Sermon for March 1

The reading

Mark 10:17-31

17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: "You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.' " 20 He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?" 27 Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."

28 Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you." 29 Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age -- houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions -- and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."

The message (well a very rough draft, no manuscripts for the next few weeks)

In a few words: we are invited to see there is an emptiness all around us that only God can fill, impossibilities only God can do. 

This Lent, these forty days (not counting Sundays) until Holy Week,  I am going to have a sermon series (my first one I think) on invitation.  The Gospel of Mark is an invitation to faith, a rapid and immediate book, inspired by the Holy Spirit, given to us.  We will look at what, exactly are we inviting people into, relationship, prayer, service, peace and rest. No manuscripts, different readings, just a chance to talk about what we are invited into and how to invite others.  

Most of us like getting invitations to parties, to speaking, to interviews, to weddings or special events. To be invited makes you feel good, like you belong, like you are on some sort of exclusive list.  Sometimes, it can mean too much planning and preparing, too much effort or stress. There are the invitations to a party we really don't want to go to, the one that's really awkward, frightening, at an inconvenient time or out-of-the-way place. A party packed with people you don't like or even worse. a room of people you don't know.   Then there are invitations that are just plain hard to accept, There is a couple struggling to conceive or who just lost a child going to a baby shower, a man who cant find a partner or someone who just lost their spouse going to a wedding for someone else, a woman at a retirement party for a friend while she still has 10 years at a job everyone hates.  What kind of invitation is church?

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus shares some invitations, inviting this decent, wealthy man into conversation. Inviting him to think about his faith and how it is lived out.  Inviting him into love and relationship and  finally inviting him to give away everything he owns and follow Jesus:  For the weathly man, Jesus accepting his invitation to talk is exciting,  Jesus invitation and interest in the man, have you kept the law is great, is a relief, the man has since childhood, Jesus last invitation, sell all you have, give to the poor and follow me, well that’s the invitation to the party he does not want to go to, the planning and preparing is just too much.  Jesus loved this man, but offered him an invitation there is no way he would accept (unless he did and we would be in st wealthy man, hey we would even know him name)  You want to follow the rules, okay, here’s the rules.  This is a reminder that we cannot depend on our works, our resources or our goodness for salvation. 

  

This week for Ash Wednesday, I shared an invitation, this one to the community on facebook / social media and old school signs on the fence, doors and a sandwich board.  I opened our doors for a few hours in the morning and afternoon for anyone who wanted to come in to receive ashes. We had about 35 people stop in, We spent our time together sharing a quick why ashes and introduction to lent, a time of prayer where I invited people to share any prayer requests and the placing of ashes (the reason most folks came).  The invitation to prayer led to some serious concerns, a relative having a cancer biopsy as we spoke, the need to confession a sin (and hear it is forgiven), the start of a very important evaluation in about 10 minutes.    

My message on ash Wednesday was an invitation for us to remember we are dust and to dust we will return and to remember we are dust that is loved by God. I got a reminder of that on Friday, I was working with someone who was pushing me about the witness, growth and poor attendance of my church, I got defensive, really defensive for about 20 minutes.  After a while, I though, hey, you know what, we are broken, failing on our own.  If everything was fine, we couldn’t see what is new, if everything was okay, the world would look different.  If nothing was wrong, there would be no need for church. The community is as dusty as the people on Ash Wednesday, we have things that are missing, that only God can fill, our neighbors have things that are missing, spaces in life that only God can fill