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Sermon for October 11, 2009
Pastor Sara Kay Olson-Smith
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts: Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Psalm 90:12-17; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31
Grace to you and peace, from God our Creator and from Christ Jesus who satisfies us with his loving kindness.
These are hard texts. Jesus does not mince words here. His word is, as the writer of Hebrews reminds us, sharper than a two edged sword. Jesus is not easy on us. He wants us to follow him, and he knows that our riches always gets in the way of that.
I am not going to spend a lot of time harping on this this morning. But, we who are among the richest in the world, who have much more than we could ever use, need to hear these words from Jesus and from the prophet Amos. Even in the midst of a recession and an economic downturn, we still have much to give in a world that is much in need. We are called to live in such a way that we live out Jesus’ vision of abundant life for each and every one, even, perhaps especially, if it means sacrificing some of our richness. We, dear ones, have much to give.
While I was confronted and condemned by these readings, I was also struck today by our psalm. Over the past months I have been sustained by the psalms. I read one each morning as part of my devotions and have been strengthened by the honest and authentic faith found in these prayers. In my doubts and laments and sorrow, along with my hope and joy, these songs root me in the ancient story of God’s presence and God’s care for God’s people. For centuries we’ve been singing these songs, songs which will help to anchor us in the future, too.
Today, we hear from Psalm 90: “So teach us to number our days,” the psalmist sings, “that we may apply our heart to wisdom...” I listen to these words of lament and hope as we here at St. Peter’s are counting our days, knowing there are not too many more of them for us as a community in this place. And we, with the psalmist, beg that God will be gracious to us. The psalmist sings her hope to God with trust and expectation despite the suffering and affliction she has suffered. The psalmist reminds us that each day God wakes us with God’s great love. Each morning we wake to the wonder and goodness of God’s steadfast, never-ending, and unchanging love for us.
The promise here is that life is God’s gift to us; everything we are and everything we do, all that we have is God’s gift to us, and it is enough. “The witness here is that joy, satisfaction, and gladness are not marketable or manufacturable goods that can be seized” or bought or even made. It is all gift, made “freely available, proffered without condition by the creator and redeemer of all.”
It is this psalm which informs and shapes our hearing of this gospel reading, as hard as it might be to hear. For it reminds us that all that we are and all that we have is God’s gift to us, even our waking each day. It makes me think of my friend Rony. Each time I would ask how he was doing, he’d say, “Blessed.” We are, indeed, blessed, and all that we are can be used to be a blessing.
When Jesus encounters that rich man along the way, he calls him to use all that he has and all that he is to be a blessing, to give away all that prevents him from following Jesus and to come, to be with the One who gives life and healing and joy. The man asks about eternal life, but Jesus calls him to life, not just when he dies, but right now, to the heavenly joys here, on earth.
We come to know life and joy in following Jesus, even now. There is joy, too, in the sacrifice and in the generosity. There is life in the difficult work of following Jesus. There is freedom as we let go and fall into the trustworthy arms of God. As we open our hands and hearts, letting go of all that we cling to, God will fill us and shower us with God’s goodness.
Perhaps you remember the late Arthur Ashe, the world champion tennis player. He contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion during heart surgery and wrote a memoir as he was dying. Arthur Ashe wrote, “I’m glad I have enough money to live comfortably. I decided long ago that, on the whole, I much prefer having money to not having it. On the other hand, I also learned a long time ago what money can and cannot do for me. From what we get we make a living. What we give, however, makes a life.”
Like this community, Arthur Ashe faced his mortality and decided to make the most of it. He realized that we are not here forever and that we only have so many chances to make a difference. He wrote, “As I settled into this new stage of life I became increasingly conscious of an exhilaration. I felt pain, but also something like pleasure in responding purposefully, vigorously. I had lost many matches on the tennis court, but I had seldom quit. I was losing, but playing well now: my head was down, my eyes riveted on the ball, I had to be careful but I could not be tentative.”
Beloved people at St. Peter’s, like Arthur Ashe, you, in these last days and months of your life together have not been tentative. You have taken this time to live with courageous generosity and faithfulness. You are numbering your days, but you are doing so with purpose and with vigor. You are, I believe, finding life in your dying, for in the dying of this congregation, you are giving yourselves away. The things that have made up this ministry are being shared with all sorts of congregations who will use them for God’s purpose. Bibles will be shared, hymnals shared , candles and music and books and equipment given away and used for God’s work. God is, indeed, as the psalmist prayed, prospering the work of your hands.
This building, too, will be sold and used to further proclaim Jesus, and to continue St. Peter’s ministry here in the North Plainfield, and more. The resources from this sale will be used to build up God’s ministry here in New Jersey, in Chile, for seminary students and in ways that we cannot possibly imagine. You are giving all that you have to God’s people. This is courageous and is not, as that rich man knew, easy. But there is, is there not, joy in this sharing, in trusting all that goodness of which we are a part. There is joy in knowing the life that comes from generosity and participating with God in God’s miraculous work in the world.
God will prosper the works of your hands, wherever you might end up beyond this place. It is not just the “stuff” of this congregation that is being shared but each one of you and your tremendous gifts. Each of us has come to know what it means to live as a follower of Christ with purpose and vigor, with generosity and compassion. Wherever we will land, God will prosper the works of our hands.
In the midst of all we face, in the deep sorrow of these days, Jesus looks at us, and loves us, and will be with us as we journey forward. We are, as Rony said, “blessed.” For God satisfied us with loving kindness which we did not ever earn and which we could never purchase. And this is enough for us, for God’s love will will carry us through all that we lose. God’s love will meet us as we journey into the unknown future. God’s love will call us into futures that are not empty, but hopeful. God’s love will give us purpose and vigor. God’s love will prosper the work of our hands. God’s love will make the impossible possible. God has satisfied us by God’s loving kindness in the morning, so we shall rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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