Year C
\u00a0Genesis 15:1-6
\u00a0Psalm 33:12-22
\u00a0Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
\u00a0Luke 12:32-40<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026\u00a0 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We’re all familiar with giving children an allowance\u2026 some mad money\u2026 that they can use to buy\u2026 depending on their ages\u2026 some candy\u2026 or maybe save up for a more costly video game\u2026 an allowance\u2026 perhaps as payment for them doing some chores\u2026 when I was barely a teenager\u2026 I got 60\u20b5 a week\u2026 for keeping my room tidy\u2026 and helping cook dinner\u2026 and I liked to buy 45 RPM records\u2026 and in 1965\u2026 I bought Turn! Turn! Turn! by the Byrds\u2026 a song based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8\u2026 and it seemed remarkable to me that someone set part of the Bible\u2026 a Jewish part\u2026 to music\u2026 and these days\u2026 there are some apps that help teach children responsibility\u2026 by helping them earn money\u2026 and keep track of it\u2026 ] and with varying degrees of parental control\u2026 to get payouts\u2026 ] in the British aristocracy\u2026 an allowance was much more substantial\u2026 and enabled those\u2026 like the landed gentry\u2026 to maintain an extravagant lifestyle\u2026 often without doing anything\u2026 but these discrepancies can set up some interesting dynamics\u2026 some people come to believe that life is nothing but drudgery\u2026 because you must work to survive\u2026 and some people come to believe that they’re entitled to the luxurious lives they have\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When God asked Abram to look toward heaven and count the stars\u2026 if he could\u2026 to number his descendants\u2026 in what was then and is mostly still now\u2026 a dark and dry desert climate where viewing conditions are ideal\u2026 even though he may have seen the sweep of what’s called the Milky Way\u2026 which is located both towards the center of our galaxy\u2026 and in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius\u2026 as incomprehensible as the number of stars accessible to Abram’s old eyes were\u2026 he could not have imagined the billions of galaxies and the sextillions of stars that the James Webb telescope has revealed\u2026 and which lay behind what he could see\u2026 and Abram believed\u2026 he had faith\u2026 we tend to think that this means that Abram was religious\u2026 the NRSV translates the Hebrew word\u2026 tze-da-qah<\/em>\u2026 as righteousness\u2026 but it’s a word that’s related to the concept of justice\u2026 the root of the word then\u2026 tze-daq\u2026 <\/em>refers to an ethical\u2026 moral standard\u2026 and in the Jewish scriptures\u2026 that standard is the very nature and will of God\u2026 and so with nothing more than a visual aid to help him calculate promised offspring\u2026 Abram drops his question\u2026 and trusts God\u2026 And thus you find<\/em>\u2026 observes an ancient midrash about this verse\u2026 that our father Abraham inherited this world and the world\u2013to\u2013come\u2026 as a reward for the faith that he had<\/em>\u2026 but in the Tanakh\u2026 faith does not mean believing in spite of the evidence\u2026 or lack thereof\u2026 it means trusting profoundly in a person\u2026 in this case the personal God\u2026 who has just reaffirmed the promise\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I started talking about the difference between what we earn\u2026 and that to which we feel entitled\u2026 but there’s another possibility\u2026 and it’s gift\u2026 and it’s expressed in what Jesus says in today’s Gospel\u2026 Do not be afraid, little flock\u2026 for it is your Father’s good pleasure\u2026 good pleasure\u2026 to give you the kingdom<\/em>\u2026 that God has resolved\u2026 because it is simply God’s very nature and will\u2026 to give us the entire kingdom\u2026 nothing that we can possibly earn\u2026 and certainly nothing to which we are entitled\u2026 and not just a parcel or two\u2026 not just a fiefdom\u2026 but the entire kingdom\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do not be afraid<\/em>\u2026 there are some lines in the science fiction novel Dune… called the Litany Against Fear\u2026 which Paul Atreides used to calm himself\u2026 before being tested by the Rev. Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam\u2026 a member of the Bene Gesserit\u2026 Paul says\u2026 I must not fear\u2026 fear is the mind-killer\u2026 fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration\u2026 I will face my fear\u2026 I will permit it to pass over me and through me\u2026 and when it has gone past\u2026 I will turn the inner eye to see its path\u2026 when the fear has gone\u2026 there will be nothing\u2026 only I will remain<\/em>\u2026 it leads me to believe that the gift God offers us\u2026 is nothing less than the boundless and great I AM\u2026 and yet\u2026 there are those who refuse it\u2026 or who approach this gift with fear\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Shea reminds us that today’s passage comes immediately after Jesus’ teaching about the ravens of the air\u2026 and the lilies of the field… fed and clothed as gift\u2026 and Jesus’ little flock is encouraged to adopt this deeper awareness\u2026 because the dominant cultural consciousness sees life as an anxious project for survival\u2026 constantly concerned with food\u2026 clothing\u2026 and shelter\u2026 and this alternative awareness suggests that we consider life\u2026 as a gift given from beyond itself\u2026 a gift which exists before our toil\u2026 and which the Source of Life feeds\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it can be difficult to cultivate this perspective\u2026 we need to remain vigilant and aware\u2026 and we find ourselves in an Advent-of-sorts\u2026 waiting for the Master to come\u2026 but there are special moments when we realize that the Master has arrived home\u2026 but it’s not so much he has come from the wedding feast… as it is that he brings the wedding feast with him\u2026 and when we recognize\u2026 that is re-cognize\u2026 the imminent knock\u2026 he fastens his belt\u2026 and serves his servants by allowing his life and their lives to flow into each other\u2026 like St. Teresa’s description of Divine Union\u2026 which she said was like watching rain fall from the sky and into a river\u2026 and when the drops fell\u2026 you couldn’t tell the water from the sky\u2026 from the water in the river\u2026 and likewise\u2026 in the Divine Union she described\u2026 you and God can no longer tell each other apart\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither God\u2026 nor the universe\u2026 owes us anything\u2026 and to think we earn what we have in a vacuum\u2026 or believe that we’re entitled to it\u2026 is to deceive ourselves\u2026 it is all gift\u2026 and as we’re increasingly able to establish that truth deep in our awareness\u2026 it will become increasingly easier for us to not be attached to things\u2026 and to share the gifts we’ve been given\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we experience ourselves as attached to God in Christ\u2026 through whom all things come into being\u2026 we come to own the field of all possibilities\u2026 it’s like what Jesus said in Matthew 13:44\u2026 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field\u2026 which someone found and hid\u2026 then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has\u2026 and buys that field<\/em>\u2026 now that would be a field worth owning\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But to learn where the field is\u2026 to learn about the treasure it contains\u2026 and to do what’s needed to own it\u2026 takes different kinds and different degrees of risk\u2026 in her book\u2026 The Other Side of Silence\u2026 author Margaret Silf writes\u2026 the question of risk\u2026 is really the question of faith… the journey into an unknown future is a journey for people of faith… but not necessarily people who have aligned themselves with a particular faith tradition… it’s people who are willing to trust in a power beyond themselves…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately… for many… the word faith has become associated with certainty… not risk… and the world does not offer certainty… if we construct a haven of certainty for ourselves… we can be sure that we have constructed an illusion… experience will almost always shake that haven apart\u2026 just when we most need it…<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story goes… that there was a daredevil who made a living by pushing a wheelbarrow\u2026 across a high wire\u2026 suspended across an abyss… the crowds came out in droves to watch him… and cheer him on… Do you believe I can do it? <\/em> he would yell… Oh Yes! We believe you can do it<\/em>… they chorused back in acclamation\u2026 and then he asked\u2026 So who’s going to get into the wheelbarrow<\/em>… and their mouths were silenced\u2026 they all believed in him… but none of them really trusted him enough\u2026 to get into the wheelbarrow\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our case\u2026\u00a0 the wheelbarrow is pushed by God\u2026\u00a0 so who’s willing to get in?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C\u00a0Genesis 15:1-6\u00a0Psalm 33:12-22\u00a0Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16\u00a0Luke 12:32-40 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026\u00a0 speak your truth\u2026 We’re all familiar with giving children an allowance\u2026 some mad money\u2026 that they can use to buy\u2026 depending on their ages\u2026 some candy\u2026 or maybe save up for a more costly video game\u2026 an allowance\u2026 perhaps as payment for them doing some chores\u2026 when I was barely a teenager\u2026 I got 60\u20b5 a week\u2026 for keeping my room tidy\u2026 and helping cook dinner\u2026 and I liked to buy 45 RPM records\u2026 and in 1965\u2026 I bought Turn! Turn! Turn! by the Byrds\u2026 a song based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8\u2026 and it seemed remarkable to me that someone set part of the Bible\u2026 a Jewish part\u2026 to music\u2026 and these days\u2026 there are some apps that help teach children responsibility\u2026 by helping them earn money\u2026 and keep track of it\u2026 ] and with varying degrees of parental control\u2026 to get payouts\u2026 ] in the British aristocracy\u2026 an allowance was much more substantial\u2026 and enabled those\u2026 like the landed gentry\u2026 to maintain an extravagant lifestyle\u2026 often without doing anything\u2026 but these discrepancies can set up some interesting dynamics\u2026 some people come to believe that life is nothing but drudgery\u2026 because you must work to survive\u2026 and some people come to believe that they’re entitled to the luxurious lives they have\u2026 When God asked Abram to look toward heaven and count the stars\u2026 if he could\u2026 to number his descendants\u2026 in what was then and is mostly still now\u2026 a dark and dry desert climate where viewing conditions are ideal\u2026 even though he may have seen the sweep of what’s called the Milky Way\u2026 which is located both towards the center of our galaxy\u2026 and in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius\u2026 as incomprehensible as the number of stars accessible to Abram’s old eyes were\u2026 he could not have imagined the billions of galaxies and the sextillions of stars that the James Webb telescope has revealed\u2026 and which lay behind what he could see\u2026 and Abram believed\u2026 he had faith\u2026 we tend to think that this means that Abram was religious\u2026 the NRSV translates the Hebrew word\u2026 tze-da-qah\u2026 as righteousness\u2026 but it’s a word that’s related to the concept of justice\u2026 the root of the word then\u2026 tze-daq\u2026 refers to an ethical\u2026 moral standard\u2026 and in the Jewish scriptures\u2026 that standard is the very nature and will of God\u2026 and so with nothing more than a visual aid to help him calculate promised offspring\u2026 Abram drops his question\u2026 and trusts God\u2026 And thus you find\u2026 observes an ancient midrash about this verse\u2026 that our father Abraham inherited this world and the world\u2013to\u2013come\u2026 as a reward for the faith that he had\u2026 but in the Tanakh\u2026 faith does not mean believing in spite of the evidence\u2026 or lack thereof\u2026 it means trusting profoundly in a person\u2026 in this case the personal God\u2026 who has just reaffirmed the promise\u2026 I started talking about the difference between what we earn\u2026 and that to which we feel entitled\u2026 but there’s another possibility\u2026 and it’s gift\u2026 and it’s expressed in what Jesus says in today’s Gospel\u2026 Do not be afraid, little flock\u2026 for it is your Father’s good pleasure\u2026 good pleasure\u2026 to give you the kingdom\u2026 that God has resolved\u2026 because it is simply God’s very nature and will\u2026 to give us the entire kingdom\u2026 nothing that we can possibly earn\u2026 and certainly nothing to which we are entitled\u2026 and not just a parcel or two\u2026 not just a fiefdom\u2026 but the entire kingdom\u2026 Do not be afraid\u2026 there are some lines in the science fiction novel Dune… called the Litany Against Fear\u2026 which Paul Atreides used to calm himself\u2026 before being tested by the Rev. Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam\u2026 a member of the Bene Gesserit\u2026 Paul says\u2026 I must not fear\u2026 fear is the mind-killer\u2026 fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration\u2026 I will face my fear\u2026 I will permit it to pass over me and through me\u2026 and when it has gone past\u2026 I will turn the inner eye to see its path\u2026 when the fear has gone\u2026 there will be nothing\u2026 only I will remain\u2026 it leads me to believe that the gift God offers us\u2026 is nothing less than the boundless and great I AM\u2026 and yet\u2026 there are those who refuse it\u2026 or who approach this gift with fear\u2026 John Shea reminds us that today’s passage comes immediately after Jesus’ teaching about the ravens of the air\u2026 and the lilies of the field… fed and clothed as gift\u2026 and Jesus’ little flock is encouraged to adopt this deeper awareness\u2026 because the dominant cultural consciousness sees life as an anxious project for survival\u2026 constantly concerned with food\u2026 clothing\u2026 and shelter\u2026 and this alternative awareness suggests that we consider life\u2026 as a gift given from beyond itself\u2026 a gift which exists before our toil\u2026 and which the Source of Life feeds\u2026 But it can be difficult to cultivate this perspective\u2026 we need to remain vigilant and aware\u2026 and we find ourselves in an Advent-of-sorts\u2026 waiting for the Master to come\u2026 but there are special moments when we realize that the Master has arrived home\u2026 but it’s not so much he has come from the wedding feast… as it is that he brings the wedding feast with him\u2026 and when we recognize\u2026 that is re-cognize\u2026 the imminent knock\u2026 he fastens his belt\u2026 and serves his servants by allowing his life and their lives to flow into each other\u2026 like St. Teresa’s description of Divine Union\u2026 which she said was like watching rain fall from the sky and into a river\u2026 and when the drops fell\u2026 you couldn’t tell the water from the sky\u2026 from the water in the river\u2026 and likewise\u2026 in the Divine Union she described\u2026 you and God can no longer tell each other apart\u2026 Neither God\u2026 nor the universe\u2026 owes us anything\u2026 and to think we earn what we have in a vacuum\u2026 or believe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[161,163,162],"class_list":["post-1729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-faith","tag-fear","tag-trust-in-god"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1731,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729\/revisions\/1731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}