
At Jack Rhodes’ service we sang This World is Not My Home. Another favorite that seems to go in the
opposite direction is This Is My Father’s
World. Right now, I want all of you who identify more with This World Is Not My Home to raise your
hand. Next all of you who identify more with This Is My Father’s World raise your hand. How many voted twice?
The Gospel lives between these two seemingly opposite
ways of looking at our present. Our world is spectacularly good but tragically
broken. By grace, we receive healing now as we hope for eternal restoration. We
can journey fearlessly with Jesus through today’s uncertainties, confidently
proceeding to God’s city that has foundations.
As we just read, we are like Abraham on a journey as
foreigners in the very space God has promised to us.
In Luke 12:32-40, Jesus tells us how to be fearless,
alert and ready on our journey. He had been teaching his disciples, not just
the twelve, but still a small group, and a larger audience seems to have been
listening in.
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is
your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33Sell
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. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
35“Be
dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36be 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. 37Blessed
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. 38If 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. 40You
also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
Jesus often said that a deeper reality was behind
the way things appeared. What may seem powerful is actually insignificant, but people
who seem small are great in the Kingdom. He is trying to sharpen our spiritual
perception.
The Church is consistently at its best when it
recognizes it is a vulnerable “little flock.” Yet, we need not fear, for it is
our Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. God’s delight is to send
power through our weakness! Though Jesus was concerned for poor folk, here he
encouraged alms, to be generous, for our spiritual health. It’s not about
effective charity; it’s about disconnecting from the temporary so we connect
with the eternal. If our treasure is secure in heaven, we need not fear losing
it.
The parables of the alert slaves and homeowner are
often connected with Jesus second coming. Not that they don’t speak to that,
but a careful reading reveals that the text does not specify that, and Jesus’
immediate audience would not have understood that. I think Jesus was telling
them that if they were alert and ready for the unexpected, they could recognize
that he was the Son of Man who was right there in front of them. While we
should be alert and ready for Jesus’ return, I think we should also be alert
and ready to recognize that Jesus comes to us unexpectedly. If we are alert and
ready, he comes to us in Scripture, prayer, worship and communion. More
unexpectedly, he comes in unlikely people, the seemingly insignificant, weak
and suffering. Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) put it this way in a
sonnet. “Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in
eyes not his To the father through the features of men’s faces.” As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame
Jesus represented this great reversal of
expectations when he said the master would have the slaves sit down to eat, and
he will come and serve them. Thus, we journey fearlessly with Jesus through
today’s uncertainties, confidently proceeding to God’s city that has
foundations.
When I shared my testimony in my July 7 sermon, I
mentioned how Abraham’s living in tents has been a defining metaphor for my
journey both personally and professionally.
By faith Abraham set out for a place he was to
receive as an inheritance, not knowing where he was going. As a congregation on
an interim journey, you may feel you don’t know where you’re going and question
whether a destination awaits. Remember, whatever is next for First Christian
Church, Odessa, Jesus goes with you on the journey to God’s city that has
foundations. Today’s churches are not God’s city but its pioneer or frontier
outposts, little colonies of pilgrims on their way.
Between here and there, like Abraham, we are
strangers, aliens, exiles and foreigners in our own world into which God has
promised to bring the new heavens and the new earth. As Jesus’ little flock to
whom the Father has promised the Kingdom, we may feel like insignificant
outsiders, out of sync with the world in which we live, we are also the agents
of that Kingdom, traveling the road to the God’s city that has foundations and
inviting others to join Jesus on the journey to go there.
Like Abraham, we look forward to the city that has
foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Thanks to Jesus, we are able
to see more than Abraham did. Hebrews (11:16) uses the past tense to affirm
that God has already prepared this city for us. The journey of redemption began
when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden and leads to the God’s
city, the New Jerusalem. It is what Jesus described in John 14:2 when he told
his disciples that in his Father’s house there were many dwelling places. We
are confused by the word “mansion” in the KJV and imagine an extravagant house
on a hill far from neighbors. But in 1611 “mansion” meant an apartment in a manor
house. Jesus was emphasizing that there was lots of room for lots of people to
live together in God’s city, not in lavish isolation.
When people go through transitions, they often say
they look forward to “getting back to normal.” But being in transition actually
is normal, and we can never reach a steady state until we arrive at God’s city.
Right now this congregation is on the interim journey between pastors. We are
all in transitions personally and in our families. By faith, we journey
fearlessly with Jesus through today’s uncertainties, confidently proceeding to
God’s city that has foundations.
In C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles
of Narnia, when the children are in England, they long to get to Narnia.
When they are in Narnia, the long to get to Aslan’s country. Like them, our
journey with Jesus is to go farther up and deeper in.
We are all prone to get comfortable and want to stay
at certain places on our journey that feel very close to God’s city, but we
forget that while they may be wonderful, they are temporary. I believe this
longing comes from the desire for God’s city that has been implanted in us and
is nourished by the Holy Spirit. But to be satisfied with something temporary,
no matter how good, instead of what is eternal, is spiritually dangerous. It is
a sign our treasure and heart are not securely in heaven.
In 1967 Marshall McLuhan wrote that navigating
the present was like driving on the freeway looking only at the rearview
mirror. Hebrews tells us that Abraham
was able to navigate his journey by looking forward to the city that has
foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Jesus tells us to be alert and
ready because the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. We may learn
lessons from where we have been. We may be thankful for what we remember and experienced
along the way. But to journey with Jesus is to look forward to God’s city with
each step every day.
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