GET DRESSED!

A Sermon for The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
August 12, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Luke 12:32-40
Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

"Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. "But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."(NRSV)


Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

When you know that company is coming to visit, it is amazing how much you can get done in a few hours. The house can get dusted and vacuumed, the plants watered, the junk mail thrown out or tucked away, the beds made, the laundry put away and whatever other cleanup tasks are necessary. You can be all ready and dressed appropriately, awaiting your guests—that is, of course, if you know that they’re coming. Of course, not all guests announce themselves ahead of time. I hate it when someone pops by and my house is not ready to receive visitors, or I still have bed head and look a mess and have no food or beverages to serve. During the week our youth were at camp, I rode along with Ethan and Matt and the rest of the “River Boaters” for a day. On our boat, was the Bible camp counselor, Marlene, from the African nation of Liberia. She told me that in her country, unexpected house guests always stop by. Africans have a great sense of community and so one should always expect the unexpected and have some extra food on hand to serve.

In Jesus’ day, servants were to be ever ready for their master’s return. When a householder went away, the servants were supposed to get the house in perfect order and have their lamps lit, anxiously awaiting his return. If he had gone to a wedding banquet, he may be gone for days, as such occasions were celebrated for up to a week or more. If he returned and found the servants sleeping, or their lamps extinguished, he would think little of the servants and they would not be given positions of favor in his household. So good servants would keep a constant vigil, with their lamps lit and their eyes fixed upon the door—absolutely ready for the master’s return.

In today’s gospel text, Jesus tells his disciples a parable of slaves that are, indeed, ready for their master’s return. He says, “Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.” This is a shocking role reversal—for the master to fasten up his belt and serve the servants! The rich will serve the poor! This was unheard of. Yet Jesus tells them that this is the reward for being prepared, dressed and ready for action. Obviously the point of this story is to be ready.

Then, he urges the disciples to also be ready—dressed for action, with their lamps lit. He doesn’t mean this physically—he means it spiritually. For Jesus is going away after his resurrection, but will return one day to claim his followers and so they must be ready. He tells them a secret: he will come at a time that no one is expecting him. Therefore, we should always expect him.

Books like the “Left Behind” series get very caught up with Jesus’ return—fictionally imagining exactly what it will be like. Other groups and televangelists try to pinpoint just when we should expect Jesus’ return. Obviously, all the previous predictions have been wrong. So why do people keep predicting the exact time of the end of the world? Probably because we’re afraid. We want to know when it will be so we can be ready, so we won’t be “left behind”! But Jesus has told us that he simply will not tell us the precise time that he’s coming back so we’ve got to expect him when we’re least expecting him. In other words, we should always be ready.

What about you? Are you dressed and ready for action? If Jesus showed up, or you were to die this very day, would you be ready? Really ready? How are you going to get dressed for this eventuality? What does God expect of us? The good news is that Jesus tells us in this scripture. In fact, he gives us a specific checklist.

The first thing on the list is “Sell your possessions, and give alms.” Now, I am sure you’ve given alms—you’ve put change in the Salvation Army bucket at Christmas time when you heard the bell ringer and your probably give things here and there when you run across someone in need. Giving alms is no sweat—we usually have a bit of extra change to give. The problem is that Jesus prefaced the “give alms” commandment with “Sell your possessions.” Do you know anyone who ever sold all their possessions?

As I thought about this command, I thought, “no one would ever do that.” But then I remembered about an art project called “All My Life For Sale.” Filmmaker John D. Freyer did exactly what Jesus tells us to do here, he sold all his possessions. Upon completing his graduate studies at Iowa State University, he invited his friends over to his house to help him tag all of his possessions, which he systematically posted and sold on the popular Ebay website. His point was to explore our relationship to the objects around us, their role in our identity, as well as the emerging role of the internet. To date, John Freyer has sold more than 600 items including his favorite records, a full size office copier, personal photographs, his side burns (in a plastic bag), the Christmas presents he’d bought for his family (and hadn’t yet given them), and his winter coat (in the middle of the winter). Every item began bidding at one dollar. When the auction had ended, he sent each buyer details about his project and requested updates from them on their new object and posted these updates—including written feedback and photographs of Freyer's former possessions in their new homes—into his website, www.allmylifeforsale.com, which he also ended up selling.
 
As I read about Freyer’s project I didn’t find any reference to this Lukan passage, but I am rather impressed at the level of media coverage Freyer got—he was all over the talk show circuit, written up in presses around the world and got a book deal out of it. Freyer simply did what Jesus suggested everyone do. But since most people would never dream of selling all their possessions, especially the ones they love, Freyer is considered a visionary—an outlandishly creative artist. Museums have purchased items he sold on Ebay and put them in their permanent art collections. At the University of Iowa, I saw his false teeth!

Many people have discussed this mandate of Jesus’ to sell our possessions and give alms. Does he mean we have to be like Freyer and literally sell everything we own? I think the heart of what he was getting at is that he doesn’t want us to just give our spare change. He doesn’t want us only offering our leftovers. He is talking about giving a significant amount to those in need—enough that the sacrifice can be felt.

Do you ever stop and take a close look at your bank statement at the end of the month? Where does your money go? Probably most checks written are for your bills, but how much is given to the the work of God through church and charities? Is there a balance between your needs and your neighbor’s needs? They say your checkbook is your financial faith statement, which means to say that where you spend your money demonstrates what you value. If you love traveling, then you spend money on vacations, if you like collectible items, you spend money on those. This is what Jesus meant when he told them, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What you truly love—there you will spend your hard-earned cash.

But it also works in reverse. What you spend your money on, you will come to love, with the one exception of taxes. That’s why the bible recommends tithing to the church—giving ten percent of your income. That is a significant enough portion that you can usually feel it. And when you give this portion of money to God, your heart will follow. In time, it causes your priorities to shift from earthly to heavenly ones. God’s will, not our culture’s values, will be what matters to you. If you haven’t tried tithing yet, then give it a shot. See for yourself how God can use this act of faith to change your heart in a most magnificent way.

The next thing on Jesus’ get-dressed checklist is: “Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven.” Again, Jesus is on about letting go of our treasures of earth. That’s how to be dressed and ready for his return. That’s how we can make room for the Spirit in our hearts.

There is a legend from the first century about the disciple Thomas—you know, the famous doubting Thomas. After he got over his doubt, he went off to do mission work in India. Thomas was employed by the local king Gundaphorus to build a new palace, and he was given money to buy materials and hire workmen. Thomas gave the money to the poor, but always assured the king that his palace was rising steadily. The king became suspicious when Thomas kept putting off his requests to see the work in progress and finally sent for Thomas. "Have you built my Palace?" he asked. "Yes", Thomas replied. "Then we shall go and see it now," said the King. Thomas answered: "You can not see it now, but when you depart this life you shall see it. I have built you a palace in heaven by giving your money to the poor and needy of your kingdom."

The King is furious and has Thomas thrown in prison. All night he considers how he should put Thomas to death. But that night, the king's brother dies and sees the kings palace in heaven which has been built by Thomas' charitable work. He makes a request to return to earth. His dead body is suddenly revived; he tells his brother of the magnificent palace awaiting him in heaven. Thomas is freed from prison and the king and his brother become Christians. This legend illustrates Jesus’ point here, that in sharing with those in need, we are building an unfailing treasure in heaven that the stock market fluctuations cannot touch.

“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." Jesus tells us. You must dressed and ready for action, like those servants who are ready for their master’s return at any time, waiting at the door with lamps lit. We don’t know when Jesus is coming back, we don’t know when our lives will end, but we do know that to be prepared, to be dressed and ready for action means that we must open our hearts to others and truly care for them, sharing our very possessions and wealth with them. For in doing so, we are storing up treasures in heaven that will last for eternity. What are you waiting for? Go get dressed!

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

© 2007 Laura E. Gentry