Reflection on Luke 14:1, 7-14

Luke 14:1, 7-14

1 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely.

  7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host, 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

  12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

 

Reflection

How do you build a culture of Christian people?

A wise professor at my seminary once answered: “You need to start somewhere, so start with a single Bible story.  Allow God to build a culture around that story.”

So, if you wanted to shape a group of people into Jesus people, what Bible story would you choose?  If you wanted to build a culture of people who followed the ways of Jesus, what Bible story would you use to start?

One High School coach found himself asking this precise question.  You see, he had inherited a team of football players who only cared about themselves.  Each player wanted glory.  Each player wanted to be the winner.  Each player looked out for only themselves.  Thus, they were a group of self-proclaimed stars, but they were not a team, and it showed.

He saw it in the cafeteria of the high school as he monitored the room.  The players were stuck up.  The players literally pushed and shoved their way up the social rankings.  They took the best seats and pushed others out of those spaces.

The coach did not need a team full of self-absorbed stars.  He needed a team that worked together.  He needed a team that watched out for one another.  His team needed some humbling.

So, where did this faithful, Jesus following football coach look to start building a new culture in his team?  He started with Luke 14:12-13.  Just to remind you, this story is prefaced with Jesus pointing out that it is unwise to take the best seats at a banquet.  After-all, if you are not the most honored guest, you will, embarrassingly, be kicked to a worse seat at the table, in front of the eyes of everyone in the room.  Instead, be humble and first, take a lower seat and then, maybe you will be invited closer, in front of the eye of everyone in the room.  Then Jesus turns his attention to the one giving the feast and says:

“When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (Luke 14:12-13).

Why would a football coach choose that particular Bible story to shape the culture of his football team?  Because, Jesus taught him long ago that meals are powerful shapers of people.  Who we eat with shapes us.  What we do during those meals molds us.  How the powerful and important act at a meal influences us and makes a difference in us.  If he wanted to see a different culture on the field, he knew in his very bones that he first needed to see a different culture during lunch.

“Men, gather around,” he shouted to the players during their next practice.  “New rule this year.  You know how there are a number of losers and loners sitting by themselves at tables during lunch.  Your lunch will now be with them.  You will invite them to sit at your tables, or you will sit with them at their tables.  If I see any loser or loner sitting by themselves at lunch, you will all be doing laps for the next practice.  I mean it.  We lift others up, we do not keep them down. 

In addition, if I see anyone push away, diss, or exclude someone else at lunch, you will not play the next game.  I do not care if you are the star quarterback.  You will not be playing.  We are gentlemen.  Gentlemen put others first.  Gentlemen open doors for women.  Gentlemen run to help those who are hurt, on the field and off.  And, gentlemen do not let others feel like they are losers and loners.  Gentlemen put others first.”

Hearing the story of this coach just blew my mind.  It was as if this coach had taken the teaching of Jesus, translated it into our culture and our language, and helped to make sure it had the chance to be a living word for his players.  And, it worked.  After some laps and a lost game because of some benched players, they started to play together.  They started to help each other improve.  They helped to lift each other up rather than compete with one another.  And, because of the culture of the players, the school itself started to become less divided and more whole.  Jesus’ word transformed that school’s culture, and transformed each of those players, and it led to a championship.  That is the power of Jesus’ word.  That is the power of loving like Jesus.

And, it is all because the coach started with a single Bible story and allowed God to build a culture around that story.

And, the power in this particular Bible story is that it is so simple to understand.  There is almost nothing you need to research; no strange Greek words to translate or understand in order get it.  In God’s kingdom, the powerful are those who serve.  In God’s kingdom, the loners and losers, and the “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” are all invited to sit at the lunch table (Luke 14:13).  In the world, they may be pushed down, pushed away, and forgotten, but in God’s kingdom, they are given places of honor at the table.

And, Jesus says that those who have lifted others up can trust that they will themselves be lifted up in the resurrection. 

“When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:13-14).

Stooping down to lift others causes us to join with the one who stooped down to lift us.  He stooped down, falling into the dust, was rolled over onto a cross and nailed there, and after being lifted in shame, was again placed into a lowly grave.  You see, by stooping low Jesus gathers us up and lifts us into a glorious resurrection to eternal life. 

“Those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 14:11).

In other words, “We rise when we lift others up.”

“We rise when we lift others up.”

It is not a hard message to understand.  But, it is a hard message to live.  It is a hard message to convince a culture to adopt. 

But, it helps if you start with a single Bible story and allow God to build a culture around that story.

In fact, it was the singular Bible story that revitalized a small congregation.

It all started off with some fried chicken.  In the shrinking congregation, there was an older couple who owned a ma-n’-pop fried chicken restaurant.  Now, at the end of the day, there was usually quite a bit of chicken left over that was not sold, that was just thrown away.  One day, inspiration hit the couple and they started bringing the chicken from the night before, and some fixings, to church.  They created a little feast on Sunday mornings, and it lifted everyone up in that depressed little church.

One morning, the pastor preached on this Bible story from Luke 14 of Jesus telling the banquet host to start inviting “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” to the banquet.  With that story fresh in his mind, a man listening to the sermon was led to think about his lonely cousin, who could use a good meal.  And, then he smelled the chicken and had an idea. He would invite the cousin the next Sunday so that he could have a good meal.

The cousin, who had never crossed the doorway of a church before, was treated like a king in the little congregation, people going out of their way to offer a place to sit and a beverage to drink.  He was made so happy that morning.  He had found his people. 

And, then that is when it clicked, this meal of fried chicken is holy.  Others started inviting other struggling people to the meal; friends, relatives, and even an obviously struggling family in line at the grocery store.  And, one by one they too were treated as kings and queens.  They too found their people in that not quite so little anymore church. 

And the congregation became known in town as the “congregation full of chickens.”  But, there was nothing “chicken” about them.  They courageously invited more and more to the feast.  And, it was all because of some leftover fried chicken, and starting with a single Bible story.

Do you want to change culture?  Do you want to make a difference in the world?  Then start simple.  “Start with a single Bible story.  Allow God to build a culture around that story.”  Through that singular story, Jesus will take our grave-stricken souls and raise us all up together into new life.

Reflection on Luke 13:10-17

 

Luke 13:10-17 (NRSVue)

10 Now [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.

Reflection

The woman who was crippled and bent over did not ask to be healed.  I want you to stop and think about that for just a moment.  The Bible says that she just “appeared” while “Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath” (Luke 13:10-11).  Jesus is the one who sees her.  Jesus is the one who call out to her.  The woman did not ask to be healed.

This is somewhat astonishing because, seemingly, all of the other times that Jesus heals someone, they have called out to him in faith; like in Luke 5:12-16 where a man covered with a skin disease sees Jesus, comes to Jesus and begs Jesus for healing.  Or, in the least, family or friends approach Jesus and ask that someone they love be healed, like the guy who was lowered through the roof in Luke 5:17-25.  That guy did not ask to be healed, but his friends did.  In all of these other healing, Jesus is asked if he could please heal.

The woman did not ask.

Jesus simply looked over and saw her as she hobbled, bent over and unable to stand straight; bent over and unable to meet anyone eye to eye; bent over and unable to raise her hands up to God in worship.  She did not seek out Jesus.  She simply came to worship on the Sabbath, presumably as she always did.

Maybe, she had not recognized her need for healing at this point in life. She had suffered for so long that, maybe, she considered her bent over nature as completely normal.  The Bible says that she had been crippled for “eighteen years” after all. 

By the way, eighteen is the number that represents bondage in the Bible, and it is a long time. In Judges 3:14 we find that, for eighteen years, the people of God were under the thumb of the Moabite king as they tried to settle in the promised land.  A whole generation was oppressed.  And, again in Judges 10:7-8 we find that God’s people were in bondage to the Philistines, and serving them for eighteen years. Eighteen years is a long time.

The woman joined in the struggles of her own people as she found herself in bondage to her crippling existence.  Maybe, bondage is just what happens to the people of God, and there is little to be done about it.  How can we forget that even in recent history the Jews were in bondage to the evils of the Nazis?  Maybe, she just figured that being in bondage is just what happens to people like her; like abused children who just accept the bodily strikes and involuntary confinements that abusive adults dole out.   Given that, maybe she did not even think to seek healing.

Maybe, it had little to do with her people’s history and she just figured that it was old age.  I cannot tell you the number of people who have missed signs of heart disease such as pressure in the chest or frequent numbness and pain in the arm.  All of these people tell me that they just assumed that it was old age, and they did not seek to be healed.  Neither did she seek to be healed.

Maybe, she has just slowly become accustomed to the evils of her body.  The Bible states that she was afflicted by Satan.  Jesus called her “a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years” (Luke 13:16).  She was afflicted by the accuser, the personification of the forces of chaos. The forces of chaos had entered into her very body and made things literally out of order. Her back was bent. Her spine was way out of line. Her muscles would not allow her to straighten. And, she was used to it.

We get so used to the forces of chaos in our lives and we just resign ourselves to the way it is. “It is what it is” we say to ourselves and others.  “It is what it is and there is nothing to be done about it.”

The woman did not even think to ask to be healed, and quite often neither do we.  It is what it is.

But, the Bible says that “Jesus saw her” (Luke 13:12).  He saw her inability to stand straight.  He saw her inability to stand up and raise her hands to God in praise on the Sabbath.  He saw her in ability to rest on the Sabbath.  “Jesus saw her” and Jesus sees you.

Jesus disagrees with us.  He disagrees that “it is what it is.”  It is not what it is. Chaos is not the way God has ordered the world. People are not intended to be bent over.  Children are not intended to be abused.  People are not intended to be starved under the guise of war.  People are not intended to be held hostage to substances.  People are not intended to lose little ones in natural disasters.  People are not intended to suffer in this very beautiful but also very painful and chaotic world. 

“It is not what it is.”

The world right now is not as it was made to be.

And, this woman could not stand the way she was meant to stand.

And, this woman could not rest.  Her arched back would not allow her to stand or sit or stretch out and lay in any comfortable way. The chaos of this world does not allow us to stand up straight and proud, or sit without anxiety, or sleep without fear.  In the chaos of this world, we cannot rest and this woman certainly could not rest.

And, God notices when we are not resting.  “Jesus saw her” (Luke 13:12).  

“Jesus saw her” and Jesus sees us.  He notices when we cannot rest.  He notices when our lives are bent out of shape.  He notices, and this noticing does not lead to judging us for our lack of rest.

I know this to be true because judgment was thrown Jesus’ way for not resting on the Sabbath.  When Jesus did some work on the Sabbath and healed the woman, the leader of the synagogue was “indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, [and he] kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day’” (Luke 13:14).

Jesus does not accept any sort of judgment concerning the failure to rest.  No one gets to throw out criticisms for failure to rest because even those who pretend to rest on the Sabbath do not cease to work completely.

“You hypocrites!” Jesus shouts back (Luke 13:15).  “You pretenders!”  “Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13:15-16). 

This leader noticed when his animals needed water and he took them to rest by the “still waters” as the beloved Psalm 23 puts it, as he should.  How could he not see that this woman was bound and needed rest as well?  Was he too blind to see?  Did he look at her bent nature and think to himself, “It is what it is.”?  Maybe, he did not even notice her problem at all.

But, God notices.  God notices when we cannot rest.  However, God does not judge us like this leader. God knows that the punishment for not stopping on the stopping day is not getting any rest.  (That is what “Sabbath” means by the way: “The Stopping Day.”)  The punishment for not resting is getting no rest.  And, when we do not rest, we suffer, and Jesus sees when we suffer.  Not only does he see; Jesus has compassion when we suffer and cannot rest.

“When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”  When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God” (Luke 13:12-13).

Do you need healing and rest?  Jesus sees you.  Jesus calls out to you.

Can your eyes see those around you who need healing and rest?  What would Jesus have you do?  Jesus sees them and calls out to them as well.

When we cannot rest, when chaos has invaded our bodies and made our lives to be out of alignment, Jesus notices.  He calls out to us, and we are invited to step forward to be healed and find some rest.  Maybe, we too might stand up straight and begin to praise God.

Reflection on Luke 12:49-56

 

Luke 12:49-56

[Jesus said:] 49 “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son 

and son against father,  

mother against daughter 

and daughter against mother,  

mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law 

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

 54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain,’ and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

Reflection

If you have worked a job for any amount of time you soon discover that people love to tell you how to do your job. It does not matter if they know anything about your job or not, they still love to tell you how to do it.  I have to say that being a pastor is no different. People love to tell their pastors how to preach.  They love to tell pastors what to say, what not to say, and how loud it needs to be said.  Once at the Personal Care home a resident asked if I could speak louder because their hearing aid had broken.  Not ten seconds later someone else asked if I could please speak quieter, the noise was giving them a headache.  People love to tell you how to do your job.

But, when a thin, old gentleman in my internship congregation approached me and asked me to please not preach about the fires of hell; that was a little different.

You see, this man was a retired military physicist, who was instrumental in the development and testing of the nation’s first nuclear weapons.  First, I have to say, that was amazing to me.  You never know who will cross your life’s path.  Right there in front of me stood a living piece of history.  And, he shared some of that history.  He shared about how he was present on those atolls in the Pacific Ocean as nuclear weapons were detonated in flashes of light and fire so bright that he could see the bones and blood vessels clearly in his hands as they covered his eyes from the blinding sight.  He also quietly shared what he really wanted to talk about: how he helped develop a weapon that would soon kill innocent people.  He talked about how he was a part of the shameful act of placing soldiers in harm’s way in order to document the affects of the weapons on human beings.  To be fare, he put himself in that vulnerable position as well.  But, that did not alleviate the guilt.

“You do not need to preach hell and fire to me, Intern Jira.  I know all about it.  I lived in it.  I helped to create it.  I helped to develop a type of fiery destruction that should have never been created in the first place.”

The man did not need some cocky young intern threatening him with a fiery hell when he had already been there; when he had helped to create it!  He desired to hear a word from the pulpit that talked about creating life rather than taking it away.  He desired to hear about a world that could be transformed from developing bombs of death to developing actions that create life and love.

Jesus shares that very desire.  You can hear Jesus’ fidgety anticipation of a better world as he talks about casting down fire.  “How I wish it were already ablaze!” he remarks to stunned listeners (Luke 12:49, NRSVue).  It is almost a “burn it all down” mentality, but with an eye for what could come afterward.

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze!  I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!” (Luke 12:49-50).

Did you notice what Jesus desires to come to all the earth?  It is a Baptism of fire that he desires, not a fire of destruction.  Baptism is something you go through to start something new.  It is a doorway into a new way of life.  It is the doorway into a kingdom.

You see, much to the confusion of many hellfire and damnation preachers, whenever Jesus talks about the fire that he brings, he is not talking about total destruction and damnation.  He is not a heavenly anarchist.  He is not an angry rioter seeking only to destroy but refusing to repair after.  The fire that Jesus desires to bring down on us is far different.

Let us take a look at some of the biblical images that Jesus would have grown up with to help us get a sense of what he is getting at here.  The first one that comes to mind comes from Proverbs.

“The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold,

but the Lord tests the heart” (Proverbs 17:3).

So, in the Bible there is this clear connection between putting precious metals into a fire and our hearts being put to the test by the Lord.  Somehow, both are burned for a purpose.  Now, to understand that purpose, we will want to jump over to Malachi.

“[The Lord’s messenger] will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness” (Malachi 3:3).

All of this purifying has something to do with a substance called dross.  Does anyone know what dross is?  Dross is the term used to describe the impurities in gold and silver that bubble up to the top when stoking the fires and melting the metals. When a goldsmith refines gold, desiring it to be purer and more brilliant, the goldsmith allows that dross to come to the surface of the molten gold.  Then the goldsmith either scoops away or burns off the dross until he or she can look down at the surface of the gold and can see his or her own face reflected back.

And, that is what the fire of God does to us.  It does not burn us in some game where the loser gets eternal punishment.  Rather, God’s fire is intended to refine us; burning away all of our impurities and sin until God can finally look at us and see God’s face reflect back.

To become a kingdom of God’s people, Jesus needs to put us through the fire.  We need to be forgiven and refined by the fire of Jesus’ Spirit, so that when Jesus looks at us, all he sees reflected is his own heavenly love and desire for goodness.

And, when we are put through the fires by the Lord, when we are put to the test, when the impurities are burned away, we join in the same faith experience as other faithful people such as Moses as he approached the Lord on the Mount Sinai.  When you read the account of Moses’ ascent up the holy mountain, you read:

“Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the Israelites.” (Exodus 24:17). 

And, then you read that Moses enters through that fiery cloud to stand before God, in order to receive the commandments; in order to hear God’s desires for the world. 

So, in the Bible, if you want to be a part of God’s love and desires for the world, which I assume most of us do, the old self needs to be burned away.  It needs to be refined like gold with the dross being scooped or burned away. 

To enter back into the Garden of Eden, to enter into the kingdom of God so that you can walk and talk with God once again, you will need to be pulled through those flaming swords guarding the entrance to the kingdom just as Moses had to pass through the fire.

And, Jesus cannot wait for that to happen, because he knows that the world on the other side of the flames is so, so good.

And, just in case you have a passing thought that pastors like me just make all of this stuff up, we will take a look at the Apostle Paul and see how he interprets these biblical themes of fire that Jesus teaches.  In 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about how he laid down a foundation, a solid floor, for his congregation.  The foundation is Jesus.  Through God’s grace, Paul gave his congregation in Corinth the foundation of Jesus.  After being given that foundation of Jesus, those of us standing on that solid foundation build our lives of faith on top.   Now, listen to how he describes what happens then.  He says that,

“No one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— the work of each builder will become visible, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If the work that someone has built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a wage. If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:11-16).

By the grace of God you have been given the foundation of Jesus Christ.  And, that foundation cannot be taken away.  Paul says that no one can lay another foundation.  You stand on the love of Jesus, because Jesus wants you to be standing there.  That is a pure gift and there is nothing to do about it except to give thanks to the Lord. 

However, whatever sort of life we build on top of that foundation will either fit the foundation well, or it will be inappropriate.  And, how do we know if the life we have built on Christ matches of the foundation of grace and forgiveness that we have been given?  You guessed it.  Fire!  Tests!  Challenges!  And, if the faith life we have built survives, it is very good.  But, if not, it is all burned away, and the weakness of our lives will be no more.  We will suffer the loss of the false lives and false hopes and false aspirations that we have built, but as Paul promises, “the builder will be saved;” refined by the fire (1 Corinthians 3:15).  Then, reflecting Jesus once again we can build something better; a life that reflects the face of Jesus.

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze!  I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!” (Luke 12:49-50).

Far from a fire of destruction, Jesus casts on us a fire of baptism, a fire of new starts, a fire of new life and new things.  Goldsmiths refine gold, burning the dross away until he or she can see their face. We are refined until God can see God’s face reflect back.

And, that means we can expect to have our lives constantly be changed by Jesus, refined over and over again so that we can continually reflect the face of Jesus. 

Now, some people will not be able to go with us on that road of refinement; not yet anyway.  Jesus warns us that walking in his ways and loving and serving people will cause division in our lives.  Some people will not be able to forgive.  Some people will not be able to love whoever they deem as their enemy.  Some people do not want to give up grudges and preconceptions they have of others.  And, it will cause divisions; close divisions with those we love.  

“From now on” Jesus says,

“five in one household will be divided,

three against two and two against three; they will be divided:

father against son 

and son against father,  

mother against daughter 

and daughter against mother,  

mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law 

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:52-53).

I do not know if you noticed the generational split here between those who were refined by the fire and those who did not let God’s fire touch their lives.  A father and mother will take a stand against a son, daughter, and daughter-in-law.  They will no longer see eye to eye as to how the world should look.  Now, Jesus does not say which generation in this scenario cannot accept the world as Jesus sees it, older or younger.  But, what I do know is that the only way for either generation to stand on the foundation of Jesus’ life and Jesus’ priorities is to allow Jesus to burn their old lives away. 

Jesus cannot wait for our hatreds to be burned away.  Jesus anxiously anticipates the day when our enemies can become neighbors.  Jesus desires more than anything for us to be gathered closer together as created beings, not pushed further apart.

So, let us take some time to allow those hatreds and problems to be burned and refined.  I am going to take you through an experience of guided imagery that, hopefully, will allow the Spirit to burn away within you whatever is made of sticks and straw, so that only the pure reflection of God will be left behind.

Sit straight and comfortably and close your eyes.

Take three deep, cleansing breaths.

Relax any tension in your neck and shoulders.

Allow the tension in your arms and legs to exit through the fingers and toes.

And, envision yourself in a warm and comforting place.

It is the place Jesus has prepared for you.

Look around at all that makes this place warm and comforting.

Feel the warn light of Jesus on your face.

Feel how the peace that Jesus hands your way relaxes your body and soul.

Now, reach out and grab that warmth and peace, like a soft cloud, and hug it close.

Allow your mind to wander among faces of people you know, people who could use some of that warmth and peace that you hug close.

Now focus on the one face among the many with whom you are divided and with whom you have conflict.

Look at them.  Study their face.  Stare into their eyes.  See them as God sees them.

Now, share a piece of that cloud of warmth and peace with that person.

As they wander from you, hugging that gift of warmth and peace that you gave them, that warmth and peace that Jesus gave to you, say a prayer for them.

Sometimes a burning, refining fire is the same thing as Jesus’ warmth and peace, and we are made pure by Jesus when we share.

Reflection on Luke 12:32-40

 

Luke 12:32-40

[Jesus said:] 32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 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. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

35 “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 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. 37 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. 38 If he comes during the middle of the night or near dawn and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

39 “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. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Reflection

“I feel disconnected from God,” he finally said after trying for minutes to describe his spiritual state.

“It’s not that I don’t believe in God. It is just that I don’t sense God as being that important in my life at this point.”

It was a brutally honest statement from someone who was considering leaving the church.

When inviting the pastor into his home to talk, the man wanted to be clear that he was not leaving the church because of some sort of slight or disagreement. The people in the church were just fine.

The problem went much deeper, and in the same way that some couples just slowly lose connection with one another over time and end up divorcing, this man kind of felt like it was his time to separate with God. More to the point, he felt like the separation had already happened and he just now had mustered up the courage to tell someone.

“I’ve been there,” said the pastor. “Many, many times I’ve been there. Imagine having to write a sermon while feeling that way! It stinks.”

The man smiled and relaxed a little, inviting the pastor to take a seat in the living room.

“What do you do when you feel that way pastor?” the man asked honestly.

To that question, the pastor suddenly stood up again, reached into his pocket, dug something out, and smacked it down on the coffee table. The man leaned forward to see what it was. The familiar green of the $20 bill was revealed upon closer inspection.

“I don’t get it. You pay God to come into your life again? Where would you even drop off the money?”

The pastor laughed. “Not quite.” Then he simply said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

You may not know where the pastor is headed with this, but I would like to tell you that there is some wisdom in where he is leading this man. After-all, it is Jesus who first tells us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So it is not an ingenious invention of the pastor.

But, before we continue, let us pause for a second because I have come to realize that most of us understand this phrase backwards. I have even heard it spoken backwards from the pulpit.

Most of us understand Jesus’ words here as meaning: “We put our money in the thing that is most special to us.”

But New Testament scholar Mark Allen Powell points out that Jesus is not saying that at all. Jesus is actually saying that the things or people in which we invest our money captures a little bit of our heart and devotion. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  

Advertisers understand this very well.  They know that if they can get us to spend a little of our money, we also put a little of our heart into that investment.  They rely on this truth of the human condition to make their living.

Take smart phones for an example. I have known people who sing the praises of their iPhones after they have purchased one. They love the ease of use. They love the features such as the face identification to access the phone; that way you do not have to type in a pass code every time you use the phone. And, iPhone users will staunchly defend the quality of their phones in an argument against those evil and unenlightened Android smart phone users.

Of course, Android users will similarly go on and on about their phones and the 3D photography and virtual reality capabilities of their phones.

It is called brand loyalty. We use our money to buy a phone, and in return, the company gets part of our heart…part of our loyalty. Wherever you place your treasure, you will give away a little bit of your heart.

Whether its Apple vs. PC, Velveeta vs. Cheddar, Star Wars vs. Star Trek, Pixar vs. Sony, salt vs. pepper, cat vs. dog…do not even get people started on the cat vs. dog one…each time advertisers get us to invest our money or time in something, we also invest our heart in their product rather than another.

The thing is, part of this investment of heart makes us blind to the realities and shortcomings of the thing in which we have invested our money. No one wants to be the one who spends foolishly. So we defend our choices of iPhones and Androids, dogs and cats, and we refuse to mention the troubles and faults in our choices. Dogs make you get up early in the morning. Cats do not. Just saying.

Leaders will try to get you to do the same.  They will do everything in their power to get your loyalty, because once they have a little bit of your loyalty, they know that they have a hold of your heart.  And once they have a hold of your heart, it is amazing the sorts of things that they can convince you to do or believe.  And, we fall for it again and again, because no one wants to admit that they may have had their heart trapped in the wrong place. 

That is how treasures work. What you value as treasure is where you your heart ends up. Where you spend your resources of money, time, and self is what you will end up treasuring like a gleaming gem.  And, that is how we lose connection with others people (friends, children, etc). We invest in people and things that steal our hearts. That is how we lose connection with God.  We invest in people or things that steal our hearts.

What if you decided to give away all the treasure that competes with God and all that God desires for the world?  What if you decided to put that false treasure, those false Gods, those false hopes, that false sense of security aside so that you can invest once again in God and God alone? 

Today, through the Holy Scriptures, Jesus is leading you to think along such lines.  Jesus tells us, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ³³Sell 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. ³⁴For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

There is this strong promise here that when you invest in God, your heart will latch on also.  And when you allow God to latch onto you, you will be brought into the glories of God’s kingdom.

Have you ever stopped to consider: “Where does God spend God’s resources?” Well, let us look at the scriptures and see.

In the beginning, God made a peaceful space in the chaos for us, the gem of God’s creation.  God invests in us.

In Jesus, God chooses to spend time with us; especially when we are poor; especially when we struggle; and especially when we are trapped in sin.  God invests in us.

In Jesus, God chooses to pay a life for a life on the cross. God chooses to pay for you…for us…to trade our sins for his peace. This is all done for our benefit. God so loved Apple Corp.? No. God so loved an earthly leader? No.  “God so loved the world…” We are where God spends God's resources.

The man picks up the $20, looks at it, and asks the pastor, “So, what am I supposed to do with this?”

“Spend it, of course" the pastor replies.

“Spend it on what?”

“Spend it on something that the Lord cares about. Spend it on something that Jesus would care passionately about. Spend it on the poor. Spend it on a special Olympic athlete. Spend it on someone’s medical care. Buy a child’s school lunch. Spend it the way that the Lord would spend it.”

You see, the pastor understands from his own experience that when we feel separated from God, it may be because we are no longer participating in God’s activities.  It may be because we have forgotten, as the Bible says, to “be dressed for action” and have forgotten to “have our lamps lit.” 

What if, rather than being distracted by all of those things which capture our hearts and our attention, we dressed with the righteousness of God and lit our lamps, ready for the Lord to arrive?  What if we started taking part and investing in all that the Lord cares about?  Maybe, just maybe, we would discover once again that the Lord has opened the door, has arrived home, and has taken a place at the table in our presence.  Maybe, we would discover that the Lord has, once again, drawn our hearts near to the Lord’s heart?

‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,’ Jesus says.

Before pulling out his keys, the pastor finished by saying, “Invest some of your treasure in God. Just maybe your heart will follow and you will not be so disconnected.”

If you are reading this now, I invite you to do the same. Do you feel disconnected with God? Take some of your gifts this week, (and I really, actually mean it), and spend them on something that Jesus would care about.

After-all, it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Follow God's example and share some of that kingdom of mercy, and maybe…just maybe...your own eyes will be opened to the mercies of God in your life.