August 8, 2010
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cambria
Father Fred Heard
Curtis Mayfield, the lead singer of The Impressions wrote this incredible chorus at the height of the civil rights struggle:
People get ready
There's a train, a comin'
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels hummin'
Don't need no ticket,
You just thank the Lord.
People sensed they were called to a higher purpose. At the conclusion of the 1960’s our nation was confused…we had assassinated a President, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Robert Kennedy. We were in a war in Vietnam that just seemed to grow without end. Once when I was standing at the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D. C. a mother was explaining to her young child that the memorial reflected the war itself…she said, “It came out of the ground and went back into the ground.” There were many reasons to be afraid during that ten year period. I also recall being in downtown Klamath Falls, Oregon the evening of John Kennedy’s funeral. The flags still lined Main Street. There was black crepe paper attached to each flag pole. I stopped and broke off a piece of that paper and felt so alone. I was Bobby Kennedy’s chair in Klamath County and was with him two weeks before he was assassinated. We were up all night waiting for news. The next day I had to teach, and there were piles of media requests for a comment. How do you say anything that is coherent about an event like that? How do you say something that offers hope?
But as the years went on, many people sensed that something amazing was on the horizon. He could hear it like the distant hummin’ of a diesel engine. You don’t need no baggage; all you need is faith; don’t need no ticket; you just get on board.
People get ready. Over the last 40 years, the importance of those lyrics has grown. I understand why it still has appeal. There is something so true, very positive, and ominous about that song. It is also the very message that Jesus is giving to his disciples. They are to be ready. They are not to be afraid; they are to sell their possessions—don’t need no baggage. They are to be dressed for service and ready to open the door when the master returns. And that is why today we sing Advent music. You see no matter how ominous the times, there is hope because the train is a commin’.
Brothers and sisters, the train is coming. One day Jesus will return, and we must be ready. But how are we to prepare ourselves? For the answer to that question we must look closely at our text this morning for there are three ways for the people of God to get ready.
First we watch for the Master’s return. The Second Coming of Jesus is such a touchy subject for the church. We wonder why he has tarried so long, so many have tried to figure out when he is coming back, and every person with “the plan” and “the date” has been disappointed.
A few months back, I preached about the “end times” and we know no more now than we did then, except it is part of who we are as followers of Jesus Christ. William Miller (1782-1849) studying the books of Daniel and Revelation, predicted that March 21, 1844 was the precise date when Christ would return to earth. When this day came and went without the promised appearance of Christ, Miller changed his prediction to October 22, 1844. It came and it went. Many of his followers deserted him, but many stuck around and today you know them as Seventh Day Adventists…a Christian Church, but founded on a very shaky beginning.
Hal Lindsey, in his book “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which has sold over 30 million copies, predicted in his book that 40 years after the establishment of the country of Israel, Jesus would return to earth, and seven years after that return the church would be raptured to heaven. The problem is this: Israel was established in 1948. Christ should have returned in 1988 and the church raptured in 1995. In 1997 Hal Lindsey was forced to change his predictions.
The Gog of Magog oracles are early apocalyptic literature, describing the imminent coming of a foe from the north (an embodiment of evil) against the promised land. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson predicted that Russia was the great Gog and Magog mentioned in Ezekiel. When Russia collapsed in the early 90’s, losing its status as a world power, they were forced to change their positions.
When Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader in the USSR, there were those who looked at the birth mark on the top of his bald head and proclaimed that surely he was the anti-Christ. Gorbachev, far from a world dictator, turned out to be the single most responsible person for the collapse of Soviet Russia.
And so, predictions will always be around that the world is ending on a certain date and that someone with “inside knowledge” can tell us the date. The question raised is this: What did Jesus mean when he told us to watch? If charting and planning and dating are not his meaning then what is? This question brings us to the second way the people of God are to get ready.
We are to get ready not by predicting a date, but by getting rid of our fears. Now, don’t think for a moment that Jesus has some Pollyanna view of the world here. He knows just as well as any of us that plenty is wrong with the world and much of it isn’t ever going to get better. Our Lord is aware of the pain of the 60’s and the hopelessness of current times. He is not suggesting that Christians will be immune to suffering. Rather, he is asking his followers to adopt a way of life that is not rooted in the securities of this world. For all of the pain that losing a national leader brings us…it really has little to do with the gift that Jesus offers us.
Let’s look at the context. Jesus had just finished dealing with a young man who was jealous because his brother was getting 2/3 of their father’s estate and he was only getting 1/3. This jealous young man wanted Jesus to preside over his case and resolve the matter. He wanted half. He wanted a secure future. He wanted Jesus to turn the tables of Jewish custom in his favor. Jesus said I am not your lawyer young man but I will give you a piece of advice: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.”
Now to us it seems fair that this young man should receive half, but Jesus doesn’t see it that way. He turns to this fellow and tells him a parable about a rich man who had a great crop and stored it all for himself, but that night his soul was required of him. On the very night he got his barns built and secured his future he died. He never ate a single grain of corn. It is better, therefore, Jesus concludes, to be rich toward God.
Jesus then turns away from this young man to address his disciples, and he says this fellow is worried about his life and how it will all turn out. I don’t want you to worry about your life. I don’t want you to worry about what you will eat or drink. I don’t want you to worry about what you are going to wear. Literally, Jesus does not want us to worry about the things of this world. Consider the ravens and the lilies, he said. Doesn’t God take care of these, how much more valuable are you?
So most of our lives, we spend worrying about our security and almost everything else in our sight or within our grasp. But what would happen to those insecurities if we suddenly sold everything we owned and gave it to the poor? I am convinced that we would view life from the perspective of needs of others, and we would come to depend on God, truly depend on him, for our most basic daily necessities.
Now, I don’t think that God is asking you to sell everything you have and give it to the poor. As I read scripture I come upon these very difficult sayings, “Sell all you have and give it to the poor.” I measure my own life against that standard and I have failed. I would suspect that measuring any of our lives against that standard, we all have failed. None of us fulfill this command.
I don’t think that this is the standard for all Christians. I think it is a standard for the disciples. God does ask certain people to sell everything because they have been called into Christian mission. I am sure that God asks certain people to do this even today. But I don’t find Jesus making this a standard with everyone he meets.
When I was the chaplain for the Episcopal School at Holy Trinity in Menlo Park, the children loved it when I told the story about Zacchaeus (Zacyus). I think the kids related to his small stature and his climbing the Sycamore Tree. Few of us remember him for the tall stature of his attitude and what happened in his home. Out of the blue, during the meal, he says to Jesus, I will sell half of everything I own and give it to the poor, and if I have wronged anyone I will pay them back fourfold. Do you remember Jesus’ response? He did not say, no, you must sell everything Zacchaeus (Zacyus). He said no greater faith exists in all of Israel.
There is a standard, but it is not selling everything you have. Here is the standard: How much time do you spend worrying about storing up treasures on earth and worrying about the things that are earth and how much time do you spend storing up treasures in heaven? If the scales are tilting toward heaven then I think you are meeting Jesus’ standard. And that brings us to the third way the people of God are to get ready. We are to get ready through service.
For all the words that we use to describe Christian behavior, there is none better than servant. Look at this rather short but remarkable parable with me. The master has left to go to a wedding banquet, and there is no way for the servants of that master to know when he will return. It could be that very night. It could be the next. It could be three days before he returns home. Because weddings in Jewish culture were week-long events, one never knew how long the stay. If the wine held out and the celebration was lively enough, he could be there all week. But the servants are not privy to the master’s plans. They are simply to be ready when he knocks on the door.
On the surface, this is a routine story. Everyone listening would have understood the word picture that Jesus told. But there is a remarkable twist at the end. It involves a role reversal. Jesus says it will be good for those servants who are watching and meet their master at the door. That makes sense. The master will have certain needs that must be met when he arrives. They must feed him if he is hungry. They must help him unpack. They must give him an accounting—what they have done since he left. They must be ready.
This makes sense, but this is not how the story ends. It is not the servants who wait on the master. It is the master who waits on the servants. It will be good for those servants who are ready for the master not because there is the threat of punishment for less than alert behavior, but because there is the promise of a lavish master who upon his return graciously gives to his servants. He sits them down, and he serves them!
This is quite a different picture of master and servant. The rewards are beyond measure and grace is abundant. That’s the kind of promise that our Lord has given us upon his return. He will sit us down at his banquet table, and satisfy the needs of all of us—his servants.
There is a story about Donald Trump's generosity with a stranger. It is said that Trump's limousine broke down on the Garden State Parkway on the way home from Atlantic City during a weekend excursion. An unemployed auto mechanic stopped to help. He succeeded in getting the limo running and then refused to accept any payment for his services. Trump was so impressed that the next day he sent flowers to the mechanic's wife and a certified letter stating that the man's mortgage had been paid in full. Trump was asked about the incident and refused to confirm or deny the story or say exactly what he did for the Good Samaritan mechanic. "I don't do those kinds of things for publicity," he said.
What a deal it would be to have someone really rich taking care of you. If you knew that with their vast wealth they would gladly help you, you could be free from many a worry. You would have financial security. But that kind of security is hard to come by.
In the by and by, our Lord will return and we his servants will be asked to sit down and be served by the master. We will have hope and security will be our’s.
People get ready…There's a train, a comin'…You don't need no baggage
You just get on board…All you need is faith…To hear the diesels hummin'
Don't need no ticket, You just thank the Lord…AMEN
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cambria
Father Fred Heard
Curtis Mayfield, the lead singer of The Impressions wrote this incredible chorus at the height of the civil rights struggle:
People get ready
There's a train, a comin'
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels hummin'
Don't need no ticket,
You just thank the Lord.
People sensed they were called to a higher purpose. At the conclusion of the 1960’s our nation was confused…we had assassinated a President, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Robert Kennedy. We were in a war in Vietnam that just seemed to grow without end. Once when I was standing at the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D. C. a mother was explaining to her young child that the memorial reflected the war itself…she said, “It came out of the ground and went back into the ground.” There were many reasons to be afraid during that ten year period. I also recall being in downtown Klamath Falls, Oregon the evening of John Kennedy’s funeral. The flags still lined Main Street. There was black crepe paper attached to each flag pole. I stopped and broke off a piece of that paper and felt so alone. I was Bobby Kennedy’s chair in Klamath County and was with him two weeks before he was assassinated. We were up all night waiting for news. The next day I had to teach, and there were piles of media requests for a comment. How do you say anything that is coherent about an event like that? How do you say something that offers hope?
But as the years went on, many people sensed that something amazing was on the horizon. He could hear it like the distant hummin’ of a diesel engine. You don’t need no baggage; all you need is faith; don’t need no ticket; you just get on board.
People get ready. Over the last 40 years, the importance of those lyrics has grown. I understand why it still has appeal. There is something so true, very positive, and ominous about that song. It is also the very message that Jesus is giving to his disciples. They are to be ready. They are not to be afraid; they are to sell their possessions—don’t need no baggage. They are to be dressed for service and ready to open the door when the master returns. And that is why today we sing Advent music. You see no matter how ominous the times, there is hope because the train is a commin’.
Brothers and sisters, the train is coming. One day Jesus will return, and we must be ready. But how are we to prepare ourselves? For the answer to that question we must look closely at our text this morning for there are three ways for the people of God to get ready.
First we watch for the Master’s return. The Second Coming of Jesus is such a touchy subject for the church. We wonder why he has tarried so long, so many have tried to figure out when he is coming back, and every person with “the plan” and “the date” has been disappointed.
A few months back, I preached about the “end times” and we know no more now than we did then, except it is part of who we are as followers of Jesus Christ. William Miller (1782-1849) studying the books of Daniel and Revelation, predicted that March 21, 1844 was the precise date when Christ would return to earth. When this day came and went without the promised appearance of Christ, Miller changed his prediction to October 22, 1844. It came and it went. Many of his followers deserted him, but many stuck around and today you know them as Seventh Day Adventists…a Christian Church, but founded on a very shaky beginning.
Hal Lindsey, in his book “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which has sold over 30 million copies, predicted in his book that 40 years after the establishment of the country of Israel, Jesus would return to earth, and seven years after that return the church would be raptured to heaven. The problem is this: Israel was established in 1948. Christ should have returned in 1988 and the church raptured in 1995. In 1997 Hal Lindsey was forced to change his predictions.
The Gog of Magog oracles are early apocalyptic literature, describing the imminent coming of a foe from the north (an embodiment of evil) against the promised land. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson predicted that Russia was the great Gog and Magog mentioned in Ezekiel. When Russia collapsed in the early 90’s, losing its status as a world power, they were forced to change their positions.
When Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader in the USSR, there were those who looked at the birth mark on the top of his bald head and proclaimed that surely he was the anti-Christ. Gorbachev, far from a world dictator, turned out to be the single most responsible person for the collapse of Soviet Russia.
And so, predictions will always be around that the world is ending on a certain date and that someone with “inside knowledge” can tell us the date. The question raised is this: What did Jesus mean when he told us to watch? If charting and planning and dating are not his meaning then what is? This question brings us to the second way the people of God are to get ready.
We are to get ready not by predicting a date, but by getting rid of our fears. Now, don’t think for a moment that Jesus has some Pollyanna view of the world here. He knows just as well as any of us that plenty is wrong with the world and much of it isn’t ever going to get better. Our Lord is aware of the pain of the 60’s and the hopelessness of current times. He is not suggesting that Christians will be immune to suffering. Rather, he is asking his followers to adopt a way of life that is not rooted in the securities of this world. For all of the pain that losing a national leader brings us…it really has little to do with the gift that Jesus offers us.
Let’s look at the context. Jesus had just finished dealing with a young man who was jealous because his brother was getting 2/3 of their father’s estate and he was only getting 1/3. This jealous young man wanted Jesus to preside over his case and resolve the matter. He wanted half. He wanted a secure future. He wanted Jesus to turn the tables of Jewish custom in his favor. Jesus said I am not your lawyer young man but I will give you a piece of advice: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.”
Now to us it seems fair that this young man should receive half, but Jesus doesn’t see it that way. He turns to this fellow and tells him a parable about a rich man who had a great crop and stored it all for himself, but that night his soul was required of him. On the very night he got his barns built and secured his future he died. He never ate a single grain of corn. It is better, therefore, Jesus concludes, to be rich toward God.
Jesus then turns away from this young man to address his disciples, and he says this fellow is worried about his life and how it will all turn out. I don’t want you to worry about your life. I don’t want you to worry about what you will eat or drink. I don’t want you to worry about what you are going to wear. Literally, Jesus does not want us to worry about the things of this world. Consider the ravens and the lilies, he said. Doesn’t God take care of these, how much more valuable are you?
So most of our lives, we spend worrying about our security and almost everything else in our sight or within our grasp. But what would happen to those insecurities if we suddenly sold everything we owned and gave it to the poor? I am convinced that we would view life from the perspective of needs of others, and we would come to depend on God, truly depend on him, for our most basic daily necessities.
Now, I don’t think that God is asking you to sell everything you have and give it to the poor. As I read scripture I come upon these very difficult sayings, “Sell all you have and give it to the poor.” I measure my own life against that standard and I have failed. I would suspect that measuring any of our lives against that standard, we all have failed. None of us fulfill this command.
I don’t think that this is the standard for all Christians. I think it is a standard for the disciples. God does ask certain people to sell everything because they have been called into Christian mission. I am sure that God asks certain people to do this even today. But I don’t find Jesus making this a standard with everyone he meets.
When I was the chaplain for the Episcopal School at Holy Trinity in Menlo Park, the children loved it when I told the story about Zacchaeus (Zacyus). I think the kids related to his small stature and his climbing the Sycamore Tree. Few of us remember him for the tall stature of his attitude and what happened in his home. Out of the blue, during the meal, he says to Jesus, I will sell half of everything I own and give it to the poor, and if I have wronged anyone I will pay them back fourfold. Do you remember Jesus’ response? He did not say, no, you must sell everything Zacchaeus (Zacyus). He said no greater faith exists in all of Israel.
There is a standard, but it is not selling everything you have. Here is the standard: How much time do you spend worrying about storing up treasures on earth and worrying about the things that are earth and how much time do you spend storing up treasures in heaven? If the scales are tilting toward heaven then I think you are meeting Jesus’ standard. And that brings us to the third way the people of God are to get ready. We are to get ready through service.
For all the words that we use to describe Christian behavior, there is none better than servant. Look at this rather short but remarkable parable with me. The master has left to go to a wedding banquet, and there is no way for the servants of that master to know when he will return. It could be that very night. It could be the next. It could be three days before he returns home. Because weddings in Jewish culture were week-long events, one never knew how long the stay. If the wine held out and the celebration was lively enough, he could be there all week. But the servants are not privy to the master’s plans. They are simply to be ready when he knocks on the door.
On the surface, this is a routine story. Everyone listening would have understood the word picture that Jesus told. But there is a remarkable twist at the end. It involves a role reversal. Jesus says it will be good for those servants who are watching and meet their master at the door. That makes sense. The master will have certain needs that must be met when he arrives. They must feed him if he is hungry. They must help him unpack. They must give him an accounting—what they have done since he left. They must be ready.
This makes sense, but this is not how the story ends. It is not the servants who wait on the master. It is the master who waits on the servants. It will be good for those servants who are ready for the master not because there is the threat of punishment for less than alert behavior, but because there is the promise of a lavish master who upon his return graciously gives to his servants. He sits them down, and he serves them!
This is quite a different picture of master and servant. The rewards are beyond measure and grace is abundant. That’s the kind of promise that our Lord has given us upon his return. He will sit us down at his banquet table, and satisfy the needs of all of us—his servants.
There is a story about Donald Trump's generosity with a stranger. It is said that Trump's limousine broke down on the Garden State Parkway on the way home from Atlantic City during a weekend excursion. An unemployed auto mechanic stopped to help. He succeeded in getting the limo running and then refused to accept any payment for his services. Trump was so impressed that the next day he sent flowers to the mechanic's wife and a certified letter stating that the man's mortgage had been paid in full. Trump was asked about the incident and refused to confirm or deny the story or say exactly what he did for the Good Samaritan mechanic. "I don't do those kinds of things for publicity," he said.
What a deal it would be to have someone really rich taking care of you. If you knew that with their vast wealth they would gladly help you, you could be free from many a worry. You would have financial security. But that kind of security is hard to come by.
In the by and by, our Lord will return and we his servants will be asked to sit down and be served by the master. We will have hope and security will be our’s.
People get ready…There's a train, a comin'…You don't need no baggage
You just get on board…All you need is faith…To hear the diesels hummin'
Don't need no ticket, You just thank the Lord…AMEN