Tenth Pentecost
Genesis 15:1-6; Luke 12:32-40; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16.
If this Sunday were to have a name other than Tenth Pentecost, it would probably be the Boy Scout motto Sunday. You know the one. Those simple two words. "Be prepared". My sons occasionally mock my level of anticipation in life. Noting that there seems to be a part of me that is guided by that motto. Be prepared. They note for example that I always have matches in my pocket. Yet I have never smoked. As I explain to people who are surprised by my matches. It comes from years of having acolytes and church candles to light. I like being prepared. I have for decades always carried a small pocketknife. There is not a shrink wrapped CD or DVD that I cannot open quickly and efficiently. To say nothing of the many and various UPS and FedEx boxes that arrive in the office. Yet for all my preparedness I was caught off guard yesterday morning when I awoke to find that a water main on Riverwoods Road in Lincolnshire had broken and for the next ten hours we were without water at our home. It was no great disaster. The outage only affected about a 4-block area. But I found myself thinking of my parents when I was growing up. Maybe that is where I learned my preparedness approach to life. There was always a half dozen or more gallons of water in the basement. Extra batteries for the radio and flashlights. And while there was always an extra gallon of milk in the refrigerator in the garage. There was also always a box of dry milk in the pantry. The unpredictable Minnesota blizzards could pretty well limit electrical and food supplies on occasion. And we just learned to always be prepared to survive at least a few days without certain modern conveniences.
Be prepared. For what? Most of us remember maybe a bit too well the survivalist thinking that informed the millennial transition to the 21st Century. The doomsayers concerned about the Y2K problems predicted that we would need to be prepared to survive on our own for at least a little while when computers failed and crippled our electrical or other utility systems. I suspect that at least a few of us maybe bought a few extra items of certain things we considered essential to our lives. Just in case. Better to be safe then sorry. Be prepared. And Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." The preparations we make reflect the priorities we have. And sometimes the faith we live by. How much we believe in our utility system for example. But there is more to living then water and matches. Electricity and milk. There are all the challenges of being alive. Of living in community. Of having purpose and direction in life. There are not just things we carry with us but values and beliefs. What we value and believe informs how we prepare. What we trust and what we fear guides our relationships with those around us and our God. Jesus knew this all too well, which is why he said, "Be ready." Be prepared. As Jesus tells it, the preparations we are to make should be like those of the servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding reception. Waiting dressed and with the lamps lit. This is such a curious image. The waiting is not even for the main event but rather for the master's return from another activity. It is as if God's gifts for which we are to wait have been somewhere else before arriving for us.
As I read these words I found myself remembering last Sunday's texts from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. The one Pastor Chris preached about that began with the words, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity..." The wisdom writer expressed regret that he must leave his work to another. And who knows if those who follow will be as wise and careful in the use of what has been prepared for them. That is the course of our lives. To benefit from those who have gone before us. And to leave to those who follow us that which we have begun. In our Old Testament lesson for today it is this very question that haunts old Abram. Aging and childless he begins to despair that the only ones who will survive him will be his servants. And all that he is and his name means will be lost in the dessert drifts of sand. But God spoke to Abram in a vision of the future. A call to be ready for something more. God took Abram out under the night sky and declared, "Look toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to count them. So shall your descendants be."
Scientists tell us that if you look to the night sky on a night with no moon and minimal light pollution. Look to the sky in a place like the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, you can potentially see up to 2,000 stars with the human eye. That's a lot of stars to be sure. But personally I have always been a little disappointed that the number was not more in the range of millions or even billions. 2,000 is really not all that big a number. 2,000 is a good-sized high school. A small college. But this is God speaking. Be prepared. What Abram would discover and we have learned from scripture is that the blessings that pass from generation to generation are not simply maintained but have a tendency to be amplified by God's grace. There are more stars then just those visible to the human eye. And the spiritual descendents of Abraham through his son Isaac became known to the world as Jews. And they number today not merely 2,000 but some 14 million worldwide. And Abrahams other son was named Ishmael. And he is claimed as the spiritual ancestor of the followers of Mohammed. There are some one and a quarter billion Moslems in the world today. But God's grace did not stop there. It reflects through the galaxies and the cosmos. And the very Word of God became flesh in the form of a Jewish descendent of Abraham. And his followers are the more than 2 billion Christians in the world today. Look to the heavens. And astronomers tell us there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone. 500 billion in the Milky Way. And hundreds, thousands, even millions of galaxies more.
And God said to Abram. "Look toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to count them. So shall your descendants be." Could it be that God is not done yet with Abram even after all these millennia? God's gifts come as if they have been somewhere else. Because they have in fact been present in the lives of person after person. Passed on to those who are ready. Ready not through special skills or qualifying activities. But ready by faith to accept and use the gifts that grace has made known to us. It is the story of our lives. Recognized by the wisdom writer of Ecclesiastes. But not just a vain moment of our making, there is something more. In our second lesson the writer of Hebrews spots a key perspective, "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible." The unknown millions who have gone before us. The cosmic accidents and creative detail that bring us to this moment in time. A Sunday morning in the year 2004 in the peaceful trees of a forested suburb north of Chicago. In a world filled with conflicts, disease, violence and destruction we find ourselves for this moment in the peaceful stillness of a Sunday morning with pause to listen to the Word of God. To open us to the presence of God's Spirit. To give thanks for the blessings of this day. The gift of bread and wine and the promise of the future. Could this be a little of the feeling that Abraham embraced as he looked to the heavens that night some 4,000 years ago in the desserts of the Middle East? Could this be the reason Jesus cautioned his disciples some 2,000 years later to choose for themselves purses that do not wear out and to invest themselves in seeking the unfailing treasure in heaven? It all comes down to moments that become future defining. Abram believed the promise and steps out in faith even when all logic says that his family line is dead. The future belongs to another. All of our lives are witness to this miraculous power of grace and faith. Of the stepping out in faith. Believing what has been declared as true.
History is filled with such stories. And so are our lives. Not just great historic moments but private personal instances. We all have them, repeated again and again. They make us who we are. Unique in some way. When I was in the first and second grade I was identified by one of my teachers as having a speech problem. I couldn't properly pronounce an "r." A speech teacher worked with me again and again to correct this problem which I now only vaguely remember having. But I know today that it would be very hard to preach without proclaiming the resurrection and the work of our redeemer Jesus Christ. I do not remember her name. All I do remember is her telling me again and again that I should never be afraid to speak. That I should never stop talking. And I believed her. And you hear the results. When I was in the fifth grade the children's choir director at Grace Lutheran Church pulled me aside on day after choir practice and asked if I could come to practice a half hour earlier each week to work on some special music with her. She didn't tell me then what I have come to recognize. That I could not sing. I didn't know how to hear the tones and pitches. She taught me to listen to the music. To find the notes. I have no natural musical ability. I had to learn it. But she told me and 50 other boys that we could learn to sing. And we became a boys choir that discovered the wonder and joy of music we live our lives by faith. By believing those who voice God's calling and promise in our lives.
And so the story repeats itself with teachers and mentors. With English professors who opened to me the power of a poem. Chemistry instructors who invited me to probe the atom, and Sunday school teachers who set me on a path to talk with theologians. There are important moments in every life. Milestones that mark our journey through time. History is usually told from the perspective of the common markers. Birth and baptism. School and graduations. Jobs. Careers. Professions. Volunteer opportunities. Maybe marriage and children. Then retirement and ultimately death. But the real meaning of a life is marked off by those far less historic moments that ultimately shape our very being. These are the moments of grace and wonder. The interventions of the unknowns. Some would call it chance. Accident. Luck. Both good and bad. Poor or fortunate timing. To those with the eyes and ears of faith. Who can look to the heavens and see so much more then the visible stars. These moments are guided by faith. Marked by God's presence. Coming in the unexpected form at the unanticipated moment. That is why Jesus assured us that we had nothing to fear. All we have to do is be ready. Open to his coming.
The summer is fast drawing to a close. We are anticipating the next season with preparations and plans. We are getting ready with back to school supplies. Making our plans based on what we achieved or did last year. Or turning in new directions with expectations of the unknown The important thing. Jesus reminds us. Is that we be ready. Be prepared. That we realize that in our journey into God's future we carry very few items with us. We journey by faith. Prepared by grace.
Amen.