Sunday, October 10, 2021

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15
Psalm 90:12-17
Hebrews 3:12-16
Mark 10:17-22

Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us. Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands.

The cross is often used as a visual representation of the relationships in our lives. The pole or column indicates the relationship between God and man, between heaven and earth. The crosspiece indicates the relationships between people, reaching out from the center to the ends of the earth. Both parts of the cross are necessary for it to be complete, and so it is with relationships. We need to be in relationship both with God and with one another to be whole. As we saw in last week’s Old Testament lesson, the Man was alone even though he was with God. God gave him other creatures, and then the Woman, so that he would not be alone.

The relationship with God takes some work on our part. Amos writes, “Seek Yahweh.” While God does come to us, and most dramatically He came to us in Jesus and on the cross, we are called to seek Him. We could not find Him if He hid His face from us, but we can miss His face if we do not seek Him. We seek Him through prayer, through worship, and through His Word. The pole or column of the cross is a two-way street. God reaches down to touch us as we are reaching up to reach Him. Thank God He reaches down because we could never reach high enough to touch Him.

The people to whom Amos was speaking might have appeared to have the “right” relationship with God, but their earthly relationships proved otherwise. They were trampling on the poor, hating those who called for repentance. They were unjust, untrustworthy and uncharitable.

The lectionary often gives us split passages. It makes me wonder why. The missing verses often have nothing to do with the concept of the passage chosen for that particular Sunday. Those verses have something important to say, but it is a completely different idea. That is certainly true in the missing verses in today’s Old Testament lesson. Verses 8-9 (along with verse 5) is a sermon in itself because it contrasts the limitless glory of the Creator, as we see in the text, with the things worshiped at the pagan influenced shrines in Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba. Obedience to the God who made the stars, brings life, and waters the earth will lead to a life of justice, trust, and charity.

Amos calls the people to this kind of life. He wrote, “Seek good.” When we seek goodness by living a life of justice, trust and charity, we will see the God of hosts. In our relationships with others in this world, not only those that we choose to love but also our neighbors who seem unlovable, we will see the face of God. We were not meant to live alone, but to live amongst all the creatures of the earth, even (especially?) those we might not like very much. We tend to treat those we hate with unkindness and injustice. When we do this, we make it impossible to live and experience the relationship we are called to have with God. We can’t reach toward heaven if we aren’t reaching out to one another. God can’t reach out to us if we are too busy hurting others.

I watch “The People’s Court.” The cases often revolve around money that the giver sees as a loan and the receiver sees as a gift. Judge Milian looks for evidence to decide who is telling the truth. Are there emails or texts talk about repayment? Did the recipient sign anything? Did they make any payments? How much was the loan and could the giver afford to make a gift of so much money? In the end she usually has to make a judgment about the money, and she uses as much information as she can glean from the testimony, including the rise and fall of the relationship between the litigants. Sometimes a gift becomes a loan when the relationship changes. Sometimes the truth is that the money was a loan, and the recipient is just trying to make excuses to get out of paying. When the case goes in that direction, Judge Milian will often say to the defendant, “I wish I had friends like yours. No one has ever given me a thousand dollars as a gift.”

People just don’t give large amounts of money without a reason. What would you think if someone came up to you and offered you a million dollars? If you are normal, one of your first reactions will be the question, “What do I have to do?” We know that in this world no one gives something so extravagant without expecting something in return. In many of the cases seen on “The People’s Court”, the giver often had an underlying purpose, a hope that the recipient would meet the giver’s needs or desires. They say there is no such thing as a free lunch in this world, and we believe it. Most of us feel like we have to reciprocate everything: dinners, presents, or good deeds. Unlike those on the court cases, we tend to want to pay for everything, even gifts. We are so cynical that we won’t even accept a simple act of kindness without trying to pay it back.

On the surface, today’s Gospel story seems to be about a man who honors and respects Jesus and His teachings. Mark tells us that he ran up to Jesus, knelt before Him and called Him “Good teacher.” The reality is that this was little more than flattery spoken by someone who was looking for Jesus to justify the life he was living. The young man is described as wealthy. It is possible that he was even part of the ruling class, perhaps even a Pharisee. He wanted Jesus to tell him what he needed to do to earn a place in heaven, but he was expecting that Jesus would tell him that he’d done more than enough.

Jesus’ initial answer was uplifting to the young man. Jesus quoted the Decalogue, listing the laws that involved relationships between human beings. The man could easily respond that he has never killed, cheated, stolen, lied or coveted and he honored his parents. “Teacher, all these things have I observed from my youth.” He was a good man, good according to the expectations of the world around him. I can almost hear Jesus’ sigh; I hear it every time I think of myself as a good person. I can also say that I have lived up to the words of the law. I’m fairly generous with my resources and I try to do kindnesses for my neighbors.

“Jesus looking at him loved him.” We are no different than the rich young ruler. We want to know what we have to do to earn the kingdom of heaven. We respond to Jesus’ answer in the passage with a sigh of relief. It should be easy for us to earn heaven because we are generally good people. Murder, theft, adultery aren’t part of our daily lifestyle. We even try to bring our good life before the Good Teacher with humbleness and respect. “I have done all these things.” Jesus looks upon us with love.

Yet, in love He responds with a greater expectation. “One thing you lack,” He continues. Even though we do everything right and are generous with our resources, we still have something in our life that is more important. We aren’t willing to give it all up for God. We aren’t willing to let go of our old life and follow Christ without burdens and baggage. For this rich young ruler, the burden was wealth. He became sad when Jesus told him that he had to sell everything, give it to the poor and then follow Him. He walked away because Jesus expected too much.

I wonder if the response would have been different if Jesus had said, “Give half your stuff to the poor.” The man would then have still had enough to survive in the world without relying on the charity of others. He would have had a place to hang his hat. He would have had finances to support the ministry he may have been willing to do. Jesus said, “Get rid of it all.” The young man wanted to know what he had to do to earn what God was giving for free, so Jesus made the payment beyond the young man’s ability to pay.

The disciples were shocked and asked, “Then who can be saved?” The truth is that no one can be saved by their own goodness or good works. But Jesus answered, “With men it is impossible, but not with God: for all things are possible with God.” This is good news! God is offering us a gift worth far more than a million dollars and He is asking nothing in return. When we ask what we have to do to earn this gift, the cost is always beyond our ability to give. How will we respond? Will we respond with sadness, turning away from God or will we truly be humbled by His amazing grace?

St. Teresa of Avila was born in 1515 A.D, which was a time of upheaval in the world. Christopher Columbus found the new world a few years earlier and adventurers were traveling to distant lands in search of wealth and fame. Martin Luther fought against the mammon-centered focus of the Church which was selling indulgences to build a bigger and more ornate building in Rome a few years after her birth.

Even the Carmelite nunnery where Teresa had committed her life to serving God sought wealth above piety. As a matter of fact, the nuns were known to dress in finery to entertain visitors in the parlor of the convent. Teresa taught lessons on prayer for money to aid the financial position of the house. It was thought that wealth bred respect, so the nuns sought wealth to earn the respect of the community. The nuns were even sent out into the world to live among the people, not to serve, but in search of gain for the order.

Teresa was not a particularly righteous or “saintly” woman. As a matter of fact, she is as known for her ability to create trouble as she is for piety. Even in prayer, Teresa the mystic provided fodder for her detractors. At a very young age, she convinced her brother to leave home with her to go be beheaded by the Moors. She was charming and well liked. She considered the enjoyment of her friends as her greatest vice. She joined the Carmelite order not because she was particularly called to serve God, but because it seemed like the easier path for her to take. Her attitude changed as she matured in faith, and she focused her life more on God. She worked at reforming the Carmelite order, but she also retreated into herself where she found great comfort in the presence of God.

She succeeded in creating a reform movement, establishing houses for nuns that centered on God rather than power, position, or wealth. It was a simple life, living strictly in the monastery. They identified with the poor by going shoeless. Though money was not the goal the sisters worked hard to earn enough to support the community and their mission to serve Christ in the world.

We look at the story of the rich young ruler and we wonder what might have happened to him after he walked away from Jesus. Did he continue to live the life of wealth, seeking after the things of this world? Or did he perhaps continue to listen to Jesus and slowly come to the realization that the life he was living did not really fit God’s will? Teresa is not the best example of a saint who has turned their back on everything worldly for the sake of God and the Gospel. However, we can look at her life and see that change often takes a lifetime.

When Jesus says, “one thing you lack” we are brought face to face with the truth that we too have our failings that separate us from God. Even the most pious or righteous person can’t reach God’s expectations. That’s why we need Him. St. Teresa once said, “God treats his friends terribly, though he does them no wrong in this, since he treated his Son in the same way.” Jesus’ answer to the rich young ruler seems so wrong; to require him to give up everything is beyond extreme. Yet, in this very act the man would have found something even better. Perhaps one day he did. We might never know. We can rest in the hope that as we go through life, all too often focused on all the wrong things, we might truly understand the gift God has given by grace through His Son Jesus Christ.

The Psalmist today asks God a simple question, “How long?” According to the title of the Psalm and tradition, this was a song of Moses. It was probably written during a time of trial brought on by the hard hearts of God’s people. The Hebrews wandered in the desert for forty years; this unfortunate detour of their travels was not because God wanted them to be hungry and thirsty, or that He could not lead them on the right path. They wandered for forty years because they rebelled against God at Mount Sinai. During those years of wandering, the Hebrews complained about everything; they even thought it would be better to go back into slavery in Egypt than to continue wandering in the desert and eating manna.

The Hebrew word translated “how long” can also mean “enough is enough.” This makes sense to us. We identify with the question and the interjection. “How long?” we ask, and “enough is enough” we plead. When we are in the midst of trying times, when we are facing trials and temptations, we wonder how long we will have to suffer. We cry out to God seeking some sense of the time. Will we hurt for a long time or for a brief moment? Our cry is for the time to be short, for God to have mercy. We cry that we’ve had enough. We ask God to relent, to repent of the course He has set before us. We seek His mercy and pray for His compassion. We seek His steadfast love.

When we ask the question “How long?” we are usually looking for a number. We like to define time according to our clocks. Human beings have always tried to make His world fit into our ability to define and measure everything. We have determined that there are 60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24 hours to a day, 7 days to a week and 52 weeks to a year. But God has designed the world around us to move perfectly according to His good and perfect will. We can’t make it fit into our own understanding of time and space. We can’t even work to make ourselves perfect, let alone the creation. This is why we seek God. Only He can control the days, weeks and months, and only He knows the course our life is meant to go. He gives life and He takes it. He guides and directs our footsteps.

We might plead with God that enough is enough and ask God to define the time according to our understanding, but God will always give us something better than we expect. He will help us to number our days, to realize that our time is short and that it will be best used according to His perfect will and purpose.

They say that God will only give what you can handle, but I recently heard it put a better way. God will give you only what He can handle. God gives us all we need to live in this world and the next. He has mercy and grants forgiveness that we might truly have more than earthly time, giving us an eternity to spend praising His holy name. He will help us to live through our times of trouble with the hope of what is to come, and He will help us to work according to His grace.

In our Gospel lesson Jesus asked, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one - God.” He knows we are going to fail, and He identified Himself with us. He took on our very nature as His own, despite the reality that He is truly good. Jesus knew the man’s heart, just as He knows ours. He knew the man would be devastated by His answer, but Jesus looking at him loved him. That’s why God forgives. He knows us better than ourselves. He knows we can’t do it on our own. He knows that we will constantly fail to live up to His expectation of our lives. He wants more from us and knows our life will be better if we follow Him.

God calls us to a life in which we “Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts.” We may not be good, but we can do good in God’s name. We can serve Him by using our resources for the sake of others. Jesus made the task impossible for the rich young man, but if he had only listened and followed, he would have discovered the incredible blessing that comes from putting God first in the world.

We are shocked when Jesus says, “Don’t call me good,” because if Jesus isn’t good, then how do we have any chance? But we are reminded by the writer of Hebrews that Jesus shared in our frailties. “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus knew how hard it was to be a human being; He was tested just like every other man. When we go to Him with our pain and frailties, He can sympathize. Yet, He was without sin and because of His own obedience to the will and word of God; we can trust what He says. There is one thing we all lack - God - because we have something that we hold in higher regard than Him. For the Israelites in Amos’s day, it was their twisted justice that trampled the poor and oppressed the righteous. For the rich young ruler, it was his wealth. What is it that Jesus is asking us to give up to follow Him? In what do we trust more than God?

What Jesus was trying to get across to the young man and those who overheard the conversation is that it is not about what we can do to earn our place in the kingdom, but rather what God can do and what God has done. Amos calls the people to live in a relationship with God. He shows them their faults and their frailties. He points out their injustices. Most of all, he shows them that they are no longer in a relationship with their Creator. He shows them that following God is the better way.

They had turned away from Him to worship the false gods, and they were unjust, untrustworthy, and uncharitable. He was calling them to live a life of justice, trust, and charity, but that life was too hard. They focused on their wealth, and the keeping of their wealth. Amos told them to seek something better: the LORD. It might seem like a burden to turn around and follow, but there is where the true blessing is found. It is there we will find peace and rest.

We can’t do this alone. We are all so easily tempted by the world. The excuses are right on the tips of our tongues. What harm is there in calling a loan a gift? Those who take advantage of others, whether giver with demands or a receiver with excuses, do not live according to God’s grace. The truth is we really do harm our neighbors when we do not live according to God’s Word.

We need to help each other. It took just one voiced doubt in the desert to turn the entire nation of Israel against God. It takes just one moment of disobedience to set us on a wrong path. We need to encourage one another to be obedient so that we will all be blessed with the promise.

Christians have an advantage over the psalmist; we have seen the fulfillment of Moses’ prayer. The Lord had compassion on us; He sent His Son to take His wrath upon Himself. He has proven His unfailing love through the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. He has favored us with His Holy Spirit through whom He establishes the work of our hands for His glory. Let us praise God for His greatness, His mercy and His love.

We can’t do it ourselves, but Jesus made it possible for us to approach the throne of grace with confidence and to receive that which God gives so freely. He does not give us more than He can handle. At His throne, we find mercy and forgiveness. It is there that God takes away our burdens and makes us free. It is there He helps us through all our trials and suffering. We get to the throne through the cross because it is there that we see that God does know our suffering and that He can overcome anything we bring before Him.

It is all about grace. We can’t live up to the expectations of God’s commandments, but God is with us through it all. He looks on us with love; He provides the way for us to go. He calls us to follow Him so that we will experience the blessings He desires for our lives. We can confidently sing with the psalmist, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us. Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands,” because God is faithful to all His promises.