Sermons

Three Calls, One Continuous Path

Jesus said to his disciples, “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.” Luke 12:32-40

So, a paraphrase of the beginning of this chunk of Luke’s telling of Jesus could well be, “Do not be afraid, you who gather around this altar, for it is God’s good pleasure to bring about the kin-dom.” A sweet and powerful beginning to today’s Gospel reading.

These are words of comfort spoken by Jesus to his disciples, and they are spoken to us today. It evokes a sense of intimacy, care, and gentleness. We are not a massive army or an impersonal crowd to God. We are a beloved, vulnerable, closely watched-over ock. And our Shepherd, Jesus, sees us. He knows our fears. He knows our hearts. And his first word is: do not be afraid.

We live in a world marked by uncertainty, characterized by economic pressures, global conflict, climate change, and personal anxieties. Fear, in many ways, has become the air we breathe. But Jesus’ message cuts through that fear with a deep reassurance: “It is your [Creator’s] good pleasure to give you the kin-dom.” This assurance and this grace are not something we have to wrestle from God. This text is one of the reasons I say KIN Dom vs Kingdom, this is not our world or anyone’s to lord over it. It is ours to share with one another and create community amid powers and principalities, creating division among us.

In our tradition, we understand that God’s love and salvation come not because we deserve them, but because God delights in giving them. In our Baptismal Covenant, we are to live as people shaped by this grace, trusting not in our strength or worthiness, but in God’s generosity. In the Baptismal Covenant, there is a Prayer that reminds us that God not only gives us the kin-dom but also equips us for every good work. That means we can live not in fear, but in freedom.

Six years ago, we heard of two shootings that caught our attention. The first was a shooting in a Walmart in El Paso, and that was racially motivated. Hours later, in Dayton, Ohio, someone shot up a bar district, killing many folks, and the horror was large capacity magazines.

On that Sunday, I felt angry, helpless, scared, and unsure of how I would respond. So I wore this stole. This stole is part of a gun violence awareness collection, made by Colleen L. Hintz of Fruit of the Vine. The images on it are from the books of Eric Carle, whose book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?”; it is very famous among the little kids set.

I was making a witness by wearing it, and I still felt many big feelings, fear, hopelessness about whether I was making a difference. Yet I had four services to preside over, and I put my best face forward and processed to church. A little girl named Beatrice came up to me during the Peace and said, “Hi Michele, I know that book and pointed to my stole.” So I said, ‘Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?’ And she said, I see a yellow bird looking at me. It was a moment of grace that filled me with joy. We just grinned at each other, and she hugged me. Joy, Community, all in that moment. It reminded me that I get to continue working towards a different world. God’s default posture toward you is delight. Not disappointment. Not anger. Not exhaustion. 2 Delight. And this God, who gives freely, calls us to live with open hands and open hearts. Beatrice reminded me of that, and my hope was renewed that she and all children might grow up to be safe in this world, and that is why I continue the work.

As a community, we understand this as a way of living in active faith. Our worship—rich in symbols, scripture, and prayer—trains our hearts to be alert and more attentive. Our daily prayers form us, not to escape the world, but to notice it more deeply. To be attentive to God’s presence in the ordinary. And Jesus tells us that in those moments of alertness, something surprising happens. “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds alert… he will have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.”

This flips everything on its head. We expect servants to serve their masters. But in Jesus’ flipping things upside-down and making right left, we see something new: not a kingdom, but a kin-dom. The master serves them. God comes to us in humility and love—in ways we don’t expect. In bread and wine. In the stranger and the sick. In quiet moments of grace. Are we paying attention?

My hope and prayer in listening to this Lukan text is to ask these questions. What does it truly mean to live out these teachings? To trust in the mercy and love of God and community. It is to loosen our grasp on the fleeting treasures of this world and instead live with open hands and open hearts. Generosity, in this sense, extends beyond money—it encompasses our time, our compassion, our attention, and our love. We are not owners of wealth, but stewards of grace, entrusted with gifts to be shared with others.

It is also to be ready—not immobilized by fear, but animated by hope. It is to look for the presence of God, the good orderly direction, a higher mindedness, or what it might be to chase the divine spark in the ordinary moments of life, and to act with justice and mercy whenever and wherever we can.

These three calls—trust, generosity, and readiness—are not separate virtues, but one continuous path of discipleship, each flowing into the next. When we trust in God’s love, or if you rather, we make community, we are freed to be generous. When we are generous, our hearts are opened, making us ready for God’s movement in the world. And when we are ready, we see anew that Christ is already among us—serving, loving, and healing. This is the life into which we hear in the baptismal rite, and this is the life we pledge ourselves to, in the hopes of creating a world that is safer and more loving.

May it be so. Amen.