Watch this
homily! (begins at 31:00)
My
friends, in that Gospel we just heard, Jesus continues to teach his
disciples and us about priorities. After last week’s gospel in which we
were told that we must find our security in the Lord, not in material
possessions, this week Jesus tells us to not be afraid.
We need
this reassurance if we are going to take the risk of relying on God
rather than on the security we can provide with our material
possessions. And if we can do that, if we can trust the Lord, then,
Jesus tells us, we will be ready to meet him when he comes.
It
was that kind of trust that the Israelites had in Egypt the night of the
Passover as they awaited the Lord’s coming and freeing them from
slavery. More than a thousand years after the Exodus the author of the
Book for Wisdom reminds the Israelites of the faith of their ancestors.
The reminder was necessary for them, and it is necessary for us.
It is easy to become fearful, and the reminder of the faith of our
ancestors can sustain us. It sustains us because the faith they had in
God, who acted in their time is the same God who acts today, in our
time. When we forget that, we can easily become afraid, and act, not out
of faith and trust, but out of fear.
Abraham and Sarah are the
models of acting out of faith in God’s promises. Who had more
justification to act out of fear than Abraham and Sarah? Here was this
old man and woman that the Lord told to get up and go to a foreign land,
with a promise that they would have a son in old age that would begin a
family of descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky and as
countless as the sands on the seashore.
But Abraham and Sarah
were able to summon enough trust in God to leave the familiar and to go
to a foreign land and start a whole new life. They did this simply
because they trusted that God knew what God was doing.
We have
to be reminded of these ancestors in our faith – Abraham and the ancient
Israelites, because God has not changed. The faithful God of Abraham and
Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jesus is the same God who acts in our
lives today. It is the same God who says to us, do not be afraid, trust
me and I will show you where to go.
But it is so easy to become
fearful in the world in which we live. That fear comes from a variety of
places – our own personal and family struggles; a world of war, violence
and injustice; the continued degradation of our environment, our common
home; a political culture that demonizes migrants and refugees; a time
of economic uncertainty, especially for those who are poor; and the
growing fear around authoritarianism and the seeming disregard for the
rule of law; and so much more. But in the midst of all that, Jesus tells
us to not be afraid.
And then, having reassured us, Jesus says
“Get ready,” because at a time when you least expect it, the Lord will
appear. The language of girding our loins or lighting our lamps
may not mean much to us in 21st century America.
But, in Jesus’
time, when light was only provided by fire and long garments had to be
tied up when you got ready to go for a walk, the language was clear. Be
prepared! Today, we might say pack your bags and make sure the gas tank
is full. But the message is still the same – the Lord is coming to meet
us, and we need to be ready.
The two images Jesus uses to
describe his return are vivid ones. The first is of the head of a
household returning from a wedding. If the servants are ready to open
the door when the master returns, the result will be astounding. The
master will have the servants recline at table and he will wait on them!
That is a mind-boggling image!
If we are ready for the Lord’s
coming, then he will come and serve us! This echoes the language of the
Last Supper (inscribed above our altar) in which Jesus tells his
disciples that he is in their midst as one who serves (Luke 22:27).
This is the one we are preparing to meet.
The other image
Jesus uses, that of a thief in the night, emphasizes the suddenness and
unexpected nature of his return. We must be prepared, Jesus says, “for
at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
Luke’s
community needed this parable because they were growing anxious.
The Lord’s return, which they had expected soon, had been delayed well
into the first century. This parable was a reminder that the Lord can
come in an instant, and when we are not expecting him. Some two thousand
years later, we need this parable even more, lest we become not anxious,
but perhaps a bit lazy in our preparations for the Lord’s appearing.
We know the Lord will come to us at the end of time, and at the end
of our lives. But he also comes to us every day in people near and far
who are in need of hope. We, who have been given this hope in Jesus, are
called on to share that hope with others. As Jesus says in the Gospel
today, we have been entrusted with much, and much is demanded of us.
Christians down through the ages, have witnessed to the hope that
comes from Jesus, who is among us as one who serves. To continue that
witness, we have to put aside those things and cares that might get in
the way: an obsessive attachment to possessions, indifference to those
in need, and relying on the false sense that we have lots of time to set
things right in our relationship with God.
We don’t have lots
of time. Jesus will come when we least expect him, and he will come to
us today in those who are in need, physically, emotionally and
spiritually. He will come to us in people we know well, in family and
friends. And he will come to us in strangers who are in need of our
compassion and care. We don’t have to pack our bags or fill our gas
tanks to get ready for his coming. We simply need to see him in those in
need of hope, and then respond in love.
As we gather around the
table of the Eucharist, we do so in company with Abraham and Sarah and
with all those faithful ancestors who lived lives of deep faith in that
which they could not yet see.
We gather to give thanks and
praise to the God of the Promise, the God of the Exodus and the God of
the Resurrection. In faith and in hope we celebrate the memorial of His
Son’s Passion and Death, in which he shows forth his constant and
abiding love.
And then, nourished at this table, may we leave
here ready to welcome him however, and whenever, he comes.
Father Gary F. Lazzeroni, Pastor
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