Luke 12:30-32
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
12 August 2007
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
What is your most valuable possession?
Whenever there is a tragedy and we see people being evacuated from their homes, we often see that question answered very clearly. What do people pack into their cars as they are being evacuated? Well, often times it’s their important papers, their photographs, their family pets and their family itself?
Listen to that question again: What is your most valuable possession?
Notice carefully that I didn’t ask what is your most valuable investment. For most of us here in Southern California, that would undoubtedly be our home. For some of us, that would be our car. For some of us, that would be our retirement funds, our pension plans, our 401(k)s. But when it comes to our most valuable possession, even though they are not “personal property” in the technical sense of the word, most of us who have children would answer that our children are our most valuable possession. After all, a part of us will always live on in them. Parents pour so much of themselves into their children that they are by far our most valuable possession.
Certainly that’s the answer that Abraham – or Abram, as we heard him referenced as in our First Reading today [Genesis 15:1-6] – would have given. In fact, that’s exactly what’s behind that strange little discussion between Abraham and God. Abraham had been much blessed by God. He had family. He had possessions. He had land holdings. But despite all that, there was something missing. He had no son, no heir of his own body to someday receive all his great divine blessings.
You remember our First Reading last Sunday from the Book of Ecclesiastes where the teacher wrote: “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” [Ecclesiastes 1:2]. That’s probably how Abraham felt. You can literally hear the frustration in his voice as he debates with God: “Yes, Lord, You might indeed be my Shield, my very great reward, but what good is it since You’ve not given me a son, the one thing I really want?” [Genesis 15:2]. All the earthly blessings and investments were meaningless to Abraham without the possession of a son.
God, our Heavenly Father, feels the same way. Take all God’s vast creation – the sun, the stars, the moon, galaxies upon galaxies; take the earth, the mountains, lakes and streams, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, all the domesticated animals that roam our homes and yards. Of all God’s vast creation – and we’ve just scratched the surface enumerating that vast creation – it is only His human creation – you and me – with whom God has desired and created a way to spend all eternity. Think about that for a second. The Bible is very clear. The rest of God’s creation as we know it will one day be completely destroyed. God, though, desired from day one to have us human beings spend all eternity with Him. Humans are God’s crowning achievement, His true pride and joy.
That desire of God was just about shattered when sin entered the world. Notice that the devil, being one of the highest ranking Heavenly angels – a confident into the very thoughts of God Himself – knew exactly how to really hurt God. He knew God treasured Adam and Eve above all else, that into Adam and Eve God had breathed His own breath of life. How could he best hurt God and, in fact, take over all creation as his own? Get a hold of Adam and Eve. Steal God’s children away from Him. Do that and since everything had been placed under Adam and Eve [Genesis 1:28], the rest of creation would become his!
Or, so he thought. Clever and insightful as was the devil, he completely underestimated the love of a parent. Faced with the reality of losing His most valuable possession, God staked everything. He pushed all his chips to the center of the table. To keep His desire of eternity with His human creation intact, God created a radical plan, a plan to eternally destroy sin, a plan to completely conquer the devil, a plan to magnificently mark humans as His own. Ironically, that plan to buy back His own children made use of His own Son. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish [should not be the treasured possession of the devil] but have eternal life [should for once and all be the precious children of the Heavenly Father].”
If you ever have any doubt about your own self worth, just look at Bethlehem. If you ever wonder if God really loves you, just look at Calvary. That, my friends, is what Bethlehem was all about. That, my friends, is what Calvary is all about. Those 33 years of Jesus Christ on this earth were not intended to simply be a good story, the best seller of all time. No, those 33 years of Jesus Christ on this earth were God’s solution to your problem of sin and death and eternal separation from God. Those 33 years of Jesus Christ – particularly His death and resurrection – were God’s way of paying off the lien that all of us, simply through our birth into this fallen world, have allowed the devil to take out on us. When we were brought into the family of God through the waters of Holy Baptism, an indelible, incorruptible name was given to each of us – “Child of God.”
“Don’t worry about anything. Don’t chase after anything. Don’t be afraid. Your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom.” That’s what Jesus said! Everything that is God’s, is ours! Through Jesus Christ, we have become heirs of God. Nothing is too good for us, His children. Nothing is withheld from us, His most valuable possession.
That’s exactly the message proclaimed by our “Great Hymn of the Faith” today. The real meaning of this hymn – “Children of the Heavenly Father” – is exactly the reason that it pulls at each of our hearts whenever we sing it, whenever we take the time to hear it’s message. Listen again carefully to these world – not only with your mind, but with your heart – then praise God for being His child:
Children of the Heavenly Father, safely in His bosom gather.
Nestling bird nor star in Heaven, such a refuge e'er was given.
God His own doth tend and nourish. In His holy courts they flourish.
From all evil things He spares them. In His mighty Arms He bears them.
Neither life nor death shall ever, from the Lord His children sever.
Unto them His grace He showeth, and their sorrows all He knoweth.
Though He giveth or He taketh, God His children ne'er forsaketh.
His the loving purpose solely, to preserve them pure and holy.
That is our inheritance. That is our identity, thanks to our loving Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, His dear Son.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena