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8/12/07

Procrastinating...  Not Always the Best Option

Do we have any procrastinators out there this morning?  I don't know about you, but I have been known... on occasion... to procrastinate just a bit.  By nature I'm a pretty punctual individual, but I have been known to have things that I know I need to get done, and I wait until the last minute to do them.  Sometimes it's just fine.  They get done with no harm.  However, other times it leads to a good deal of unnecessary stress.  I'm trying to get everything pulled together, and get all my thoughts in order, and everything where it has to be.  Procrastinating definitely has a way of energizing me, but it may not always be the best way to be energized.

For instance, I like to have my sermons done by at least Wednesday evening.  That's when I feel good about it.  It gives me plenty of time to think about the passage -- to study it -- to look it over and look at other resources, and then I can take my time to put pen to paper so to speak.  (Even though I'd never actually handwrite it.  I wouldn't be able to read it.)  But on occasion I have been known to write a "Saturday Night Special" as they're called.  One of those sermons that I wait until Saturday night to finally put together.  Now, I've never gone into a Saturday night having no idea what I was going to write, but I have had times when nothing was actually written down until Saturday night, and by the grace of God, it has always worked out well.  But that's not the way I prefer to work.  It adds too much stress.

How about you?  Are you a procrastinator?  Maybe at work.  Do you get things done in time, but just in time?  Or maybe it's paying bills.  Do you pay your bills on time, but all the while you’re very aware of when the due date is?  There's definitely a certain segment of the population who gets things done as soon as possible, but there are others who wait, and wait, and wait, until they just can't wait anymore.  If this second description fits you, then you may want to pay special attention to this morning's passage.

This morning's passage comes from Luke chapter 12 beginning at verse 32.

Luke 12:32-40

32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  33 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.  34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

35 "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 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.  37 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.  38 If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

39 "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.  40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."

This isn't a very long passage, but it sure is packed.  In just these few verses we talk about the father and his flock.  We talk about the master and his slaves.  And we talk about thief coming in the night.  Its compact, but let's see whether they might not all be interrelated.

Last week, if you'll remember, we talked about the parable of the rich fool, that is, the farmer who had so many crops that he didn't know what to do with them all, so he chose to tear down his barns and build bigger ones -- a plan which God did not approve of.  And then following that is the passage which the NRSV entitles "do not worry." Jesus tells his disciples to look at nature around them... to see how all of nature is provided for by God, Nature does not have to worry about where their next meal will come from.  God simply provides.  And he closes that section with "instead strive for his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well." In other words, if you put everything else after God, God will make sure that your needs are supplied for.

And then comes our passage this morning.  Jesus starts off, "do not be afraid little flock." I'm sure Jesus wouldn’t have said this if it weren't for the fact that he knew that his flock was afraid.  He has just finished explaining that God will supply for all their needs, so what would they have been afraid of?  Well, we don't know for sure, but try to picture Jesus' disciples for a moment.  These were young men who had been called by Jesus to follow him.  They left with nothing more than the shirts on their backs.  I can only imagine that they had some concerns -- some worries.  They had concerns about how they would supply for their daily needs.  How would they make a living now that they had left their fishing business, or left their business as a tax collector?  Whatever they had been doing to make a living had been left behind.  I can only imagine that brought some worry.  But what else might the disciples have worried about?  Well, they were following Jesus, and Jesus, to say the least, knew how to stir up a crowd.  He knew how to make the Jewish people uneasy, and might the disciples not have been worried about how the greater community would accept them?  Might they not have even been worried about their own safety?

But yet Jesus tells them "do not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Last week we had the odd phrase "rich toward God."  This week we have another rather unusual phrase.  It says, "Give you the kingdom."  "It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." What could this possibly mean?  You've probably heard of the health and wealth gospel.  People who preach the health and wealth gospel use verses like this one to support their belief that when we're obedient to God, God will bless us with health and wealth, but there are several problems with this belief.

First, what does this say to the person who is solid in their faith and ill when they look at people who are clearly living in sin and defiance toward God but are very healthy?  Even the most holy of people die someday.

Another problem is that Jesus never promised life would be easy once you became a Christian.  On the contrary, Jesus said that if we live life the way God wants us to live it, we WILL face persecution.

But the final problem with this interpretation is something we've discussed before.  It lifts the text.  It doesn't take the context of the text into account.

The very next verse says, "sell your possessions and give alms to the poor." It seems to me that the previous verse couldn't possibly mean physical blessings.  Rather, giving the kingdom seems to have spiritual significance, and as we read on, this is indeed what Jesus meant when he talks about.

When we think of everything that we could possibly store up on earth, there is nothing that couldn't be destroyed, or taken away, or lost, or corrupted, but by storing our treasures in heaven, we are certain to invest in something that will last truly forever.  Then Jesus says "for where your treasure is, their heart will be also," which is really just another way of stating the familiar cliché, “You know where a man's priorities lie by looking in his checkbook."  Does he spend his money, which is really just a tangible representation of his time and talent (He receives money for spending time doing what he's been gifted to do.), on himself alone?  Does it go to luxuries, toys, and fun things that entertain for the moment?  Or is a significant portion given away to help others? "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Much like the disciples had many things to worry about, many of us have many things to worry about.  We can worry about political things.  We can worry about spiritual things. We can worry about economic things.  We can worry about how all of these things impact us.  Who will be the next president?  Are my loved ones living life in a way that's pleasing to God?  Will I have a job at this time next year?  Will I have a retirement to draw from?  These things and more are things we can worry about. And if we allow ourselves, we can get so caught up in worrying that we don't find ourselves in the present.  And it's to us that God says, "Do not be afraid little flock,"

But then Jesus makes a rather abrupt transition in verse 35. It’s almost as if he says, "Don't be afraid, but if you do have to be afraid of something -- if you have to worry about something -- don't worry about the things most people worry about.  If you have to worry about something, make sure you're not procrastinating on the most important decision of your life. And I don't know that worry it the right word here, but you know what I mean.  There is only one thing that's really worth putting your time and energy into in regards to the future.

He says, "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 when they open the door for him as soon as he arrives."  There's a sense of urgency.  We must be ready now!

And then we enter our third and final portion of today's lectionary passage -- which is rather peculiar.  God compares himself to a thief.  A thief coming in the night, at a time when the owner of the house does not know.  Now clearly God is not promoting a lifestyle of stealing, but what he is suggesting is that he will return at a time when people least expect him.

This is contrary to much of popular Christian culture right now.  There are many people who look to the Bible and its prophecies and believe that they can tell that the "end times" are near.  Some have even been as bold as to give a date for Christ's return.. And while it may be very soon, I don't think we can know for sure.  I think that's what Jesus is saying in this passage -- no one knows when Jesus is coming.  He'll come like a thief in the night. But some people ask, "Why doesn't God give us a sign?  Why doesn't he tell us when he's going to return?" The reasons given right here in the passage.  If Jesus had told us when he was going to come back, we could all live however we wanted to up until that time.  We could wait until the last minute to repent and turn from our wicked ways.  But as it is, we don't know when that time is, and so we must live each day as though God were coming back today.

When Jesus returns, our plans of what we're going to do -- who were going to become -- where we are going to go, won't matter.  All that will matter is the treasure that we've stored up in heaven.

I've read this passage many times before, but every time I read it I have to sit back and examine myself again. This passage is telling us to stay alert, to be ready,  but I wonder if that's difficult to do in our culture.  We live in a culture that ,while it may not be predominantly Christian anymore, it still has many Christian overtones, and so Christianity is almost the default. Many people aren't real sure about what they believe.  They've never thought much about it.  They're almost Christian by default.  But that's a dangerous place to be because if you consider yourself Christian only because your family has always been Christian, or because you were baptized Christian ,or because you made confirmation as a Christian, or even just because you say you are a Christian, that is not enough.  It's not enough unless you truly claim Christ as your own Lord and Savior, and live a life that's honorable and pleasing to him.

The regular cycles of life -- the things that become mundane  -- can cause us to become drowsy in our faith.  We go to church week in and week out.  We read our Bible day in and day out.  We pray day in and day out.  It's a pattern that repeats day in and day out.  This pattern can be very beneficial because if this pattern is ingrained --  it's so much a part of our life -- to stop doing it seems bizarre. But we also have to be careful because this pattern can become so ingrained that we don't think about it anymore.  It's just what we do.  And when it gets to the point of something that we do just because it's what we do,, we no longer have to think about it.  We are just a Christian.  We do Christian things because that's what Christians do.  And we... we doze off But the passage tells us we need to be ready each and every day.

So what can we take from these three stories all kind of clumped together by the lectionary?  Well, it says do not worry, and that ,I think, is a good message for us today.  Because there is so much to worry about, but we have a God and father who cares for us and loves us and will supply for our every need.  but while we do not need to and should not worry about the things that the world worries about, we, at the same time, must make sure that we have one thing ready at any time during any day.  And that's that we're ready for the return of our Lord and Savior to take us home with him for an eternity in heaven.

In the name of the father and of the son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen