Snakes and Their Broken Down Story

The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke, the 12th Chapter

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. 

Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 

But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

There’s a story being told these days.  It’s not a new story.  Actually it’s a very, very old story.  It’s a story that claims that the world we live in is a VERY scary place.  So very horribly frightening in fact, that we should lock our doors, build walls, gather weapons, align ourselves with the strongest, the biggest, the most powerful.  We should give the powerful more power and hunker down in fear!  The story goes, that because this is such a terrifying world, we need to look out for “US” and watch out for “THEM”!  Close “US” in and lock “THEM” out!  If you’re “IN” with us, then you are one of the faithful, a patriot, the good, but if you’re “OUT” then you are one of the hordes of demons, a taker, a terrorist… evil.  

It’s a story that claims that EVERYTHING of worth and value in our world is in very, very short supply.  What there is, needs to be gathered and stockpiled and guarded and those who do that well aren’t greedy, but to be admired as successful.  Safety, security, freedom, jobs, food, wealth, power, health, life… EVERYTHING is in desperately, horribly short supply and “THEY” are coming to pillage it and take it. 

It’s a story that demands no questions are asked of it.  A story that insists that loyalties never waver from it, nor questions it’s means and methods, even in the light of facts and figures that point to something else… PARTICULARLY when the facts and figures point to something else!  

That is the story that is being told again in our world.  Like I said, it’s an old, old story.  I’m sure you’ve heard it lately and if you have just a bit of a memory for things of the past or have read just a bit about the past, you’ll recognize that you’ve heard this story before as well.  It’s a story that first was told by a snake in a garden.  “You don’t have enough!” said the snake.  “But we have everything we need here in abundance” said the people.  “But you aren’t like God” said the snake.  “The snake is right, we don’t have enough!”  said the people, “We too must be gods!” said the people.  It’s a very, very, very old story.  Nearly the oldest of stories that are told.  NEARLY… the oldest.  But.  But.  It’s not our story.  It is NOT… OUR… STORY.

OUR story begins like the Gospel lesson for today began… BE NOT AFRAID, little flock, for it is your Father’s GOOD PLEASURE to GIVE you the kingdom!  In OUR story, fear is not the common currency in the land!  In OUR story we trade in LOVE and HOPE, not fear!  In our story scarcity isn’t real!  In our story it is God’s GOOD PLEASURE to give us the kingdom… the WHOLE, EXPANSIVE, INEXHAUSTIBLE, ABUNDANT KINGDOM… as a GIFT!  Simply and only because giving it brings God pleasure!  And in OUR story, this is not a gift given to just a perfectly, faithful few.  In OUR story, the abundance of the Kingdom is a gift given to saints and sinners, tax collectors and flax collectors, warriors and widows, campers and kings, politicians and prophets, fisher folk and folk that smell worse than week old fish.  

In OUR story, love is stronger than hate, hope more powerful than fear, humility more enviable than hubris and generosity more admired than greed.  OUR story is that our little flock… Our little flock which encompasses all of humanity and all of creation… Our little flock has no need to live in fear, because the God who loved all of it… all of it… ALL of it into being in the first place (which, by the way, is THE oldest story) is pleased, well pleased in fact, to continue to shower all of creation with that same unlimited, unbounded, unimpeded love until the day we all open our eyes and finally see that story… God’s story, OUR story…is THE TRUE STORY!  That the Kingdom is ours in all it’s abundant, grace and love-filled glory.  So, do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.  In fact, come to the table today and you will taste that truth again! 

The rest of today’s Gospel lesson (in fact the rest of creation) lives under that overarching umbrella of the Gift of the Kingdom, given with God’s good pleasure.  The rest of today’s Gospel story, which I’ll let you study on your own, is some good advice on how to wait and live and remain hopeful in the midst of the craziness of a world that has once again been mesmerized by that snake’s same old, tired, broken, fearful, hopeless, busted up and broken down, sad, and lying story told by one snake charmer after another all through history.  Pay that story no mind!  It’s not our story!  Instead, live unafraid, embraced in the true story that the kingdom is ours simply because it gives God pleasure for us to live nestled in the Kingdom of God's loving arms.  Amen.