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Sermon: The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost Year C - 8th August 2010
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7, 8 & 10am
Readings: Isaiah 1:1-20; Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24; Hebrews 11:1-4,8-16; Luke 12:32-40
One of Hollywood’s great inventions has been the disaster movie. Sometimes it’s a fear of new things like “Titanic” or “Towering Inferno.” And sometimes it’s a fear of nature with films like “Twister” or “The Perfect Storm” or stories about a new ice age or meteors coming from outer-space.
But our readings this morning speak of a different threat. The coming of God to his people is described as a frightening event for Israel. The description of the coming of God to visit his people is a familiar story to people who lived in the ancient world. They are based on events that were a common occurrence in the ancient times. When a new king took his throne his first task was to visit each city in his kingdom and as he approached the city or town the people there had to decide whether they would be loyal to him or if they wanted a rebellion and fight against his rule. So there are two possible meanings to the coming of the king. It could be a time of celebration or it would be a time of judgment because of their rebellion.
In Isaiah’s day however, the way the prophet describes it the coming of the Lord looked fearful. Israel is given a shocking description. Israel is called “Sodom and Gomorrah”. Though superficially they appeared to be very religious, they were in fact as rebellious as those two ancient cities. In spite of Israel’s many sacrifices Isaiah claims their hands were full of blood. They might have been very religious. But they were also very wicked. A change of heart was needed. They had to become a very different people.
But notice that what God required of them was nothing new. It was nothing they hadn’t heard before. It was not like some new information that God had hidden from them. Isaiah makes it very clear. Look at what God was wanting from them. He writes, “Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” This teaching is found, throughout the pages of the Old Testament. In other words, the godliness of the community is measured by how they cared for the most vulnerable in their society. This was how you took the pulse of the community. This is a description of the best of society. This was what God expected of his people. This is what God had always wanted. And if they changed their ways then the judgment need not come. Then Isaiah gives us this amazing promise - “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” The opportunity still existed for Israel to be treated like loyal subjects of their king. This is just chapter one of Isaiah and this question is raised at the very beginning of this prophesy. And so we can ask - How well did they respond? How well did they prepare for the coming of the king? In the end – they failed.
And when we come to Luke 12, the question comes up again. But now the question is for us. The question for us today is “Will you and I be ready when the Son of Man comes?” Some have thought that this refers to the return of Jesus at some time in the future and it can mean that. It certainly means that for us. Yet it is also likely to refer to Jesus’ ministry when he first came to Israel. Israel in Jesus’ day appeared to be completely abandoned by God. Their land had been taken over by the Romans and no prophet had come to Israel in over 400 years. Where was God in their situation and when would he come to rescue his people?
And Jesus’ message is that he is coming and Israel must be prepared, just as Israel needed to be prepared in Isaiah’s day. As God’s people we must be prepared for his coming. So how do we do that? First, we are told that God has promised to give us the Kingdom. This is remarkable. Elsewhere we get the impression that God will give the Kingdom of Heaven to his Son. That is, there is no blessing, no gift, no single thing that he won’t pass on to his Son. But now, we are to consider ourselves as co-heirs with Christ. We too, will receive the kingdom. There is no blessing that God will with-hold from us.
Now that may be a long way from our current experience of God and of life itself. I don’t know what it is that you may be struggling with today. You may have a deep sense of a pain you carry and God has not taken it away. God has not made easier to bear. You may be aware of many blessings that God has not given to you though you have seen him give those same blessings to others. And carrying that pain can become a heavy load. We try to make it easier for ourselves in many ways. We try to distract ourselves from the hurts we feel. In a recent interview, the Rev Tim Costello was concerned about the way Australians spend their money. We’ve become a consumer society like never before. We fill our lives with so many things. He believed that the reason we were behaving like this was because at the centre of our lives there was a vacuum we’re always trying to fill that vacuum. But I don’t think he’s quite right. I don’t think there is a vacuum we’re trying to fill. I think there is a pain we are trying to ease. There is a burden we are trying to make easier to bear. And the awful truth is that sometimes God doesn’t take that pain away.
Now I know C.S. Lewis reminds us that there are blessings in suffering. Pain is God’s megaphone to a deaf world, that many people would never have sought after God had it not been for the pain that they endured. But its also true that suffering can burn us, it can break us. It can leave us permanently injured. And it can seem that God does nothing about it. We feel left to our own devices. Well, I am not brave enough to solve the problem of suffering this morning, but it is important for us to remember what God has given us because there is no doubt that he has not left us without hope.
Instead, he makes us the biggest promise. He will give us his kingdom. Here, as elsewhere, Jesus encourages us to be rich towards God, purses that won’t wear out, treasures in heaven that won’t be exhausted – where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. The gift of God’s kingdom is the hope we have received – and this hope is a precious gift. Someone once said that to achieve happiness people needed three things – something to hope for, someone to love and something to do. We have been given the greatest hope in God, the greatest love in Christ and now we are given something to do. We are to stand ready for the coming of the Kingdom, like a soldier on sentry duty, standing guard during the night, and waiting for the morning.
Jesus uses a far more positive parable. In his day people had no watches to tell them when to go to weddings or Parish dinners. Rather, when all was ready the master would call together the guests for the banquet. But the guests had to be ready to drop everything and go immediately. If they weren’t ready they could miss out altogether. Jesus’ point is that we do not know when the kingdom will come.
The disciples were not to know that Jesus would soon be crucified. Israel did not know their destruction was only a few years off. We can never know what tomorrow will bring. Most things happen to us at a time when we least expect it. Thieves don’t make appointments. Death fits no one’s schedule – life is always about uncertainty no matter how hard we try to insulate ourselves or the insurance policies we take out. So it is with the Kingdom. We don’t know when it will come. We are never given a time or a day. Jesus uses the example of the second and third watch of the night which takes us to the early morning hours.
No one knows when the Kingdom will come. Therefore, God’s people must be ready, they must be prepared. That is, we must be living as God’s people and diligent in doing that as our daily expression of our faith in God. Isaiah gives us practical advice when he writes,
“Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
St Paul urges us not be become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” So be on your guard – stand ready!
The Reverend Ross Weaver