AN ARTFUL DODGER

 

“Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44), Jesus said, but many of us have trouble loving our friends and our own family members. 

“Sell what you have and give to the poor” (Mark 10:21), Jesus said, but many of us love what we have and we think that the poor can help themselves,

“You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24) Jesus said, because one of them invites us to love God, while the other encourages us to love what we own and what we want.

“Forgive seventy times seven times” (Matthew 18:21-22), Jesus said. Forgive yourself and others as a way of life, Forgive until the cows come home, forgive those who are crucifying you… because you have been forgiven by God,

“Take up your cross and follow me” (Luke 9:23), Jesus said, because that is what it means to be a disciple. Follow Christ “on the Way,” do what Christ would did, love others in the same way He did; heal, bless, and free others, just as He did.

We know what Jesus said, but we don’t want to live them out. So, we debate what our cross is, and more or less discard His words about forgiving. We hear Jesus’ warning about God and money. We know that worshiping our wealth won’t open heaven’s door, but we continue to try because trusting what we have makes a lot of sense to us. One of my friends, pastor Ron Stewart, put the words, “Artful Dodger” on his license plate because he thought of himself as an artful dodger, who is someone who pretends that he or she doesn’t understand God’s word when in fact, they simply don’t want to trust in God alone.

With this in mind, let’s look at our passage for today. I am starting with Luke 12:22: Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or what you will wear. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide a treasure in heaven that will never fail… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “Be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”

 

When Sherry and I were moving from the Presbyterian housing in seminary to the Lutheran housing, the young man who was helping us said, “What I don’t understand is why you go to seminary. In my church, someone who gets filled with the Holy Ghost just stands up and gives the message, straight from his/her heart. Why do you need to study for so long?” It’s a good question and the answer is… so we know what we’re talking about! One of my cohorts often said, “text without context is pretext,” and I believe he was right. That’s why we go to school, but it doesn’t take a special degree to understand that God wants us to love “Him” with every fiber of our being and love our neighbors every bit as much as we love ourselves, I enjoyed both Hebrew and Greek, but I didn’t need either one to know that I must trust God and live in the now, and learn to see Jesus in each person I meet, and keep an eye on my possessions so that they don’t become too big to ignore. We can be Bible experts without believing a word of it, but we can’t be Christians without following Christ. Amen!