Secondly, half of this sermon was written after moving most of our stuff to our new apartment, and I was quite tired, and I hand wrote the second half of this sermon. So, the second half is dictated from that handwritten sermon, and may not be up to my usual standards, and it's also why the sermon isn't quite as long as it usually is - because I went off the cuff for a little bit.... Yep.
Que Dios nuestro Creador y el Señor Jesucristo les concedan gracia y paz
Grace and Peace to you from God our Creator, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ,
Amen
No tengan miedo, mi rebaño pequeño. Some of you may have understood that, but for those of you who didn’t - No tengan miedo, mi rebaño pequeño means roughly - have no fear my little flock. Can we try to say that all together? No tengan miedo, mi rebaño pequeño
Have no fear, the Lord is coming. Sell your stuff, because your treasure is with God anyway. Pues donde tengan ustedes su tesoro, allí estará también su corazón. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (I won’t make you say that one). Have no fear…
All anybody has to say this year is something about Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton… and eyes begin to roll. You did it just now. This year’s presidential contest is one of the strangest races anybody has seen. You want to talk about having no fear? Over 50% of the supporters of both candidates… are voting for their candidate… solely based on not wanting the other one. On fear of the other candidate. Over half of the supporters purely don’t want the other one to win. Not because they like their chosen candidate, not because they think their candidate will do a better job… they fear what the other candidate will do to this country.
The searches of ‘How do I move to Canada’ in Google have increased enormously since this election began over a year ago. Canada recently changed their immigration policy to reflect the possible influx of new citizens coming from the United States. Fear… it’s something I’ve preached on before here, and it’s so pervasive, it certainly pops up multiple times throughout the year.
Over the last month or so, the Tuesday bible study has been reading through a couple of the epistles, or the little books in the back of your bible. They’re letters written to the early church by authors unknown… but they were written to the Christians of the 1st century, knowing that Jesus was coming back. Not only was Jesus coming back, but Jesus was coming back soon. This theme of Jesus coming back soon… has been a recurring theme not only in the epistles, and not only in the world of 1st century Palestine… but throughout all of history.
Even in recent years, there have been nationwide claims that the end of the world was coming near. Twice in 2011, once in May and again in November, a man knew the world was coming to an end, and he made national news… Then the year was 2012. The Mayan calendar was ending, and surely the Mayans knew about the future, so winter solstice of 2012… the world was going to end.
And I’ll admit…. I kinda bought into it. I had a wife and 9 month old Sam at the time, so I figured if the world was ending, it was ending at a good time in my life. Well, it didn’t end and the world woke up the next morning… But the hype was real. There was even a movie called, 2012 about the world ending and giant boats and whatever.
The world will end one day. Your life will end one day. Everything has a beginning and an end, and God is the beginning and the end.
You also must be ready, for the Son of (Humanity) is coming at an unexpected hour…
Today’s Gospel comes from the context of the Sermon on the Mount. In Luke’s version, you have the ‘Blessed are they who…” etc. Today’s lesson comes right after Jesus tells the people to not worry about what they will eat, wear, whatever. Consider the lilies and all that.
So Jesus telling the people to “No tengan miedo, mi pequeno rebano…” is a reiteration of everything he just said.
There’s a term in Psychology known as ‘Projection’, when someone tells you that you that you have a problem, while forgetting to mention that they too have the same problem. Jesus may have had the same idea. Perhaps Jesus was projecting his own fears and explaining in turn what he, the Son of Humanity, needed to do.
For Jesus knew he was going to die. Knew what he had to do. Knew that his life would soon be demanded of himself…
n Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there’s a scene in which one of the main protagonists, Finn is helping the other protagonist, Poe, escape from the bad guys. Finn is whispering… “stay calm, stay calm…” and Poe says, “I am calm…” and Finn replies, “I was talking to myself…”. It’s a humorous point in the movie, but perhaps Jesus was doing the same thing here.
What else am I to say? There’s a lot to be fearful of out there… and Jesus telling us to go ahead and not be afraid…
Well… thanks Jesus… but let’s just go ahead and continue to be afraid… because it’s easier than doing anything about it.
But he continues… We are to ready ourselves… go out there and do something about this world… because Jesus is coming back. The world that we know and love and fear…. Needs to be readied. It needs to be fixed, put back together. Because all of the things we’re afraid about… need not to be feared of… but rectified.
Think of them as situations to be rectified… opportunities for growth.
(conversation of Zion not having an intern and fear of what comes next made off the cuff)
Conquering our fear, to ready the world, and better the world… we can do that. We can do that because Jesus did that. Jesus knew he was going to die, and prayed in the garden to let it not be so. But he knew that his life meant more than anything anyone could imagine. Jesus died for you, for me, for us all…. Because of grace. Grace freely bestowed to all of us. Through Christ’s death, God saves us from our fears, our sins, ourselves.
Because the Son of Humanity is coming back. Be ready.
Amen.
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