Proper 14, Yr C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Proper 14, Yr C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Luke 12:32-40 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
In the name of the one, holy, and loving God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
“Do not be afraid, little flock.”
Do not be afraid.
Easier said
than done.
It seems, these days, that fear is all around.
True or not true,
it seems that every day over the past weeks
there has been a mass shooting somewhere in the United States…
not to mention war, or rumors of war, all around the world!
There is vast starvation in Gaza,
earthquakes and tsunamis in Russia,
tropical depressions churning up in the Atlantic,
and our own remembrances and tremblings related to Hurricane Helene almost a year ago.
So, this morning when we hear:
“Do not be afraid, little flock”…
maybe we hear the words
but aren’t quite sure how to live into them!
Jesus said to his disciples,
“Do not fear, little flock,
for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kindom.”
Jesus says that we are not to fear
because God wants to give us the kindom!
Then Jesus tells them to sell their stuff and give away what they make,
and store up only the treasures that would befit God’s Kindom!
Which makes me try to visualize what God’s Kindom on earth might look like.
I think that perhaps we got a glimpse of the Kindom in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Family helped family.
Neighbors helped neighbors.
Strangers drove many miles to help strangers.
People shared whatever stuff or skills they had,
regardless of race, religion, political party, income, or gender.
The bottom line was:
What do I have in my bucket of treasure?
And…what do you need?
If I have what you need,
I will share it.
But somehow,
after the moments of crisis receded,
life seems to have returned to the normal community of silos.
Fear has resumed
and even seems to have increased.
I am curious about this fear.
Of what are people afraid?
In reality, we are stewards of all that we have.
Everything we have is a gift.
We are not owners of anything;
we are stewards.
Do not be afraid, little flock,
for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kindom!
How can we live into this Good News?
Jesus gives us some very practical advice:
let go of your worry…
share your gifts…
hang on to the stuff of God’s kindom…the stuff that doesn’t wear out.
Like love, forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation.
Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest who works with gang members in L.A.,
speaks of cherished belonging.
As God’s creatures,
we are all worthy of cherished belonging.
This is what Jesus is saying here:
Do not be afraid, little flock,
for it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kindom.
What if every single person in the world felt cherished?
What if every single person in the world felt that they belonged?
What if every single person knew in the core of their being that they were loved
and that there was enough for them to be nourished and cared for?
Because, my friends, there is enough!
There is more than enough!...
If we can let go of our fear
and trust in God’s promises.
A couple of weeks ago,
when I would wake up in the middle of the night for several nights in a row
and lay there for an hour or more struggling with some anxiety or another,
I decided to try something different.
I decided to not read the news right before I went to bed.
And I decided to read Gregory Boyle or Robin Wall Kimmerer
or someone else who was talking about God’s loving abundance.
I decided to spend more time bathing in God’s kindom…
God’s goodness and mercy and love and forgiveness and unconditional welcome.
And, you know what?
I sleep much better now.
I wake up rested and ready to share what I can of God’s treasure with those I meet that day.
I suggest that St. Andrew’s could be such a place of cherished belonging…
a place of radical welcome…
a place where everyone can experience belonging and love and forgiveness and hope.
I welcome your thoughts and conversation.
How might we go about being a place of cherished belonging?
How might we honor differences
and not judge them?
How do we see every person who steps in this place
as a person worthy of love,
a person who has gifts to share?
It is not an easy undertaking.
We will continue to bump into each other
and get irritated
and have differences of opinions and views.
If cherished belonging underlies everything we do,
then we can let go of fear
and embrace God’s gifts
and be a witness to the world.
“Do not be afraid” is the most frequent sentence in Scripture.
Fear is ancient.
Fear runs deep.
And God’s love runs deeper.
I close this morning with a poem by Jan Richardson
that I have pulled out often when I need to settle my soul.
To all that is chaotic
in you,
let there come silence.
Let there be
a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you,
that go with you
even to the
holy places
but will not
let you rest,
will not let you
hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace
that fashioned you.
Let what distracts you
cease.
Let what divides you
cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes
and demeans,
and let depart
all that keeps you
in its cage.
Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.
- Jan Richardson
Do not be afraid, little flock,
for it is God’s good pleasure to give you the Kindom.
Amen.
