Luke 12.32-40

9^th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 14) | 07.08.2022 | Text: Luke 12.32-40; Hebrews 11.1-3, 8-16 | Richard Johnson |

Jesus said to his disciples, „Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 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. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

„Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 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. 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. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

„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. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.“  (Luke 12.32-40 NRSV)

It’s not clear just what elicited Jesus’ comments in today’s gospel lesson, but I wonder if the disciples were perhaps concerned about the future. Jesus has been telling parables about being ready. The disciples were never quite sure of what they were supposed to be ready for. Jesus kept dropping hints about going to Jerusalem, taking up the cross. Certainly this must have been unsettling, even if they didn’t quite grasp what he was saying. These parables about “being ready” can only have increased their anxiety about what was ahead of them. Jesus has also been warning them about being too tied up concerns about material things—another way of saying “Don’t worry about the future; God will take care of you.”

If these things were in their minds, they were neither the first nor the last to worry about the future. It seems to be a human constant. Fifty or more years ago now, Alvin Toffler published a best-selling book entitled Future Shock. His thesis was that the future is coming toward us with such speed and intensity that we have difficulty coping. His book provoked considerable conversation, precisely because people were afraid of the rapid changes we face in our modern world, and the feeling that the future is rushing in on us in ways we can’t control. And when this book was written, believe it or not, there were no personal computers, no cellular telephones, no self-driving cars, and microwave ovens were a novelty! If anything, the pace of change has accelerated, and the future seems more and more incredible—and, truth be told, more and more fearsome.

Of course, most of us fret about the future in a context that is much more personal. We worry about ourselves and our families. Some years back there was a provocative public service spot in which a man’s voice very rapidly recited a series of questions that echo those in any baby-boomer’s heart: questions about cars, about money, about children and grandchildren, about job security—all those things that someone in my age bracket thinks about when lying awake at night, and culminating in the point of the spot: “What are you doing about your blood pressure?” It was an effective spot because it tapped into one’s concerns about the future and how to prepare for it.

Thinking about tomorrow

People think about the future in many ways, of course. Some try to ignore it. They live in the past, in the “good old days” when things were more under control. Or they live solely in the present, enjoying themselves for today, forgetting about tomorrow.

Others try to deal with the future by seeking to know what it will bring. Eugene Nida once estimated that 30% of Americans regularly consult horoscopes or astrologers in one form or another, in a vain attempt to get a handle on what the future holds. Others, scoffing at superstition, look to science to tell them the same thing. There is a whole school of scientists called “futurists” who attempt to use statistics and scientific analysis to predict what will happen in the future—in general trends, if not in specific detail. Medieval historian Colin Morris once noted that science is just as inadequate as astrology in predicting the future; he suggested that if computers had existed in 1872, when the horse provided the primary means of transportation, some expert surely would have predicted that by 1972 the world would be covered seven feet deep by horse manure! No, statistics and scientists can’t see into the future much more effectively than astrologers. Any such guesses always depend on current trends continuing, and current trends never do. That’s why the future always remains uncertain.

The Christian answer

Christians have an answer to these concerns about the future, and the answer is called faith. Faith, when you come right down to it, is nothing less than a way of facing and understanding the future. This passage we have heard today from the letter to the Hebrews is perhaps the greatest reflection on facing the future ever written. It tells us three very important things about faith and about the future.

It tells us first, that though we cannot see the future, we can be confident of it. “Faith,” it says, “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The conviction of things not seen. Right here at the beginning, we learn that faith is a way of facing the future by embracing that which we cannot see! It tells us that demanding to know what the future holds is a human conceit, and that the Christian view of the future is not one that tries to solve all its mysteries, but one that allows each day to unfold—knowing that each day is a day of grace, made by God.

I chuckled at a headline I saw in the run-up to the Oscars last year: “Oscar Predictions: No Surprises Expected.” I love that: “No surprises expected”—Does anyone ever expect a surprise? A surprise is, by definition, not expected. But Christian faith, if it doesn’t exactly expect surprises, nonetheless accepts them with grace and faith. I love a little poem by Bishop Helder Camara:

Accept

surprises

that upset your plans,

shatter your dreams,

give a completely

different turn

to your day

and—who knows?—

to your life.

It is not chance.

Leave the Father free

himself to weave

the pattern of your days.

Christian faith faces the future with confidence, knowing that we cannot know, but that we can trust.

Strangers

Then this passage from Hebrews tells us a wonderful thing about ourselves: All our ancestors in the faith, it says, “confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on earth.” The Old Testament likes to use the word “sojourners”—people who are on a journey. What that means, you see, is that what we experience now, in this often troublesome world, is not the last word! But Christian faith is always looking ahead, always waiting for the future, not with fear but with expectation, knowing that God is working his purpose out.

Truman Capote in one of his novels has a character named Holly Golightly who has calling cards printed with her name, Miss Holiday Golightly, and underneath just one word:  “Traveling.” What a remarkable description! But it is true for us, you see. The life of faith is a journey. Even if we stay physically in one place, we are always on the move through life’s stages, through the ups and downs, the mountains and the valleys of human experience. We are always traveling. And that means we are always looking forward to tomorrow, and to what tomorrow will bring.

There is a prayer I love, written by the Anglican Eric Milner-White. It goes like this: “Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us.” That prayer, you see, is how Christians face the future.

In God’s hands

And it leads to the third insight from this Hebrews passage. The future belongs to God. Regarding those who live by faith, the writer says that “God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.” Because he is our God, we need not fear the future.

I’m not sure who said this, but it is a favorite quote of mine: “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.” Hear that again: “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.” It is God, who is not ashamed to be called our God, who loves us and guides us and holds us all our days.

The disciples were confused, frightened, uncertain of what was to come. In this place in Luke’s gospel, they were worried about mundane things: money, food, clothing, the stuff of everyday life. And perhaps they were worried also about just where following the Lord was going to take them. But Jesus smiled at them—at least I think he smiled. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” That is the slogan of faith, and the way we Christians face the future! “We belong to God, and the future also belongs to God. Do not be afraid!”

___

Pastor Richard Johnson

Webster, NY

roj@nccn.net