August 10, 2025 – Not delivered. I am in Oklahoma at this time
Wisdom 18: 6-9 + Psalm 33 + Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19 + Luke 12: 32-48
Last week, I boarded a plane and flew up to Oklahoma City. As always, before we left the ground, an invisible flight attendant said: “We’d like your attention for a few moments while we show you some of the safety features of this aircraft.” Then, as though we had no idea how to fasten a safety belt, we got a demonstration followed by the number and location of emergency exits. There was the usual demonstration of how to use an oxygen mask and where the life vest was located and how to blow it up. Of course, the whole idea is to help us passengers be prepared for the unexpected. That is exactly what Jesus is doing in these verses from Luke’s Gospel.
Being prepared for the unexpected is the message, and no matter how often we hear it, like the message on the plane, most of ignore it which might well lead to some unwelcome consequences. There are a lot of people, it seems to me, who might be heard to say: “When your number is up, your number is up” suggesting that it doesn’t matter how you live. There are so many days in each life, and there isn’t anything to be done about it. To some extent that might be true, but it does not mean that it is all predetermined. To a frightening extent, it is really in our hands. How we live may very well determine how long we live.
The final verses that sum up the text for today ought to give us some clue about how to live, how to be prepared, and what to expect. “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” In the middle of a hot summer day, the warning of this Gospel may just be more than we want to hear, so like the passengers on that plane, we can easily drift off to more pleasant thoughts about where we are going and who we will see. There is a great risk in that.
We know that the master is coming. Yet, as a people we are not showing much by way of preparation. We have shown ourselves to be like the slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted. The “severe beating” may well come in the form of rising seas, failing crops, surging temperature, droughts, floods an ever-more violent storms. While we eat, drink, and make merry God’s creation is abused and neglected.
As this text ends with that explicit warning there is also an implicit hope. Sacrifices and changes are required from those who have invested so much in systems that do such damage. Then, hope comes from faith’s assurance that God comes to bless those who are faithful, careful, respectful, and have been found waiting. Why would we not want to be counted among them?