Sermon on Luke 12:32-40

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

We usually have readings like today’s Gospel during the season of Advent, leading up to Christmas: “Stay awake! Keep watch!”

During that season, we remember that even as the Christ Child came at an unexpected time in an inauspicious place, Christ could come back at any time, so we should always be ready.

That can sound fearful, though, like: “stay on your best behavior or Jesus might catch you doing something bad and punish you for it.Don’t forget that any moment the Second Coming might happen, so you definitely shouldn’t do anything like rest or have fun.”

But Jesus wasn’t trying to scare his followers into submission. In fact, our reading opens with the words “do not be afraid”!

Not only is there the face value meaning, but it also again evokes Advent and Christmas: when the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be Jesus’ mother and when the angels announced to the shepherds that Jesus had been born. In both stories, the angels toldthe humans not to fear.

And in our first reading, we read another instance that’s less associated with Christmas: when God promised Abram a multitude of descendants. All of these proclamations of good news started with “do not be afraid.”

Instead of scare tactics, is it possible that our Gospel reading today is actually good news? Yes! And let’s look at how:

Jesus starts by saying that God is pleased to give his hearersthe kingdom. That’s a far cry from “behave or else.” Instead, Jesus is reminding them that by following him, they’ve become a part of the Beloved Community, not just in the future, but here and now. They were part of bringing God’s community of love, joy, and peace to the world around them, making earth a little more as it is in heaven wherever they went.

As we talked about last week, Jesus wants his followers to prioritize relationships over stuff. The parable of the rich fool last week showed that life is meaningless when it’s full of stuff and no one to share it with. This week, Jesus says to invest in what can’t be taken away from you. Stuff decays or gets stolen, but relationships with God and each other are what make life worth living.

So, when Jesus goes on to talk about slaves waiting for their master to come (always a challenging metaphor—it’s uncomfortable when Jesus talks about an unjust and dehumanizing system like enslavement without denouncing it), Jesus isn’t talking about “behave or else” here.

We might expect the slaves to need to wait for their master to keep from getting punished, but that’s not how Jesus tells the story. Notice the master’s surprising behavior: when he gets home, Jesus says he will sit his slaves down and serve them. Not what you’d expect.

As uncomfortable as Jesus’ use of slavery imagery is, he’s talking about a complete reversal of the social order, where the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Kind of sounds like Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, doesn’t it? The rabbi, not to mention God in the flesh, stooped to do the dirtiest, lowliest job that the unluckiest servant normally did.Jesus used this story to declare that Beloved Community upends human hierarchies.

When the Second Coming happens, the people who are living into the Beloved Community, loving and serving their neighbors, will be sat down at God’s banquet that will never end.

But remember that we don’t earn our place at God’s table—it’s there for us from the moment God imagined us into being. We don’t serve our neighbor to earn our invitation into God’s Beloved Community—we’re already here!

We serve our neighbor now, because we recognize the image of God in them, because that’s how we would want to be treated, because God loves us so much that it pours out of our hearts and our hands in the form of service to our neighbor.

That is Beloved Community. That is earth as it is in heaven.

And also, it’s easy to get distracted. Marketing campaigns try to get us to believe we’re not worthy without buying their product.

Society sells us business courses and status symbols that allegedly will help us reach a higher rung on the corporate ladder, regardless of who we step on to get there.

We spend our lives trying to earn a place at a table without wondering if it’s even worth sitting at.

We’re like the rich fool in last week’s parable, trying to find security in stuff, but stuff won’t save us.

Sure, we can pay for top notch healthcare and for someone to diversify our portfolio to maximize profit and minimize risk. We can optimize our schedules to be the most productive. We can network to be invited into the most exclusive and powerful circles. We can have the best security systems to protect our privacy and our belongings.

But none of that will guarantee us love, ensure us a meaningful life, or protect us from death.

Our society spends so much time and effort distracting us from what really matters in life. “Buy this eye cream so you don’t feel like you’re aging.” “Binge this tv show to help you forget the shallowness of your friendships.” “Drink this alcohol to numb your anxiety and this energy drink to override your depression.”

It's all a distraction.

Instead, Jesus says, “Be ready.” Stay awake. Not in an “or else” sense, but in the sense of: “I love you and I don’t want you to miss out on what really satisfies: community, relationships, generosity, joy.”

Shaolin Master Shi Heng Yi said, “Never allow pleasure or discomfort to distract you from your path.”

We human beings often want to ignore discomfort and lean into pleasure, but this quote reminds us that both can be distractions from what really matters. Do you want a momentary dopamine hit or the hard work of being in community? Do you want to indulge in complaining or refuse to use discomfort as an excuse to let yourself quit something worth doing?

In our reading, Jesus calls us to the path of Beloved Community. Don’t allow pleasure or discomfort distract you from that path.

We associate the message of our Gospel reading today with Advent and Christmas, but today we’re reading it in the long stretch of Ordinary Time. The commands “keep watch” and “stay awake” aren’t about obsessively policing our behavior so that Jesus won’t catch us doing something we shouldn’t. They’re about being present to what really matters in the day-to-day ordinary times of our ordinary lives.

Jesus invites us to be present to connection and community, the relationships that make life worth living.

Life isn’t about building bigger barns or guarding our stuff carefully against moths and thieves. It’s about loving God and loving our neighbor, living with open hands and open hearts.

Do not be afraid, little flock. The good news is that you are already part of the Beloved Community. Don’t let distractions or human hierarchies make you forget how much God loves you.Let your ordinary time be filled with connection and love.