Much as I feel secure in the kind respect and sweet regard you have for me, I know, nevertheless, if I simply, and I mean simply said to you on my own, with a straight face: Fear not little flock--you don't need to do anything, God will just give everything to you. Have no anxiety, do not worry about what you will be or do, do not even think about what you will eat or drink or wear, don't work, don't toil, don't spin, don't gather things, especially don't gather them into barns. It is God's will just to give you everything. Everything. You don't have to do a thing, not a thing. You don't even have to be good. That's always nice, but never necessary. God likes us better as sinners than he does most other really righteous people. You don't ever have to do a thing, ever. God will give it to you. All it of it. Simply give it to you. That's what gives him pleasure. Whatever you thought of me, you would have to smile, I think, if I said that. If I heard someone, anyone, say that, I would smile, no I would laugh, no, no I world snort in derision. If I heard anyone say that. Anyone, that is, other than Jesus. I know enough not to snort at Jesus. And here it is--so glad you persevered with me through last week's bumpy ride. We are back to those amazing summer lessons, aren't we, the ones that make you glad you come to church in July and August. Those spectacular lessons, reassurances, promises, one after another, this summer. And then today! And this is not a befuddled Father Bill coddling favor and wanting you to like him - this is Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Redeemer, the Son of God. "Jesus said to his disciples, Fear not little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32) It would be "too good to be true" if it were anyone else, anyone else. But Jesus. "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." I hang on to the thought that there are things we maybe ought to do as Christians, and things we probably ought not to do, and we should know about all of that and try our best in all of that. Maybe not. But maybe so. But regardless, before considering any of that ever, before that, first and foremost, we need to hear and believe and accept this morning's Gospel, which should be the Gospel on some big Sunday in the school year, not a sundry Sunday in August. We need to hear, believe, accept, and accept without question or argument or fudging or fussing or fretting, need to accept at face value at full value what is said, accept fully, believe utterly, this Gospel today and what Jesus said. Jesus! "Fear not little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." We are assured that to receive the benefits of salvation, to receive the Kingdom of God, we do not need to cajole an indifferent, smug God, or wrest benefits away from a possessive and mean-minded God, or win the hard-fought approval of a judgmental and unbending deity. It will be given, it will all simply be given, and not grudgingly, but with pleasure. It is his pleasure, his good pleasure, simply to give us the Kingdom. And so we are freed from the debilitating, devastating fear of what passes so often for Religion--free of the fear of offending God, free of the fear of coming up short in our religious efforts, free of the fear of missing the mark. It is all going to be given, to all of us--the Kingdom. All of the glory of salvation, all of the splendor of redemption, is going to be given, because that is the father's pleasure. Wonderful promises, wonderful assurances perhaps, but maybe seems a bit unlikely. Maybe. Not quite as unlikely as that Abraham and Sara he 100 and she 90 should have a child, but still unlikely. But likely or unlikely is not what we are dealing with here. We are dealing with God, and with faith. And faith, that Epistle to the Hebrews insists, is the "assurance of things hoped for", "the conviction of things unseen." Fairly odd concepts to put together, actually. Assurance and hope, conviction and the unseen. Odd twins, except for Christians. But there is an undeniable suggestion in this Gospel, toward the close of the passage, that doing nothing at all risks our being surprised when God arrives to give the gift. We are called by the Gospel to some sort of preparation, a faithful watching, while living a kind of decent life, but the only point of that is to enable us to accept the free gift and not miss it or refuse it. But the gift of the Kingdom itself is not dependant on any of that, the promise is not provisional, grace is not in any way conditional. And it will not be canceled, rescinded or revised--regardless. It is his pleasure. So...you bet--Fear Not Little Flock!