Listen for your Tomorrows

Luke 21:5-19 - November 13th, 2022

The Lord Be With You.

A parable on our Gospel …

There once was a collector of bird houses. This man would spend every week scouring the newspaper or online to see if there were any new, or old, birdhouses that he could acquire. When he would buy or trade for one he would hang them in a tree in his backyard. After many years, the trees limbs would begin to sag by all the weight. This caused the man to start to spread his collection around to other trees and, through time, those tree limbs would begin to sag too. Many of the branches would be touching the ground because of all the bird houses. But the man continued to acquire them. There didn’t seem to be enough birds to land on the many bird houses but the man continued to acquire them. Many of the bird houses couldn’t be filled with seeds because there wasn’t enough time in the day but the man continued to acquire them and put them out on any branch where there was room. But, as nature would have it, a huge storm rolled in and the winds carried many of those bird houses away. Never to be seen again. The man was asked how that made him feel. Knowing that many years of his collecting was just taken away by a force of nature. The man said that it was not the loss of the bird houses that bothered him but his obsession to keeping those items when he knew, deep down, that nothing is permanent. Our tomorrows can never be assured completely when a simple act of God can change it in a blink of the eye. So, he resumed his collecting because the beauty of what he saw in those bird houses could never be taken away and he would always have the memories to keep.

Here ends the parable.

Verse 6 says “the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down?” and then it ends with “By standing firm you will gain life” and it’s telling us to be ready. Be alert. Be waiting. You and I may not know when this time will be coming to an end but we sure as heck can be ready with what we do in the here and now. We can be cognizant with how we effect and affect those around us and what perceptions others will have of our lives that can leave a lasting impression that might make a difference. None of us lives in a bottle and everything we do has an opportunity to lift someone else up. Or drag them down. And all of our tomorrows will be influenced by what we do today. Even if we just turn out the lights and go back to sleep. No man’s an island, as they say.

Jesus told us three things in this Gospel. Three things to not do. Do not be led astray. Do not go. Do not be terrified. Three things we’re to always be on guard against so that we’re not led down that primrose path. Each of these three things confronts us on a daily basis. From the media that we watch to the encounters we have with others to just the stress of working and paying the bills, each of these things will alter how we look at our tomorrows and whether we can even be able to listen when Jesus is there calling out to us to know the truth and the truth will set you free. Our tomorrows are not set in stone. They are up to us to form and shape but, unfortunately, like the collector of bird houses, our tomorrows can be changed in a moment by events we can’t even begin to imagine. I know my crystal ball is fuzzy most of the time. We can plan for our futures, put away for those golden years, raise up families to live good lives, fix what’s broken, improve on what we have, brighten another person’s day, schedule appointments. All these things, and more, we can do today but when we wake up the next morning we really don’t know what will happen. And there’s a good chance you will wake up tomorrow. It’s at least 50-50.

I’ve called this message “Listen for your Tomorrows” because when we can slow down our day long enough, we can begin to get a good sense of what Jesus is telling us to go and do. Jesus knows what our tomorrows could be. What are the possibilities. Jesus helps us to make decisions today that gives hope for our tomorrows. Jesus tries to get us to see the opportunities to do what we were created to do in order to fill everyone with the light of truth to affect their tomorrows. Yea, Jesus gets it and He gets us. We’re a product of our history. Our history is the reason we are where we are. But, even though that may be true it is not an excuse for what we do today that makes a difference on our tomorrows. That’s up to us.

Humans are creatures of habit. I was getting dressed the other day and it occurred to me that I always do it the same way. Start with the essentials and then put my shoes on. It hit me that I always put the same shoe on the same foot the exact same way. Always my left. Almost never my right. I gave it a little thought and then I took them off and put them on the other way. Right then left. Now, that may seem silly to many of you listening but, to me, it made me more aware of what I did next. I got up and almost couldn’t figure out what to do next. My routine had been altered. I had to make a conscious decision as to where I would go. We all have routines. That’s how we make it through the day. I mean, have you ever left work and then arrived at home just to wonder how you got there? How can you remember someone’s telephone number and not others? Do you check for certain things before you leave to go somewhere and, if you don’t, you forget something? Even if you packed it the night before? Yeah, creatures of habit. We’re on auto-drive.

It’s like this story I heard which many of your might have too. A husband and his wife were in their kitchen. The husband was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper while his wife was preparing a ham for dinner. The husband watched the wife cut off about one inch from either end of the ham. He asked why she cut the ends off, proclaiming “that’s a waste of good ham!” She said “that’s the way my mom prepared the ham.” The husband asked “why did your mom cut the ends off?” The wife didn’t know. Later, the wife called her mom to find out why she cut the ends of the ham off. Her mom said “because that was the way my mom prepared ham.” The wife’s grandma passed away several years earlier, but her Grandpa was still living. She called her Grandpa and asked “Grandpa, why did Grandma cut the ends off of the ham?” He was silent as he thought for a moment. Then he replied, “so the ham could fit in the small oven we had then without burning.” We sometimes do things for no other reason than because that’s just the way we’ve always done it. We approach God and Jesus and church many times the same way. The end result is that the words of Jesus bypass us because it has become a habit rather than a destination.

Well, that’s what Jesus is warning us about. Watch out that you’re not deceived. Watch out that someone or something will turn your head by something you felt comfortable with that you end up crossing that line that is the point that you wouldn’t go. Young people are led down this way more than any other. They latch onto whatever is the latest thing. You know this by those folks that are famous for being famous. Influencers is what they’re called. You see them on places like tik tok. It causes mostly the young to take up positions that make no sense. The woke culture. The cancel culture. Gotta have their safe spaces. Causing riots in the cities because someone somewhere deceived them and reached to an area in their lives that have a need to feel important. They are used and deceived. They become what they portend they’re against because what they are protesting for or against has no meat in the truth. Believe it or not Jesus already spoke to this cultures concerns. Too bad those today never learn from history but want to eliminate it instead. Listen for your tomorrows.

Do not follow them. Jesus is telling us to not blindly follow just because we think we’re supposed to. Denominations are notorious for demanding you to blindly follow. If you can’t define a reason for why you believe a certain way then maybe you ought to find out. I hear quite often about how one denomination does something. I ask why and there isn’t any response other than that’s just the way we’ve always done it. I got into a discussion about Halloween a couple of weeks ago. The other person was adamant that it was create by a satanic cult. Just because they heard it from their preacher. When I explained that the term is All Hallows Eve and it was created a long time ago to venerate the saints, the person then declared the same about All Saints Day. They were convinced that their pastor would not have told them something false. I’ve heard the same thing about Masons too. I told one lady that told me that it was a devious secret organization that she was right. And because it’s so secret I shouldn’t even be speaking to her about it. I don’t think she got the joke as she just huffed away. Don’t follow them because they can change how you view your tomorrows. Listen for your tomorrows.

Do not be frightened. Fear rules our lives. It causes breakups of families. It causes bad laws to be mandated. It feeds power to those hungry enough to take advantage of others. It is the basis for literally every other emotion. A level of fear. Fear is mentioned in close to three hundred forms in the word of God. New and Old Testament. Even though we have been commanded to fear not we continue down that path. My own OCD, which should be CDO, is driven by my own fear that something will be out of place that shouldn’t. Habits are formed out of fear. It was used by Satan in the garden against Eve and that led to fear being imposed on Adam and they both lost. 1st Samuel 14:45 says “there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day." And that’s saying that if we work with God instead of against Him, we can be shielded against the evil that exist. Do not be afraid but be secure. Secure that you are a child of God, made in His image, for His work, for His righteousness. Do not be afraid. Listen for your tomorrows.

Our parable is about what we do each and every day we’re awake. We accumulate even when we know that it won’t last forever. No matter what we’ve built, it’s temporary. That don’t mean we stop building. It does mean that we put it into perspective. We really don’t own anything because we can’t take it with us. It’ll be left here for our kids to deal with. How they do that will be a testament or a burden as to how we perceive it and build it. We can be called up at any time. Our legacy is based on what we think and listen about our own tomorrows. Our choice is to put our lives into perspective so that others can see it clearly or keep it muddled so that when we’re gone those left behind have no clear direction on what our legacy was all about. We make those choices each and every day we breathe. Choose wisely. Something to think about! Something to pray about?

Can we pray? …

Father in heaven. We pray that your presence will be with us each moment we are here. Help us to see the beauty of your creation. Help us to know the commandments you have given to us to be the stewards of your creation. Help us to understand the purpose of your creation for us to live our lives more fully. We ask for your Holy Spirit to come into our lives to relieve us from what it is that takes our energy and our attention away from your unique destiny for each of us. We pray that we can be filled with the assurances that come from reading and hearing your words and we thank you for giving your Son to us to help us with that understanding. We ask for your strength, your mercy and your love. We pray this and more in name of your Son, Jesus the Christ.

And all God’s people said – Amen?!

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