READY FOR WHAT?

A sermon by George R. Pasley

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Luke 12:32-40 

When Holly was in fifth grade, she found a hero. A real-life hero.

Holly’s hero was Molly. Molly was a senior in high school, but they went to the same church.

At first the connection that Holly had to Molly was that their names rhymed. But Molly would always ask Holly how she was doing, and what was happening at school, and that summer Molly was one of the Bible School leaders and well, when Holly got to know Molly she really admired her.

She admired Molly because she had a special smile just for her.

She admired Molly because she went on the teenage mission trip.

She admired Molly because she wasn’t afraid to pray out loud.

Well, the next fall Molly went to college. But she came home for Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and on spring break everybody was talking about the college mission trip that Molly was going on. Holy was so proud because after all, Molly was her friend and her hero.

Every summer Molly came and helped with bible school.

Every summer Molly went on a mission trip, even though she had a summer job. She always managed it so she could go.

As for Holly, she was growing up, and growing up was hard.

There were boys, there were friends, there was school, there was trying to learn about being Christian, and there was Jesus. None of them were easy, not even Jesus, no matter what people said about him. But Holly knew that Molly loved Jesus, so she tried to figure it all out.

Like, for instance, what did it mean to trust Jesus, to have him for a friend, when one of your friends said something mean about you?

Like, what did it mean give the best of what you had to God, or to the poor, when your friends were buying really cool clothes?

Like, what did it mean to believe that God had a purpose and plan for your life, when you didn’t even know what you were going to do tomorrow?

Like, what did it mean to believe in prayer, even when you didn’t get answers?

Well, Holly went to college and the questions did not get any easier. In fact, sometimes Holly started out praying and ended up crying.

But she worked hard. She got good grades, even though she still did not know what she wanted to do with her life. She went to bible studies at college, and worked at finding answers. She kept praying and sometimes it felt good, and sometimes it felt confusing.

Meanwhile, Molly went to dental school. One time, when they both were home, Holly asked Molly how she knew what she wanted to do with her life, and Molly said, “The first thing I want to do is love God, and the second thing I want to do is help people. After that, it doesn’t matter.” Then she added, “Don’t worry Holly, God will show you. Just be ready.”

But Holly wondered, “Ready for what?”

Holly asked her pastor, and he was really helpful. He said it was different for everybody- some people knew almost right from the start, and some people, like him, didn’t figure it out until they were 40 years old.

Then he said something else. He said, “some people do great things for God, and some people just do things for God, but what you do is not what matters. What matters is, when God asks you to do something, are you ready enough to go and do it? Because when we do whatever God asks us to do, it makes a difference. So Holly, just be ready.”

Her bible study leader at college said being ready was about learning how to love. She said some people needed to be forgiven, and other people needed to be picked up. She said sometimes it was easy to love those who were worse off then you, but we had to learn to love people that had power over us too.

They were studying a passage from Luke, the same passage we read today, when the bible study leader said that. The passage talked about helping the poor, and it talked about being servants, and Holly knew about those things, she’d been working at that since she was in fifth grade. But she was interested in the part about being ready.

The version they used at bible study was King James, and it used the word the word “gird”- as in “let your loins be girded about”, which Holly thought was hilarious, but the bible study leader said Girded referred to a word that meant “have your sword ready to use.”

Holly of course knew that it wasn’t really a sword, but whatever else you might need to do a job- as in, having your pencils all sharpened before a test, or having your boots unlaced so you could throw them on quickly and rush out the door, or as in having your coat zipped and your hood up and your gloves on before going out into a winter storm.

But her bible study leader said it really meant attitude- your faith. It meant, “have an attitude of waiting to hear what God was going to lead you into doing, and being ready to do it. Do you trust that God loves you, and are you ready to love the world the way God does?”

Well, about this time a group of students from Molly’s dental school were going on a mission trip to Central America. They were visiting villages in the mountains and doing tooth cleanings, dental exams, and health education. One night, Holly’s pastor called her on the phone. I have bad news he said. “The bus that Molly’s mission team was riding crashed in the mountains. Molly is dead.”

Holly could not believe that Molly was gone.

Of all people, Molly should be the one to get to enjoy a long, happy life.

After all, Molly was always ready and willing to do what God wanted.

At the funeral, the preacher read from Hebrews. It started with these words, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

That made Holly think about the tings she knew that Molly had been certain about.

She was certain about God’s love.

She certainly loved people!

And, she was certain that God had a purpose for her, things to do in God’s Kingdom.

But she died- what happened to that purpose? Was Molly wrong?

But then she listened to the rest of the passage from Hebrews- “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

The preacher said that God’s promises are bigger than what we can see, that God’s mercy is more wonderful than the worst things that can happen to us, and that God’s love will someday wipe away every tear. He said that Molly believed that, but that it hadn’t always been as easy as it looked like to Holly and lots of the other kids. “But, he said, “She came to believe it more and more because of what Jesus did on the cross.”

Jesus died on the cross, thought Holy. That was God needed Jesus to be ready to do. Oh great. But then suddenly she thought of something really important, and she lifted her head up in amazement. Jesus rose from the grave, too. God needed Jesus to be ready for that!

During the funeral prayer, Holly’s ears perked up when she heard these words- “Help us to live as those who are prepared to die, and when we die, help us to die as those who go forth to live.”

Then she realized, that really was the way Molly lived and died, because that was the way that Jesus lived and died. But she realized one thing more.

It’s not just about life and death.

It’s about how we live- eager and unafraid and yet knowing it is all a precious, wonderful, priceless gift that we get to do just once.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom.”

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen