April 3: The Greatest Heist in History
Jamie Frazier, Guest Preacher
Evening Service
April 3, 7pm
When two police officers arrived at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18th, 1990 saying that they were responding to a disturbance on the property, they were quickly admitted by security. Once they gained entry, the two men handcuffed the security guards on duty and went to work. When they left an hour later, it was with a dozen paintings – including works by Degas and Rembrandt, worth an estimated 300 million dollars. While IRA terrorists are suspected of the heist, no arrests have ever been made.
The History Channel describes this heist and nine others in their Top Ten Heists of All Time. Our gospel reading tonight, Luke the 12th Chapter, particularly Verses 39 and 40, speak of an even greater heist that didn’t make the History Channel because it has not yet occurred.
In our passage and various others in scripture, we see Christ’s second coming imaged as a thief, “on the take.”
Now I must confess, this image is at best worrisome, and at worst, downright dreadful. You could read this passage and be led to constantly look behind your back, under your bed, in your closet, and like Motel 6, “leave the light on,” in fear that Jesus would pop out of nowhere and, “come get you.”
Tele-evangelists with audiences by the millions, and pavement-prophets often with audiences of one, discuss Christ’s return with such scare tactics that they would make Freddy Kruger blush.
I rise tonight, though, with a different message altogether. A message of hope not dread. A message of inclusion not exclusion. A message of action not idleness. In short, the message of the gospel.
I rise to assure you of the good news that Christ will return by discussing the purpose of his return, the need to prepare for it, and finally what that preparation should look like.
Verses 39 and 40 of our passage read:
12:39 “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.
12:40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
These passages of scripture begin to point us to the purpose of Christ’s return. Here we find the writer of Luke imaging the day of Christ’s second coming as a, “thief.” If we were to look to Revelation Chapter 16, Verse 15 we would find Jesus saying, “See, I am coming like a thief!” Both of these verses drive home that Christ’s return will be both sudden and surprising.
I would argue that the thief-motif does not merely speak to how Christ will return, but also what Christ will do upon his return.
Revelation reminds us that Christ will return and that this world will pass away. Much of this book is filled with mixed metaphors that cannot be taken literally, but the reality to which these metaphors point—the second coming of Christ, in my view at least, is very literal indeed.
Revelation Chapter 21, Verses 1 through 4, is an attempt to use the finitude of language to give us a snapshot of the infinite, which is God. These verses not only picture Jesus as a thief, but also explain what our “looting Lord” will do upon his return. Come. Let us see our Jesus, “on the take” :
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;*
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’
What do we see? Let us first answer this question by saying what we do not see.
We do not see emptiness, total destruction, or desolation. We do not see souls fleeing the material world for an ethereal one. We do not see an unconcerned deity or a distant God.
No! In this close of the harrowing history of humanity, we see Heaven merging with Earth. We see Godself fused with God’s children. We see Earth experiencing transformation through restoration. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
We see God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, stealing death from the earth (Death will be no more, Revelation 21). We see God stealing sorrow, sickness, pressure and pain, to be even more clear, we see God stealing cancer and aids, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes from the earth (mourning and crying and pain will be no more, Revelation 21).
We see God stealing racism, homophobia, classism, domestic violence, greed, poverty, gender inequality, class discrimination, loneliness, depression, (for the first things have passed away, Revelation 21). We see God stealing the tears from our very eyelids before they stain our faces (he will wipe every tear from their eyes, Revelation 21).
In short, we see God pulling off The Greatest Heist in History.
Someone really ought to get the History Channel on the line because this is the first heist in which the victims will be glad that they were robbed.
Christ’s return has a very clear purpose that Bishop NT. Wright gets at, well, in his recent book, Surprised by Hope. Christ will return to make right every wrong, to bring restoration to destruction, to engender healing where there is suffering, to incite peace where there is war, and to paint florid abundance onto the drab canvass of poverty.
If this is the purpose of Christ’s return then it begs the need for us to prepare for that glorious return. So, how should we prepare for Christ’s return? I thought you’d never ask.
We find our answer in Verses 32 through 34 of our text:
12:32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
12:33 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.
12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The point of Verses 32 through 34, is that we should share our wealth, power, and privilege with those who need it. Arguably, Jesus it not so much concerned with whether a person has wealth or power, but rather if wealth and power has the person. In essence, Christ is out to separate possession from possessor.
Jesus’ message to us is this: If you want one way, among many, to assess where your heart is—check your bank statement from the past 6 months.
What ought we to do and how ought we to live in light of the crucifixion, resurrection, and second coming of Christ? We find the answer in Micah 6:8: “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.”
• When a Governor in Arizona, against the wishes of our nation’s own Justice Department and numerous civil rights groups, legalizes the racial profiling of our Hispanic brothers and sisters; let us remember this scripture.
• When a state passes a law like Proposition 8, which denies gays and lesbians the right to marry—which means LGBT folk are denied 1,100 federal rights , numerous state’s rights, and above all denied basic human dignity; let us remember this scripture.
• When Americans spend $42 billion dollars per year on weight loss foods, products, and services, and it would only take an estimated $30 billion dollars over 10 years to end world hunger. For the love of God, let us remember this scripture.
And remembering means taking the memory of these issues and using them as fuel for the work of the kingdom, that we might be images of Christ. We must not only image Christ in how he lived (in charity), died (in sacrifice), and rose (in victory). But also we must image Christ in how he will return (in burglary).
And this is the beauty of the Christian narrative—death, sickness, and war do not have the final say. We need to preach these aspects of our narrative more. Too much of Christianity, these days, is thinned down to, “do good.” In many Christian circles, we don’t talk about Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, or return. We just tell folks to, “do good things.”
But, a lot of folks are doing good things and poverty still ravages the Dominican Republic, gender inequality and homophobia still run rampant here in America. I’m sorry, but the complete answer can never be the problem.
Humanity and our sinfulness is the problem and God is the answer. God in Christ Jesus: incarnation, life, crucifixion, resurrection, and second coming. This is the real hope into which we can lean. Hell, Oprah can tell people to do good things, but the Christian tradition offers so much more than just that. The Christian tradition offers a God who is a consummate grammarian; one who turns periods into commas—we serve a still speaking God!
Holy Covenant, rest assured, there are thieves among us. Those of you involved with leading Holy Covenant’s weekly Dignity Diner. Shame on you—for stealing some suffering, poverty, and pain from the world.
Someone really ought to lock up Kara Teeple. She is one of Holy Covenant’s MOST WANTED.
Weekly, she conspires with people in and outside of this church to figure out how loneliness, pain, shame, and hunger can be stolen from this Earth by inviting those living in poverty to a meal where their dignity is affirmed.
Keep on stealing Holy Covenant Church.
As a looter myself, I feel right at home in this den of thieves.
In closing, my hope for all present, whether you belong to this church, another, or none at all is that you would be: biblical bandits and theological thugs who go out into the community—stealing racism, poverty, homophobia, classism, and every other kind of –ism, right out of this world!
God’s promise to you is this: though, you have endured much and have the scars to prove it, the day of my return will come. And on that day, you will wear white linens, your tears will be wiped away, and the only visible scars in the midst of the Great Heist that I will carry out, will be the scars I bore for you: the scars on my feet, in my hands, and my side. Because I bore those scars, there will be none on you.”
