Are You on Alert? - Sermon for Pentecost 9C (Luke 12:32-40)
Do you worry about what’s going on in the world and how it affects your life? Are you concerned about your security and safety? Do you make sure your doors to your home and cars are locked? Do you have a Ring camera so you can see who is at the front door?
While we might be concerned about such things, Jesus doesn’t seem to share our concerns. Here in Luke 12, Jesus tells his followers not to be afraid because God is going to give the kingdom to them. If we step back a few verses, we hear Jesus tell his followers not to worry about life because worrying won’t add even a single hour to their lifespan (Luke 12:22-31).
Perhaps the reason Jesus warned against worrying about life is that he advocated living a very simple life. The problem with this warning is that my lifestyle is much too complicated. I have accumulated way too much stuff, which can cause anxiety. Now, some things are essential to living a good life; things like my books. I can’t live without my books. However, I might want to think about letting go of my baseball card collection. After all, I haven’t played with it in many years. I also have a large collection of CDs, but while my stereo receiver and speakers work, the CD player doesn’t work. Cheryl wants me to get rid of the whole setup since we rarely use it. But, I’m not sure I’m ready to let go of it. Nevertheless, I am getting older so maybe it’s time to start downsizing. At least that’s what Cheryl keeps telling me!
Jesus told his followers that wherever we store our treasure, that’s where our hearts lie. Jesus recommends that we store our treasure in heaven. Then we won’t have a reason to be afraid. After all, as Jesus revealed to his disciples, “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” This kingdom God wishes to give us is the one we pray for when we recite the Lord’s Prayer. In that prayer, we ask that God’s kingdom might come into our midst. When we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we declare that the things that belong to God’s realm have priority in our lives. This is where things get complicated. Jesus tells us that if God’s realm has priority, then we should sell our possessions and give alms. This is how we can lay up treasure in heaven where moths can’t corrupt or thieves break in and steal. After all, if you don’t have any possessions, there’s nothing for moths to corrupt and thieves to steal!
While Jesus tells us not to worry or be afraid, he does warn us to be on the alert for the coming of God’s realm. Therefore, Jesus calls on us to “be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.”
As he often did, Jesus shared a parable with his followers to convey the full meaning of his message. Jesus tells us that we should be dressed and ready with our lamps lit so that we can be like the watchful slaves who are awake and ready to open the door when the master returns from the wedding banquet and knocks on the door. If they’re awake and ready to welcome him home, their master will shower them with blessings. In fact, the master will be so pleased with their effort that he will fasten his belt and serve them dinner. Yes, in this story, the master becomes the servant. But, you have to be dressed and have the lamp lit so you can open the door to the master, no matter when he arrives. It might be the middle of the night or even dawn. Even so, if you’re up and ready to go, you’ll be blessed. That’s the way it is with the coming of the Son of Man and God’s kingdom. They can come at any moment, just like a thief in the night.
This passage serves as another reminder that Jesus went about the land proclaiming the coming of God’s realm. Like John the Baptist, Jesus wanted to prepare the people for the coming of God’s realm, which was close at hand. But you never know when this will take place. As Jesus tells his followers, “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.”
So be on the alert. Make sure you’re dressed and your lamp is lit because God’s realm can come in its fullness at any moment. If you’re ready to welcome the master, then you will receive the blessings that come with this kingdom.
The early Christians who first heard or read the Gospels and letters, and sermons that make up the New Testament, were expecting that “soon and very soon, we are going to see the king.” Of course, the urgency we see present in the New Testament, especially the early letters of Paul, began to wane with time. By the time the Gospel of Luke appeared, fifty years after Jesus’ earthly life had ended, the people were settling in for the long haul. Before too long, the so-called institutional church began to form. So, staying awake and being prepared for Jesus’ imminent return was increasingly difficult. It’s even more so for us, since it’s been two thousand years and counting.
So, how do we stay prepared for the coming of God’s realm? How do we keep our priorities straight? How do we prevent fear from taking hold of our lives? Like I said up front, my life is more complicated than what Jesus recommended to his early followers. I do worry about things like the economy, climate change, the political divisions at home and abroad.
The truth is that it’s easy to let fear paralyze us. There is an important scene in A Charlie Brown Christmas that sets up the entire story. As you may remember, Charlie Brown was struggling to make sense of this season that was supposed to be marked by joy. So he decided to pay a visit to Lucy’s counseling clinic, where Lucy offered advice for a nickel. Lucy asked Charlie Brown what was bothering him. As the conversation went on, she asked him what he was afraid of. She listed off a series of phobias until she got to “pantophobia.” When Charlie Brown asked what that meant, she told him that it meant “the fear of everything.” He yelled back, “THAT’S IT.” He shouted so loudly that he knocked Lucy off her chair and into the snow. That is the kind of fear that paralyzes us and keeps us from staying awake to the presence of God’s realm.
Here in Luke 12, Jesus tells us to focus on the coming realm of God so we can let go of our fear. We do this by staying alert to signs that the kingdom is knocking at the door, but how do we do this, especially after all these centuries have passed and the kingdom still hasn’t arrived? Does Jesus want us to sell everything we own and give alms to the poor? That’s what Saint Francis of Assisi did. He sold everything and embraced a life of poverty, even though he came from a very rich family. That is one possible response, but is it the only one? I think this is a question we each need to wrestle with.
Staying prepared involves keeping the lamp burning. We keep the lamp burning by keeping our priorities straight and by putting our trust in God, who knows what we need. If we do this, then we needn’t be afraid. When it comes to putting our trust in God, it is helpful to keep in mind a word the prophet Isaiah gave to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The prophet told the people that God was not impressed by their sacrifices and burnt offerings because they had engaged in evil and unjust deeds. So the prophet told the people that God wasn’t going to listen to their prayers since their hands were covered with blood. But he did offer them a word of hope if they followed these instructions: Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:16-17). Isaiah let the people know that if they followed these instructions, they would “eat the good of the land” (Isa. 1:19).
Here is my takeaway from this passage from Luke 12 in light of the message of Isaiah. I believe that God is calling us to live out the message of the kingdom. God is inviting us to join with God in extending God’s reign in the world. This doesn’t require us to impose our religion on others. We don’t have to take over the government. We simply need to follow the guidance given in Micah 6, where the prophet offers this word from God, who has told us what is good and what God requires of us, “but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Troy, Michigan
August 10, 2025
Pentcost 9C
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