Argh! Where are My Tic Tacs?

Brad Sullivan
Proper 13, Year C
Sunday, July 14, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

    When I was in middle school, we had a project in science class dealing with the coal industry, and unfortunately there was quite a bit of misinformation given.  Now my dad worked for Exxon Coal and Minerals in charge of environmental and safety regulations, and when we told him about the project, he was rather less than pleased with what we were learning so he contacted our teacher and they talked, and Dad ended up giving a presentation to our class about the industry and coal mining.  It was a great presentation, and afterwards, one young man boldly walked up to my dad and said he had a question for him.  Dad was quite pleased that someone was interested in the presentation, and the young man asked him, “Where did you get that pointer stick thing you were using to show us stuff on the charts that you had?”  “Go away, kid, you bother me,” Dad was thinking.

We have a similar kind of utterly irrelevant question being asked of Jesus today from this unknown man in the crowd.  Jesus had been teaching the crowd about the Kingdom of God.  He was talking about not worrying about our lives for we are of such great value to God.  He was talking about the Holy Spirit giving guidance and direction when we need it.  Jesus was telling the crowd all about the beauty of life in the Kingdom of God, and some random dude shouts out, “Hey Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me!”

Really? Jesus has got to be thinking, “Kingdom of God and your asking about family inheritance; why do I try?  Why did I even come here?  Dad, can you just zap me back?”  By all rights, Jesus should have called up the guy who asked about the inheritance and then slapped him upside the head.  Jesus, though, took it as an opportunity for more teaching about the Kingdom of God. 

“Take care!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions,” Jesus said.  He then told a parable of a man who had a huge overabundance of crops, who, rather than do anything useful with them, rather than share them or even sell them, decides to store them all so he can spend his years doing nothing. 

That sounds kind of nice, but Jesus then brings the story to the ultimate end point, saying that the man in the story died that very night, and the choice to store all of his crops proved to be very wasteful.  Life in the kingdom of God says that we are to help care for each other, to think beyond ourselves, and not to worry about what tomorrow will bring, but seek first the Kingdom of God, Jesus taught.  Seek to live out the Kingdom of God life with all you have and all you do.

I’ve been teaching recently about the five act narrative of scripture:  creation, fall, judgment, redemption, and re-creation.  That is the story of the Kingdom of God.  We see this story told time and time again in scripture.  It is the overarching story of the Gospel, the overarching story from Genesis to Revelation, and the story told and retold in people’s lives. 

We saw this story told in the eleven verses we heard from Hosea this morning.  God is remembering the creation of the nation of Israel, loving Israel as a child, bringing them out of slavery in Egypt.  Almost immediately we have the fall, as Israel kept sacrificing to the Baals, worshipping idols.  As judgment, God declares that they would return to Egypt as Assyria would take them into captivity.  When, we have redemption.  “How can I give you up, Ephraim?  How can I hand you over, O Israel?...I will not execute my fierce anger…for I am God and no mortal…”  Finally, we have re-creation of Israel, “They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt…and I will return them to the homes, says the Lord.”

That is the story told and retold in the prophets.  God gives judgment to Israel for their misdeeds, but God’s judgment is given with purpose, in order to bring about redemption and re-creation. 

Life in the kingdom of God says don’t sweat the small stuff because our story does not consist of squabbling over this or that.  Our life does not consist of fighting over family inheritance, or of amassing great wealth so we can store it all up for ourselves.  Our life consists of creation, over and over again.  Our life consists of falling, messing up, and facing judgment when that happens, but judgment in the Kingdom of God which has a purpose beyond punishment.  Judgment in the Kingdom of God is given to bring about redemption, leading to re-creation.  That’s where our lives are constantly leading, beyond judgment, beyond even redemption, to re-creation, to the resurrection life, even if your jerk of a brother won’t divide the family inheritance with you.  Amen.