Genesis 15:1-6

Psalm 33

Hebrews 11:3-16

LUKE 12:32-40

The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I remember one day, when I was a child, a visiting preacher came up to me after a service, in which he had preached, and said that my father was quite a fire insurance salesman. If you had heard him preach that Sunday, you did not have to have a vivid imagination to know what he was saying. For that preacher, God was a strict judge, who intended to send to hell to burn in unbelievable agony for eternity anyone who did not accept his son and do the right things. The role of the preacher was to keep people from burning, and the requirements for not burning were very clear and strict. I doubt that “Do not be afraid, little flock” was a phrase that he used very often in his sermons. In fact, I believe that fear dominated his sermons and his faith.

In this, his sermons did not differ much from our society and culture. We are taught to fear. We are controlled by fear much more than we realize. Fear shapes our thoughts, our attitudes, our actions, our policies. In fact, fear shapes our lives more than most of us realize. We are kept on terror alert. We are kept in fear that we will lose our jobs. We are kept in fear that this or that will happen or not. In the end, the fear becomes a controlling force in our lives. It may be subtle. We may not even notice it, but the fear is shaping who we are and what we do.

I am glad that Luke puts this saying of Jesus in the middle of this collection of teachings that we are working our way through in the lectionary. It sets a tone for them and for us. It is seemingly just an introductory remark, but it has the potential to shape everything.

Is God out to get us? Is all of this about escaping hell? Is God trying to make it hard for us by saying that: “doing what comes naturally is not good enough”? What is religion and what does God want of us and for us?

If we start with “Do not be afraid,” our whole perspective is very different from starting with “be afraid.” Still the passages that we have encountered in the past weeks and the ones we will encounter today and in the next few weeks make it very clear that not just any old thing will do if we are to receive the kingdom that God wants to give to us.

Likewise, note carefully Jesus is not saying: “Do not be afraid, everything will turn out all right, just like you want them to or how you think that they should.” At end of the Gospel lesson for two weeks ago Jesus said “If then, you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” In neither place does he say that God will give you what you want or ask for.

Jesus uses the phrase “Do not be afraid” three times in Luke’s Gospel. The first time is when he calls Simon Peter and says to him: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” If you had asked Peter what he most wanted in life the hour before he met Jesus, do you think that he got what he wanted at that time by following Jesus? I think the answer would be a rather empathic no! I do not think that Peter had a clue as to where Jesus would lead him or what he would end up doing in life by following Jesus. On the other hand, if at the end of his life, you had asked Peter if it was worth it and would he have done it again, I think Peter’s answer would have been an even more emphatic yes!

So what is it that we are all about here? Are we working on getting credits towards fire insurance? Although there are some pretty threatening and scary warnings throughout the Bible and even in Jesus’ own teachings, I do not think that fear and avoiding punishment is what Jesus and the Gospel is about.

Is all of this about being a part of a group, of going through certain exercises or just keeping certain culturally-expected or learned routines like going to church? Well all of these may be a part of it, but I do not think that any of them define it. You can do all of those things and never get close to the “kingdom.”

The Gospel is a collection of related teachings. The section of Luke that all of our readings have been and will be coming from for the past several and the next few weeks is often referred to as the sermon on the plain. As such, it is a collection of teachings on numerous topics, some closely and obviously related. For many of them, though, it is hard to say how they are related. As I read through these lessons, however, I realized that fear shapes how we approach almost any of these teachings of Jesus and how they relate to our lives.

The Old Testament lesson does not use the word “faith,” but it is one of the key stories of many about faith in the Bible. I find it striking that it also starts with the injunction “Be not afraid!” Abraham has journeyed from his homeland in faith at God’s command, but he still does not have an heir. Has this journey been for nothing? God says: “Be not afraid …number the stars … So shall your descendants be.” And Abraham believes.

The passage read from the Letter to the Hebrews is one of the “classics” on faith in the Bible. When I read it in preparation for today, what struck me is that faith is open ended. When we speak of faith we often think of believing in something such as a creed, a person or something that will happen. As I read this passage, the end really stood out for me this time. “They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return.” They desire something beyond where they have been. They give their lives to God in an open-ended way. If Peter had just wanted to catch more and more fish for the rest of his life, he would never have followed Jesus.

This means that faith is open ended. We, like the heroines and heroes of the Bible, seek a home that is not here yet. It is not yet fully created. It is faith in God’s working in God’s creation and that God has not quit working in God’s creation. I believe that it was this kind of faith that gave Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others the power to carry on in spite of events that would have stopped those without faith.

The essence and basis of faith is “be not afraid! The Father wants to give you the Kingdom.”

Fear tends to make us closed. When fear dominates us, we need our goals to be clear, well defined and the evidence that they are being met made abundant. Fear does not make us open. Fear does makes us people willing to venture out into new places seeking God’s new creation.

Had fear controlled this parish a few years back, this building would not have been built, all of the new activities that fill its life would not have been allowed to develop, the healing mission in Kenya would never have been risked. After all, it might have been very costly in lives or resources or who knows what, and it might have failed.

Let me look at a couple of these teachings from this perspective. In the first of these, Jesus commands us to: “Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourself with purses that do not grow old. … For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The literal meaning of this passage is fairly obvious, and although I did not hear Fr. Hubbard’s entire sermon last week, what I did hear makes me think he covered most of the basics. If he did not, I know he has at other times as I also have. I do not want to go over that now.

There is additional meaning here. Each of us owns many things. When we speak of possessions, we almost always think of physical possessions. There many other kinds of possessions that can keep us from giving alms or being open to the kingdom – ideas, attitudes, skills, beliefs, occupations and preoccupations. The list can go on and on. For Saul, it was the belief that the Judaism he practiced and believed in was the only and absolute truth. If anyone taught or practiced differently, they were wrong and evil, and they must be destroyed. Therefore, Jesus was wrong – perhaps even a demon, and those who followed him must be destroyed. When he sold that possession, he was able to give alms – the gift of God’s kingdom and grace to the gentiles, the unclean.

What are the things, the attitudes, the thoughts, they ways of doing things, the addictions that we need to sell so that we can give alms? As God is acting, as God’s kingdom is dawning, we can harden our hearts and clench our fists. It takes both faith and humility to sell our possessions and to give alms.

Finally, the third teaching or idea from the lessons is that of being awake or aware. This last part of today’s Gospel can be the perfect prescription for a life of perpetual anxiety without the opening salutation “Do not be afraid, little flock.” We can take it to mean that we must always be on our guard lest we make a mistake or miss something. Anxiety and fear can dominate our lives and ultimately cripple us. On the other hand, if we start from “Do not be afraid,” this becomes an invitation to a healthy and growing awareness and openness to God’s working in our lives and the world around us.

Being afraid stunts and closes us. “Be not afraid” invites us to life and service.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Rev. William O. Breedlove, II, TSSF

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church,
Monmouth Junction, NJ