First things First
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Today I want to give us some background and understanding about what is happening at this point in the gospel to so that we can hopefully get a better understanding of what Jesus is saying while not explaining away the intention of what he is is getting at. Because let’s be honest, this idea of selling everything we own and giving alms is not entirely practical in the society we live in today, but that’s not to say we should ignore what Jesus has to say to us and move on to another part of the gospel. That’s what I want to avoid.
If we go back to the end of Luke 9:51 “51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” This is a turning point in Luke’s gospel where we see many if not everything that Jesus does and says leads him and those following him to his crucifixion in Jerusalem. The reason why this is important is that we see some of the things Jesus say become much more difficult for people to handle. Like how we heard Jesus warn against greed last week and how this week he is leaning heavily against the idea of wealth, selling your possessions and gives examples of how we should be ready for the Son of Man to come just as a slave should be ready for the moment their master comes home; no matter the hour. This isn’t to drive everyone away but as WWII Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer would put it, to help people understand the ‘cost of discipleship’. I believe part of the reason he does this is because at the beginning of chapter 12 we hear that there is a crowd of thousands of people following Jesus, so he takes this time to share with them what are some of the important characteristics of living a life following God.
Here are some of the things we hear Jesus talk about that he tells to this crowd of thousands. Jesus tells them they are more important than sparrows so they need to be faithful to God who sees which is followed up by acknowledging faith in God to people vs. people who deny God before other people. Then as I said he warns against greed and storing up and hoarding the things of this life over a life with God. He then turns to his disciples, which doesn’t necessarily mean the twelve but those who are truly following him as a believer, and tells them not to worry about their body, clothing, what to eat or what to wear and reminds them as I also briefly mentioned last week that God will provide as God provides for the ravens and the lilies of the field. Then in the part we have today encourages us to be ready for his return.
We need to think of all this context so that we really understand what Jesus is saying to those disciples then and us disciples now so that we grasp the importance of his words. Jesus is preparing the people for what is to come when he goes to Jerusalem, but he is also setting us apart from the rest of the world. In the ancient world, it was believed that if wealth was accumulated by someone or a group of people then it came from someone else and made that person or people that much poorer. So for Jesus to tell the crowds and those who were considered disciples to give up the things they had worked so hard for meant that they would be impoverished. They truly would have to rely on the love and grace of God which as we all know is an incredible gift but also a hard one to really live into. They would also need to really rely on one another and God to be able to get by and survive day by day.
If context is really as important as I say it is then I would propose that that idea of selling our possessions and giving alms is in reference to what we heard last week about the man who stored up for himself more than he could ever need. He had so much more than he personally could ever use that he really was taking that wealth and that food and keeping it away from all the people who didn’t have it. He was ensuring that people went without. To what benefit? His own. Jesus is encouraging the selling of possessions and giving of alms so that we avoid being like the person in the parable who passed away and their possessions were no longer any good. They didn’t even benefit him because he died the same night he felt he was set for the rest of his life. The worst part of it all is that he placed all of that before whatever relationship or faith he may have had in God.
Which is why I believe Jesus then follows up the idea of selling your possessions and giving alms with making a purse that does not wear out. If the purse was meant for all the money you made from selling your possessions then it would run out. The person using it would eventually wear it out just like everything in this world eventually runs its course. Jesus instead is referring as we see to a metaphorical purse that collects those things that do not fail, those things that no thief can steal and no moth can destroy. Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What do we put in this purse? The answers might be simple enough to give. We place our faith, our trust in God, the gift of baptism, forgiveness, communion, the Holy Spirit, and all those things in the purse. Those things will never fail and they will never run out. In fact, those things will only grow the more you give them away. That is the incredible thing about all of these treasures. In a world back then that thought wealth was finite and if one had then one lost, and in our world today where we live in a scarcity mentality, we have a God who’s promises and gifts only get bigger the more we pass them along and give them away. You want to share forgiveness? There’s plenty more where that came from; same thing with faith, baptism, and the Holy Spirit. There is also always room for one more person at the communion table. I don’t care what size it is, there’s room for more. You cannot lose or diminish the wondrous gifts that God gives, no matter how scarce this world wants everything to seem.
And Jesus basically says that at the very beginning of our reading today. We may have but we should not gloss over that. It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. In a world of seeming scarcity. In a world where to give means to be without. In a world that demands more than it gives. In a world where there is a price tag on pretty much anything and everything we have a God who’s good pleasure, who delights in GIVING you the kingdom. Of all the things that we do to be faithful to Christ never forget that before any of that happened God came to us and gave us freely God’s love, God’s grace, God’s forgiveness, and God’s kingdom. I don’t know anything else in the entirety of creation that is as anything like our awesome God. Amen.