I have read our text many times before, but now I read it with fresh eyes, because of my pilgrimage to Israel last year.  I can picture the bright blue sky over the clear Mediterranean Sea.  I can imagine a small cloud rising in the western sky off Tel Aviv or Caesarea; a clue.  First century farmers saw that clue and interpreted it correctly: rain coming.  On pilgrimage we stayed in the Negev desert.  All of us with contact lenses learned quickly to just give up and wear glasses.  I can still feel the strong stinging wind blowing in from that blazing desert in the south; a clue.  First century farmers noticed that clue and interpreted it correctly: scorching heat approaching Galilee.

Today Jesus is intense and fiery.  It is as if Jesus says, “You get a clue about weather and you respond accordingly.  But for the life of me, I can’t seem to get your attention about our community’s future, about my future – you are oblivious to the high winds blowing, the scorching heat approaching.”  Jesus read the signs of the times.  He carried terrible stress because he saw the signs and those around him were clueless.

He had just spent three years with the disciples, calling the people in little towns all over Galilee to reconsider what it meant to be people of God.  He had invited outsiders in toward God and had he challenged insiders to turn and repent of their pride and their sense of privilege and greatness.

Jesus is talking about his future and it is tearing him up inside.  His cousin John had preached about the coming of the One who would baptize with the fire of divine judgment.  But it had never occurred to John or anyone else that the Messiah might be the first to wade into the deep waters of this judgment himself.

Jesus walks on the road to Jerusalem, toward the city of his death.  “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed” (Luke 12: 50).  We all know where this is heading; the baptism he describes is his death on the cross; saving grace for us but a dreadful end for him.  Jesus looks ahead and sees disaster, not only for himself but for the whole community.  Tiny Israel is on an inevitable collision course with Rome.  Rome might even be God’s agent of judgment upon them.  They need to repent.  They need to get a clue.  And they are clueless.

Today the image of the attentive weather watcher invites us to reflect on the contrast between devoted attention and casual neglect in our own lives and in this church. Sometimes we have a clue.  Sometimes we do pay close attention.  Other times we ignore what our eyes see.

What claims your greatest attention?  This week’s dramatic fluctuations in the stock market?  The grade point average to hope to make this year?  An opportunity to shine at work?  Maybe your health claims your attention.  Or a diagnosis.  Or a child’s development.  Farmers through the ages have paid close attention to changes in the weather.  What are you focusing upon? Consider those things or that thing in your mind’s eye, in the presence of God.  Focus on whatever it is that is holding your attention these days and feel its weight.  Feel its power in your life.  Consider the space this item or situation or relationship or dilemma takes up in your mind and heart, in your spirit.  To what degree can you be open to anything or anyone else right now?

Because, according to Jesus, we must consider what areas of life we are neglecting.  What areas have we paid so little attention to that trouble there may be reaching crisis proportions without our even knowing it?  Maybe it is your marriage or your partnership, the well being of children or parents, your own health, your growing sense that the job you’re in isn’t the job for you, or the stagnation of your spiritual well being, or something else.  What area of your life suffers as a result of where you place your focus or attention?  In what area of your life are you clueless?

When Jesus challenges the farmers and calls them hypocrites he’s talking to us.  His tone bites.  We don’t often get a glimpse of Jesus like this.  What an agonizing place to be, totally focused; ready to move ahead, yet stuck, thwarted until his mission is accomplished. “You hypocrites!  You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” (Luke 12:56).  He’s telling us to get a clue.

Jesus points us to the inconsistencies in our lives.  Maybe we are captive to a pattern that prioritizes the insignificant while jeopardizing the things of greatest value and importance.  Have we given as much attention to the maintenance of our spiritual lives as to the maintenance of our cars?  Have we given as much attention to the health of our church as to the health of our bodies?  How much attention do we give to the teachings of Jesus?  Maybe we need to get a clue.

In our life together as a church we are about to receive a variety of clues about who we are.  Those clues will come professionally packaged in the Mission Self Study Report.  The Team has worked hard all summer and is meeting after worship today to put the final touches on their work.  I am inspired by the breadth and depth of their effort.  In the report they offer us clues; qualitative, statistically significant clues about your hearts desire for our church’s future.  You have given them their data.  They have taken their clues from you.  It will be our job, led by our Session, to absorb what these clues tell us, and to respond in faithful ways.

Maybe you remember when architects Peter Krajnak and Darryl Rogers began working with us to create a plan for a new entrance to the church.  The first thing they looked for were architectural clues.  They said the building itself told us how and where to build.  The north wall, facing the parking lot, had been finished with stucco.  They interpreted that architectural decision as the building’s clue to “Start here.”

As a church we’ve got clues to notice and interpret.  As your Acting Head of Staff during these last four months I have become more aware of clues around me that point to strategic opportunities ahead.  I share two with you today.  The first clue comes from my own awareness of how much has been accomplished, and how much joy and spiritual energy we have sensed, even though it is summer and we are in pastoral transition.  And so I’ve asked myself, what does that mean about this community of believers?  Broad Street’s in between time has started off as a generative time.  Over and over again I’ve heard you say how you know you can’t be dependent on me or Jessie to cover all the bases these days, and so you step up and show up and offer yourselves and your creativity.  You make comments like, “You’re busy, I’ll cover that,” and you do! 

That’s a clue about who we can continue to be: less minister dependent for the doing of detail, for the detailed planning of programmatic ministry.  And more minister dependent for the nurture of soul, for teaching and spiritual formation of you, the disciples.  It seems to me that ministerial time spent with you casting vision and exploring where Christ and culture can intersect in mission is time well spent.  Let’s get a clue.  Let’s see where the Spirit is leading us.

Another clue we’ve got to notice has to do with what at first might seem like a lodestone around our collective necks.  It is not quite the baptism Jesus was forced to face, but maybe it is Broad Street’s baptism, the place we carry our collective stress until it is completed.  This church has a $2.6 million dollar debt to retire.  The clue points to the reality that we have a season of stewardship ahead.  Our debt is not a result of a failure to give.  Many have given generously, sacrificially.  Some have not yet had an opportunity to give.  And others are willing to keep giving. Like the attentive farmer, our Finance Council has been reading the signs.  There is a delicate relationship between numbers of members, size of budget and the yearly shift in giving as people enter our congregation and people move away, as babies are born and as older, faithful givers pass on to glory. 

It is time for us to read the signs about stewardship, “to interpret the present time,” as our scripture text puts it, and to get a clue about one of Jesus’ simple but profound sayings from earlier in Luke, chapter 12, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:34).  In other words, if you know where you want your heart to be, put your treasure there.  Let’s get a clue about our hearts, about where we want our joy to be.  Let us put our energy, intelligence, imagination and love and money into that joy, into generating a million dollar vision.  Not only a plan to pay the light bill, but to live out our hearts’ desire for our church.   As Presbyterians that means meeting, talking, dreaming about our mission as people of God downtown in a capital city.  We are people who give generously and with excitement to a vision that we believe in.  God, grant us courage as we interpret this clue and step out in faith.

Jesus reads the signs and lays things on the line.  Making a commitment to follow God’s way will affect other areas of our lives and those closest to us.  Jesus is saying we cannot make a commitment to follow without its affecting the way we relate to others.

Jesus tells us to get a clue.  The gospel warms and the gospel also burns.  The gospel sets us free and can even divide.  The gospel is powerful, powerful enough to interrupt our most settled mindsets, our most careful plans, our most sacred human ties.

Jesus, the light of the world, is not a flashlight but a fire.  We have been baptized into his death.  We have died with him and we are risen to new life.  Brother, sister, God’s Spirit works within you, guiding you and sustaining you with courage.  God’s Spirit feeds you at the table with the bread of life.  You are disciples.  May others find a clue to God’s path through you.  Friends of Jesus, by your words and actions, give a clue.  Amen.

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