When the Knowledge of Being God's Only Begotten Son Weighs Upon Our Precious Lord Jesus

             Luke 12:49 takes us into a revelation of Jesus' frustration.   

            Hebrew 4:15 provides us the context for these feelings.  "For we do not have a high priest (Jesus) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin." 

            Jesus is not only tested, but reacts as we might.  We see anger displayed when Jesus drives the money changers out of the temple.  We see sorrow expressed when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane.  But frustration?  Anticipatory frustration no less. 

            We know from Luke 9:53 that Jesus “was headed toward Jerusalem”.  It is the journey to His death and resurrection.  While he has discussed what will happen, His disciples cannot understand the full extent of what is to come.  Only Jesus understands the full weight of what is going to come.  In our passage today, it finds expression.    

            “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish things were already ablaze.”  Is this the fire of Pentecost?  The fires of the end times?  Jesus wants to 'light it up', get it done.  It isn't done yet but Jesus is feeling the weight.    

              “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!”  That may sound rather innocuous at first, like the words from the hymn, “Baptized in water, sealed by the Spirit…”  But do the verses from Romans 6 cast a different light?  

            ^4 “Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

            We focus on the parts where ‘we also might walk in newness of life’ and ‘we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his’.  That is cause to rejoice.  This is when things are complete.  But Jesus is on the 'before' side of all this.  Can we even imagine 'what constraint' He is under?  Knowing what is to come?  

            We can speculate.  His is a miserable, torturous, painful, solitary journey into death, long before He is buried that we might be buried with Him.  Besides the physical journey, there is the spiritual one where He carries the burden of punishment for ALL our sins upon his body.  He is under the constraint, the obligation, to carry through with that burden, for us.    

            To name his feelings 'frustration', or even 'anticipatory frustration', how completely inadequate are those words for what Jesus is feeling?  But whatever word, whatever name, remember what He suffered to make us free.   

Peace,

pastor pete

In The Words of the Great Philosopher, "What, Me Worry?"

             Worry, a human survival strategy?  A way of warning the self about shortages in key areas of human need?  Jesus says not to worry about food, not to worry about clothing.  He is calling upon us to undercut our hardwired reactions to basic survival strategies? 

            But maybe Jesus is not thinking about survival when he challenges his listeners.  Perhaps he is addressing a crowd that is assured of the basic needs of survival.  Perhaps it is not a matter of having food to eat, but deciding what to have from a variety of choices?  Is it somehow a matter of social competitiveness?  What do my neighbors have to eat?  What more should I have?  That kind of social competition might be easier to consider in clothing, easier to show the world what I am wearing than what I have on my dinner plate. Or, more importantly, what I am wearing is better than what you are wearing...and I worry if I am right about that.

            If we continue to look at the metaphors Jesus then employs, that of ravens who are fed without barns to store, that of lilies that are clothed in raiment more splendid than Solomon, only to be burned with the grass tomorrow, I don’t know if these help sort the question of survival versus social standing.

            Except that maybe that doesn’t matter either.  Its about worry, not what is worried about.  It is about a state of emotional being.  If Jesus does not distinguish what exactly we are worrying about, do we need to parse meaning even further?    

            The answer to worry is that ‘God provides’.  That’s fine when faith is involved.  God promises us the treasure of heaven.  It is God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.  He even calls upon us to sell our possessions to give alms.  But that is not where Jesus wants us to end up in this passage.  Jesus does not want to curtail our activity.  Its not a matter of peace replacing worry.  It is a matter of peace curtailing a destructive activity, worry, to entail another, constructive activity, in the Lord.

            Worry takes energy, mental, emotional, and physical.  Jesus calls for us to invest that energy elsewhere, deliberately.  “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.”  Be ready for the return of Jesus.  Stand there and wait for the bridegroom to come home?   No, prepare for the master’s return.  The promise of the Lord is that all we worry about is taken care of in the power of the Living God.  That’s the peace we have, it is the peace we act from.

            Be dressed for action, have the lamps lit, take this blessed assurance that Jesus is mine and share it with the world!  Where there is worry, work in the Lord to assuage that worry, to demonstrate the reality of our faith that Jesus provides.  Wade into the world in the name of Jesus.  We are not standing around waiting to ascend with Jesus into heaven.  We are action-oriented, committed to the world around us, doing the work of Jesus’ followers in preparation for the day of His return.  Then, in the end, when Jesus does return, He will take care of us in turn.

Peace

pastor pete

Placing Our Energies: Worrying Vs. Preparedness Our Scripture for Sunday, Aug. 11, 2025: Luke 12:22-40

Passage for Sunday: Luke 12: 22-40 

Note: The lectionary passage is Luke 12: 32-40, but that feels like a passage sundered.  The longer piece feels more intact as ‘one'.

²² He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. ²³ For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. ²⁴ Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! ²⁵ And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁶ If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? ²⁷ Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ²⁸ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith! ²⁹ And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. ³⁰ For it is the nations of the world that seek all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹ Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

³² “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ³³ 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. ³⁴ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

³⁵ “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; ³⁶ 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. ³⁷ 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. ³⁸ If he comes during the middle of the night or near dawn and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

³⁹ “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. ⁴⁰ You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Luke 12: 22-40 “in other words.”  (It's a way of reflection, of 'getting at' what the passage speaks to me).

Do not let your worries be about what you eat, about body image, about your wardrobe.  Consider the ravens, they eat, they don’t have barns, but God cares for them.  You are worth so much more in the eyes of heaven.  And worrying, does that add an hour to your life, does it improve any part of your body image?  If you cannot control the small stuff, why worry about the stuff that is out of your control?  Consider the lilies, God gives them a better wardrobe than Solomon’s finest, but here today, gone tomorrow… 

God takes care of the ravens, takes care of the flowers, how much more will God do for you?  Don’t worry about this stuff.  Nations worry about this stuff, and God knows what we need.  Aim for God’s kingdom instead.  It is God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

So, instead of collecting possessions, sell them, give alms to support the less fortunate.  Make a wallet for the treasure of heaven, which does not wear out, which is unfailing, which is guaranteed 'theft-proof', where no moth or critter can infest and destroy.

Put your treasure there, because where your treasure is, your heart will surely follow.

You want to be ready for something?  Want something to work toward?  Be prepared for action like servants expecting their master after a wedding reception.  Be prepared for whenever he gets home, whether midnight, later…or earlier into the morning.  Because if you are ready, instead of serving, you will be seated and waited upon by the master for your alertness.

If a homeowner knows when the thief is coming, he will be ready to prevent anything from being stolen.  But the Son of Man, after He has ascended, is coming back at an unexpected hour.

And some first thoughts…

            On first reading, our passage looks like Jesus is laying out a contrast.  Where should people of faith invest their energies, personal, emotional, psychological; and where should they not?  Although, its actually flipped, first where not to invest these energies and then where to invest these energies.

            Don’t worry, because God is in control.  Be prepared for Jesus’ return, because God is in control.  In Jesus lies our treasure, in this life and in the life to come.

An observation...

            It felt a little awkward as a reader to be talking about the return of Jesus so 'early' in the gospel narrative, well before Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension.  This is where Gospel differs from Fiction, for example.  In a Novel, chapters build toward a climax and a resolution.  In the Gospel, each segment is written against the background of the whole story of Christ.

Peace,

pastor pete

 

August 3, 2025 Luke 12: 13-21 Sermon "Some Rando in the Crowd called out to Jesus..." Rev. Peter Hofstra

             Some rando in the crowd called out to Jesus, “Make my brother split the family inheritance!”  I know that scene from a high school educational film on the life I remember being called the Hanging Judge.  This goes back to the last century, I am glad I remembered that much.    I remember it because there was a guy in the crowd there who called upon the judge in a crowd to demand his brother split their inheritance.  To this day, I am convinced that the set up comes from our Scripture passage.  The judge didn’t hang them, but he pointed to one brother and said, “You split the inheritance into two halves.”  Then he pointed to the other brother, “And you get first choice.”

            Jesus’ response to the brother is “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”  In other words, “That is not my job.”  Because it’s the job of a judge.  And I looked up the guy from the educational historic film, Matthew Baillie Begby, first justice of the Supreme Court of the Colony of British Columbia, a couple of centuries back…

            Jesus turns the shoutout to a teaching moment.  “Take care,” he says, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”  As a person highly susceptible to reverse psychology, I embrace one of its logical outgrowths, flipside psychology.  For example, there was a meme that said something like “When we speak of a domestic housewife, does that not presume the existence of a feral housewife?”  In this case, if one’s life does NOT consist in the abundance of possessions, then does it not presume the existence of something else to consist of? 

            To be clear, Jesus does not dismiss being rich.  At passage end, it is in being rich toward God.  I believe there is clarity in figuring out what that means in flipping Jesus’ parable. 

            Many kinds of greed, Jesus says. The 1st and most obvious seems to be verse 16 where Jesus says. “the land of a rich man produced abundantly.” Greed is about the acquisition of stuff. And that certainly follows. “My barns are too small, let me big bigger ones, a place for all my junk.” Well, not junk, the man is not a generic hoarder, but a hoarder of goods and grain.  It is the greed of stuff. I got it, I am not gonna share it.

            In the grand scheme of things, this man is blessed by God.  He’s rich by legal means.  His land produces abundantly. We have seen it in micro form in the vegetables shared in fellowship.  I believe we are going to see it one of these days on Tom’s tomato plant out back (it’s the one with the cross).  But what is different is the man does not recognize God in the process, he wants it, he's going to store it, he's not going to share it, it's all his. Seems like the most obvious development of life not being, not consisting in the abundance of possessions.

            So if that is how not to get rich in God, how do we get rich in God? When it comes to our possessions? The governing principle might be found in the story of the rich young ruler. This is a guy who gains the love of Jesus with all the correct answers about faith.  He also has a lot of stuff, and Jesus tells him you need only one more thing period go, sell everything, and come follow me. Left the guy stumped, because he had so much.

            But it is not the stuff that is bad, it's when the stuff gets in the way of our relationship with God. When the goods and the money and the love of those things is greater than our love of God. We forget that everything we have is God's blessing. The rich man in the parable has clearly forgotten that. So, devoting our stuff to the work of God, instead of to ourselves, that's the flip. That's the connection to being rich in God?

            Behind the abundance of possession, it seems the rich man is good at what he does. He's got a head for business, he's got a head for agriculture, he's got talents. The goods and grains are the rewards of those talents. He uses those talents to get rich. The man's a planner, you can look at his current storage and realize he needs more. He puts a plan in place to pull down the old barns, build new barns, and even with that investment in capital expenditures, they'll still be overflowing with grain and goods.

            All kinds of greeds, Jesus says. Like this include using his talents to get rich, using his talents for himself. I can do this stuff, I do it for me. So what's the flip side of that? I might be influenced by the fact that the Pennsauken library is currently moving from one facility into a new facility, but I think of Andrew Carnegie. One of the richest men in the nation in his day, and he turned those talents from making money for himself to laying the foundation of a Free Library system across this nation. He did it well.  It exists and still thrives today.   

            The rich man of Jesus, he is no Ebenezer Scrooge. There's a line in A Christmas Carol where his nephew comments that Scrooge, while being fantastic in business, although there is no commentary on the ethics of his business practice, does not even use his riches to make himself comfortable. He lives in a couple of rooms on the second floor of a light industrial complex somewhere in London. This rich man, he's got a plan. I am going to retire early and I am going to eat drink and be merry.

            The Bible of Jesus has a whole book about this, the book of Ecclesiastes. Rich guy, Uber rich, has done everything under the sun, And what is his response to all of that? Ecclesiastes 1:2, “Vanity of vanity, he says, Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”  I like the way my Jewish Study Bible translates it. “Utter futility! Utter futility! All is futile! What real gain is there for a man in all the gains he makes beneath the sun?”

            So the rich guy is all set, is going to retire early and get on the party circuit for the next 20, 30, 40 years. Except, God says to him, you fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. All the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

            Being rich in God may be the centerpiece of this passage, but the climax is that we do not simply die, but our life is demanded of us.  So to the grand question of existence, “Is this all, is there nothing more?”, the answer is, quite clearly, there IS more.

We stand before God. We stand before the one who gives us everything. And the gospel is clear that God gives over that throne of judgment to our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's Jesus we are facing.  Lok at the example of Jesus, he gave everything, his talents were invested into his ministry for us. His time was given to us, recorded in the gospels for the generations to come, all invested into God's plan.  And he gave us something far more valuable than riches, than possessions, He gave us His life, his blood, his body, spilled for us, broken for us, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the remembrance of that event which we celebrate as Holy Communion this very morning.

Our lives will be demanded of us before He who tells us to guard against all kinds of greed, of time, of possessions, of ability (all gifts of God).  But not simply He, our Jesus, who warned, us, but He, our Jesus, who showed us by His life, death, and life again, what it means to give all to God, to be rich in God.  The riches of God being eternal life, being perfected as children of God, of living in the perfection of the Kingdom of Heaven, renewed from all sin, death, decay, evil, and brokenness.  Living in the joy of the Lord always.

Which are, in fact, the ultimate goals of those who seek to live a life that does consist in the abundance of possessions, but not in Christ, but in the vain hope they can do it themselves.

Some rando in the crowd called out to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”  Jesus replied, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”  In other words, “That is not my job.”  And then, in explaining why it is NOT his job, Jesus lays out for us what is His job, that we gain the inheritance of heaven.

            So here’s a challenge for us this morning.  As Jesus’ First Presbyterian Church here in Merchantville, when we come to the Lord’s Table this morning, what considerations, what decisions, can we make, as individuals in Jesus and as a Community of faith, to live into this Way of life, into this inheritance that Jesus has laid out for us?  What shall be our response?

            Now, some might call this a “Stewardship sermon”.  That is not what this was intended to be.  If anything, I might call it a “Why Stewardship? sermon.

Amen.   

It Is So Much Easier When The Rich Guy is Also the Bad Guy, Isn't It?

 It would be easier if Jesus made the rich guy a thief or a swindler or a criminal of some kind.  You know, the kind of person who exploits their position and their power for their own gain.  Like they use political clout for their own advantage, to the advantage of themselves and their friends.  For those greedy for power, they twist religious belief to their own advantage, or target somebody because of their race or color or creed or status, to create “those” people, an imaginary enemy to be feared and exploited.  It would be so much easier to dislike someone for whom greed has obviously corrupted their soul.

But that’s not who Jesus lays out for us in his parable.  He works hard.  He did not make his money “the old fashioned way”, by inheriting it (lol).  “The land of a rich man produced abundantly.”  He was good at his business, and lucky.  This is where he has invested his talents.  And it has proven to be to his financial advantage. 

He’s got so much, he decides on the capital investment of enlarging his storage capacity to meet the demands of his surplus (how does that sound for trying to speak ‘economics’?)  He’s got a plan for all this stuff, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.’  It’s easy to dislike Jesus’ rich guy because he’s hogging the wealth.  It would be SO much easier if he were exploitative and arrogant about his wealth.  But it is easy to see the jealousy lying at the root of feelings of dislike.  The man earned his treasure and he’s made the choice that he is going to sit on it, save it up for himself.

Then our rich man evolves a plan when he comes to this realization, ‘And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’  I can identify with that plan.  Imagine winning the lottery?  Whatcha gunna do?  Get off the merry-go-round of life, like the man says, “Eat, drink, and be merry.”  That is where he is going to put his time, use his riches, invest the results of his talents, to fund the stereotypical ‘lifestyle of the rich and famous’.  Leisure, lazy, whatever catches his fancy.  Maybe there is a party circuit, like Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, and Damascus or something. 

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

It would be easier if the rich man was a villain.  Easier to look at him in a negative light, to consider him one of ‘those’ people.  But its not easy because we live in the United States, and there is an American dream of freedom and prosperity.  Economically, that is defined by the ‘free enterprise’ system, the capitalist system.  Someone once said that we do not live in a society of the rich and poor, but live in a society of the rich and those aspiring to be rich.  There is some powerful truth going on there.    

The passage concludes with “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” 

So there’s the ‘hook’, if you will.  For Sunday’s sermon, a consideration of what, based on the parable Jesus has given to us, does it look like to be “rich toward God?” 

Peace,

pastor pete

“All Kinds of Greed”

There Jesus gives us something to think about.  There isn’t just one kind of greed.  But can we expand on what 'kinds' there are as we read Jesus' words?  This got my brain going.  Is there greed in the very event that spurred these words by our Lord Jesus?  It begins with a demand that Jesus tell one brother to split the family inheritance with the other brother.  We could speculate ad nauseum on what this means exactly.

But greed is not just about wanting 'more' as its own end.  How often is greed wanting what someone else has?  I don’t have it, you do, and I want it.  Makes me think of kids and toys.  There is the toy the one kid hasn’t touched in forever until their sibling dares to pick it up.  His brother has the inheritance and he wants it!

There is greed to be found in seeking favor.  This one person is seeking the intervention of Jesus in the matter of the inheritance.  Might there be another authority that he could appeal to?  Judges or something among the Jewish leadership?  The gospel records a whole lot of different kinds of leaders among the Jews.  Certainly, there must be someone appropriate for the issue.  But go to Jesus, the one whose power is on the rise, seems indisputable, is doing amazing, powerful things in the name of God.  Maybe greed feels like ‘bragging rights’. “I got JESUS on my brother…”  I think there is a reason Jesus did not baptize anyone himself, but left that to his disciples.  Precisely to prevent someone boasting their greed that they got Jesus' 'real' baptism.

In his parable, Jesus outlines what is typically considered as greed, that our life does not consist of an abundance of possessions.  I am not what I have.  Which leads us to the rich man.  His lands produce abundantly.  He does not have enough barns to store all the crops.  He’s got barns, and I think it is fair to say that with those barns filled to the brim, he’s got more than enough.  So, tear them down and build bigger ones!  Man’s got grain and got goods!!  He is just out for more and more and more without any consideration to anyone else.

Then there is greed for what abundance can provide.  A life of leisure, to eat, drink and be merry!  (Note the word Merry, not Happy...)  No more work, no more responsibilities in the world.  Party time!  Leisure, eating, drinking, being merry, none of these are greedy unto themselves.  In discerning greedy behavior, look at the motivations.  This is not something shared.  This is very individual.  The rich man has it, is going to spend it, all for himself.  That's the greed.

But no matter what kind of greed, or how many kinds of greed that someone pursues, there is the great equalizer that shall not be overcome.  Be as rich and greedy as you want, gather as much as you can, trample whoever you can to get there, but it will NEVER save you.  Each of our lives will be demanded from us someday.  Question is where our hearts are, with God or not, to move to what is promised in Christ Jesus.

Peace

pastor pete

Luke 12: 13-21 Our Scripture for Sunday With A Retelling. The Parable of the Rich Man Whose Life is Demanded of Him.

Luke 12: 13-21 

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵ And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” ¹⁶ Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷ And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ²¹ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Luke 12: 13-21, A Retelling.

            Somebody in the crowd decided that Jesus was important enough and honest enough to correct a wrong.  Mr. Somebody wants arbitration for his father's final will and estate.  Jesus does everything else, so he ought to do this too?  It is not the first time Jesus has been asked to intervene in a sibling dispute.  Remember Mary and Martha from a few Sundays ago?

            Jesus’ initial response, “So who put me in charge of your life?”  Nobody except Mr. Somebody. 

            Jesus turns this moment into the opportunity to talk about greed.  As in, DON’T BE greedy.  One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.  Or, to put it another way, whoever dies with the most DOES NOT ‘win’ the game of life.  Then...a parable to illuminate.

            There is a rich man.  He has so much stuff he has no place to keep it.  Thus, the obvious solution is to build more storage!!  Then there is my favorite line in the parable, the Rich Man says, "I will say to my soul, Soul, time to relax and party."  And God said, “You are a fool because you are going to die tonight.”  Except God does not say the rich man is going to die this night but “your life is being demanded of you.” Feels like there is a reckoning about to happen.  “Now then", God continues, “Who gets your stuff?” 

I wonder if Jesus looked back over at Mr. Somebody in that moment.  

Then comes the punchline.  You people who store up treasures and grain and stuff and money, you will die and it will come to nothing IF you are not rich with God. 

Peace

pastor pete