Message 08-12-07 [Traditional services]

 

Series:            Lectionary

Scripture:            Luke 12:32-40

 

Title:                                        The Heart’s True Home

 

John DeBevoise was preaching in the Connection services about six weeks ago and I was told that he introduced himself and said that “Geoff Kohler, who usually preaches here, is the ‘cool’ pastor and I’m the ‘un-cool’ pastor. I told John when we had breakfast the following week that I heard that, and he corrected me, “I didn’t say ‘cool’. I said ‘hip’. I said you were the ‘hip’ pastor. I’m cool. I’m just not hip.”

 

I then went on to tell John that this might be so but when I moved here within the first month of my time here I was told by no fewer than three people that “John DeBevoise was Jesus.” So I told him, “Right from the start I knew I didn’t have to worry about competition because I may be cool myself and I might even be hip but I know I’m not Jesus.”

 

You know what I love about John. He knows he’s not Jesus too. And that’s probably one of things that makes him seem more like Jesus to others.

 

It would be great to be identified that way though wouldn’t it. I mean imagine if all the people of our church were identified that way. Imagine if people who visited in worship with us went away saying to their friends, “Hey, if you really want to meet Jesus – go to that place. They’re all like Jesus there.”

 

So what is it about Jesus that makes him the way he is.

 

Sometimes we can get caught up in the idea that Jesus was perfect and that Jesus was divine and so it’s kind of useless to consider being like him, but I don’t think that’s what God had in mind with Jesus. I think that part of the meaning of Jesus was that God wanted for us to see what a true human being looked like. I believe that Jesus gave us a clear example of what a human being completely in touch with the creator of the universe acts like. Too many times we act like the point of Jesus was his death on the cross and skip the truth on how to live that filled every day of his life and spilled out in his teaching. We are supposed to become like Jesus.

Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians that we are …

 

And to the Romans he wrote…

Now, I hope you don’t think that I’m saying that everyone should act “holy” because I’m not saying that. Our past as Christians has included people trying to act all holy and perfect. But our picture of holiness doesn’t seem to line up easily with the image of holiness presented by God in Jesus. Holiness is a gift from God that we receive, and it’s easy to make up a picture of what that looks like rather than to allow it to grow up within us. Holiness is not something we put on. It’s not practicing the “rules,” whichever rules seem most important to us. It’s a change that happens and we can tell when it is happening because people feel encouraged by it, people feel invited into it. Holiness is not some “clean, special-ness”. We need to remember that the holiness of Jesus gave him entrance into the lives of some of the worst people of society of his time. Holiness can not be acted. It has to be real and experienced that way, as part of the person, or it will be rejected.

 

I had a friend up in PA who became enamored of a particular televangelist. My friend was the kind of man who could also wield power and financial resource and he went to the headquarters of this evangelist to see how he might help that ministry grow. There was a large gathering and a meal at which the evangelist spoke and where the opportunity for support was presented. My friend stepped outside by a side door just after the presentation because he needed to think and to pray about his response. As he stood outside a large black car pulled up and from the side door came the evangelist and his wife. My friend realized who it was and was about to say something when the evangelist opened the back door of the car, roughly grabbed hold of his wife and threw her into the back seat as he swore at her. Probably needless to say that my friend didn’t need any more time to think through his support of that man’s ministry after that.

 

Holiness is not an act and if it is, it will be discovered soon enough. You and I know when we discover a person with holiness in their lives. Sometimes the person doesn’t even know they have it. But the essence of holiness comes from the proximity of God in someone’s life. Holiness is a gift of God’s presence in someone’s heart and it is inviting to other people. God calls us into living with him and with him living inside of us.

 

So as we look at Jesus’ words here I think the place we want to start is with the clear understanding that we don’t want to drum up something inside of us. We want the real thing. And I believe that’s what Jesus was doing in his teaching. He wasn’t giving us another set of rules to live by. He wasn’t giving us some program to buy into. Jesus was explaining how life works when God shows up in it. Essentially, Jesus is telling us how to look like him.

 

He tells us to be fearless. “Don’t be afraid.” It’s interesting to me that whenever God shows up in life we’re told not to be afraid. When the angels come to the shepherds or God comes to Abraham or to Moses, it seems that there is something about God that is immediately intimidating, scary. But Jesus tells us not to be afraid and more than that he gives us a reason not to be afraid. We don’t need to be afraid anymore because God has given us the Kingdom, he says.

 

That’s a different perspective. The kingdom of God is given to us. We are given a world in which we are not random specks in an infinite universe, but a place where God is. We don’t need to be afraid because we have been given the kingdom. We no longer get overwhelmed by the powers that put claims on our time and energy and resources, but we live in a peace, a settling assurance that we are not alone and we don’t need to struggle just for survival or for the approval of others. We have been given the kingdom of God and so our security comes through his presence.

 

This is where Jesus began. I imagine this is where Jesus began each day. I believe Jesus woke up into the conviction that he was in the kingdom of God every day of his life. That changes ones perception of what the day will include. And I think that encourages us to do what Jesus says next. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Do you notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “Sell everything”? And he doesn’t say, “Give all to the poor.”   We are not told to impoverish ourselves in order to gain God’s presence in our lives. It sounds very much like Jesus is saying to get rid of the stuff that ties us down.

 

Do you collect? I come from a family of collectors. It can get out of hand. I’m just saying. You start thinking that you may need this someday. That box may just be the right size for package I need to send someday, so I’m just going to keep it in this closet with all the other boxes. You can start saving little clasp things that you may need some day to hold up some wire or some pole or some sort of stand sort of thing that could hook to a wall and then you’d have it right there and you wouldn’t have to go to Lowe’s to find one. And then it becomes a draw full of stuff that is there for whenever. The “junk draw” is what it becomes or the closet or the junk room where you just toss things that may come in handy. Whether it is neatly organized in cabinets and drawers or in piles that seem to grow on their own, it is the stuff of someday that keeps us safe, makes us assured that we’ll be able to answer the call and that we’ll be prepared whenever that day happens to show up. The “Day of Stuff” may arrive and we’ll be ready for it. Are you looking forward to a “Day of Stuff” when you’ll be able to reach into your room or your closet or your draw and pull out just the right thing?

 

It can give you assurance. It can help you relax. But Jesus says to give it up, because this isn’t your heart’s true home. It’s not where you can really relax. Because, the truth is you will forget it. You’ll go to Lowe’s to pick it up and come back and find that you already had one here while you’re trying to find your screwdriver.

 

And if you’re one of those organized neat freaks who knows where every minor element of possible help is kept, prepared and waiting for the day, do you realize that this is what you are relying in to help you sleep at night? Jesus says give it up, sell it and give it away to those who could benefit from it.

 

We are given the kingdom and that is our heart’s true home. And our preparation is not to be for the “Day of Stuff.” Our preparation Jesus says is for when he is going to show up. Sometimes people go all the way to the end of time when they read these words of Jesus, but I don’t think that’s necessary. God shows up all sorts of times. 

 

You see what does life look like when God shows up? It looks scary. When do people find God in their lives? It’s when suffering comes crashing in. It’s when life gets tough and they run out of answers. It’s when we discover that all our stuff that we kept hanging on to didn’t really protect us from death or disease or a lack of fulfillment. And it comes on us when we aren’t really prepared, not the way we’d like to be. It comes on us in the middle of the night. It comes on us even when we haven’t put all our eggs in one basket. It comes on us when we have forgotten to pray or forgotten to say I love you or when we’ve forgotten to just stop by like we’ve been meaning to all these weeks. Suddenly in the moment when we have least expected it, God shows up because our response to whatever is happening is, “Oh my God.” It’s when life is as hard and as tragic and as tough as we think life can get that we say those words.

 

Oh, but wait… maybe that’s why Jesus is saying don’t be afraid. Maybe Jesus is saying don’t be afraid, not because God is suddenly in front of us, but when life springs on us, we don’t need to be afraid because God is still with us. When God is present with us, when his presence indwells us then we can face life, as scary as it gets, and deal with it. The holiness of Jesus looked like that, like he wasn’t facing life by himself. Holiness the way Jesus lived it doesn’t look afraid at those moments. When the kingdom is where we live and what we have then we don’t need to search for God or be surprised by God. And we are given a world in which God is not some force we experience as judgmental or crushing, but where God is weighing in on the destructive nature of the life we deal with daily and giving us hope. We are given the kingdom of God where life has a purpose and a design and where we are treasured personally. 

 

That isn’t to say that we won’t be surprised or hurt or struggle. It’s to say that we won’t face those things without help.  When God shows up, and we’re looking for him, he serves us. He lifts us up. He carries us along. The owner of the household becomes the servant. And that’s what Jesus teaches us. The nature of God, looking like God, looks like service. So we can reach out and help. We can identify with those who don’t have and those in need. We can bring the presence of God into the lives of immigrants to the kingdom of God, people aching to come into the kingdom, into God’s love. We can provide a home to the homeless and unsheltered of the world, because we’ve been given the kingdom and the king.