1. Good Morning. Let’s
pray. O Lord, may the words of mouth and
the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our
Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening
Comments: I’ve entitled today’s
reflection “Live Lightly” and I sense that it’s what God is saying to us though
our Scripture Readings today.
Let
me set our mindset for this reflection by asking a few framing questions that
will help each of us determine whether we are in fact living lightly or living
heavily.
Here
are the questions. Let’s see what our
answers to them are shall we:
·
How important is a sense of “peace – peace with
God” to you?
·
Is it more important than almost anything else?
·
Can you imagine having minimal possessions and
being at peace?
·
Think about those things that give you deep
satisfaction like your reputation, savings in the bank, insurance policies,
home, children, grandchildren, your car, your many toys - your little indulgences
like what – you name them.
Imagine now that God came to you and offered you absolute “peace”
but required of you the total relinquishment of all of those things. What would be your answer?
·
What of those things would you find most
difficult to relinquish?
·
Look at how tightly you are holding onto them. Can you imagine lightening your hold on them?
Today we’re
going to really explore how we can and indeed must lighten our hold on
everything so that we can come into a more intimate relationship with our God.
The
key reading from today’s readings is from St. Paul’s first
letter to the Christians in the flourishing port city of
Corinth.
Let’s
look at 1 Corinthians chapter 7 beginning at verse 29:
1Cor. 7:29 What I mean, brothers, is
that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they
had none; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy,
as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep;
31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them.
For this world in its present form is passing away.
In
these rather disturbing words Paul is challenging us to live lightly. In today’s terms Paul is encouraging us to
have a small footprint on this earth and the reason for this is that the time is short.
Now
that’s a very interesting reason don’t you think?
People who have a large and heavy footprints
on this earth aren’t thinking that the time is short are they?
I think it’s a truism that rich people die
hard. Death for rich people can be very
very hard!
I
suspect that they’re thinking that there is plenty of time. Plenty of time to get all that they want to
get done – done.
Time
to grow their wealth! Time to enjoy
their wealth!
But Paul is
telling us something very different isn’t he?
Time is shot so live life lightly!
The Other Scriptures:
Before we really bore down on this theme I wonder what else if anything
the other readings for today might tell us.
In our Old Testament reading from the Book of Jonah we
heard God commanding Jonah to go to the mega metropolis of Nineveh and to call
them to repentance.
That’s like God commanding you and me to go
to the city of New York and to go from one end of it to the other proclaiming
this message,
“Repent or God Almighty will destroy this city in 40
days.”
Well Jonah did this and do you remember
what happened? Yes, they repented!
Not only did they repent but God was true
to His word and did not destroy them.
The time was short but their repentance stopped the devastation of that
enormous city!
Time was short but they repented of their sinful lives and God did not
destroy the city!
In our Psalm
reading we heard David saying:
Psa. 25:4 Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;
Psa. 25:5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my
hope is in you all day long.
Psa. 25:6 Remember, O LORD, your great
mercy and love, for they are from of old.
Psa. 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O LORD. – (and I am not!_
Psa. 25:8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
Psa. 25:9
He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.
In these verses we hear a cry to God to show mercy and give
guidance.
I imagine that many of the Ninevites must have made
this plea when they heard Jonah’s proclamations of impending doom!
But I
think the key verse was verse 9:
God guides the humble in what
is right and teaches them his way. Psa.
25:9
God guides the humble! The Ninevites were humbled and repentant and
ready to hear from God!
Now this is very very
important. “God guides the humble.”
Let me stop for a second and ask us this question –
Do you think the humble of this world have a light or heavy footprint in life?
Now before we dig in any deeper turn with me to our
Gospel reading from Mark chapter 1 beginning at
verse 14.
Before we read that I need to remind us that Mark
seems to be writing to a community of believers who were recently devastated by
persecution. This persecution has all
but wiped out their leadership and perhaps hope itself.
This explains the Gospel’s almost single-minded
focus on the suffering of Jesus, and His efforts to get the disciples to
understand the meaning of suffering and its role in overcoming evil.
Listen now to our reading from Mark
and see if, in the light of what we’ve been talking about, you can see
something unfolding:
Mark 1:14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into
Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
Mark 1:15 “The time
has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good
news!”
Mark 1:16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he
saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were
fishermen.
Mark 1:17 “Come,
follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
Mark 1:18 At once they
left their nets and followed him.
Mark 1:19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw
James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.
Mark 1:20 Without delay he called them,
and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed
him.
The disciples, to a man,
responded immediately to Jesus’ call to discipleship. Simon and his brother Andrew left their nets
to follow Him immediately. James and his
brother John and they stopped what they stopped preparing their fishing next
and following Him immediately!
Let’s stop for a second to think about that . . . .
They stopped everything and followed Him. Was
their reaction unusual?
To my understanding it was! It
seems unusual to me that tradesmen like them would stop what they needed to do
to survive to follow Jesus.
I suppose that might be like Jimmy and Chase Miller dropping everything
to follow Jesus onto the mission field in Africa!
That decision would immediately impact their children. Hunter would have to come home and join them
as there would be no money for her college education. In fact, all of their children would have to
leave their schooling to be home schooled by the Millers on the mission field.
It would impact us at TCC.
Jimmy’s Deaconate responsibilities would no longer be done and Chase’s
Prayer ministry here would cease. We at
TCC would feel their absence tremendously.
So their reaction tells us something about them – they were men who
could make a commitment and follow through very very quickly.
It also tells us something about Jesus – He was someone who could prompt
such an immediate commitment and response from those He called.
These men left their big footprints in their village to adopt a very
very small footprint as itinerate preachers and healers.
Jesus once said:
Jesus replied,
"Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has
no place to lay his head." Matt 8:20
Now that’s a pretty light and small footprint don’t you think?
Jesus, the Son of God, Himself has a miniscule footprint. He lives very lightly upon the face of His
earth!
Let us never forget that we call ourselves Christians which means we
follow Jesus. How many of us would be
willing to follow Jesus into voluntary poverty?
How many of us would drop everything right now and follow Jesus out of
this Church into the future that He knew but we didn’t?
Don’t be too quick to cry out “Me!
I’d follow Him anywhere He would lead me?”
That’s nice but let me change the question and get a little more
personal.
How many of us would surrender our addictions to follow Him?
How many of us would give up our dreams for retirement, for a happy well
fed life, for a successful career and so on . . .
The actual answer is “Very few!”
In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7 we read:
But
small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find
it. Matt. 7:14
Only a very few of us are willing to pay the price to find the road that
leads to life! Only a very few are truly
willing to relinquish our heavy footprint on this earth for a much lighter one!
Think for a moment about that. . .
This call to live lightly is counterintuitive to
the world’s mindset. Our dominant
mindset is to establish a dynasty not relinquish our dream for one!
I can hear my Republican friends saying “That’s
un-American! And the sad truth is that
they’re right. It is un-American! Sadly it us un-American!
But Paul says . . .
1Cor. 7:29 . . . the time is short. From now on those who have
wives should live as if they had none; 30 those who mourn, as if they
did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as
if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world,
as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing
away.
So let me summarize that our Lord is calling upon us to do today:
He’s calling upon you and me
· to “leave” a lot of stuff behind
to follow Him.
· to detach ourselves from anything
that has a control upon minds, hearts or bodies.
· To relinquish the ties of family
and possessions in favor of the primary tie to Him!
Paul is not counseling us to abandon our marriages or our engagement
with the business of this world but rather he is counseling us to refuse to be absorbed in
such realities, when the only lasting reality is that of the coming reign of
God!
Let’s pray . . .
May this Eucharist give us the strength, resources,
and intelligence we need to be converted personally and socially again this
Sunday.
