Sermon for the 10th of August - Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Lectionary Readings for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Isaiah 1:1, 10–20
The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our

God, you people of Gomorrah! What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation— I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Psalm 50: 1-8, 23
The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes and does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: ‘Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!’ The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. ‘Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt-offerings are continually before me. Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honour me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God.’

Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 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.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old—and Sarah herself was barren—because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, ‘as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.’

All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.

Luke 12: 32-40
Jesus said: 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.

Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

The readings for this Sunday are, I think, some of the most compelling

and most beautiful in all of Scripture.

We could almost reduce all the books of the Bible together to these few verses. I might paraphrase them in this way:

show your faithfulness to God by your acts of goodness

act as if each day were your last, as if you would present your soul to God tomorrow

Out of all the words of the verses we have read for today,

I kept coming back to one word,

treasure.

When I was about 10 or 12 I read Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale, Treasure Island. What a page-turner! I was enthralled. It has all the elements of a great story: it is about struggle and betrayal, courage and loyalty, good winning out in the end. Jim Hawkins, who lives at the Admiral Benbow Inn, finds a treasure map belonging to the notorious, but dead, pirate Captain Flint. Along with Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey he hires a ship. It will take them to the island where the map indicates a fabulous chest of buried treasure, waiting for them to claim it. But, also on board the ship, are the former pirate Long John Silver and other wicked characters, who secretly plan to mutiny and seize the treasure for themselves.

Pirates, deserted tropical islands, treasure maps marked with an "X", one-

legged seamen with parrots perched on their shoulders, pieces of eight---all these colourful elements have marked how we think about treasure, for ever after.

Growing up, I never really pictured treasure except as lying in a chest within which were fabulous rubies, emeralds, and diamonds, and, of course, gold.

As adults have come to use this word, treasure, through the years,

it has come to mean what matters most to you. What could you not do without?

In a poetic vein, we might put it this way: where is your heart?

Jesus is recorded as saying something like this:

be careful what your treasure is, because whatever and wherever it is---that is where your heart itself will be. All your passions and hopes, gravest concerns and intensest energies---all your focus will, indeed, be directed to this end. So be sure that what you have set your heart is upon is what ultimately matters.

There are all kinds of news stories about people whose house, full of furnishings and belongings, is reduced to ashes by a raging wildfire, as in California, or Greece. With photographs of the survivors standing, stunned, outside the remains, gazing at what used to be their home. Or stories of floods coming from extreme rainstorms, sweeping everything away before them. Or of earthquakes, mudslides, tsunamis---there is no end of bad news in the newspapers that sets before us the destruction of household goods, not to mention precious lives. We have all probably reacted to these tragic stories with some kind of reflection along these lines: what if that had been my home, full of my most treasured possessions?

We just probably hope it will never happen to us.

But as we go along in our everyday lives, there are still these passages from the Bible that seem quite clear. And difficult to apply.

Some of Jesus's sayings are quite hard to imagine acting upon.

Fair enough, this general idea about not over-valuing material possessions.

Okay, we get that. We have all probably grown up with the precept that we should not be too tied to what we own---not yearning after a mansion, a luxury car, furs and diamonds for our personal adornment.

But when we come across the reading for today in Luke, Jesus's exhortations to his disciples, and to all of us---what about sell your possessions, and give alms? We might say, how many possessions? Which ones? How much do we give away? How much do we leave for ourselves? What are the actual limits and boundaries of all this? How are we supposed to put these utopian sayings into practice in our modern, everyday lives?

Well, these are the real questions. We all ask them. We all probably pray for some kind of divine guidance in order to navigate the shoals of giving to charitable causes. Given the unfathomable need in our world, how much is enough?

Because when we think of giving some of what we have away, it brings us back to our beginning question: where does our treasure lie?

A clue might lie in a move away from treasure as the idea of possessions---material things that we see, touch and hold fast---to the idea of loving relationships.

It might be helpful to contemplate Jesus's own life. Obviously, we have no concrete information about what Jesus looked like, what he ate or what he wore or what the house he grew up in looked like. It wasn't considered the essential thing to record by the writers of the Gospels, or by anybody else. But we do know that his entire life consisted of those he gathered around him, whom he chose to be in relationship to, and with. With whom he shared a vision of a kingdom that was not of this world.

It was God's kingdom that was the substance of his entire life---he lived out his life trying to get across what that kingdom was like, what it could be like if we began to long for it.

And so he was, your could say, in the way he lived his life, defining what treasure is.

It is about the way you spend your time. Loving others. As much as you love yourself. Giving of yourself, and your wealth, whatever it is, to them, and also to people whom you will never meet and never know. Strengthening ties of love and friendship and help and support wherever you find a need, and an opportunity. Everywhere you can.

If you near your earthly time and you look back on your life and you can say, "I loved so-and-so, and so-and-so, and gave to them...." then that is enough.

I think that God does help us to have a sense of what we can pour out of ourselves for others, as we go about our daily lives.

There is another saying of Jesus for today, attached to the one about treasure.

It is a saying about time: You also must be ready.

Remember the verses from last Sunday? They were also about what is treasure. The Gospel reading was about Jesus and a story he told, a story about a rich man who said I don't have barns big enough to contain all my goods......

"So the rich man said, then, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God."

Know where your treasure is. Know what matters most to you. Know what, if your soul was demanded of you this night, you would be able to carry with you.

What does being ready look like?

Isaiah has just told us: Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before God's eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek

justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

If we have spent our lives pouring our hearts out in love for others, we will never had to have located our treasure anywhere else than in Christ-like love that resides in our hearts. Our heart is a strong treasure-box, not for keeping thieves out but for opening out and pouring forth all the riches it contains. Whenever we choose, all the times that we choose. So that when God asks for our souls, we are not leaving anything behind that could possibly matter.

May God free us from all worry about storage barns and thieves and our daily bread. May the overflowing treasure of all that has been entrusted to us

enrich our lives in the blessing of others with it.

Amen!