Where Is Your Heart? Where Is Your Home?

Luke 12: 32-48

‘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 no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ‘Be dressed for action and have your lamps 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.’

Peter said, ‘Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?’ And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says to himself, “My master is delayed in coming”, and if he begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful. That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating. But one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.

Perhaps it’s time for a present moment reminder.

There’s a tendency to hear this week’s scripture as a reference to the end times. Since nobody knows when Christ will return we’d better be doing what we’re called to do because he could reappear at any moment. However, it’s difficult to find real motivation in the possibility of Christ’s return in glory after 2000 years of waiting. We have indeed gotten into a “My Master is delayed in coming,” mentality.

The reality is, the Master has already come. We are the ones who are usually absent.

And where are we? Probably out beating on our slaves.

We slide over the parts of the scripture that mention slaves because slavery is not part of our sophisticated culture any longer. Or is it? A slave is someone that is under another person’s complete control or ownership and it doesn’t take much to bring to mind people we endeavor to maintain control over. Even making private judgments in your mind is a control mechanism.  Are you absent to the Master because you are spending most of your time keeping your life and everyone else’s life under control and making sure other people are up to speed with your program and your agenda? Are you manipulating situations and circumstances to conform to your visions and your sense of what’s right? Would these be the modern day ‘slaves’ that you continually beat upon in your mind and in reality?

Meanwhile, the Master waits at your house.

He has come with great pleasure to give you his Kingdom but you are not there. You are consumed with beating on past slaves - all those people and situations that wounded you and diminished your sense of control or power. You are busy anticipating future people and situations that will need to be beaten into submission so that life doesn’t spin out of your control. You may even be beating up on yourself for not being able to maintain heavy self-control.

Meanwhile, the Master waits at your house.

When you chew over past circumstances you are away from home. When you develop all sorts of possible future scenarios, you have left home. When you worry, when you are offended, when you beat up on yourself, when you are anxious about maintaining control and when your thoughts are wrapped up in your own or others’ needs and failures you are absent from home. When you live with the Wounded Warrior (false self), you may feel you’re at home but you aren’t. 

Just prior to this Sunday’s reading, Jesus was telling his disciples not to worry about their needs in the familiar passage that includes, “And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 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.”  (Luke 12: 25-27)

Where is this Kingdom that is God’s great pleasure to give you? Where is this realm of abundance and hope? Where is the Master who arrived unexpectedly, totally prepared to serve you at the table only to find you gone? He is in the here and now. The kingdom is here and it is now. The Master is in the present moment waiting for you to return. He waits for you to stop beating on slaves and on yourself, to stop regretting the past and to stop anticipating the future. He is in the peaceable Tower of the Present Moment waiting for you with all his Kingdom gifts and provision. 

Waiting for you.

We know that Jesus commonly used hyperbole to get his point across so we can rest assured that God will not cast us out and cut us to pieces. We are quite capable of doing that to ourselves. When we cast ourselves outside the present moment and outside of the Kingdom, our spirits can never be whole and healthy. We will remain fragmented, battered and scattered, and we will become the enslaved as we continually seek control and dominance. If we do not come home to our Master, there will be very little difference in the end between us and the unfaithful – between us and those who do not have the gift of faith and don’t know any better. Now there’s a humbling thought.

It’s time to pay attention to the unsettled uneasiness that forms the background music of your life and get back to where you belong. As St. Augustine wrote, “You have formed us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you.” Beating on our slaves is not an activity of rest or peace. It is not a kingdom activity.

Now is the Kingdom. Now is the time to come home.