Thief of our hearts

Genesis 15:1-6 (JPS)

Some time later, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. He said, “Fear not, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what can you give me, seeing that I die childless, and the one in charge of my household is Dammesek Eliezer!” Abram said further, “Since You have granted me no offspring, my steward will be my heir.” The word of the LORD came to him in reply, “That one shall not be your heir; none but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He added, “So shall your offspring be.” And because he put his trust in the LORD, He reckoned it to his merit.

Psalm 33:12-22 (JPS)

Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD,

the people He has chosen to be His own.

The LORD looks down from heaven;

He sees all sons of Adam.

From his dwelling-place He gazes

on all the inhabitants of the earth —

He who fashions the hearts of them all,

who discerns all their doings. 

Kings are not delivered by a large force; 

warriors are not saved by great strength;

horses are a false hope for deliverance;

for all their great power they provide no escape.

Truly the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,

who wait for His faithful care

to save them from death,

to sustain them in famine. 

We set our hope on the LORD,

He is our help and our shield;

in Him our hearts rejoice,

for in His holy name we trust.

May we enjoy, O LORD, Your faithful care,

as we have put our hope in You. 

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 (NRSV)

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old - and Sarah herself was barren - because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”

All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed he has prepared a city for them.

Luke 12:32-40 (NRSV)

[Jesus said:] “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 to their comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure it, there your heart will be also.

“Be dressed for action and have your laps 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.”

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Do you remember being afraid of the dark? What was that like? Little noises, shadows on the wall, trying to relax enough to fall asleep, but unsure of what was happening so you couldn't really relax? Are those monsters under the bed? I remember having one of those ‘read-along’ storybooks when I was little, where Bert and Ernie went to the Bijou and saw a scary movie, and then Ernie couldn’t sleep all night because he kept imagining monsters from the film coming through the windows at night.

Nowadays, it's like every time we turn on the television or listen to the news it’s the start of a scary movie, the sound of another monster under the bed. And we just can’t seem to relax. Is the economy failing? Are those people we don’t know going to end up being terrorists? Who should have the nuclear codes? Is my job safe? Are my kids safe? Does my spouse still love me? What’s that lump, that soreness, that new pain in my body?

And the media ramps it up so well, keeping our anxiety high so we’ll tune in every night for more news on how the world is going to either end or be saved. And our anxieties feed each other, our past pain feeds our anxieties, our fear breeds fear, until everything around and inside us feels like a scary, dark night where we can’t sleep because the monsters are coming.

Or maybe I only think we feel this way, maybe we’ve gotten so used to yellow and orange threat levels at the airport that we don’t even give it a second thought. Granted, I’m a pretty privileged person, so I don’t have a lot to be afraid of, given that my skin will make me seem less of a threat to any police officer who might pull me over, and my Christian faith is culturally in the majority, and my first language is English. On the other hand, my boyfriend and I don't look like the typical heterosexual couple, because we’re not, and I know there are places where I could get beaten up for using the bathroom that fits with my gender. 

But how much does fear really serve life, and how much does it destroy life? There are certain anxieties that keep us safe, certainly, lots of ways to notice when situations need a bit more carefulness so that nobody gets injured or eaten, but to be afraid of each other, and to fear the things we can neither see nor control, such as people’s hearts and intentions? We were created for community, for interdependence, and fears like that isolate us and turn us against one another, turn us against God’s good kingdom work among us.

When it is darkest at night, however, the stars shine more clearly. Abram thought that for sure his future was dark and empty, like Sarai's barren womb. Yes, God had promised offspring, but time was running out. Isn't time always running out? So Abram had convinced himself that his name would live on through his steward instead, who wasn’t a blood relation, but was the closest thing he had. And God had to remind him of who he was, of who God is, to remind Abram how big is the universe. That dark night was when the stars shone most clearly. God did not say ‘wait until daylight, and you will feel better,’ God met Abram in that empty dark and showed him what treasures he had been missing so far. 

In little less than a week, our fragile planet will fly through stardust on its annual pass around the sun, and the meter shower will of course be most visible at the darkest time of night. Of course, as any basic science class or kid at overnight camp can tell you, if you’re too scared of the dark to sit in it and let your eyes adjust, if you’re using flashlights and streetlamp and other distractions to avoid the dark, you won’t be able to see the stars. They’ll still be there, just as there is always far more to the world than we are ever able to see, but if we don't sit with the dark we will miss them.

God’s promises are sure, dear people. They are like the stars of Abram. And if that story is far too old for you to count, consider our central Christian story, consider how dark that tomb of actual, literal, physical death was, before that first Resurrection Sunday. What more is there to be afraid of than actual, literal, physical death? Well, I suppose sticks and stones are bad enough, but words can strip away our lives while we are still breathing, can’t they?

So God’s promises for physical life are easier to test out than promises for kingdom living. Like the difference between forgiving a paralytic and commanding a paralytic to get up and walk. Or the difference between expecting prosperity to be a sign of God’s favor and experiencing shared poverty in community as such. We have many struggles that seem to us far more pressing than literal, actual, physical death, and yet the physical, actual, literal death and resurrection of Jesus speak to that, too.

Even in the dark, no matter how we may or may not see the stars shining, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus bears witness to a God who would not let us wander aimless and alone, who would not ever abandon us or let us be abandoned. It’s not just physical, literal, actual death and resurrection where God comes with promises of eternal faithfulness, but it’s in the emotional, mental, interpersonal, daily grind of ups and downs and hopes and fears where God walks with us so that we do not stand isolated or forgotten in the dark. All of those stars, all of those pinpricks of light across the beautiful inky blackness of sky, those shone together, could be seen as constellations, or great swaths of Milky Way light, or used as a compass to travel by when out at sea.

When God give us the kingdom, as is God’s good pleasure, God gives us the kingdom, not you alone, not I alone, but we, us, together, are given each other in this kingdom. We are given so many hopes and dreams to counter all of those fears, we are given so much love to help us meet those monsters under the bed, we are given every ounce of welcome we can stand, and often more than we can make sense of. So while we are in the midst of our living, God surprises us like a thief in the night, a lover who falls in love at first sight, a shooting star. It is far more complicated than that, of course, once we get to the nuts and bolts, but we each do have our own way of figuring out how those pieces fit into our own lives, and the basics are there the same for all of us: the God who made you as you are, is the God who loves you and claims you as you are, is the God who longs to be in relationship with you as you are, is the God who will never abandon nor forget you. Have no fear, little flock, the night sky is tremendous, and there is room enough for all of these stars to shine.