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Sermon October 10, 2021
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 23, Track 2
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BProp23_RCL.html
Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” Mark 10:27
Please Be Seated
My father died right before my second semester in seminary. The school was going through some financial difficulties and sold the apartment building I was living in. I had to make a choice about where I would live for my second year of seminary. I had to move from the 2-bedroom apartment I shared with another student. My choices were a 1-room accommodation on campus or a 1-bedroom apartment way uptown. The seminary would pay for any storage costs incurred.
I chose the 1-bedroom apartment.
The very next year, the seminary required me to move back onto campus. I was able to be in a 1-bedroom apartment, but it was smaller than the one I’d been in, so I needed to put some things into storage. It was then I could see clearly that my inability to put things into storage the previous year was because I was grieving the death of my father. I needed so many things around me, especially the doll collection I’d had since childhood. While I was grieving, I could not bear to put that collection into storage. The next year when my grief wasn’t so palpable, I had no trouble putting that collection into storage. I had no trouble letting go of my possessions.
This past week I was on a virtual Bible study with the Union of Black Episcopalians. We discussed today’s Gospel. I heard many stories about how difficult a time we have in giving up our possessions. Some people spoke about having collected possessions when beloved family members had died. The possessions often sat in boxes and were not used; however, they’d been there for 30 years. Something about our possessions gives us comfort, especially when we are grieving, I think.
It feels impossible for us to give up our possessions. Yet, Jesus tells us that for God, or I’d say with God, all things are possible.
What material possessions are we holding on to that may be blocking our relationship and reliance upon God?
Because in verses 29 and 30, Jesus says:
“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, 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.”
Once we are willing to let go, we will get a hundredfold.
When we clear out the space, whether it is our material possessions or even our minds, we are available for a different relationship with God and with each other.
Letting go is possible with God.
On Tuesday, I was invited to a lecture at Elizabethtown College with Dr. Rebecca Barrett-Fox. The dinner and lecture were sponsored by the Elizabethtown Peace Fellowship. Dr. Barrett-Fox is from Lancaster County and a graduate of Juniata College. She is currently at Hesston College in Hesston, Kansas. She is a researcher of religion and hate. Yes, she studies hate.
The title of the lecture was “Worthy of Their Calling: Can American Churches Reject Hate?” The information about the lecture stated
“…the white supremacy, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, and classism necessary for the degradation of our society’s most vulnerable rests upon hateful Biblical interpretation and theologies. Unfortunately, these circulate today not just in explicitly hateful religious settings but in popular churches and familiar theologies. Indeed, a rising number of religiously unaffiliated Americans report that they reject organized religion because they have experienced it as hateful--more hateful, in fact, than their other social spheres.
Dr. Barrett-Fox encouraged us to examine why churches often promulgate or tolerate hate, how we benefit from it, and why it’s so difficult to see and root out. More importantly, she asked us to consider why churches, for reasons both spiritual and material, must address hate in order to survive and to be worthy of surviving.”
Yes, she gave a provocative and compelling 45-minute talk. Can we as The Episcopal Church and can we as The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen let go of any hate we promulgate or have promulgated? Will we examine ourselves as the Jesus who looks at us with love asks or will we walk away shocked and grieving because we are so tied to these hateful Biblical interpretations and theologies?
Our Gospel today is about letting go. When we grieve, we are letting go. The loss feels near impossible to live through. Jesus reminds us that with God, it is possible.
When we cling to our possessions or our favorite interpretations of life, even though they cause harm, Jesus asks us to let go. The letting go may feel impossible, but Jesus reminds us that with God, it is possible.
Even though it is challenging to let go of so much in our lives, let us live into Jesus’ words that “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”?
Amen
https://www.etownian.com/features/religious-scholar-named-2021-peace-fellow/
