I don’t know how many of you remember the Whole Earth Catalogs that seemed to be all the rage for a few years in the 70’s. We had copies around the house, and I was fascinated by these and read them in detail. It is funny the sorts of details stick. There was a story in one involving the oak beams in the ceiling of College Hall at New College, Oxford. This was called “New College” because it was founded in the late 1300’s and so it was relatively “new” by comparison to the sister colleges.
In the late 1800’s, it was discovered that the beams had become infested with beetles. Now these beams are 18 inch oak beams 20 feet long. Trees to produce beams like this do not grow in every back yard.
There was a lot of hand wringing as you can imagine. There were mighty meetings and the fellows of the university finally decided to ask the university forester if there were any suitable trees on the school property. Schools get gifts of land and all sorts of things, and a school like Oxford which is almost 1000 years old will have various holdings all over.
So the chancellor called the forester in and showed him the hall. The forester said “Well, sir, we was wondering when you’d be asking about that….”
It seems that when New College built the dining hall in 1386, a grove of oak trees was planted. These trees were destined to replace the roof beams of (then very) New College Hall when said beams became infested with “beetle, ” because everyone knows that oak always falls prey to beetle in the end.
This plan had been passed down from College Forester to College Forester for over four hundred years. “You don’t cut them oak trees. Them’s for the roof of New College Hall!”
New College was ready.I have mentioned in sermons before that I was an EMT and a volunteer fireman in a couple of small towns in Tennessee. These roles are all about readiness. We would do drills and train. Things often go wrong, and you have to be prepared for anything. Being a fireman has been described as long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of terror. You don’t have much opportunity for on the job training. Either you know what to do, and you do it – or someone gets hurt.
The Gospel today is about readiness. Appropriately enough, since I just mentioned those moments of terror, Jesus tells us “Do not be afraid.” These words appear first in our Scriptures in Genesis 15. God tells Abram, “Do not be afraid.” In Revelation 1, John has a vision and hears a voice. He falls down as if dead, and the figure in the vision turns out to be Jesus who tells him, “Do not be afraid.” Between Genesis and Revelation, we hear these words a lot.
There is a reason that we hear these words a lot, and that is because we need to hear them. By nature we fear the unknown. When the stakes are high, there is more to fear.
When I was a fireman, it was a matter of life and health if you were not ready for a problem with the air pack. Jesus is talking eternal life and the health of our souls.
Now when Jesus says “Do not be afraid,” does He mean nothing bad will ever happen to us? Jesus never said it would be easy. He promises us the kingdom though. The story will end well. Today’s Gospel reads, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
So the destination is taken care of. We have flipped to the back page of the novel and seen how it will end. What do we do between now and then?
The sermon last week was about stewardship and how we use the resources God have given us. Jesus tells us this week that we should be giving alms and laying up treasure in heaven “where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I don’t want to repeat my material, but we need to have our focus on God, and we need to help our neighbor. This is the practice plan for us as we prepare.
The fire department had drills and we were constantly training and practicing. The practice of our faith is the training and practice we need as Christians to be ready. We worship together and we pray alone. We study Scripture and give alms. It is in this way we are ready.
In 1 Timothy, Paul writes that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Salvation is not just about how the story ends however.
Jesus came not only to get us to heaven, but also to help us begin living in the kingdom of God right here and right now. To be part of the kingdom of God, we need to startthinking like God thinks. To be part of the kingdom of God, we need to start loving like God loves. In other words, if we are to be heirs to our Father’s kingdom, we need to start acting like our Father’s children.
A number of years ago, Mother Teresa visited Australia. A young Franciscan friar was assigned to escort her. He was thrilled to have such an opportunity to learn from such a famous person, but was disappointed to find that she was always surrounded by people. He had little opportunity to talk to her. He was disappointed, but he devised an alternate plan.
Mother Teresa was scheduled to fly to New Guinea, so the young friar asked, “If I pay my own fare to New Guinea, can I sit next to you on the plane so I can talk to you and learn from you?”
Mother Teresa asked, “You have enough money to pay airfare to New Guinea?” The young man said that he did.
She said, “Then give that money to the poor. You’ll learn more from that than anything I can tell you.” Jesus says, “Sell your possessions, and give alms.” It is the same message.
We need to start acting like the Father’s children.
So we are not afraid, and we are living as Christians. The last piece of today’s message involves the return of Jesus, and we are back to readiness where I began this sermon.
Episcopalians don’t tend to preach on the Second Coming the way that some denominations do. There can be a lot of discussion about exactly what to expect and when it will happen.
The teaching of Scripture though is that the “Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” We don’t know when Jesus will return, but we do know we need to be ready.
I am going to hold up New College, Oxford as an example of readiness. We act now, so that when the need arises, we are prepared. Some things are transformed slowly. Acorns grow into mighty oaks over hundreds of years. Our own spiritual lives are the same way.
We grow in the faith and become stronger Christians through the practice of that faith slowly and over time.
My takeaways are these:
- Do not be afraid. God wants to give us the kingdom.
- God has given us a way to prepare ourselves for the kingdom, and it involves being generous with those in need.
- Finally, we need to be always ready for the coming of the kingdom, because it will come for us when we least expect it.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sermon Preached by Fr. Tom St. Thomas Episcopal Church – Plymouth
August 11, 2019; Proper 14C
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40