Sermon:  “What Does the Lord Require of You? Love Kindness”

OK, Yankee Fair Chairs – this sermon’s for you.  With just one more day left to donate to our Yankee Fair, what do we get in our lectionary scripture reading, but Jesus’s famous advice to the rich man to give his things away?  When he stops Jesus and asks what he should do to inherit eternal life, Jesus says to him, “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”  Sounds clear enough – Jesus says, give your stuff away.  This sermon could be just one extended infomercial for the Yankee Fair, right?  “Sell what you own, and give the money to the poor” is what we do at the Fair, as we give most of the money we make away.

 “Give generously to others” is almost as direct and to the point as Micah’s words. What does the Lord require of us, but “to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God”?  It all sounds so simple, but as a couple of you pointed out after my very heavy sermon last week about domestic violence, we know hurting children is wrong.  Like the rich man, we know our commandments.  What we really need is help in HOW specifically we might “do justice and love kindness.” So called “safe churches” like ours have done this by prioritizing the safety of kids over the protection of offenders.

Last week, the point I was trying to make was that our commandment to forgive should not stop us from seeing that justice is done for  the most vulnerable among us (the ones Jesus calls his “little ones”).  We can set down that spiritual burden – the practice of kindness– just long enough to speak truth to power and defend the defenseless.  Politeness or bland niceness – looking the other way when we see someone doing wrong – is not the same as true kindness.  It is not kind to ignore injustice – whether it’s terrorism overseas, violence in the home, or people losing their jobs, savings, or homes because of white-collar crime or unethical banking practices.  Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the great spiritual leader of the fight to end apartheid in South Africa, once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”  Justice and kindness are 2 sides of the same coin.

So the burden to be nice, in the name of kindness, may be laid down to speak out for justice.  What burden might we need to lay down to practice kindness?  Mark’s two stories ­– of the children running into Jesus’s arms and the rich man needing to give his things away – both steer us away from the very cautious adult thinking that leads us to hoard money.  Instead, they urge us to throw ourselves with more childlike abandon into the arms of the Lord, with trust in God’s bounty more than in our own resources.  Jesus looks into the sad and anxious eyes of the rich man who kneels before him, and Mark says, ²¹Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”  Jesus loved him, and loves us, enough to tell us the truth – that in order to truly love others, we need to let go of our trust in things.  Jesus looks at us with real compassion – heavily burdened camels that we are – and sees our fear of scarcity.  He invites us to lay down our wealth, to let it go – both for the sake of our souls’ health and for the sake of a world in great need.  I don’t know about you, but it felt very good to do that annual closet-cleaning for the Yankee Fair.  And it’s wonderful to be able to help others, really help, as we have been invited to give, not just through the Yankee Fair, but through One Great Hour of Sharing to South Pacific tsunami and earthquake relief.  Like the rich man, we are called to not just SAY we love all God’s children, but to put our money where our mouth is.

For how can a person, or a nation for that matter, claim to love kindness and care for children if we fail to give them enough money to survive and thrive – like providing good public education or health insurance?  This is a debate that, as we know, is raging out there in our world – both in the media and in our government. I have no easy answer for that – if I did, I would have run for public office.  But I can tell you with great confidence because of these scriptures that Jesus cares about all of us, both poor children and wealthy adults.  And today’s Gospel lesson tells us to live out God’s commandment both to do justice and love kindness, by giving what we have away.  So… we know we should give.  Some questions remain: “What do we give?” and “How much is enough?” 

And those are exactly the stewardship questions addressed in Micah:  ⁶“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?” Micah’s answer turns the questioner from his focus on what amount to put in the plate to look at his actions in the world: “⁸He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

For Micah’s people, the spiritual prescription needed was more action, not more money.  Or to use terms more familiar to us, in our language of stewardship:  The prophet saw the need for more giving of time and talent, not for more treasure.  But the rich man in Mark comes to Jesus already with the gift of his obedience to the law of Moses.  When Jesus reminds the man of commandments such as “¹⁹ ‘You shall not murder; You shall not steal;” the man replies, ²⁰ “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.”  For the rich man who came to Jesus, the spiritual prescription needed was for him to give more money.

Not even God can provide one spiritual prescription that fits all, but Jesus does call us to examine both our giving and our actions.  How might we need to adjust the balance in our giving of time, talent, and treasure in order to live and love with more kindness?  These are questions for us to seriously consider – whether in prayer, or in conversation with trusted friends or family: 

·                           Do we – like Micah’s people – need to be more careful with stewardship of time and talent – as we live out our faith in the world? 

·                           Or do we need to “just do it,” as Jesus commands the rich man – giving more of our material resources away? 

No one sermon could tell us where we need to adjust the balance of our stewardship of time, talent and treasure.  But as people of faith, we know the Lord calls us to give of ourselves completely and with great joy – Jesus tells us that is the way we are to receive fullness of life in the Kingdom of Heaven.

I want to close with a little story from my childhood, one of my favorite memories of an outing with my Grandfather Smallwood.  I’ve talked about him before – a faithful, tithing Southern Baptist from Appalachia.  He always gave 10 percent to his church, even though, as a mill worker, he never earned enough to need to pay any income tax.  He also never saw the need to learn to drive or own a car, which helped keep expenses down.  So we were on one of our frugal outings on the city bus in my hometown, which was so exciting to me when I was a preschooler.  We went to Yum Yum Ice Cream Shop, right across from the University of North Carolina Greensboro campus.  And it’s still there today – “best hot dog in town,” the tour guide said, when I took Jacob last month to tour the campus.  So we were sitting one sunny day on the patio there, savoring our ice cream as only a 4-year-old with her grandfather can do, and looking at the wide green and shady lawn outside the admin building across the street.  “What’s that, Granddaddy?”  I asked.  “That’s the college,” he said.  “What’s a college?” I asked.  “It’s a school for grown-ups,” he said.  “There goes a student to his class.  Look how many heavy books he’s carrying.”  “He looks so sad,” I said.  “I guess it’s because his school doesn’t have a playground.” 

That was a story repeated with some amusement by my family, because we all know how easy it is for us as adults – even as young high school or college students – to get weighted down by all the worries and responsibilities of our lives.  How easy it is to forget to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” as the writer of Psalm 34 calls us to do!  Jesus calls us to a life of freedom from the bondage of worry, full of enough childlike trust in God to celebrate and live our lives in a spirit of abundance.  And when do we see this more at our church than during Yankee Fair week?  Let us love the Lord by practicing kindness in all we do and say this week.  For we are called by the Lord, who loves us, to use all of ourselves – all our time, talent, and treasure in the service of his Kingdom, which we are invited to receive with joy. 

Thanks be to God for this Good News. Amen.

---

Micah 6:6-8

⁶“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”  ⁸He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Mark 10:13-27

¹³People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. ¹⁴But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ¹⁵Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

¹⁷As 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?” ¹⁸Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. ¹⁹You 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.’” ²⁰He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” ²¹Jesus, 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.” ²²When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

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