Year B — Proper 11

The Rev. Gerald W. Keucher

Ours is a very ecumenical age. We prize diversity, and we try to listen well and to respect the opinions and dignity of others. And this is good.

But because we're so tolerant, we are reticent about sharing our faith; or worse, we have become so broad-minded that we have no faith to share. Now this is not so good.

It's understandable, I think, why we are reluctant to claim and proclaim the objective truth and reality of God. Like all religions, Christianity has had, at certain historical moments, an exclusivist mentality — "I have the truth, so if you disagree, you're wrong, and you must be converted or else!"

It's good to get away from this approach, but it sometimes seems that in our efforts to recognize the plurality of human cultures and beliefs we may have gone too far in the direction of timidity.

We do not need to argue with people about religion. The New Testament letters warn us again and again not to argue about religion.

But when we tell the story of God's love for the world, we are not arguing about religion; we are telling the truth about what has happened to us, what God has done in us and for us.

God is more than a personal comforting coach or a beneficent Presence inside us. God is also the Almighty transcendent Being Who contains all creation within Himself, the God Who is present in every part of it, but Who is unimaginably greater than all of it. But the high and lofty One Who inhabits eternity and Whose Name is Holy also dwells in us, and this is where we begin to find Him, once we bring ourselves to recognize Him.

God has done more. He has given us more than we can ask or imagine. For while we were still alienated from God, while we still thought that money, or cars, or social prestige, or children, or respectability or success could provide meaning for our lives, God took the initiative, not waiting for us to seek Him. He sought us and gave us a way to be joined to one another and to Him as members of Christ's Body that died and rose again.

This is not wishful thinking or pie in the sky. These are truths that we can build our lives on. And, as St. Paul reminds us in another place, it is crucially important what we build on Christ's sure foundation.

The foundation is God's gifts to the world in Christ. Creation is a gift. God's revelation is a gift. God's call is a gift. Christ's reconciliation of the world to God is a gift.

If we truly understand that our lives are founded on God's gifts to us, then our response will be gratitude. We will not take the gifts as entitlements that should have been greater. We will not concentrate on the gifts themselves.

When we receive a gift, our first impulse is to hug the giver. Gifts are signs of a relationship. We don't give gifts to people we don't know. We give gifts to establish and maintain relationships. When the gift becomes more important than the relationship, there’s something wrong with the relationship.

So if we build lives of gratitude on the foundation of Christ's gifts, they will be generous lives. We will give in response to God's gifts. We will give our money away, lots of money, a proportion off the top, to the Church and to organizations that are carrying on Christ's reconciling work in the world.

We will give our time away. We will offer great chunks of time, and we will be involved in Church and community affairs for the betterment of the world God has given us.

We will give ourselves away. We will be open to people wherever we meet them. We'll always be ready with a kind word. We'll get into the habit of trying to see things from someone else's point of view. We'll try to see Jesus' face in those around us.

Lives like these speak. Generous lives speak in ways that anyone can understand. Lives that discern and respond to God's gifts speak with great effectiveness. "Preach the Gospel at all times and in all places," St. Francis of Assisi said. "If necessary, use words." There are so many ways to proclaim the Gospel that don't use words. Words, in fact, can be ineffective and even counter-productive, because sometimes our words are not sincere and heartfelt.

However, anyone can read our hearts. Anyone can hear what our lives proclaim. We can deceive ourselves, but we can't deceive others. Anyone can know whether we are someone they can trust; our lives will tell them. Anyone will know whether we are kind and honest and reliable in all things great and small. Our lives will tell them.

We have God's story to tell. Our lives must tell God's story. If we seek to witness to God's love with our lives, we will run no risk of being exclusivist or intolerant. We will, however, most certainly be changed and converted, like a married couple who have worked so hard at their relationship and grown together in such a way that they are truly no longer two but one flesh.

We have a story to tell. It's the story of God's love for the world. When others look at our lives, do they hear God's story?