C, Post-Pentecost 9, Proper 14 - Luke 12:32-46 "Forgetting the Faith"
Fear and anxiety are markers of faithlessness. Faithlessness comes about when we forget God and his promises, seeking to work our own way through the wilderness. Like someone whose car has broken down in the desert, they try to walk to safety, get lost, and die having been overcome by a hopeless situation.
Do you daily remember God as you travel through the
wilderness of this existence? Our modern
society blindly blunders into the unknown having put aside the transcendence of
God and all the gifts he promises.
Humanity forgets the gifts of God, because it has firstly, turned its
back on God, and forgotten him.
We Christians are no different. If someone measured how much you remember God
the Father in heaven, in every moment of your day, you may or may not be
surprised just how much time you spend forgetting God to be absorbed in
mesmerising and memorising yourself!
Imagine if after Jesus was crucified, raised, and ascended
into heaven, that was the end of the matter.
Two thousand years after the fact, would you or I remember Jesus
Christ?
I put it to you that most of us struggle to remember what
happened a week ago. Can you remember
all the names of your ancestors beyond your grandparents? So why don’t we forget the holy figure of
Jesus Christ, hidden from humanity’s sight two thousand years ago?
We receive faith so we do not forget. The faith we receive is the faithful witness
and work of the Holy Spirit. God the
Holy Spirit was sent, to help us be holy, after God the Son ascended into the
hidden realm to the right hand of God the Father. The Spirit was sent and still comes so we
remember our humanity has been hampered and he helps us recall and receive the
holiness of God’s heavenly kingdom.
While Jesus was resolutely working his way to the cross for
us, he reminds us to, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give
you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide
yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens
that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:32–34 ESV)
We, the little flock of God, are gathered by the Holy
Spirit into church, to where we are called as God carries us in his kingdom
towards eternity. Jesus is our prize
purse that does not fail, that not even the thief of all thieves , the devil,
can steal. Nor can moth destroy Jesus’
many gifts! Jesus promises it’s your
Heavenly Father’s pleasure to give you, his kingdom. Indeed, even so it’s Jesus’ pleasure
too. As we hear, he is “the founder and perfecter of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)
So then why do we
fall into fear and anxiety? Why do we
forget this promise of God? What happens
to faith when we forget God? What
happens when I forget the faith given to me?
Jesus tells us to be ready for his return saying, “Stay dressed for
action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their
master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to
him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the
master finds awake when he comes.” (Luke 12:35–37a
ESV)
Peter asks, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” (Luke 12:41 ESV) We might ask the same
thing too, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?”
Jesus follows on with a parable teaching every hearer what
happens when we forget God and are not ready for the return of our transcendent
master. He says, “Who then is the faithful and wise
manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their
portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master
will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all
his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in
coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink
and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not
expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put
him with the unfaithful.” (Luke 12:42–46 ESV)
When we forget God, we forget he is master of all
things. Just like the servant in the
parable, we forget the true master of our domain and pinch his place. The servant who forgets God, tries to become
God, powerfully abusing God’s other faithful servants. A foolish servant forgets it’s God’s pleasure
to give the kingdom and replace the gift of God with earthy debauched
pleasures, like eating and drinking.
It’s here faith has moved from God to the self! Jesus Christ, the founder, and perfecter, of
our faith gets forgotten! Although we
might call on God for an hour a week in worship, maybe a bit more, we burden
God with our actions that work against him, making our own kingdoms come.
But making oneself master is fraught with fear and anxiety.
One is constantly looking over the
shoulder, in suspicion. When one forgets
God, they suspect every other servant is seeking the same, causing competitive fear
and dread!
Also, deep down there’s knowledge that the true master is
returning and will put his household right and remove those who are
unrepentantly wrong. The servant who
turns God’s house of holiness into a house of happiness for one’s own ego,
rules with fear and anxiety making God’s house a house of horrors for every
other servant. As the old adage goes, “When
the cat’s away—or forgotten—the mice will play!”
What makes it even messier is when all forget God is the
transcendent master. The results of this
are easily seen everywhere today inside and outside the church. The mice are at play, playing up in plague
proportions. If you’ve ever experienced
the chaos of a mouse plague on a grain farm, you know how devastating it is
when the plague is out of control in fear of famine. The plague can destroy everything! Humanity is much the same when faith in God
is forgotten in favour of fear and human failure at being the master of their
own dominion.
The Holy Spirit never strays away to play. He calls, gathers, enlightens and makes us holy
with the written word of God in Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh. As we travel through the wilderness of this
world, the Holy Spirit mobilises the church to move in Christ. Just as Moses and the Israelites moved in the
wilderness only when the holy pillars of cloud and fire moved, we move and stop
in faith given by the Holy Spirit, keeping us in the holy protective confines
and convocations of Christ, so we are constantly remembering and returning to
the means of grace.
Allowing the Holy Spirit to work his work of making us
holy, removes fear and anxiety for the future. He keeps us in the faith, so we
stay dressed ready for action and keep our lamps burning.
These actions are like the Israelites who ate the Passover,
ready to roll into the wilderness at a moment’s notice, towards the land of
milk and honey. We remain ready for
action, ready to repent, forgive, and
live—trusting in God as we are moved by the will of God.
The Holy Spirit also keeps the lamp burning, with the good
oil of God’s word. Without his word the
Holy Spirit has nothing with which to keep us in Christ. The church without the word—each of us
without the word—forgets God, gets lost, and flounders in hopelessness.
But abiding under the word of God, keeps us burning as the
body of Christ. The Holy Spirit keeps us
moving through the wilderness of this world.
The Holy Spirit throughout history has done the same with many others, who
in faith, did not forget God. With them the
Spirit gives us understanding to stand under him who is unseen, remembering the
promise of God with determined Christ-like hope despite the hopelessness of all
other things. Amen.