[Propertalk] Proper 14 c 2016 - part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

I got an early start this week!
Part 1

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE 12th SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST 

	ISAIAH 1:1, 10-20 PROPER 14 c 

	HEBREWS 11:1-3, 8-16 7th AUGUST, 2016 

	LUKE 12:32-40 PSALM 50:1-8, 23-24 

	 “Life is full of change,” wrote Brother Luke Ditewig, of the
Society of St. John the Evangelist. You don’t need me to tell you
about change, of course. But what Brother Luke added was interesting.
“Life is full of change and some of the hardest parts are responding
to change. Much of how we hurt each other stems from resisting or
taking offense at change. We so easily cling to sticky memories,
wanting to trap people in a former time and place.” 1 

	 If you and I could change one thing, what would it be? 

	 Have you ever thought about that? Wondered what it would be like, if
only ….? I suppose there’s a certain amount of wishful thinking
involved here. I’m not talking about winning the lottery, or
anything like that. Perhaps your wishes, your dreams, are relatively
achievable. It may simply be a matter of making up one’s mind to
take that first step; it may be a matter, once one’s mind is made
up, of determining to take action. 

	 So often, though, that first step can be so difficult. Whatever it
is, whoever is involved, making a change can seem such an overwhelming
proposition. It may weigh upon us to prevent us moving because we
can’t see how we can possibly accomplish what it is we want to do.
Even if we’ve changed before; even if the change has involved the
same behaviour or trying to reach the same goal, even if this is so,
it can still be so difficult for us to start out. THIS is why we need
encouragement. THIS is why we need reminding about what life entails.
THIS is why we need to rehearse what our baptismal covenant vows are
all about. Otherwise we may never change. We may simply be too afraid
of what will be involved; what it might cost us; what God is actually
expecting of us. 

	 One of my favourite quotes comes from the pen of John Henry Newman,
scholar and Cardinal of Westminster, London. He wrote, “To live is
to change. To be perfect is to have changed often.” Think about
this. It accepts that sitting still, that gathering material goods
into barns and padlocking them shut, that resting on one’s laurels
– none of these is what God is seeking. There must be constant ebb
and flow, and constant self-examination on order to match God who is
so incredibly dynamic. Change, then, has to become our second nature.
It must be something of which we need harbour no fear, because it’s
given us by God as a means to discover how to interact with both the
Divine and with other human beings. This describes how we are to be
ready to meet whatever may happen, or, at the very least, to try to
become comfortable with the thought that change is not only inevitable
but also is immensely desirable, because it talks to us about the way
in which we draw closer and closer to God. 

	 Now the word “change” doesn’t occur exactly in our Gospel
passage this morning, but I think it is present in the idea of being
prepared, which describes how Jesus spoke of those who were blesséd.
If one is prepared for something it doesn’t merely mean that one is
ready to do, to respond, to speak exactly as one has in the past. To
be prepared takes us beyond that and demands that we be ready to move
in a completely different direction that the one in which we may have
been going. 

	 We DO have the basic principles, of course. God has told all in
creation what is expected – to act justly, to love loyalty, to walk
humbly with … God. 2 What God seldom defines with any degree of
specificity is how we’re to do this. These basic principles are the
sort of things described in the opening of the prophecies of Isaiah.
But they are limitless in their application, and we cannot begin to
think that we can know about every situation. 

	 There are some interesting points made by Jesus in His parable. If
you or I are invited to a wedding and there’s a reception
afterwards, usually we tell someone when we’ll be back. There are
certain expectations. How much food will there be? Will we feel like
dancing or sitting telling story after story? And so on. The master in
the parable is described as leaving suddenly, in the midst of the
festivities. His arrival home is totally unexpected. And, when he gets
home, he knocks. He doesn’t use a key. “Only strangers knock on
doors at night in the Middle East.” Calling out would reassure those
within that this was not a stranger. The voice calling out would be
familiar. But the “most likely answer to why the master is knocking
rather than calling is that he doesn’t want his voice echoing
through the residence. Whispering cannot be heard through the door,
but even a gentle knock at his door will be heard at once by his
servants – if they are awake and alert. ... As he knocks he fully
expects his servants to open immediately, even at night!” 3 

	 Thirdly, there is that strange comment about the slaves being
blesséd. “The meaning of the text is not: If these servants are
awake and ready, their master will reward them with a blessing. Rather
it says: Servants/slaves who have lamps lit, robes duly belted and are
awake, eagerly expecting the arrival of the master, are already filled
with the blessing of God and are a bless-ed presence in the household.
The way they act is an expression of who they are, not an attempt to
earn something they do not have.” 4 

	 Listen to that last sentence again. I think it’s really important.
“The way they act is an expression of who they are,” or, at the
very least, who they are trying to be. What Jesus is talking about is
our having drawn within ourselves the desire to change, the desire to
place God at the heart of our being. 

	 But finally, when the master gets home and enters, no matter that he
left the wedding early, he doesn’t change out of his festive
clothes. He gets a cincture and hitches up the garments in pretty much
the same way that we do who’re serving the congregation in the
liturgy. He gets the hem u off the floor. He makes sure that he
won’t trip. He gets ready to wait on the slaves. 

	 “What is this? Is he going to scrub the floor? For the master to
belt his robe in preparation for some lowly talk is unthinkable!
Servants, indeed, only lower-class servants and slaves belt their
robes.


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