August 10, 2025
Pentecost 9/Proper 14, Year C
The Rev. Dr. Elaine Ellis Thomas
St. John’s Episcopal Church
Essex, CT
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
Christians, many of us anyway, have an uncanny knack for wresting bad news out of good. We heap guilt upon ourselves for the slightest transgression, declare others beyond redemption for failures we also share if we dared to admit it, and spend so much time worrying about the end times that we forget about the abundant life God is offering us right now. We get so hung up on judgment that we forget about grace.
Passages like the one we just read from Luke are especially prone to interpretation as bad news, at least for anyone who can’t stay constantly on guard looking out for the Second Coming which none of us can do. Whenever we are tempted to go down the highway of gloom and doom, I hope we can pause long enough to remember the words of the angel of the Lord way back in Luke’s Chapter 2 who proclaimed: “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people…” (Luke 2:10). Before anything else, the gospel is Good News. That’s what the word means.
But, you say, what is all this about being vigilant and ready? Doesn’t that mean that we’ll be left out or, heaven forbid, left behind?
Let’s back up for a minute. We are in the midst of a discourse about wealth, about building bigger barns to store wealth and having an orientation toward wealth that is more “mine, all mine,” rather than a source of blessing for everyone. There is a section left out of our lectionary between today and last week when we ended with an admonition to those who store up treasure for themselves. Jesus goes from addressing a crowd of curiosity-seekers and hangers-on to addressing only his followers, those who were already part of his community. He said:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith! And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that seek all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. (Luke 12:22-31)
And then comes where we opened today, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (12:32). Don’t worry. The kingdom is yours. Give alms. Take care of your neighbor. In doing these things that you know to do, you are ready for whatever comes.
More than 700 years before Jesus spoke these words, the prophet Isaiah was telling people to take care of each other,
…cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:16b-17)
The failure of the people to do this led to exile in Babylon. For a certain brand of Christianity today it means not making the cut into heaven. For Jesus, it meant missing out on the kingdom of God right in front of you. There is plenty to go around. We make sure everyone is fed and clothed and housed; we share what we have. This is what the reign of God looks like right now, not in some distant end of days.
Several years ago, Tim and I went on a pilgrimage to Palestine with a group of fellow travelers connected to Yale Divinity School. The trip had a very specific purpose: to gain some understanding of the plight of Palestinian Christians living in areas controlled by Israel. The pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem at that time, Mitri Raheb, told us how he is often asked how long his family has been Christian, the assumption being that a Palestinian must be an Arab Muslim so must have converted. Mitri always responds with a chuckle that his family has been Christian since the time of Jesus.
One of the places we visited in Bethlehem was the Dheisheh Refugee Camp, established in 1949 following the massive displacement of Palestinians after the establishment of the state of Israel and the ensuing Arab-Israeli war. At the time, the camp, one of 19 on the West Bank, was built to house roughly 3,000 refugees. Now, there are about 20,000 living on about 1/5 of a mile of land, some of whom have no sewer connection, with only one health clinic to serve them all. At this camp, we were welcomed into the home of a family who had lived there since 1949, awaiting the day that a right of return might be granted and their home restored to them.
But in the meantime, out of their poverty, they gave generously. They prepared tea and cakes as if we were honored guests. Palestinian families whose forebears have lived in those lands since the time of Jesus showed hospitality to strangers, giving of what little they had to those of us who already have so much. They weren’t really worried about tomorrow, knowing that, indeed, today has troubles enough for today.
If it is true, as that great philosopher of music John Lennon said, that life is what happens when you are busy making other plans, I believe that the reign of God happens when we are too focused on a heaven that we only get to once we are dead and gone. More than once, Jesus said that the kingdom of God is at hand, but we took that Good News and made it bad news like some final reward for good behavior while occupying the hyphen between our birthdate and death date on our tombstone. How could we have gotten it so wrong?
Jesus is trying to get those closest to him to understand that if their hearts are with him, all that they have – their treasure, their very lives – will be, too. And what he asks is that we use what we have to build and support the kind of community he gathered around him, where everyone shared what they had so that everyone had enough. That’s heaven. That’s the kingdom of God, where there is peace and joy and contentment for all.
Because there is no peace, no contentment, no real joy for any of us if that same peace and contentment and joy doesn’t belong to everybody.
That’s what it means to follow Jesus.
That’s what it means to know where your treasure is.
That’s what it means to be ready.
And are we…ready?