I can still remember the day I sat in chapel at Luther Seminary and heard my Greek professor preach on this text.  He said,  "If there is any decision theology to be found in the Bible, this is it.  God has decided to give you the kingdom.  "It isn't too often that you can remember an exact line from a sermon, so somehow that day, it must have struck me as pretty important news.  And it is.

          God has decided, and that is why Jesus can say, stop being afraid.  In the verses that come right before this section of Luke, Jesus is telling his disciples to not be anxious about their lives, he reminds them that God is taking care of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air;  he reminds them that worrying won't add one second to their lives.  Oh you of little faith, he said, seek God's kingdom.  And then, right about the time you might be hearing that and wondering, how I will ever find it, he says, it is God's good pleasure to GIVE you the kingdom.

          So many times we get the idea that somehow we just need to please God enough, or look hard enough, or shape up enough --- and then we will get into God's good graces.  But the claim of Christianity is that GOD comes to give us what we need, God comes to give us more than we need --- and not because we have done the right things or said the right words.  God gives because that is who God is.  And what God wants in return is that we trust that God will do what God promises to do.  How many times in that second reading for today did you hear "by faith" ---God made many promises to Abraham, and by faith, believing the promise, Abraham stepped forward and kept going, even though it all seemed impossible.  God made the promises, and God kept the promises.  Was it easy;  was it without pain and suffering?  No, that was never the promise, but the promise was that God would provide.  Our job is to go out not in fear, but in faith.

          But what about all this talk of being ready, of not knowing, of comparing God to some thief in the night.  Jesus goes right from, "Don't be afraid," to saying something that would make most of us a little nervous!  "You must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."  We cannot help sometimes but compare it to that old feeling we might have had when mom said, "You just wait until your dad gets home". Somewhere along the line, we got the idea that the coming of the kingdom was something to be feared.  How much money has been made on books like the Left Behind series?  How much manipulating of people has been done in the name of the God of the universe?  Shape up or else, you better watch out, you better not pout. 

           God is not waiting behind some tree to catch you messing up, or standing ready to pounce on you when you least expect it. The coming of the Son of Man, is not simply a future event, Jesus comes to us now.  We claim that when we gather, Jesus is here.  When we come to the table, when we  receive the bread and the wine, Jesus is present.  When we go out into the world to those in need, we meet Jesus.  What is there to fear?  You have met him already, and the one you meet in the future is that same one.

In their book If God is Love, Philip Gulley and James Mulholland talk about waiting for the kingdom.  "Jesus didn't plan to lead an army, or become the high priest, or even judge the nations.  His plan was simple --- to heal, to bring life, to proclaim good news, to love those around him.  This was the kingdom of God.  It wasn't something you waited for or went searching after. It was something you either believed in or doubted.  Once you believed in it, you saw it everywhere.  "The Gospel of Thomas, not included in our New Testament, puts it this way:  When the disciples ask,  "When will the kingdom come?" Jesus says,  "It will not come by watching for it.  They will not say, 'Look, it is here!' or 'Look , it is there!'  Rather the kingdom of God is spread out upon the earth, but people do not see it."

It is a gift, all around us, and seeing it helps us to re-examine our lives, think about where our treasures and our hearts are, let go of all that keeps us from trusting God.  To prepare for the coming of Christ is to live as though he were already here, because he is.  And if we want to know how to live as though he were already here, he gives us all sorts of instruction.  Show mercy to people, don't be ruled by anxiety and fear, let go of your possessions or anything else that gets in the way of you trusting and loving God.  Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  Those are examples of living in the presence of God; they are not the command to earn God's presence.  That has already been given.

          When something like that collapse of the bridge happens, I often think about how suddenly all of life can change.  One minute you are on your way home from work, and the next minute, your car is at the bottom of the river.  One minute you are sitting reading the paper, and the next you get a phone call with news that your best friend has died.  One minute you are getting ready for a birthday party, and the next you are standing next to your dead spouse.  One minute you are walking on the beach, and the next there is a tsunami that kills thousands of people.  We do not know what is coming in the next instant and it would be very easy to live in total fear.  It would be easy to never fully live because of all the bad things that could possibly happen.  We do not know the day or the hour --- but we know that if we live our lives trusting in the promises of God, believing that our treasure is with God, then there is no need for that last minute cramming for the exam.

          What if it were today?  You are sitting right here, your biggest thought might be how you will spend your afternoon, enjoy these last days of summer before the schedules get so hectic again.  Does God want you instead to sit still all day, waiting and wondering if this is the day he is coming?  I don't think so, I think God wants us to live our lives, each minute ---not knowing if it is the last or one of a million more to come, but trusting that God has already decided to give us the kingdom, trusting that knowing that will affect and inform the way we make decisions, the way we take care of our families and our loved ones, the way we take care of the stranger and the one in need. Living in the gifts of God is to have our treasure and our hearts in the same place.  Living without fear is to know that we are God's beloved ones, not because we have earned it, but because God has decided, because God makes it so.  And then, because we are God's beloved, we can see the kingdom all around us, no matter if today is our last day, we live not in fear, but in joy for all that has been given, and in anticipation of all that is to come.  We live as people who go forward by faith, and people who participate in this kingdom of God.  Be ready, not for the hammer to come down, but for the God who loves you to show you how to live fully.

Amen