Proper 25 (A) — Yes Lord, I Am Willing
Proper 25 (A) — Yes Lord, I Am Willing
Let me read a rubric from the 1979 Prayer Book, Burial Rite II, page 495. “Here there may be a homily by the celebrant, or a member of the family, or a friend.” In Rite I, the rubric is slightly different. It reads, “A Homily may be preached, the people being seated.”
We were taught in seminary that the intention behind this impersonal burial rite was to treat all individuals as equal in the eyes of God. Some churches had a policy that limited the number of flowers so no one would be seen as more or less special than anyone else.
It worked. One funeral director back in Minnesota described our 1928 burial rite as being adequate; what needed to be said was said, no more, no less, and people attending could count on the service being short.
Now, the Episcopal Church, by the addition of the “homily” rubric, invites “something” to be said, if the family desires.
What I am trying to do is to introduce the possibility that something may be said about us when we die, and we are—right now—engaged in the process of writing that script with our lives. As disciples, we could dare ask if it is a script that, in the light of God’s will and purpose, would please Him.
What is your goal? To please an audience of one.
In today’s Gospel, it could be said that Jesus lays down the complete definition of religion. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Every good Jew would be familiar with these texts because they are taken from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.
For that matter, all religion starts with a response to God. We think about Him, our emotions are stirred by His generous gifts and awesome power. And, in that relationship, we find our actions empowered by a supernatural dynamic. (Like being under a great and inspirational teacher.)
The second commandment insists that our love for God must issue in love for humankind. We love God first because it is only when we love God that men and women become lovable.
William Barclay writes:
“The Biblical teaching about man is not that man is a collection of chemical elements, not that man is part of the brute creation, but that men and women are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27). It is for this reason that men and women are lovable. The true basis of all democracy is, in fact, the love of God. Take away the love of God and we can become angry at man the unteachable; we can become pessimistic about man the unimprovable; we can become callous to man the machine-minder. To be truly religious is to love God and to love the men and women whom God made in His own image.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his powerful book The Cost of Discipleship, asks the question:
“What is Christian love? When we love those who love us, our brethren, our nation, our friends, yes, and even our own congregation, we are no better than the heathen and the publicans. Such love is ordinary and natural, and not distinctively Christian. We can love our kith and kin, our fellow countrymen and our friends, whether we are Christians or not, and there is no need for Jesus to teach us that…. He takes that kind of love for granted… how then do the disciples differ from the heathen? What does it really mean to be a loving Christian? The love of Christ is extraordinary, unusual, which is not a matter of course. It is unreserved love for our enemies, for the unloving and the unloved, love for our religious, political and personal adversaries. In every case, it is the love which was fulfilled in the cross of Christ.”
If we fail to love the world that God has created, including those we have trouble loving, we all lose. If we succeed in loving the people in the world for whom Christ died (and that includes all the people), the cross of love wins the victory.
Why? Because all of us, sooner or later, will be in desperate need of that love we do not deserve.
True Christian love for others is motivated by the simple fact that God loves them first. We Christians love not because it will benefit society or because they “deserve it” or are “entitled to it,” but because others are also children of the Most High.
“Just as you did it to one of the least of these…. You did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40)
Now, God’s love becomes the motivating force for love and justice in the world. It is the Spirit’s power in our lives which bestows the vision to see them as Jesus Himself sees them.
In this state (which perhaps only the saints ever reach for), we love God in all things, and in all people.
Free. On the house!
The Christian religion differs from all other religions in being a religion of love. Other religions ask the will to do something; Christianity asks the will to love something. And the first and great command it lays upon the will is this: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.”
If we do not love God, we must will to love Him. So, this commandment rests upon the assumption that love is a matter of the will, and that we can learn to love what we choose to love.
Reading from the Baptismal Covenant in the Prayer Book on page 304, we renew our promises to God by responding to the “will you” questions with the answer, “I will, with God’s help.”
We respond to God’s call to us by opening ourselves up to Him and saying, yes!
None of us knows what may be said of us in our funeral homily. I hope and pray for myself, and others who may cross my path in life, that someone can honestly say that he was at least willing to let God move in and through his life.
Amen.
Resources for further study:
| Track 1 | or | Track 2 |
| Deuteronomy 34:1-12 Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Matthew 22:34-46 | Leviticus 19:1-2,15-18 Psalm 1 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Matthew 22:34-46 |
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