God Holds a High Bar: Fear Not

Do not be afraid.  Fear not.  Cast away your fears.

Easier said than done, isn't it?  Is this naieve comfort spoken by the inexperienced or young?  Is it just whistling-in-the-dark comfort?  Or do these words spoken by God's prophets through the ages and by gospel writer Luke (Luke 12: 32-40) have any real and valid assurance for us?  We can easily spool off our fears.  As pastor I fear confrontation or preaching bad theology or saying the wrong thing at a critical time or having people leave the church when they get mad.  What do you fear?  Not enough money for all your medical expenses?  Serious injury to your child?  Losing your job to downsizing? Having your spouse leave you?  Being discovered in that white lie you told?

God's response to "Fear not" is:  "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12: 32)  Is this more "too-good-to-be-true" news?  God's kingdom is our greatest treasure!  A clue to finding/seeing/claiming this greatest treasure is in verse 34:  "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  If our hearts are with Jesus Christ, there we will find our treasure.  If our hearts are filled with a little or a lot of faith, there we will find our treasure.  God's kingdom is ours through our faith - a faith of grace that we cannot earn or deserve or achieve or create for ourselves.  It is God's good gift through God's good grace.

The rest of Luke 12: 32-40 challenges us to respond to this promise by being ready - being expectant - being alert.  Like a faithful Scout, we are to be prepared.  Being ready and alert doesn't mean waiting around, patiently doing nothing.  We ready ourselves for the good gift of God's kingdom by living each day as if God's kingdom is already here.  We prepare by giving away ourselves - our time, our talents, our material treasures, our gifts of kindness/humility/compassion.  We find fun in giving ourselves away just as God delights in giving to us.  Today's scripture ends with the master (translate: Jesus) fastening his belt (ie. pulling his long flowing robe up out of the way by tucking it into his belt), inviting his guests to sit and eat, and then SERVING them.  The unexpectedness of the master serving the guests is the topsy turvey nature of God's kingdom, which we discover as we serve others.  Thus, Jesus shows us the pattern for our discipleship in which we receive and respond to God's gift of the kingdom here on earth.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

God Holds a High Bar: Be Rich Toward God

No matter how we repeat Jesus' story of the greedy farmer who wants to build a bigger barn to store all his grains from his abundant crops, we can see a scolding or moralistic sermon on stewardship coming from a mile away.  (Luke 12: 13-21)  And when we add Colossians 3: 1-11 in which Paul scolds us for our licentious, selfish behaviors, we turn off our hearing aids or daydream ourselves into la-la land.

Instead.....I hear encouragement and promise of transformation into new life in these scriptures.  I can identify with the farmer as I de-clutter my overstuffed house in preparation to move.  The initial estimate from the moving company was as loud as God's voice to the farmer to motivate me to begin to discern between the essentials and non essentials in the accumulation of my life.  My house (and therefore my daily living) has been filled with things that please me and make me happy.  But my blue pottery and my pewter collection need regular dusting and my yarn calls out to me when I should be studying.  My over abundance of possessions possess my attention and distract me from attending to God.  And when I allow my choices of going, doing, or playing to be the only forces to shape me and form me, I allow too little time to be shaped and formed by God's Word.

The encouragement and promise of these scriptures is that my things don't need to dominate nor define me.  I CAN de-clutter both my things and my time in an effort to discover the true wealth that comes from God.  I am finding freedom in my trips to Goodwill, Salvation Army, and the library.  I am already imagining the discoveries others will make as they select my goods for their uses.  I'm practicing discerning what I value as I see my things and my choices more clearly through the eyes of God.  I am being re-clothed into new life and there is plenty of abundance in this simplicity that allows more time for God to speak and me to listen.  God's bar of abundance is a high one that can be obstructed by our desire for too many things, too much entertainment, and too much time pleasing ourselves.  But as I clear the path toward God's high bar, I find that the bar becomes closer, clearer, and is calling to me.

Thanks be to God that God is faithfully steady in holding this bar as I tiptoe toward it.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley