Sermon Podcast First Presbyterian Church Baker City: 2016

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

August 7, 2016 Luke 12:32-40

“Do not be afraid, little flock,

for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Sell your possessions, and give alms.

Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven,

where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit;

be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet,

so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.

Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes;

Truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat,

and he will come and serve them.

If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn,

and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

“But know this:

if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

***

I was on walk with a friend, whom I consider a sort of spiritual mentor, and I asked her about treasure. Are we to literally follow Jesus’ instructions to sell all our possessions? Are we to forever be the guest, or are we to also be the host? If Jesus’ first miracle was changing water into wine at a wedding banquet, are we too to experience that decadence, and indulgence, of big parties, and everyone invited, and food, and drink, and gifts and the exchanging of rings? Or are we to be homeless and following Jesus? In response she told me a parable, of a story in her life.

As a girl, she and her mom would go window shopping at jewelry stores, trying on rings, and admiring them. It was something they thought was fun to do together. Years later, my friend worked at the finest jewelry store in Eugene. When she got married, she and her husband were able to get her ring at cost, and they decided, to invest the stone, and possibly later, to buy a larger one. It was something I never quite understood, perhaps because I’ve never been a big fan of diamonds. When I was married years ago, I wouldn’t have cared if there was a ring or not besides for the cultural expectation of it and not wanting to explain. I liked my ring’s art deco shape and the lengths that my former husband went to get it, biking across Colorado Springs to hop a bus to Denver, to look with his sister and niece, in time to be back that I wouldn’t know anything was different besides the quickness with which he got ready to leave that morning. I guess I cared about my dress, it cost more than my ring, and I loved it. I am a clothes person.

For my friend, the ring was truly a symbol of their marriage, and I thought about the blessing over rings and exchanges I write and recite for couples during their wedding ceremony. They say to one another, “May these rings, never ending circles, continue to radiate the same love I express to you today.” And as much as I love wedding vows, the ring part always felt more an archaic formality, than beautiful promise. But as my friend, a writer, spoke, of loving her first ring, because it was the ring of her wedding, but always dreaming of the next one, that would come a different point in their marriage, of having been together and raised kids, and sent them off, I saw a ring could have a special meaning. “You should write the exchange of rings for me, and I might just use them at a wedding,” I said. “I have never thought of rings like that.” Yet, as much as the symbol was there she knew too that having a bigger ring had become her treasure. She talked about always looking at people’s hands, and online, and pricing out costs, and being disappointed at times, when for years and years, the budget wasn’t there. We referenced Golam, “my precious,” from Lord of the Rings, and how the ring made him greedy and evil. She said, when she knew it had become her treasure, her precious, she prayed to God, and God told her to put that dream of a ring on a shelf. That when it no longer had power over her God would bring it to her. So every time she dreamt of a ring, she would refocus on God, and she did this for years until she was happy with the ring she had, until she didn’t feel the need for a new one. A few months ago, my friend was at a party and a woman was speaking with her hands, and on it was the most amazing ring my friend had ever seen. She described it in detail, it was triangular shape, where the gold came all the way up to the edges of the diamond. My friend was mesmerized, and asked about it, the woman had got it from the store where my friend used to work, and my friend took pictures of the ring. This was the ring, but she wasn’t supposed to think about a ring, and she had thought she was over thinking about a ring. So my friend put the idea on the shelf and prayed to God, to take her focus away, but God told her, “I told you, when you no longer desired it, it would be yours.” She waited, checking to see if it was just her head telling her yes, but she came home and her husband too said it was time.

She explained that God wants, like the Master, to come home and tighten his belt to serve us. That God want’s to give us our heart’s desires but we can not desire them for desire’s sake. We must desire God, and then God will be like a parent, wanting to bless us richly, that God will then, when we are content with the blessings we have, serve us. But we have to be ready and waiting, and watching for God. We have to focus on God.

I too have been really trying to focus on God. As a single person in my thirties, my ring, would be finding a partner, getting married, and having kids. I oscillate between feeling the need to find a partner and being pretty hopeless - just realistically, statistically. I asked my friend, what advice do you have? Put it on a shelf she said, grow close to God, and when you are ready, God will bring you your heart’s desire. When I thought about it, I knew I wasn’t quite ready for a partner anyway. I have known for awhile I need to get to that space where I am just happy being me. I need to be happy with the ring I have, because it shines beautifully with friends, and a great church, and dancing and skiing, and hiking, and travel and family. I need to put that desire on a shelf and keep close to God. I need to put my treasure in heaven rather that perhaps online dating, or being set up, or a wedding dress I hoped to wear again. Her wisdom freed me from feeling like I was supposed to find that person, which is exhausting, and instead it let me settle into the life I have been given, this wedding ring of this place, of this moment.

And I wonder what consumes you, what might you need to just put on a shelf, until you are content with what is already shining before you? Is it your home, or your looks, or how your partner looks, or used to? It is your success at work, or your grades at school, or who, “likes,” a photo on social media, or who doesn’t. It is an illness what will not heal for you or your loved one? As hard as it may be, how can we love in this exact moment? What ring do you have and what ring do you want? What about us as a church? This morning we had the luxury of coming back to our building, but how often do we see just our building as needing a second coat of paint here, fix up the playground there, our congregation as needing more volunteers for this thing, or wishing we could do that new thing? etc. etc. How do we balance our desires with what we have and what we are doing already? I think the way is to seek and find contentment in God until our desires become a desire for God. To put that which distracts us on a shelf and to focus on all that shines around us, this church, and this steeple, and all of God’s people.