August 8, 2010
Wisdom 18: 6-9 + Psalm 33 + Hebrews 11: 1, 2, 8-12
I find myself thinking of and listening to this Gospel with two Gospel stories we had last month still in my mind. There was Martha standing there with apron pulled tight and hands on hips saying to Jesus: “Make her help me!”
Then last week someone from the crowd comes up to Jesus and says: “Tell my brother to give me my share.”
I was thinking of those stories with this Gospel passage because here is this community of Luke, 50 or so years after the death and resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit hanging around expecting Jesus to fix things.
They are standing around wondering what’s going on? And thinking: “Come on Jesus!
Get back here and bring that Kingdom you promised!”
That “Jesus Fix It” mentality seems to be spreading. That idea that someone else should take care of what’s bothering us
is not going away. I suspect that Luke writes these verses to speak to that attitude
and remind us that Jesus did not come to fix anything except our relationships with one another and with his Father. I believe that what Luke would have us see is that our waiting around impatiently and sometimes with doubt about the coming of Christ and the Kingdom is somehow not quite right.
The Kingdom and all it’s glory, peace, and justice does not come because we think that someone else should make it happen. The Jesus of Luke’s Gospel is a Jesus who was a Teacher. He was and perhaps as long as we tell the stories still teaching us how to live: not live in the future, but how to live now in the Kingdom of God. Perhaps if we did so, we would discover that the Kingdom of God is already among us, available and possible at which point all our fears would be in vain.
“Do not fear, little flock.” is advice given to people of faith – to people who have been given the Kingdom of God. Read the text.
Jesus is speaking in the present: “Your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom of God.” Then the teacher instructs the disciples on how to live in that Kingdom.
“Sell what you have and give alms.” Live today as though it were your last. Live everyday that way, and watch what happens.
All the things you put off doing and resolving will be finished. Those little things, the little touches that make a life beautiful and ought to finish a good life get completed. You express your thanks and your love to the ones you have taken for granted today not thinking I’ll tell them tomorrow. You find healing and forgiveness now because you don’t want to die without making amends to those you have slighted, hurt, and refused. You quit hording all the stuff you have piled up and give it away
not with worry about who deserves it, but to those who need it. Suddenly, Justice and Charity are all you think about and care about.
In other words, if we would simply begin now to live in the Kingdom the way we have been taught by the Rabbi, we would have nothing to wait for and there would be no long delay.
Perhaps we would begin to understand what happened at Pentecost and begin to do what we have
been called and sent to do: bring the kingdom of God and stop waiting for someone else to do what we have been asked and gifted and prepared to do.
Audio Available