Sermon Preached on 7th August 2022

Angelos Palioudakis

 

Recorded in Genesis chapter 15, is the promise from God which carries right

through into the New Testament readings that we have before us: Luke’s Gospel

chapter 12 and Hebrews chapter 11. Let’s focus on Luke’s Gospel chapter 12, a

passage where Jesus effectively says to his disciples: “watch where you’re going,

keep my father’s Kingdom central in your heart and your mind and your life in

spite of your own made-up fears of financial matters.”

Jesus comes to reframe our perspective, to enable us to prioritize our lives.

He tells us that we need to tend to our greatest spiritual needs, if we are to

become citizens of heaven. He tells us to sell our possessions and give to the

poor. He gives a warning to us that we are too attached to this world and we

are too attached to our stuff.

Well, I think it is safe to assume that we don’t have to pull an imitation of

St. Francis of Assisi and give away all our possessions and wander around the

streets. What Jesus is saying here is this (and I quote): “where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also.” So if your treasure is safely deposited in heaven

then heaven is going to be the centre of your thoughts and your desires. And

that’s the crux of the matter.

Moving on, we then have Jesus at his most straightforward in the sentences

that follow, which are short and fall over each other. Be dressed! Be ready

for service! Keep your lamps burning! Well, there is an energy in this passage

that is quite exciting. The images are great: weddings and thieves, images not

usually found together. There is expectation. Something is going to happen.

There is also a certain sharpness: ‘But know this.’ Jesus challenges us not to

be faint-hearted. What he is suggesting is not easy. We need to let go of our

baggage, not to clench things tightly to us but to let them go. We won’t be ready

for whatever is going to happen if we are stuffing things into a suitcase. When

we are ready, when we are dressed appropriately, we will notice that things are

happening. Jesus tells us that he isn’t like a bus. There is no timetable. We

don’t know when he will come. If we think about it, that is quite liberating. If

we know something is going to happen at a certain time, we wind ourselves up

in expectation. We can’t do that with Jesus. People often spend their prayer

time as if they are waiting at a bus stop but don’t have a timetable. Looking

at their watches every few moments and worried that they will miss the bus. If

we do that in our spiritual lives, we will completely miss the point.

To be with Jesus is to be dressed at all times and to expect nothing. This

is a remarkable paradox. It’s a bit like trying to make friends. The harder we

try the less likely it is to happen. Jesus calls us to be awake, to be dressed and

ready for action: not at certain times but always. He is saying that this is the

normal state of life. When we are awake, we notice all sorts of things that we

don’t normally notice. Not grand things, not great events but all the things we

normally filter out. That’s what mindfulness is. Noticing stuff. Not the big

stuff. But just stuff. Reality. The Son of God will come at an hour when we

do not expect him. Perhaps he will come in ways we don’t expect him too.