Sermon by The Rev’d John C. Bauerschmidt

Proper 14, Year C
August 12, 2001
Christ Church, Covington

"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" (Lk. 12:32-34).

Our Gospel strikes a bit close to the bone today. Fear and anxiety, faith and trust, our possessions and our hope of heaven: all are addressed in Jesus’ teaching. This is familiar territory for modern people, for we live in an anxious age which is straightforwardly materialistic. Anxious, for the myriad terrifying reasons that we are all too familiar with, of disease and scarcity and crime; materialistic, because of the way in which people of all sorts increasingly define themselves by the goods they consume. "I am what I buy" is the subliminal message of all advertising, as we are invited to define ourselves through a variety of acquisitions and "life-style" choices. It is sobering to contemplate the acceleration of these trends of insecurity and narcissism, which are almost surely in our future.

Jesus, by contrast, proposes a different reality, in which we are invited to reorient ourselves and see the world in a different way. "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom". Fear is met by faith and anxiety by hope; in other words, by trust in God in all things (which is faith), and trust in God for the future (which is hope). It is God’s will to give us the kingdom; to establish this kingdom of perfect peace and love. As citizens of this kingdom, Jesus invites our trust in God, and our reliance on him. This is the remedy for our fear and anxiety; here in this world and for the world to come.

Think for a moment about our first reading, part of the story of Abraham, in which the patriarch is fearful for the future. He has no heir; his line will come to an end. God has made promises, but will he deliver on them? Abraham is anxious and mistrustful, tempted no doubt to take this matter into his own hands and not to rely on God. The word to him is to open himself up to the reality which is God, and to remember the promise which gives hope. "Look toward heaven and count the stars if you are able…" (Gen. 15:5). The world is bigger than he thinks, and God’s promises exceed by far the best that he can imagine. He wants an heir; God is giving him a destiny and a future much greater. All Abraham needs to do is trust God: "And Abraham believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Gen. 15:6).

This new reality also involves our possessions. That’s not surprising, because a good deal of our anxiety is wrapped up with our material goods or our lack of them. Here again, Jesus will invite our faith and hope, and engage them in rather subversive acts. "Sell your possessions, and give alms", Jesus tells the disciples. Giving away what we have is a sign of faith and hope, our declaration of freedom from the kingdom of anxiety. Giving away what we have opens us up to new possibilities in our own lives, and opens up for others new possibilities through our giving to them. Giving away what we have roots us in the reality of the kingdom where there is no scarcity or anxiety; as Jesus goes on to say, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also".

Jesus’ teaching is a challenging one because it flies in the face of modern materialism, which confronts us with the temptation to define ourselves in terms of our goods and our needs. If we give away what we have, even in part, then we have distanced ourselves from our possessions in an important way, by not letting them possess us. As St Augustine is supposed to have said, many centuries ago, God longs to give us himself, but he can’t do it when our hands are full.

Jesus’ teaching also challenges our fear. It’s just not true that by hoarding what we have and keeping it for ourselves alone we will gain security. It’s much more likely to lead to greed and fresh anxiety as a result. Real security lies with God, and our liberation from anxiety can only come by embracing the Gospel ethic of gift-giving and mutual support for one another. Here we will discover joy, which along with faith and hope is a key to Christian living and Christian giving.

There’s no doubt that Jesus is challenging us in our Gospel today, in this teaching on fear and anxiety and our possessions. If you don’t feel challenged, then you need to check, because you may be asleep. As we move forward this Fall with our Capital Campaign and our Annual Fund, my commitment to you is to keep faith and hope and joy at the front and center, where they properly belong. We need to trust God, who can give us the kingdom; we need to put our treasure where our hearts really belong.

The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.

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