“Christians, Be Alert!” Luke 12.35–40, Sermon for New Year’s Day 2014

1.       Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation or our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  A Happy New Year to all of you!  As we gather together today to mark the change of the calendar, we’re aware not only of the passing of time but also we take note of our use of that time. We may observe that in this world one year is pretty much the same as another. Conflict, disaster, illness, funerals, the effects of sin in our world and even in ourselves tempt us to fear or even despair that anything will change for the better. Fortunately, we who are baptized into our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, look to the God who loves us. By faith in Christ we confess and bury the sins of the past and are raised to new life and hope, the certainty that nothing “in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).  The message today is entitled, “Christians be Alert,” and it’s taken from Luke 12:35-40, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. 

2.      Luke 12:35–40 says, “³⁵[Jesus said:] “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. ³⁷Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. ³⁸If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! ³⁹But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. ⁴⁰You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

3.      Notice in our text from Luke’s Gospel that Jesus gives to us two parables.  The first parable Jesus teaches us uses the analogy of servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding.  In ancient times Jewish weddings were held at night, and a bridegroom’s servants would have to wait for their master to come home with his bride. The new husband would certainly not want to be kept waiting at the door with his bride! But the servants had to be sure they were ready to go to work, with their robes tucked under their girdles so they were free to move.  But, the remarkable thing in this story is that the master serves the servants! In Jewish weddings, the bride was treated like a queen and the groom like a king. So you wouldn’t expect the “king” to minister to his staff. Here Jesus tells us that He as our King will minister to us His faithful servants when He greets us at His return, and He’ll reward us for our faithfulness.  We as Christians are to be alert for our Master Jesus to return.

4.      Luke reminds us twice in a short span that the coming of the master is a blessing to those who are prepared. The Greek word behind “blessed” is the same as the one we find in the Beatitudes. But though the coming is a blessing, it’s also a disruption. Luke introduces another image & parable to describe the coming of the Lord, the sudden arrival of a thief. This striking image appears a number of times in the New Testament (cf. Matt. 24:43; 1 Thess. 5:2–4; 2 Pet. 3:10; and Rev. 16:15). The use of this image certainly reinforces the call to readiness for Christ’s Second Coming. But it also complicates our understanding of the nature of the coming. We’re given in this reading two images, one encouraging of the Master returning home from a wedding, and the other threatening, with a thief coming to steal. Are Jesus’ words a threat or a promise? The answer is “both.” To those who claim Jesus as master and who are prepared for his Second Coming, they are blessed.  The Lutheran scholar Lenski writes about this text, “This lord does not seek his ease and retire for the night… He makes as grand a feast for [his servants] as was the one from which he came, he has them recline to dine and—wonder of wonders—he does not order other slaves, to serve them but makes himself their slave and ‘ministers’ to them. Many waiters and helpers are needed at a great feast, but this lord needs none . . . letting the reality peep through, that this is the almighty, heavenly Lord himself. . . . Yet in a way, this heavenly act need not surprise us. Did not Christ humble himself unto death for us (Phil 2:7, 8)? So, then, without laying aside his divine glory, he will gird himself and serve us” (Lenski, Luke, 703–4).

5.      But, Jesus reminds us in Luke 12 that this act of Jesus our Master serving isn’t so with those whose lives center on their possessions and the things of this world. It’s no accident that the image of the thief appears in a chapter in which so many words are devoted to worldly wealth and possessions. Repeatedly here in Luke 12 Jesus warns against centering our lives on our possessions. To those who fail to heed the warning and whose hearts are with their earthly treasures, the coming of Jesus will indeed be “as a thief in the night.” “So you also must be ready.”  Christians, be alert!

6.      So how are we to take what Jesus says to us here in Luke 12 about us as Christians to be alert and ready for His Second Coming?  Does the idea of Jesus’ return on Judgment Day strike fear in you or does it give to you as sense of comfort and hope?  As I said earlier, we regularly experience fear, don’t we?  For personal safety.  For safety of family members and friends.  Of illness and injury.  Of any unexpected tragedy.  Of financial uncertainty or setback.  Of the consequences of sin in our life past or present.  And, as we start a New Year, many of us may fear the unknown, what this New Year will bring to us.  We also fear the fact that we’re not always alert and watchful, we often can grow tired and weary and we may not be ready for something unexpected to happen in our lives.

7.      Fear is a natural result of sin.  Sin separates us from a loving, caring, protecting God.  Sin separates us from the people to whom we’re the closest.  Sin results in the very real fear of loss of protection, loss of safety, loss of security, loss of connectedness.  But, sin and its resultant fear are conquered by the Father’s love in Christ.  Jesus tells us earlier in Luke 12, “Do not be afraid, little flock.”  “Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”   The giving of the kingdom is a gift of love, earned by the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

8.      As we begin this New Year, we as Christians can continue to be alert for Jesus’ Second Coming.  But, that means we shouldn’t be foolish.  Foolishness is the result of sinful pride.  The temptation for us is to let the assurance of no fear produce complacency and apathy.  Extended periods of waiting can tempt one to foolishness.  Since apostolic times, for about 2000 years, there have always been some Christians who think they know the specific day of the Lord’s return.  There’s temptation to put our faith in these predictions about the Second Coming of Jesus.  That same kind of foolishness can produce a mind set of “it will never happen to me.”  We’re all inclined to believe that only other people will be the victims of illness (especially major or life threatening illness, which is not supposed to happen to us).  And, we never anticipate our lives being shattered by trauma or tragedy.

9.      But, Jesus tells us in Luke 12 that this kind of foolishness can be avoided.  We as Christians can be alert for Jesus’ return by heeding our Lord’s admonition to “be ready for service.”  By immersing ourselves in his Word and Sacrament.  By regularly receiving His Word, which assures us that our sins are forgiven through Jesus who was crucified on the cross for our sins and by receiving Christ’s body and blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins.  By regularly receiving Christ’s gifts of Word and Sacrament, we as Christians can be alert for Jesus’ return.

10.  A number of years ago a very devastating tornado struck central Texas, killing an estimated 30 people in Jarrell, with a population of 1,000 people.  Even with some advance notice, residents responded in a variety of ways.  Some jumped in cars and trucks, trying to escape the path of the storm, one quarter of a mile wide.  Some hid in closets or bathtubs, seeking protection.  Some school children huddled in hallways or under tables, singing and praying for protection.  Being alert and ready for such a storm consists not in trying to avoid such indescribable power and fury, but to know that, whatever happens, we’re safe in the arms of our loving Heavenly Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  As we begin this New Year, we dedicate our lives to the task of helping people, throughout the world, attain that state of readiness through Christ our Savior and Lord. “Whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Rom 14:8).  “Have no fear, little flock; Have no fear, little flock, For the Father has chosen to give you the kingdom; Have no fear, little flock!” (LW# 410, St 1).  Through our Lord Jesus, we as Christians can be alert and ready for His return.  Amen.