(Sermon text: Luke 12: 32 – 40)
Given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL, Saturday, August 11th, 2007; and at the Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL, Sunday, August 12th, 2007
“Willing hands and a willing heart”….a three-by-five card bears those words in the stack of the prayer cards I use during daily Morning Prayer to guide my prayers.[1] Nearly every day, as I read those words and then form them into a prayer before God, I try to reflect on some aspect of how willing – or unwilling – my hands have been to serve, or my heart has been to listen and to move on God’s behalf.
“Willing hands and a willing heart”…..to be willing to do what, exactly? Well, several things come to mind, including: 1. a willingness to see the big (or bigger) picture of what God is doing in my life, in the lives of the people who are entrusted to my care, and in the life of the church and the world; 2. a willingness to be watchful for the needs of others; and 3. a willingness to work for the spread of God’s kingdom, both now in this world, and for the world to come.
And so, today, we have before us a passage from Luke’s gospel account, and the reading we’ve just heard has a lot to do with willingness and watchfulness.
Let’s turn our attention to Luke’s record of Our Lord’s teaching, then, looking first at some of the images that Jesus uses. Then, we would do well to draw some lessons that apply equally to the late-first-century church to whom Luke was writing, and to us as modern-day Christians.
As we examine the text today, two images merit some clarification:
- “Be dressed for action, and have your lamps burning”:[2] Here, the Greek literally is “have your loins girded”[3], and the image is of a person who is dressed in an ankle length garment, who has tucked the garment up into the waistbelt so as to be able to move quickly and easily to do the work at hand. The image of the burning lamp has an echo in Matthew 25: 1 – 13 (the Parable of the Bridesmaids), where the burning lamp signifies –as it does here in Luke 12 – a readiness for the return of the master to the house.
- “Wedding banquet”: Here, the image of the wedding banquet has eschatological significance. We should pause for a moment and define the word “eschatological”. It means “the last and final things, the Last Judgment”, and is derived from the Greek word eschatois (meaning “last”). The eschatological symbolism of the wedding banquet is probably stronger in Matthew than it is in Luke, since the Parable of the Bridesmaids (Matthew 25: 1 – 13) falls within a lengthy part of Matthew which has to do with the Final Judgment.[4] Nevertheless, for Jesus’ hearers and for Luke’s church, the significance of the image was, no doubt, probably very clear.
And speaking directly to God’s people, the message of Jesus’ teaching seems to be focused squarely on a willingness to work and to see the bigger picture, and on a watchfulness for Our Lord’s coming again in power and with great might, even as He is present with His people in the meantime.
Luke recorded Jesus’ teaching on this matter, perhaps because the church to whom he was writing was getting tired of waiting and watching for Jesus’ return. At least that was one of my seminary professors’ theory, and I think it holds a certain amount of credibility….Perhaps the church of the late first century was beginning to take its eyes off the skies, waiting for the trumpet call to announce the Lord’s return. Perhaps the church of that day was beginning to concern itself with the everyday cares that life – then as now – imposes on us.
Maybe some in the church were beginning to get sloppy with their prayer life, with their worship life, and with their works of charity by which the church distinguished itself from the dog-eat-dog world of the Roman Empire. Maybe some in the church began to be concerned only with their own welfare, content to be God’s new Chosen People in Jesus Christ, receivers only of God’s goodness and love without a corresponding requirement to share that goodness and love beyond themselves. Maybe they were beginning to think it was “all about them”, and that they could play an ecclesiastical version of “while the Cat’s away, the mice will play”, behaving as though the lives they were leading had no significance or consequence outside of their own existence, as if God wasn’t watching their actions and their attitudes.
For “willing hands and a willing heart”, we pray….Why?
Because, if left to our own devices (and I speak personally here, but in the hopes that what I confess here will prompt you to examine your own hearts and consciences), isn’t it true that we can become fully trained practitioners of the art of “making it all about me”? Won’t we try to get away doing as little as possible for the welfare of our spiritual life, and for the betterment of others? Couldn’t we fritter away enormous amounts of precious, God-given time on personal pleasure and pursuits? (Note that I am not saying personal pleasures and pursuits aren’t valuable parts of our lives – only that an inordinant focus on them can easily crowd out the more important – and enduring – things of God all too easily.) Can’t the everyday concerns of living life crash in and crowd out the things of God?
The answer to all of these questions is probably “yes”. I know am entirely too proficient at being lazy, of trying to just “get by” spiritually, of wasting a good deal of time on personal pursuits and pleasures, and of fixing my eyes squarely on the “stuff” of everyday life.
I suspect the church of Luke’s day was capable of all of those things, as well.
So what corrective does Our Lord’s teaching offer us for these ills today?
Notice that Jesus uses the image of master[5] and slave (or servant). And Jesus paints a picture of the master (or Lord) who, as he goes away:
- Trusts his servants to be ready to work and to be watching for his return.
- Motivates his servants with love, not force.
- Provides (through his provision of a house and all that goes with it) for his servants during his absence (denoting a continuing presence through the provisions made for the servants).
- Seeks to serve them (which is a sharp reversal of roles).[6]
Christians down through the ages, the ability to be watchful, to be willing to do God’s work in the world, and to see the bigger picture of God’s acting in the world, the “unseen-yet-present” presence of God in the world and in our lives, remains a daunting challenge.
For the “stuff” of life too easily crowds the things of God out. Personal pleasures and pursuits too easily take a higher priority than our spiritual welfare. Watching for God’s working in the world, and for His coming to us in the people and the needs He places before us becomes a seemingly impossible task for us to maintain.
So, for “willing hands and a willing heart” O God, we pray.
AMEN.
[1] Using 3 X 5 cards to guide and shape one’s prayer life isn’t a novel – or even original – idea. I commend it to you as a means of remembering those persons and things which should be remembered in prayer. It also enables us believers to remember the thanks we should be giving to God, and particularly the singular events that grace our lives.
[2] Verse 35
[3] Which is the way the Authorized Version (King James) translates it.
[4] The entire sequence of Jesus’ teaching on the Final Judgment is found in Matthew 23: 1 – 25: 46.
[5] The Greek word Jesus uses is “Lord” (kyrios).
[6] Reversal of roles is a consistently found theme in Luke’s gospel account.
