FINDINGS IV By Harry T. Cook

Proper 14 - C - August 11, 2013 
Luke 12: 32-40   

  


Harry T. Cook
By Harry T. Cook
8/5/13


 

Luke 12: 32-40: Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's joy to confer his rule for living upon you that you may observe and teach it. Here's how you will do that: sell what you own and give the proceeds to the poor. Make wallets for yourselves, which will not wear out, to carry the unfailing treasure of that rule, in which, because it is immaterial, no thief will be interested in stealing and no moth in eating. If you bury that treasure, you will also bury your heart.* Meanwhile, keep your work clothes handy and have your lamps ready to light as would those who would be waiting for their master to return from the wedding supper, that you may open the door for him when he knocks. The slave who is ready is a happy slave for he will be served as if he were not a slave. It's like this: you have to be ready for anything because The One Like Us is coming when you least expect it.  (Translated and paraphrased by Harry T. Cook.)
 

*Phrase originally coined by John Dominic Crossan.

 

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It may be true that time, often said to be "of the essence," is, in fact, just that. Such is the leitmotif of the passage above. It mocks the notion that religion is a static thing, that one can come and go from its observance or study and find it just as it was when one's attention was diverted elsewhere. The trouble is that most appreciation of religion treats it as an antique worthy only of preservation in mint condition.
 
This is not to suggest that the religion that emerges from the gospels is apocalyptic in nature, or that the fundamentalists' rapture is just around the corner or that we should all decamp to the mountain top to await transport. It is merely to say that the way of thinking found in the gospels is dynamic in nature, always appreciating and seeking to understand as much of the present as possible, paying attention to the truth that how what one does or does not do today is certain to have consequences for either good or ill tomorrow. A psalmist said it this way: "Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12)

It is no settled community to which this passage speaks or in which it may well have had its origins. For this community, it is not what has happened, or even what is happening but what is about to happen. The attitude and deportment mandated are appropriate to a time and condition that is temporary. The customary rules do not apply. Material possessions are now only incidental to the main purpose of life, which it to be ready for the arrival of a new dispensation.
 
This probably reflects a real urgency that was felt in some quarters of late first century Jesus Judaism to the effect that something would occur almost any time to resolve the chord set up by whatever happened to the Jesus figure and the resultant confusion of the community that had gathered around his countercultural teaching.
 
The passage begins with Luke's singular assurance that the "little flock" need not fear because a new rule or dispensation based on that teaching will be conferred on them. How, is not clear, but it is safe to say the dispensation will have something to do with the idea first enunciated by Hillel the Great to the effect that the rule of life spelled out in excruciating detail in Torah and further excruciatingly parsed in Mishnah and Talmud centers on how one treats another. If one does not do to another what one hates or would hate to have done to himself, a community would need fear less. Or as the epistoler John will later write of that ethic, "There is no fear in love, but perfected love casts out fear" (I John 4:18a).
 
One aspect of that ethic is illustrated by the counsel Luke gives his Jesus to speak with regard to the divestment of possessions for the sake of being able, through liquidation, to give alms.  One sure thing about it is that it bespeaks a culture of freedom. To be liberated from the conservation and maintenance of much wealth would be to enjoy the rule that it has been the Father's pleasure to confer. Yet it is not as if the community is not to be rich. The community is to be rich in a way that is not liable to the erosion of time (moth and rust). Its treasure is not to sequester for the sake of compound interest but to be shared by way of love.
 
This is because a time of crisis is upon the Jesus communities. As the first century drew to a close, there was a longing for resolution and a fear of what might befall their little minorities. The advice of Luke's Jesus in that situation is to be ready for anything at any time, keeping their work clothes at hand and their lamps ready to kindle. This means that "now" is the time, not "then."
 
This passage is saying that in every moment, in every face, in every event and development there exists the potential for the new dispensation to emerge in its fullness. The community will not then wish to be encumbered by many possessions and concern for their security. When "the master comes" it must be a time when the community is ready individually and corporately to enter wholeheartedly the new dispensation.

Among the homiletic opportunities here is the proposition that the church needs to find ways to divest itself of institutional burdens that keep it from being effective as a herald and practitioner of the new dispensation. The church's heart will be wherever its treasure is: whether invested in attention to administrative minutiae, or in quarrels over matters of authority, or sunk in stocks and bonds, in excess bricks and mortar rather than in real work among real people with real needs.
 
If the church could discover, claim and know the truth about its raison d'etre, it would be free to be what the gospel envisions and maybe what its Galilean hero may actually have been: i.e. an embodiment of humanity at its best, existing to bid love and care for people rather than for things which are subject to the depredations of moth and rust and will never matter in the long run.


Copyright 2013 Harry T. Cook. All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced without proper credit.
 

What a Friend They Had in Jesus: The Theological Visions of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Hymn Writers

Have you ever found yourself humming a favorite childhood hymn, only to realize you could no longer embrace its message? Harry Cook explores how hymns reflect the religious beliefs of their times. He revisits the texts of popular hymns, posing such questions as: How true are they to the biblical texts that seem to have inspired them? What aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century piety have persisted into the twenty-first century through the singing of those hymns? And, how does one manage the conflict between the emotional appeal and the theological content of such hymns?

Available at:
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What reviewers said:

 

"Important and heart-warming ... Cook's keen insights into the most familiar of old-time gospel hymns ... help you do theology like a grownup."
--Robin Meyers, author of Saving Jesus from the Church

 

"A compelling look at centuries of Christian theology and practice, at how particular hymns have shaped American faith and religious thought."
--Richard Webster, Director of Music and Organist at Trinity Church, Boston

 

"A call to integrity in worship ... This exciting, penetrating and provocative study explores the theology we sing, which re-enforces the dated and pre-modern theology from which the Christian faith seeks to escape."
--John Shelby Spong, author of Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World


 


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