- Sermon - Mickey Anders

Text: Luke 12:32-40

I was in elementary school when I got my first record player. We used to call it the "hi fi," a term we don't seem to hear much anymore. I think my first hi fi was monaural, but later I got a stereo system. Then in the sixties, someone made an amazing invention so that we could carry our music with us in the car. It was the eight-track tape player. Remember those? They were rather large and bulky, but while I was in college someone invented the cassette tape. This smaller tape had an even better sound quality, and even had Dolby, though I didn't know exactly what that was.

Of course, in the eighties someone invented the compact disc with digital recording, and that was a giant leap forward. In the nineties, we had the iPods, mp3 players and solid state recorders. Today the latest fashion is "high definition audio" in our home theatre system with surround sound.

All of these means of recording are aiming to achieve what I called my first record player - hi fi, which is short for "high fidelity. We want high fidelity in the reproduction of the sounds of our favorite singers or bands. High fidelity is the measure of excellence. High fidelity means faithful to the original.

When Jesus considered how his disciples would reproduce his life in themselves, he also wanted high fidelity - a high level of faithful living. And that is to be our purpose today as Christians. Christian means Christ-like. We are to be a high fidelity reproduction of Jesus Christ. We are to have his character stamped in us.

In our passage for today, Luke lumps together several memorable phrases and bits of familiar stories around the theme of living a life of high faithfulness. In all of them there is an emphasis on being faithful.

This text outlines itself into three areas in which we need to see if we are a high fidelity reproduction of Jesus.

First, look at the key phrases in verses 32-34.

33Sell your possessions, and give alms.

34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The first place were high fidelity is required is in relation to our money. Luke began this theme last week in the story of the rich farmer, but he wasn't through with it yet.

Jesus seems to recognize that the anxiety-over-things can be crippling. He knows that money can become a compulsion, a distraction, a fragmentation of life. The rich fool was so occupied with his material abundance that he made no preparation for his sudden confrontation with God. Jesus knew that the obsession with the things of this life can easily blind one to the things that really matter in life.

He says that God wants to give us the kingdom. Only when we trust in God's providence are we freed from the cares and anxieties of life. Those who receive the gift of God's kingdom are no longer lonely, egocentric individuals grasping for life, but members of a community of trust and faith sharing the life that only God can give.

But most of us have sold out to the values of the world. How can we live in high fidelity to Jesus in a culture where "greed is good?" That surprising phrase, "greed is good," came from the ultimate 80's movie about greed, Wall Street. It stared Michael Douglas playing the infamous Gordon Gecko - the embodiment of avarice gone amuck.

In one scene, Gecco addresses a stockholders meeting for a company called Teldar Paper. It's a company he is about to raid and downsize. Suddenly, he launches into a sermonic defense of one of the seven deadly sins:

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms--greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind, and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."

Today Gordon Gecko's words are much more popular in our culture than the words of Jesus.

Someone recently invented a wonderful word that graphically portrays the sickness that so often comes from material abundance - affluenza. We have all heard of influenza, but have you heard of affluenza?

The definitions of "affluenza" include these:

1. The bloated, sluggish and unfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses.

2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by the dogged pursuit of the American Dream.

3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth.

We usually try to water down Jesus' radical commands about money. We prefer Matthew's version of the Beatitudes which says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," to Luke's version which says, "Blessed are the poor." We typically assert that not everyone needs to "sell all and give to the poor" as Jesus advised the rich ruler. Only when acquisitiveness becomes an all-consuming compulsion does it have to be completely abandoned.

But this passage leaves us little out. Jesus makes very clear that he wants our treasure to be in heaven. Where our treasure is, there will our heart be.

Note the order in which Jesus forms this statement. The heart follows the treasure and not the other way around. Jesus knows that our hearts are quite often not where our stated priorities are -- the heart does not follow the head. Instead, our hearts are where our money is. Our hearts follow our treasure.

Are you a "hi fi" reproduction of Jesus in the area of money?

Next, Jesus moves on to high fidelity in regard to our work ethics:

35“Be dressed for action

This verse tells us we must be ready to work for Jesus.

Jana Childers, Professor of Homiletics at San Francisco Theological Seminar says, "Faithful servants of the Son of Man are known not only by their freedom from anxiety but also by the length of their sleeves. Faithful servants are ones whose sleeves are always pushed up. They are the kind of people whose powder is always dry, whose bags are always packed, whose pilot light is always lit. Their toes and knuckles are on the starting line waiting for the pistol. So eager are they to be onto the next piece of the Kingdom's business that they never get around to unrolling their cuffs. They rarely light on a chair, much less settle in for a nap between jobs… Faithful servants are more than ready. They are the kind of people who not only leave the porch light on for you but also meet you at the door with warm milk, and when you say that your bride is craving for anchovy ice cream, they ask whether she would prefer a cup or a cone…" (1)

Faithful servants are more than alert. They live their lives on tiptoe, with their ears trained for the call. Before the phone can ring a second time, they answer.

Next, Luke says we must be alert servants.

3and have your lamps lit

37 and he will come and serve them.

40You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Luke seems to be telling us that Jesus' faithful disciples will also be able to resist complacency. Christians who have a high fidelity to Jesus are people who live with a sense of urgency. Faithful servants are more than patient. No matter how long or how often God keeps them waiting, they do not give up on doing God's business. That's the kind of people they are: ready to work and alert, prepared and patient.

I find it also interesting that the servant leadership theme arises again in this passage. Jesus will be excited about those that he finds ready and waiting, and he will put on his belt and serve them. Jesus was supremely a servant-leader and calls us to the same kind of leadership. We are not the power-hungry, ruthless Gordon Gecko's of the world. We are servants at heart, just like Jesus.

The wedding image was commonly used to picture the coming of the kingdom. It is an image of celebration and feasting. The wedding reached its climax with the husband bringing his wife home. The household slaves would need to stay up waiting for whenever the party would come.

The passage ends with a line that contains all we need to know about the Second Coming of Jesus. I often get asked what I think about the predictions of the Second Coming. In fact, I had a phone call from a member just a couple of weeks ago. Her daughter had attended another church which was very excited about the battle of Armageddon and the end of time, and she wondered what I thought.

This verse contains everything you need to know about the Second Coming. Notice in the middle of it, we read, "The Son of Man is coming." That is the strong affirmation of Scripture in many places. There may be various interpretations of what that means. Certainly, Jesus is always coming into our lives. But I also believe the Bible teaches that there will be a final wrapping up of history and that Jesus will be there at the end of time. I believe time is linear with a definite beginning and a definite ending. That's the meaning of the end of Revelation.

The second important thing we learn from this verse is that it will happen at "an unexpected hour." At one point, Jesus even says that he himself does not know the day or hour. The people who have predicted the exact time of the Second Coming of Christ have all been wrong. The Bible warns against such predictions and emphasizes that nobody knows. It could happen at any time.

The third important lesson is that we must be ready. "You must be ready." If we are ready, then it doesn't matter when the Second Coming occurs. The message is the same - Be ready.

After 2,000 years, we sometimes find it hard to stir people's excitement about the Second Coming. In some of Paul's writings we saw references to the struggles Christians were having with the delay in the Second Coming. We still struggle with that delay, but we must always live on the alert, never complacent.

The repeated allusions to delay seem to emphasize that delay and disappointment are to be anticipated. Perhaps the whole point of the delay is, "Will you be faithful when events do not turn out as you may wish?"

High Fidelity people are ready throughout the night. They are always ready for the surprises that God has in store. They are looking for the appearance of Jesus in their lives at any "unexpected hour."

High Fidelity means Christians who know where their treasure is, who are willing to work, and who are alert in their servanthood.

What kind of recording are you? A home theatre surround sound Dolby digital duplicate of Jesus? A pretty good cassette copy? A scratchy vinyl record? Or are you a broken record? We are called to have high fidelity in reproducing the character of Jesus in our lives.

1) I am indebted for the title of this sermon and this quote to Jana Childers, Professor of Homiletics, San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California, Ministers Manual for 2001, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2000, p. 191-192.