A sermon on Luke 12: 32-40 by the Revd Karen Quah
A video recording of the whole liturgy, including this sermon, is available here.

One question I’m asked more than any other as a housing and community chaplain: “If there’s a God why is all this happening?” And by “this” the tenants are usually referring to today’s news – the killing of civilians and journalists in Gaza, war induced famine, the rising death toll of the Sudanese civil war, and closer to home, stabbings in shopping centres, the alarming number of sexual assault allegations in childcare centres, the housing crisis… To this question of theodicy – “If there is a God and God is good, why is there so much suffering in the world today?” – do I respond with the parable in our Gospel reading today? The answer is a resounding No.

Today’s parable depicts God as both Waiter and Thief. In the context of Luke 12, Jesus is addressing the hypocrisy of the pharisees and the religious. His words in Luke 12 respond to the dangers of greed and materialism. Which leads him to this parable of instruction and warning to his disciples: To be ready always for his return. 

To his followers, people like you and me, Jesus told many juxtapositional stories about God that incidentally involved banquets. In the prodigal son, God is a father who runs to welcome his rebellious son home AND a father who leaves his other son to decide whether to join the feast. In the parable of the wedding banquet, God is a generous host who invites everyone, bad and good, to the feast, AND a ruthless bouncer who kicks a guest out for showing up with the wrong attire. 

Today’s parable is equally baffling: God is both a Waiter ready to serve us and a Burgar/Thief ready to rob us of everything at any given time.

Let’s start at the beginning. Jesus tells his disciples to: “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him.” We are told in The Parable of the Ten Virgins, that what keeps the lamps burning is the oil. And that the oil for these lamps is non-transferable: which infers to our Faith, our personal testimonies, our faith journeys. 

And so, it seems here that when Jesus advises his disciples to keep their lamps burning, he is urging them to keep renewing the oil of their faith: Because sooner or later, God will come. And when God comes and finds them waiting, ever watchful, lamps/faith burning bright, God will serve them, wait on them hand and foot. But, 

Jesus warns, there is a flip side: “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.” 

Keep your faith, instructs Jesus. Renew it, stoke it, keep it alive. And when God comes God will be your waiter. But let the oil of your faith run low, run out of steam – when God comes, it will be as unexpected and traumatic as if a thief were breaking into your house in the middle of night and robbing you blind.

Waiter and Thief: We are called in this parable to hold both concepts of God in equal tension. We are called to see God as both Waiter who is delighted to hand us the kingdom on a silver platter so to speak, AND as Burglar/Thief who seizes control of our lives, our fates when we least expect it.

And so, we hold these two conceptions of God in equal juxtaposition and harmony. How? By living each moment of each day in the present. By discerning to the best of our abilities, the will of God. By not letting the blessings of God like food, clothing, material gains consume us – become our idols. We are living on borrowed time. Those of us who live in sickness, tragedy, poverty, war, famine, disease, know this only too well. But those of us who are fortunate enough to experience lives of steady comfort, good health, success, socio-economic and political security, are more inclined to forget this because God the Waiter rather than God the Thief features more prominently and consistently in our daily lives.

We do well to remember the prayer that Jesus taught us: Give us today our daily bread AND Your will be done. In The Lord’s Prayer (which I believe Greg preached on a few weeks back), we are told to approach God as both Waiter and Thief. Waiter – Give us what we need today. Thief – Your will, not mine, be done.

And earlier in Luke 12, Jesus shows us how to do this: By contemplating the daily bread/provision of God through the birds of the air, the flowers of the field. Reflection and Contemplation before outward action and teaching. Jesus spent time alone with God in contemplative discernment each day before going out and teaching, and accomplishing all that he did in the 3 short years of his ministry 

Then Jesus proceeds to say to his disciples (V.32): “Be not afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” Which is baffling, really, considering how most of them will end up. James son of Zebedee – beheaded by King Herod Agrippa I; Thomas stabbed with spears in India; Andrew – crucified on an X-shaped cross in Greece; Peter – crucified upside down in Rome.

In the context of today’s world, it’s certainly hard not to be afraid each time we turn on the news or scroll our news apps. And besides, wasn’t Jesus afraid of his upcoming death, especially the night just before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane? Perhaps then, as psychotherapist, writer and spiritual director James Finlay suggests, what Jesus meant is that we shouldn’t be afraid of being afraid. Because fear is a natural human emotion, and sometimes it can be a good thing – think of a child’s natural fear of fire or heights.

But there are times when fear seizes us, and we are helpless to control it. At such times if we try to seize control – berate or talk ourselves into not being afraid, it usually doesn’t work. In many cases, it makes things worse, and we spiral into panic.

But if we accept this fear as something that is happening, if we get curious as to why it’s happening and then remind ourselves that Jesus too was afraid – but that he wasn’t afraid of being afraid then: the effect is different. We are not alone in our fear. 

Jesus was afraid in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was afraid of his incumbent crucifixion as any reasonable human being would be. But he was not afraid of being afraid – of drowning in sorrow – crying tears of blood. Because while he approached God as Waiter: My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me; he also approached God as Thief, the controller of his destiny and the destiny of the world: “Yet not as I will, but as you will.“

So, what is my answer when I’m asked as a chaplain the question: If there is a God why would he let all this happen? My answer is “I don’t know. But what I do know is that the things you see on your tv screens right now – war, famine, racially and religiously motivated violence – are a result of hatred, bigotry, greed, lust for power. And such things have no place in the kingdom of God. Such things are not of God.

And you know what? In the end, regardless of religion, whether they believe in God or not, the tenants get it. These are people, after all, who know suffering, who come from lands and places of deep suffering. Unbeknownst even to themselves, they understand first-hand the dichotomy of God as both Faithful Waiter and Ruthless Thief. During times of pain they welcome prayer, they plead for prayer – even those who call themselves atheists. Yet, they are ever aware of the fleetingness of their safe homes, their stable circumstances, of life itself. And as a result, are generally grateful, humble, and incredibly gracious and generous with what little they have. 

Give us today our daily bread – But your will, not mine, be done.