Sermon: The Father’s Pleasure
Luke 12:32-40
My father was a successful entrepreneur and leading architect in the medium-sized city where I was born. Generally, he was a big-hearted person. He was never interested in get-rich-quick schemes to increase his wealth -many Koreans speculate in real estate, hoping to make a quick profit, but my dad was the kind of person who liked hanging out with friends after work or throwing an impromptu dinner party at our home. My father was a Christian, and an active member of the Roman Catholic church my family attended. But my impression is that his spiritual life stayed at the church, most of the time. It really didn’t influence the lifestyle he lived and enjoyed. My father loved to make jokes and often said to his friends, “Take my time and money, and I have nothing,” which I understood as his way of saying, “Let’s enjoy now. No worries.”
But my family’s good fortune didn’t last forever - our fate mirrored Korea’s downfall during the Asian financial crisis of 1997. The whole nation became paralyzed, as every aspect of Korean people’s lives, without exception, was touched and changed by the financial crisis’ bomb-like impact. One of the most noticeable changes was the dramatic fall of the middle class. Between the outstretched poles of the rich and the poor, average, ordinary Korean families like mine saw their economic stability and quality of life spiral down, down and down.
My own family was not immune. My father, who was never interested in speculating in real estate, invested in the stock market just before the bubble burst, and lost two hundred million won, or 180,000 American dollars. He closed his architecture firm, because he said he saw no future in the Korean construction market. My mom and dad moved to Seoul, where I was studying at university, and stayed with me for a few years in the apartment which my father had bought to help make my life in Seoul easier. His fortunes did not improve quickly; when real estate prices in Seoul skyrocketed, (within a few years, prices increased tenfold) my father tried his luck again by buying two small retail spaces in downtown Seoul. Within one year he learned that both sites were irreparably flawed. Approximately $180,000 became tied up in these unusable spaces. Since those bitter experiences, my father never turned to speculation to increase his wealth again.
His working life did improve, though - my father has been working as a superintendent in an engineering corporation for seven years. (He’s now 62). As I said, he is a very good architect. He moves from one city to the other with my mom, biennially, as his appointment usually changes to a different construction field once every two years. Whenever he moves, he insists in renting a small studio apartment and living simply.
How is he now? He’s changed from the man I once knew. He hates any wasteful or small unexpected expenses. And… He finds the greatest joy and life’s passion in educating and nurturing new believers in his church. He’s an excellent Christian education teacher, teaching
the Bible and the Roman Catholic catechism. He told me that he once begged his priest to hand over the catechism sessions to teach those who wished to convert to Catholicism. He is really a dedicated servant of the Gospel. He starts every morning with studying the Bible and reading spiritual lessons and helpful sermons, then eats his breakfast and goes to his workplace. My mom says, “Your father has changed and become a saint.”
He has stopped making any outside effort to increase his wealth. My mom and dad don’t buy anything for themselves. They make sure to turn the switch off whenever they leave a room, not wanting to have any unnecessary leak from their tight savings. (When I was young, my family’s apartment was bright as day all the time.) His thrift doesn’t equal stinginess; he spends money as needed, reasonably. He gives to the church regularly. He donates money to charities. For the sake of his and my mother’s future, he focuses on financial stability and security, for no one knows what will happen in the future.
When it comes to these situations which we all experience in our lives – the need to secure the possessions we have, the need to feel security, how challenging it is to hear Christ’s instruction, addressed to us, in today’s Gospel reading “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.”
In here, “sell your possessions” does not mean ‘a portion of the possessions you have’. It straightforwardly means ‘sell and give away all that you have.’ The emphasis is on ‘all’. It is
the most important theme through the Gospel of Luke – ‘give away all of what you have and follow the way of Jesus.’ I wonder how that can be possible, really? How can it make sense to sell all that we have, give everything away to the poor and follow the way of Christ? Progressive Christians have insisted that we should not read the Bible literally in order to avoid any narrowed, fundamentalist reading of the Word. But “sell your possessions” is not one of those examples - it should be read literally, seriously. Here is the dilemma: we cannot ignore Jesus’ requirement, but “selling all that you have” seems impossible in this society where those who possess nothing can be trampled and become outcasts. Becoming the have-nots, being homeless, being poor, being nobody is our fear.
The vision Jesus unfolds in today’s Gospel may make us nervous. And it should. It should make us feel nervous, agitated, and even upset when we hear it, if we take it with any seriousness. Jesus’ word requires us to imagine an alternative to the reigning economic order. It tells us that the kingdom begins with a gift from a Father who is pleased to give it. It tells us the original order of God’s creation begins with giving. Let us hear today’s word one more time: “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.” God gives. So we should also give. However, the reality is that we live in an economic/political world where such selfless giving seems less like extreme faith and more like extreme foolishness. Success is defined as the gaining of wealth and power, by any means necessary. ‘Giving’ is defined as the scrapings off the top of excess - celebrities form charities under their name in order to build their ‘brand’. We are encouraged to give and give and give to ourselves before looking to the needs of others;how challenging it is to look away from ourselves and join in the heavenly Father’s pleasure which is giving! May we pray that we stand and become a gentle presence by giving more than we gain and anticipating more than fearing a true new reign of peace and justice in this world. May we look one another in the eyes and see ourselves from the reflections of others, and walk hand in hand with meekness, singing along the pathway with an honest and true vision of Christ.
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