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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
There is no part of Jesus' life and ministry that isn't touched by our violence, his storytelling. But keep watch on what Jesus will ultimately do with how we treat each other. For the month of November still, we are rocking this series, Jesus on Judgment, and it is a mind bender. As we wrote about in the journal, Jesus taught in parables, short pithy stories, and parables can be grouped into three categories, parables of the kingdom, parables of grace, and you guessed it, parables of judgment. And this series confronts the hardest parables of Jesus.
Speaker 1:And I gotta say, you all, you are impressing me. You're keeping your mind open and your hearts full and open as you hear these stories in maybe a new light. And the image I have for what we're doing kind of occurred to me this week is we're taking, you know, a metal detector. Remember those? Out to the beach on a stormy day and we are letting them hover over these stories until they beep beep beep beep beep over something that Even in stories that feel jarring, Jesus is hiding out there to offer us the way to be human.
Speaker 1:So in the first week, Jeremy handled the parable of the wicked tenants in Luke 20. And it's the one about the man who plants a vineyard, goes away, and then tries to collect his share by sending slaves and then his son to what turns out to be their ruin. And this parable was about boundaries and the divine effort to bring the harvest home to God. And last week, Scott took on the parable of the unprepared guest in Matthew 22. And it's the one about a king preparing a wedding banquet for his son.
Speaker 1:First ignored, the slaves outdoing the inviting are killed, and then the king fills the party with a bunch of randoms who are not prepared to celebrate. And the good that we hover over here, as Scott pointed out, is this constant string of invitation. And today, we'll look at the parable of the bad servants in Luke 12. But first, like we always do, let's pause and pray. Saints have often prayed prayers like this.
Speaker 1:To whom shall we go? Loving God, you have the words of life and we have trusted and have come to know that you are the holy one. And so we consider our praise. Praise in our wonder, Praise in our questions. Praise in the ways that we love.
Speaker 1:Praise in our silence. Praise in our gratitude. So praise to you, storytelling God, the key to all life's glory. And as we settle in a little more deeply today, we take a moment to just enjoy this bit of stillness. We notice the breath in our bodies, our heartbeat pumping our blood.
Speaker 1:Thank you for this moment to be open and to learn together. Amen. So I don't know about you, but I have this tendency in conversations to use multiple on ramps to get to where I want to go. So I ramp up And when I'm almost at the point I'm trying to make, I I see another ramp, so I bail. And then I ramp up from that angle, and then when I'm almost at the point that I'm still trying to communicate, I, you guessed it, I see another ramp, maybe a funnier detail or just like a little more context.
Speaker 1:So I ramp up from that angle and before I know it, I'm dizzy. The person, as in my husband listening, is dizzy, and we're both like, what is even going on here? Bobby, what story are you trying to tell? And this multiple on ramps effect is what Luke 12 feels like too. We will get two parable narratives and two kind of narrative sketches, all ramping up to the same theme, watchfulness.
Speaker 1:The first one. Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table, and will come and wait on them. Okay.
Speaker 1:It doesn't sound so complicated, does it? But let's roll it back. Verse 35, be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning is translated more literally as gird your loins. It is about alertness, being ready to run. And this reference points straight back to Exodus.
Speaker 1:The nighttime scene of Exodus 12 tells people how to be ready for their deliverance from the land of slavery. Your loins girded, sandals on your feet hurriedly eating. You will march right out of here at night to freedom. And people believed that God did big things at night. Jewish hope was that the Messiah would even arrive at night.
Speaker 1:And there's this spiritual resonance for us here too. Like, God really does come to us when we feel trapped or afraid or we can hardly see our hand in front of our faces. So Jesus points to the past to start these stories, but he pulls in the present to connect to his audience. And one scholar calls Jesus' parables these miniature plays, and I really like that. This play is staged in the Roman household.
Speaker 1:On one end of status, you have a master of the household, and on the other end, you have his slaves. Everyone is up late. They're waiting for the big guy to come home. And when he does, something cool happens. The master reverses status.
Speaker 1:As servants are about to fetch his favorite nighttime snack, he says, no no no no no. Allow me. You've been up all night and I'm still buzzing from this wedding. I'll grab the charcuterie. Let's sit down and eat together.
Speaker 1:Now, I don't think it's so wrong to say, oh, we get it. Jesus is the master. He's always turning privilege into service. But in the next story, the sketch partnered with this parable, who Jesus could be here is a little more strange. It would be good for those servants whose master finds them ready even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak, real party guy.
Speaker 1:But understand this, if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief, what a thief, was coming, the owner of the house would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready because the son of man will come at an hour when you do not expect. So which is it? Is Jesus the master or the thief? Yes to both?
Speaker 1:For this, we need to look at the future. With all this waiting and this watchfulness, the overarching theme is the And perusia is the Greek word for arrival. And in Christian theology, the perusia is the second coming, the second advent of Christ. And you can imagine for early Christians, perusia is such a big deal. They believed that Jesus would do a quick u-turn up in heaven and then BRB.
Speaker 1:Be right back. So whether Jesus was this kindly master or the unexpected thief, The point was to be ready. Waiting and watchfulness is what we are meant to grab onto in Luke 12, which still works for us. You know? We all want to know the future, like what's gonna happen on Tuesday.
Speaker 1:We all wanna know, will things be okay? When will some of this pain and division end? When will all of this stress subside? And in these stories, the answer is shrug emoji. We probably won't get to know when.
Speaker 1:It's tempting to overread parables as allegory, to crack their code. Another take could be the master is Jesus, the slave is us, and the thief is the cruel cruel world. But allegories tend to contradict the bigger point. Jesus ramps up to the point from the exodus past. He ramps up to the point from the Roman households present and he ramps up to the point from Perusia's future to say one thing and one thing only.
Speaker 1:Always be ready for holy encounter. You can trace divine encounter in your past. It's there. And it's right here in your present. And God will be there for you, for all of us in the future too.
Speaker 1:And then, this is my sermon of strange sound effects, by the way. You've already got some beeps and unerked. Not sorry about that. All that to say, here's an interruption. Peter asked, Lord, are you telling this parable to us or to everyone?
Speaker 1:And this is a trick. Peter's question doesn't even exist in Matthew 24 where we find this set of parables. So what's it doing here? And to get at that, we need to notice that Jesus is doing something different with the language of slave or servant. You're not meant to take on the language of slave or servant as if it applies to you without the spin that Jesus intends.
Speaker 1:There is Rome's kingdom and Rome's slaves, and in Rome's kingdom and with Rome's slaves, everything is about subjugation. You lose power. You were at the whims of capricious masters. You are quite simply not free. And Jesus uses the same words.
Speaker 1:There's Jesus' kingdom and Jesus' servants. But in Jesus' kingdom with Jesus' slaves, everything is about liberation. Remember, we started with Exodus. Let my people go. And in the teachings of Jesus, terms like kingdom and slaves might sound the same, but they mean something different.
Speaker 1:Jesus makes these terms antithetical metaphors. They are opposed to what they usually mean. Jesus' kingdom looks nothing like Rome. Jesus' slaves are nothing like Rome's. Everyone is meant to be free.
Speaker 1:The rich, free from their wealth. The slave, free from their bondage. The disciples, free from any kind of special status. So when Peter says, who are you talking to here? Like, is this a special word for your very special followers?
Speaker 1:Jesus responds, but he doesn't do it directly. He launches into another story and loving stories. Everyone leans in for more. And Joel Green calls this a nod to the universal audience, so get closer and hear yourself in the story. Only it gets a little dicey.
Speaker 1:The Lord answered, who then is the faithful and wise manager whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Truly, I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, my master is taking a long time in coming, And then he begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and to drink and get drunk. The master of the servant will come on a day when he does not expect him.
Speaker 1:And in an hour he is not aware of, he will cut him to pieces and assign him to a place with the unbelievers. The story begins as a typical story in the ancient world. A slave has risen up in the Roman household, and now he's in charge of the other slaves. Specifically, it's his job to be sure that they eat when it's time to eat. Not only that, but this slave is so capable that he's in charge of all his master's possessions.
Speaker 1:And again, in the world of Roman masters and slaves, this all tracks. But the slave's inner thoughts, they introduce a scandal. He wonders, what the heck is taking my master so long? Why isn't he home yet? And I can't help but wonder, like, what's the rush, bro?
Speaker 1:You already have more than everyone else, plus the run of the place, and the answer is in what's to come. The manager abusively asserts his power beating servants, notably not just the men. He eats drinks and takes things too far. Now we might not catch this but mistreating both person and possession traditionally just means that this guy has lost control. He's a caricature of a life caved in on itself, buckling under the weight of wrong headed choices.
Speaker 1:So the story, it ends in tragedy. The master comes home and no one sees him coming, what with the chaos of the manager's tyranny, and then we get the fate of the abusive manager. He's cut to pieces and assigned to the place of unbelievers. It's curtains. This idea of being cut to pieces is the translation of and it's an unusual verb.
Speaker 1:It could mean a literal cutting of those disgraced, so that's brutal. It could be a mistranslation, though that's less likely, or it could simply be a hyperbolic expression. Like when my mom would say to us kids, you're cruising for a bruising. She never hit us. She was just exasperated by her three little brats.
Speaker 1:So hyperbole is actually my preference here. It tracks with the form of this kind of story telling. After all, we're told he's cut in two and then assigned to a place outside of the community. And sure, that could mean some kind of afterlife, but what earthly master has that kind of power? And either way, in the end, the manager is judged, punished, and alone.
Speaker 1:And all of this might seem too harsh for our progressive little ears, but it doesn't do us any good to ignore the very real world Jesus' peers lived in. We may wish that Jesus would subvert the whole slave system right here but he does something different. He uses the harsh realities they lived with to circle back to his singular point which is watchfulness. There is no part of Jesus' life and ministry that isn't touched by our violence including his storytelling, but keep watch on what Jesus will ultimately do with how we treat each other. This parable is not Golgotha.
Speaker 1:We are not at the cross yet, where Jesus refuses our horror. In Luke 12, we are in this messy middle where Jesus speaks through violent systems without legitimizing them. So can you learn from patriarchy? Can you learn from monarchy? Can you learn from oligarchy and democracy?
Speaker 1:What about supremacy? When we look at a system and we take it apart or we trace its effects in our lives and our relationships, yes, we can learn from it. That doesn't mean that God blesses it. Let me be clear. You are free and you are favored.
Speaker 1:And the point is to always live like that's true. Now, let me be extra extra clear about judgment. Does God want the cancer to come back? Does God wish for your failed relationship? Does God desire an election result you dread?
Speaker 1:What about the depression or the bipolar diagnosis? What about the grief you can hardly get out of bed to face? The answer is no. No. God does not want that for you or for your loved one.
Speaker 1:But can God speak through it even if God doesn't want that for you? The answer is astonishingly, yes, God can. God has no plans to cut you in two or to cast you out. It turns out that we're the experts on that retribution, not God. So Luke twelve forty seven to 48 breaks away for this closing sketch.
Speaker 1:If a servant knows what he should do and doesn't do it, he'll be in trouble. But if he doesn't even know what he should do, the trouble will be less severe. For everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Thank you Peter Parker's uncle Ben.
Speaker 1:I mean Jesus. I mean Spider Man. I mean Jesus. Never forget that when we are in Jesus' ancient world, we are in its logic. And so Louise Chotroff says that we need to remember how to find application in what is the divine passive.
Speaker 1:Meaning God is involved whether God is mentioned or not. God works with you doing what you can with the gifts that you've been given and you don't have to try much harder than that. So if these two parables in Luke 12 and these two sketches that follow are meant to implore us to live watchful lives, what does that even mean? What are we even watching out for? And in the language of scripture, Christians are watching out for the day or an hour or the kingdom.
Speaker 1:They're watching out for the arrival of glory, the coming of the truly human one or the son of man, a time when things get better. Even after Jesus' death and departure, their suffering and conflict, the tearing down of the temple and the scattering of these early communities, they lived their lives with hope in Jesus's return. Now I don't think it's all that helpful to imagine Jesus's return as one where he literally rides down on the clouds. Though if that's an image that's meaningful to you, keep it. I wonder though if Jesus's return is more mysterious and continuous than that.
Speaker 1:And I'm not alone with this curiosity. Meister Eckhart back in the thirteenth century said, we should be constantly vigilant watching out for Christ coming from wherever he might come, for Christ may be present in any circumstance. So let's practice that. Let's find Christ present in the story of another watchful servant in Acts 12. Now in the story, Peter has been in prison and King Herod has killed James by the sword.
Speaker 1:Everyone is terrified. Peter's demise is certainly next, only Peter is swept out of prison by an angel who walks him right out of jail. So Peter goes to Mary's house, and a slave girl named Rhoda hears his knocking. She knows it's Peter. She recognizes his voice.
Speaker 1:Only instead of opening the gate, she's so excited. She runs in the other direction to tell the others who's there, and they say, there's no way Peter is at the door, but Peter keeps knocking. Finally, they open the door and they see that their friend is free. And Peter tells them his story and then he hits the road for Judea and Caesarea. The guy's got a bunch of work to do and sure, that is all so exciting.
Speaker 1:But what I love here is that in all the kerfuffle, Rhoda, the fumbling servant, who gets so excited she neglects to open the door, she's the watchful one. So let's call it lucidity. Being ready to notice the clarity of just one moment in between so many of life's confusing ones. Watching for Jesus' arrival is mysterious and it is continuous. Christ may be in the one who recognizes your true voice.
Speaker 1:He might be in the shape of the freedom story you choose to tell. He might feel close to you in rest or play, work or creativity, hope or even despair. So watch. Watch for the times when you are down, and then seemingly out of nowhere, something good finds you. And watch when you are feeling lost, but know that you can take a turn and then another, and you may end up somewhere better than you ever planned to go.
Speaker 1:Watch. Watch the fog of your thoughts lift with new clarity, and let yourself be reminded that in an ever expanding universe, you are not alone. That's watchfulness. That's Jesus' never ending return until he comes in blazing glory or in life's quiet grace. Let us pray.
Speaker 1:Loving God. Something I love in these strange parables is how much agency and power the characters actually have. And sure, that can make for such a harsh reality, but it can also be the opposite. Maybe we really can make the world more loving, generous, curious, open to wisdom, and ready for action. So may we turn with attention to the details of our lives and see the gifts we have to share with each other.
Speaker 1:Spirit of the living God present with us now. Enter the places of our restlessness, our worry, and pain, and heal us of all that harms us. Amen.
Speaker 2:Hey, Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at Commons, you can head to our website, commons.church, for more information. You can find us on all of the socials commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our Discord server.
Speaker 2:Head to commons.churchdiscord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.