Pentecost 11

Pentecost 11 (Luke 12:32-40)
Do not be afraid, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
God wants to bless us. God not only wants to give us the Kingdom, it is Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is characterized by three fundamental virtues: faith, hope, and charity. The Kingdom is a new life and a new way of living.
The new life begins in the waters of baptism. God uses ordinary water to be a sign and a reality of the gift of that new life. In the sacrament of baptism, God the Father pours forth God the Holy Spirit to give us a new birth into the risen life of God the Son. We receive the gift of the Kingdom through the waters of baptism.
The new way of living is nourished through the bread and wine of Holy Communion. God the Father sends God the Holy Spirit to transform bread and wine into the body and blood of God the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus infuses his own divine light, and life and love into our souls through the blessed sacrament of the altar.
The Good News Jesus brings to the world is that it is God’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. The Kingdom is a gift. We can’t earn it. It is available to everyone.
God wants to bless us. The obstacle to the blessings of the Kingdom of God is three fold: fear, self will and pride.
In the gospel reading this morning Jesus sets before us a reassurance, an assignment, and a goal.
The reassurance comes in the words “do not be afraid.” Jesus knows that much of human life is distorted by fear. Fear erodes and destroys faith. But, grace can transform fear back into faith.
The great fear that people in Jesus’ day felt was the fear of divine anger. People believed in a god of rewards and punishments. This god made many demands as a condition for his rewards. Sadly, those who live with fear also live with anger. Those who live by religious principles of rewards and punishment also bring forth an ethic of rewards and punishments in the way they treat other people. As people expect God to punish any misbehavior or imperfection so they feel justified in treating other people in the same way. So people adopt an attitude towards life, other people, even God that if we get what we want we will be nice in return. If we don’t get what we want we will retaliate in some active or passive aggressive way.
Fear and anger produce a spirit of pride. Pride states that I and only I know who God is and what God wants. Therefore, I am righteous and you are not. Since I am righteous and you are not I am perfectly justified in imposing my will on you, life, and even God.
Jesus reassures us that God is not angry. He does not relate to us on the principle of rewards and punishments. If you are suffering it is not a sign that you sinned, that God is angry with you, and that you are being punished. It is OK that you are not perfect. It is Ok to learn and grow. God will transform our sins back into their original virtues. The reassurance Jesus gives us is in the words: it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. God delights in giving. God is the eternal fountain of blessings.
That fount of blessings sets free from the narrow brittle rigidity of rewards and punishments into a new life of compassion. God fills us with the eternal abundance of uncreated love. That love liberates us from the narrow constriction of fear into the abundance of faith, hope, and charity. From that fount of blessing we can immerse ourselves in the abundance of blessing and become a blessing to others.
Fear always limits abundance and produces scarcity. The antidote to fear is faith. Jesus came into the world to demonstrate God’s grace. Jesus is the gift of God. Jesus reveals God’s nature and God’s character by his own actions.
Jesus is the abundance of eternal life pouring himself out to all sorts and conditions of people. In his self giving he invites us to live by faith. He invites us to transform self will into love.
The love Jesus demonstrates is the active, dynamic, creative self giving love of God. We cannot generate this kind of love. We can experience it. We can open our souls to receive the outpouring of this love and become living channels of this love.
Jesus commends the way of active compassion as a means for us to open to the gift of divine love so we can become the living channels of grace.
Since God gives us the kingdom as a gift, since God gives us faith to transform fear, Jesus gives us an assignment to practice our faith through acts of charity: giving alms. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Giving opens our souls to become channels of grace. As we give we become a blessing to others. As we become a blessing to others we live life from the place of blessing.
In addition to giving alms, Jesus also gives us an assignment to be dressed for action, Light your lamps, and prepare. He uses the parable of the servants preparing for their master’s return from the wedding banquet. They don’t know when he will return. The servants are focused on the preparation to receive the master when he returns. That preparation is their priority.
To dress for action is to live the principle that faith produces action. A soldier dresses for military action so he can fight effectively. A farmer dresses to work in the field so he can work effectively. A servant of Christ dresses for a life of faith by wearing the robes of faith. Metaphorically, the robes of faith come from the new life of grace, the new way of living in the abundance of love and compassion.

Faith is the basis for the choices we make in life. The choice to light the lamps is a choice to wake up and to live in the light of truth. The truth is that God is love. The truth is that God is holiness. The truth is that God gives himself to everyone in Jesus Christ. The truth is that as we receive the gift of God in Jesus Christ we receive the gift of a new life and a new way of living. We live from a place of active creative transforming love and holiness.
We dress in the garments of faith for action. We light the lamps of holiness to prepare for the master to return. We offer our minds, and hearts and wills to be transformed by God. We prepare for the King to return as we reset our priorities to accomplish his plan and purpose for our lives, the church and the world. We prepare for the King to return as we offer God our sins to be transformed back into their original virtues. Do not be overwhelmed by your sins. Do not shrink back from recognizing your sins. Your sins are the hidden jewels of the treasury of heaven that the Holy Spirit will transform to shine in their original brightness. Acknowledge your sins and present them to God to be transformed back into their original virtues.
Jesus reassures us that God gives us a new life from the infinite abundance of his love. There is no punishment. The reward is Jesus himself.
Jesus gives us an assignment to live a new life by immersing ourselves in self giving and personal transformation. Jesus sets before us a goal for our lives. Be ready.
Be ready to welcome the personal return of Jesus Christ to this planet. Be ready by making a real choice to ask the Holy Spirit to transform fear, self will and pride into faith, hope and love. Be ready by seeking the blessing of God, by receiving the blessing of God, and by being the blessing of God.
Life is difficult. Life has many challenges, many joys and many sorrows. Apart from God, people react to the challenges of life with fear. Fear produces the demand of self will . Self will justifies its demands through pride. Life becomes a struggle to endure, a vicious cycle of fear, frustration, anger, and demand.
Jesus offers us a different way of living. It is the life of grace. It is the reality that God is love even when bad things happen. The reality of God is not in rewards and punishments of wealth or poverty, pleasure or pain, power or defeat. The reality of God is in the personal relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ.
The Kingdom of God is that relationship. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us, and all people everywhere, those blessings of faith, hope and love in the gift of Jesus Christ.