Göttinger Predigten
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12th Sunday after Pentecost, 08/15/2013
Sermon on Luke 12:32-40, by Luke Bouman
Luke 12:32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell 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. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 35 "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 be 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. 37 Blessed 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. 38 If 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. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."
Where Your Heart Is
I took the hand shears to the bushes wish a vengeance. I was 11 years old and I was angry, taking out my anger on the unsuspecting and somewhat innocent at hand, the lilac hedge that lined our back fence. My parents had moved us to this new home earlier that summer and my brothers and I were each given tasks caring for the lush landscaping that came with the house. One of my assignments was the lilac hedge. I didn't care about lilacs. At age 11, I would rather be out playing with the other numerous children that populated our new neighborhood. Instead I was relegated to the backyard, hacking away at the bushes. Perhaps if I cut them too much, they would die. I attacked again and again at those cursed branches.
They did not die, however. Thus tamed for the year they returned anew in the spring, and with a beauty of sight and fragrance that I did not expect. Lilac bushes can be temperamental, but by some quirk of luck, I had trimmed them back at the perfect time. They flourished. Knowing that this quirk had also bought me a semi-permanent job, I did some research at the library. I found out all that I could about lilac bushes. This time, I trimmed just after the flowers faded, as before, but with purpose, shaping the bushes so that they would grow lush and strong. As the years passed, I took pride in the lilac bushes, pointing them out as my pride and joy to visitors who came to our house. They had become MY lilacs. I had pruned them with care.
The time came, some 8 years after the bushes were placed in my care, that our backyard would host a wedding reception for my older brother and his bride. The church was just a couple of blocks down the street from our house and the guests could come and stay and feast in our backyard. My father took charge of readying the yard for this grand occasion. The biggest task was among the last to tackle, the removal of a large, nearly dead pine tree that had stood between the two rows of lilac hedge. Though I had worked with a logging crew one summer in the Cascade Mts. and had experience with a chainsaw, it was my father who insisted he do the cutting. As I watched him cut, I realized that the heavy tree was about to fall on MY lilac hedge. As the tree began to come down, I sprang into action, heedless of all else. I pushed with all my might and managed to steer the falling tree into the space between the hedges. It fell harmlessly into the yard.
As I rested from the effort, my father came over to me with grave concern on his face. He had yanked back the chainsaw when the tree began to fall the wrong way and was sure he had hurt me in some way. I assured him he had not, but noticed that my jeans had a small tear in them at the shin. Puzzled I lifted the cuff and looked beneath, there to find a deep cut, oozing blood hidden beneath the tear. I hadn't felt a thing, so focused was I on saving the bushes. After a quick trip to the doctor for some stitches, I returned home, secure in the knowledge that my bushes were not wiped out by the falling tree. I had invested so much time and effort into those bushes over just a few short years that I was more than willing to take a few stitches in order to insure their well being.
What amuses me about this story, all these years later, is how my heart turned in regard to those bushes. What began as resentment of a task, and anger toward the bushes turned to affection, even protectiveness, as I invested time and energy in them. Indeed, my heart turned to where my treasure was invested. This is something which Mark Powell points out in his short book, "Giving to God". He cites this very biblical passage from today (or one of its parallels) to make the point that we often mistake the meaning of the phrase, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Too often we think this means that we can find out where someone's heart lies by looking at where they have placed their treasure. Instead Powell asserts that it might well mean something else. Our hearts can be trained. They can turn. Our hearts learn to love and to choose those things where we invest our selves. Where we invest our time, effort, energy, yes our money, has supreme influence over what we love and choose in our lives. This is the simple meaning of that phrase.
Of course it isn't as simple as that in practice. We cannot simply choose a different path by investing differently most of the time. For our hearts are not as fickle as that. Our lives have long established patterns that both determine and are determined by where our hearts are turned. It takes investment of treasure over a long period of time to change any of that. And our hearts' desires cannot often sustain changes that bring new patterns for more than a fleeting moment. What our hearts desire most deeply are, of course, the things that we look to for the highest good in our lives. These things become our gods. We invest in them hoping that they will give back to us, giving everything in our lives for them. They may be cars, houses, careers, children, even something as simple as lilac bushes. In the end they demand more from us than ever they give to us. They are the things that moth and rust consume. They are not eternal, even if we wish they might be. We might be willing to give an arm and leg to them, but still they will not return this affection. They are masters who cannot live up to the title. They will not come and serve us, but only require of us that we serve them until all is spent and then some. They are false gods. We all have many of them. We invest in them and our hearts turn to them. Time after time they disappoint us.
One is different. This one has invested in us and all creation from the dawn of time. This one's heart does not turn or waver, no matter what we do. So much this one invested in creation that, like a mother who gives everything, even life for her children, so God invests in us, becoming one of us, serving us at table, even dying for us.
Jesus has talked much and will have more to say in the Gospel of Luke about table fellowship. But know this, as we learned some weeks ago with the story of Mary and Martha, so we also discover here the deeper meaning of Jesus presence at these meals. He is no ordinary guest. In fact he is no guest at all. He becomes the host. He, himself becomes the meal. He comes to the wedding feast and when he finds the servants there, servants like us who often are found wanting, he comes and for the wantonness of our existence, takes on the servant role and pours out his own blood for us on a cross of our own making. So complete is his investment in us, so firmly fixed is his heart toward us.
Here finally is one worthy of the investment of our lives. Here is one whose way, though it cost us everything we have with him, is worth the treasures that will turn our hearts from our false gods to the one who is the highest of all. Here is a place where our hearts can turn and find life given rather than life taken from us. And how might we invest our treasure here? We point to Christ the host with all of our being. We embody Christ, both in community and as individual ambassadors of Christ in the world. We live as life giving and affirming rather than life denying presences in our homes, schools, churches, workplaces, towns and neighborhoods. We invest our lives in Christ's mission, and so over time will our hearts turn. The Spirit, of course, does the turning. But Christ himself, is present to give himself to us, ever inspiring us to give ourselves in return. There is nothing else to do. Though our hearts may waver, there is no reason to fear. God has given us the kingdom and everything else with it.