Luke 12:32-40
What is it that we strive for? What is it that we most want from life? Where is our heart?
That is a hard question: because we look for different things at different times: excitement, rest, respect, comfort, fitness, the fulfilment of a desire. And in the midst of all this merry-go-round of desires, sometimes we long for a centre, a point around which we can orientate our lives.
What is it that we strive for? What is it that we most want from life? Where is our heart?
 |
| Jesus eats with sinners. Sieger Kodel. (the master who serves his servants) |
That is a hard question: because we look for different things at different times: excitement, rest, respect, comfort, fitness, the fulfilment of a desire. And in the midst of all this merry-go-round of desires, sometimes we long for a centre, a point around which we can orientate our lives.
The audio of the talk can be found here
I think our reading from Luke 12 can help us
There are three parts:
Verses 32-34 speak of treasure in heaven
Verse 35-38 speak of slaves who are waiting for their master to return, and when the master returns, he serves them.
Verses 39-40 speak of homeowner who is burgled, and there is the call to be ready.
But to put these in focus, we need to go back to the previous verses where Jesus has said that, in view of the mercies and kindness of God, we are not to strive for the things of this world, but to seek first the kingdom of God.
And if we do that, if we put his kingdom and Jesus, the king of the kingdom, in the centre, then he will provide us with what we need for life.
How do we know what is important to us?
First, look at how we spend our money:
Jesus says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”
It is a very simple test. If you want you to know what is important to you, look at what we spend our money on: home, holidays, family, another person, the gym, eating out, clothes, investments, cars, art, technology, boats (we bought a boat recently!)
Second, look at what or who we are waiting for:
Jesus tells the story of the slaves who, in the middle of the night, are awaiting the arrival of their master.
But in this story, it seems that they are not waiting out of fear or duty, but out of love. Because this master is quite remarkable. This master, when he returns he does not expect them to serve him but he ‘fastens his belt’ and serves them.
I suspect that they were waiting for him, because they longed for him. They wanted him to be there.
Perhaps we long for a particular person, or that we might find that person – a friend, a lover, a companion.
Perhaps we long for the children to come and stay. Or after they have been with us a few days we long for them to go: because we now want rest and peace.
Or perhaps we long to get that break, that recognition, that job, that contract, because then it will mean that we have made it. Or we long to be respected, or to know that we matter.
Or maybe we simply long to feel well, to have a day without pain or confusion, or that everything is in its right place
We long for what is important for us.
And third, look at what you ‘stay awake’ to protect.
If the homeowner had known when the burglar was coming, they would have taken precautions.
So what is precious to us? What do we insure over and above the things that we are legally required to insure? Our home, our health, our life?
And what do we guard? We can think of those houses like castles, with concrete or brick fences and massive gates.
And what do we give our strongest passwords to: our finances, access to those websites that we don’t want anyone else to know that we go to, our medical data.
I think our reading from Luke 12 can help us
There are three parts:
Verses 32-34 speak of treasure in heaven
Verse 35-38 speak of slaves who are waiting for their master to return, and when the master returns, he serves them.
Verses 39-40 speak of homeowner who is burgled, and there is the call to be ready.
But to put these in focus, we need to go back to the previous verses where Jesus has said that, in view of the mercies and kindness of God, we are not to strive for the things of this world, but to seek first the kingdom of God.
And if we do that, if we put his kingdom and Jesus, the king of the kingdom, in the centre, then he will provide us with what we need for life.
How do we know what is important to us?
First, look at how we spend our money:
Jesus says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”
It is a very simple test. If you want you to know what is important to you, look at what we spend our money on: home, holidays, family, another person, the gym, eating out, clothes, investments, cars, art, technology, boats (we bought a boat recently!)
Second, look at what or who we are waiting for:
Jesus tells the story of the slaves who, in the middle of the night, are awaiting the arrival of their master.
But in this story, it seems that they are not waiting out of fear or duty, but out of love. Because this master is quite remarkable. This master, when he returns he does not expect them to serve him but he ‘fastens his belt’ and serves them.
I suspect that they were waiting for him, because they longed for him. They wanted him to be there.
Perhaps we long for a particular person, or that we might find that person – a friend, a lover, a companion.
Perhaps we long for the children to come and stay. Or after they have been with us a few days we long for them to go: because we now want rest and peace.
Or perhaps we long to get that break, that recognition, that job, that contract, because then it will mean that we have made it. Or we long to be respected, or to know that we matter.
Or maybe we simply long to feel well, to have a day without pain or confusion, or that everything is in its right place
We long for what is important for us.
And third, look at what you ‘stay awake’ to protect.
If the homeowner had known when the burglar was coming, they would have taken precautions.
So what is precious to us? What do we insure over and above the things that we are legally required to insure? Our home, our health, our life?
And what do we guard? We can think of those houses like castles, with concrete or brick fences and massive gates.
And what do we give our strongest passwords to: our finances, access to those websites that we don’t want anyone else to know that we go to, our medical data.
What is it that you keep in your literal or metaphorical bank vaults?
What is it that would break your heart if you lost it.
What is it that would break your heart if you lost it.
Jesus is urging his followers to put the Kingdom of God, and him – the King of the Kingdom – at the centre of our lives
God is the God who feeds the ravens (v24), who clothes the lilies in glory (v27), who is a heavenly loving father who knows what we need and desire (v30), whose ‘good pleasure’ it is to give us the kingdom’ (v32).
And God is the master who takes of and puts aside his royal robes, wraps a towel around his waist and kneels down to wash our feet.
And in view of the mercy of God, Jesus urges us to strive for his kingdom, for his ways, his mercy, his peace, his just and kind rule and ultimately for him.
He calls us to put him in the centre.
And if make the decision to put Jesus in the centre, then
1. It will affect how we spend our money.
“Sell your possessions and give alms” (v33).
Giving will become much more important for us – not as a way of trying to earn God’s blessing.
People make that mistake constantly. We think that if we give, God will bless us.
Many of our churches were built by wealthy families to pay their way out of purgatory. And as one person recently, ‘Yes, and we and still paying for them!
No. If you give 10% of your income then the one thing that can be guaranteed is that you will be 10% poorer
But we give because God gives: ‘it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom’.
We give because the Kingdom is about God’s generousity and giving, because we have been given so much, and if we are part of the kingdom we will want to give.
And we give out of compassion for others – not only that they should not be in material need, but that they should be able to discover the one who is at the very centre of life.
And we give because it is our duty to give.
In Matthew 6, Jesus tells his followers, ‘When you pray, when you fast, when you give’.
And giving can help us grow in faith.
Our money follows our heart, but our heart can also follow our money.
If I begin to give to something, then my heart will follow the money, and that something will become important to me.
If I begin to give seriously for the sake of Jesus and his kingdom, then Jesus and his kingdom will become more important for me.
Looking back – and I cannot say confidently which was cause or effect – my Christian faith began to become very real for me, and I began to encounter the power of God both in me and working through me, when I started to simply do what I was actually called to do – which was, as soon as I received any money, to put aside a tenth to give.
2. then he will become increasingly precious to us and we will have a growing longing for him
One of my fellow students at theological college was Andrew White (vicar of Baghdad). In his previous career he had worked as an anaesthetist in London. And he told how on one occasion he had said to a patient who was about to go under, ‘think of something that fills you with good thoughts’, and she had said to him, ‘I am thinking of Jesus’.
We find that longing for Jesus in many of our great hymns:
I think Charles Wesley in, “Jesus the name high over all”
“Happy, if with my latest breath
I may but gasp His name;
Preach Him to all and cry in death,
"Behold, behold the Lamb!"
I recall John Pearce, a vicar in London who I worked for as a parish assistant, and who was then incredibly gracious as a member of the congregation of which I was vicar in Bury St Edmunds. And John loved Jesus and longed for Jesus. And he spent time with Jesus and longed to go home to Jesus.
3. And if we put Jesus and the kingdom of God in the centre, then we will guard our faith, we will seek to stay awake in our faith.
We will guard that relationship with him.
Yesterday Frazer and Felicity were married in Burnham Norton. I often use my wedding charge to urge the couple, and of course all of us, to guard our love, our relationships. That means giving time for the other, talking, sharing our feelings – especially when we are hurting, listening, not taking them for granted, and using those three little words, sorry, please and thank you.
And if this relationship with the Son of God is our treasure, is our centre, then we will guard it.
We will not give up the habit of trying to spend time with him through reading the bible and praying daily and meeting together with his people. We will guard it, just as we would guard a precious art work that hangs on our wall.
Of course we will not succeed on many days, but every morning is a new morning and gives us the possibility of a new start.
So I remind myself and I remind you. Seek the Kingdom of God and Jesus, the King. Put him in the centre. Let him be the conductor, the director. It is always amazing how, when we do that, all the other things fall into place. And it will shape how we give, what we long for, and what we guard as precious.
God is the God who feeds the ravens (v24), who clothes the lilies in glory (v27), who is a heavenly loving father who knows what we need and desire (v30), whose ‘good pleasure’ it is to give us the kingdom’ (v32).
And God is the master who takes of and puts aside his royal robes, wraps a towel around his waist and kneels down to wash our feet.
And in view of the mercy of God, Jesus urges us to strive for his kingdom, for his ways, his mercy, his peace, his just and kind rule and ultimately for him.
He calls us to put him in the centre.
And if make the decision to put Jesus in the centre, then
1. It will affect how we spend our money.
“Sell your possessions and give alms” (v33).
Giving will become much more important for us – not as a way of trying to earn God’s blessing.
People make that mistake constantly. We think that if we give, God will bless us.
Many of our churches were built by wealthy families to pay their way out of purgatory. And as one person recently, ‘Yes, and we and still paying for them!
No. If you give 10% of your income then the one thing that can be guaranteed is that you will be 10% poorer
But we give because God gives: ‘it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom’.
We give because the Kingdom is about God’s generousity and giving, because we have been given so much, and if we are part of the kingdom we will want to give.
And we give out of compassion for others – not only that they should not be in material need, but that they should be able to discover the one who is at the very centre of life.
And we give because it is our duty to give.
In Matthew 6, Jesus tells his followers, ‘When you pray, when you fast, when you give’.
And giving can help us grow in faith.
Our money follows our heart, but our heart can also follow our money.
If I begin to give to something, then my heart will follow the money, and that something will become important to me.
If I begin to give seriously for the sake of Jesus and his kingdom, then Jesus and his kingdom will become more important for me.
Looking back – and I cannot say confidently which was cause or effect – my Christian faith began to become very real for me, and I began to encounter the power of God both in me and working through me, when I started to simply do what I was actually called to do – which was, as soon as I received any money, to put aside a tenth to give.
2. then he will become increasingly precious to us and we will have a growing longing for him
One of my fellow students at theological college was Andrew White (vicar of Baghdad). In his previous career he had worked as an anaesthetist in London. And he told how on one occasion he had said to a patient who was about to go under, ‘think of something that fills you with good thoughts’, and she had said to him, ‘I am thinking of Jesus’.
We find that longing for Jesus in many of our great hymns:
I think Charles Wesley in, “Jesus the name high over all”
“Happy, if with my latest breath
I may but gasp His name;
Preach Him to all and cry in death,
"Behold, behold the Lamb!"
I recall John Pearce, a vicar in London who I worked for as a parish assistant, and who was then incredibly gracious as a member of the congregation of which I was vicar in Bury St Edmunds. And John loved Jesus and longed for Jesus. And he spent time with Jesus and longed to go home to Jesus.
3. And if we put Jesus and the kingdom of God in the centre, then we will guard our faith, we will seek to stay awake in our faith.
We will guard that relationship with him.
Yesterday Frazer and Felicity were married in Burnham Norton. I often use my wedding charge to urge the couple, and of course all of us, to guard our love, our relationships. That means giving time for the other, talking, sharing our feelings – especially when we are hurting, listening, not taking them for granted, and using those three little words, sorry, please and thank you.
And if this relationship with the Son of God is our treasure, is our centre, then we will guard it.
We will not give up the habit of trying to spend time with him through reading the bible and praying daily and meeting together with his people. We will guard it, just as we would guard a precious art work that hangs on our wall.
Of course we will not succeed on many days, but every morning is a new morning and gives us the possibility of a new start.
So I remind myself and I remind you. Seek the Kingdom of God and Jesus, the King. Put him in the centre. Let him be the conductor, the director. It is always amazing how, when we do that, all the other things fall into place. And it will shape how we give, what we long for, and what we guard as precious.
Comments
Post a Comment