Just Talking

Oh, I know this one. I was at a funeral this week and the preacher there said that the way to treat a gift was (1) to say thank you and (2) use it well.

To whom do you say thanks?

A parent?

No, it was a parent who was being buried.

The grandchildren?

No, they're receivers also.

The community, the nation, the international community? ...it takes a village, you know.

Don't go getting political on me!

Who is the proper recipient of thanks?

I guess the only one left standing is God.

You've run through all of the other possibilities and they are all found wanting, aren't they?

Which god?

What do you mean?

I heard someone say one time that your god is whoever or whatever you place your ultimate trust.

Gold. That's good.

Really? Why?

It's pretty.

Oh, come on!

It's relatively rare.

Can you eat it?

Can you wear it?

Heavy, man.

Can you talk to it?

What did it last say to you?

You must have more of me, I don't care how you get it.

And what did you reply to this gold?

Yes, master, I will do it.

So you didn't say thank you to this god?

No.

Why?

Because this conversation was just taking place inside my head; it was all internal to me.

So saying thank you to yourself seemed kind of pointless, didn't it?

Gold is a god that simply points us back to ourselves, isn't it?

Then let's try another possibility: what about mother nature.

Oh, so romantic... the birds twittering gently, the bees buzzing, the sun rising and setting so beautifully.....

And the birds make corrosive deposits in all the wrong places, the bees are dying by the millions because of some as yet mysterious disease, the beautiful sunsets are caused by dust and other particulates in the air...

And besides all that, every bit of life is possible because of the death of some other part.

The microbes eat and are eaten.

The plants draw from the accumulated bits and pieces of things before them, and in turn are eaten.

The animals eat the plants and other animals.

Man eats plant and animals.

Well, we can't eat minerals directly.

It is all very violent, isn't it?

From whence did this nature come?

From itself?

Then nature is god?

There is no point in trying to say thank you to nature, then, is there?

You live, you die, the residual parts of you body get reused sooner or later.

That's just the way it is.

No point in any conversation with nature.

The only candidate left is the one who made nature.

If such a One could be addressed, that One would be God, from before the origin of anything that is.

And such an origin implies that there is also a Goal, a point of all of this creating and living and dying.

And if there is One who is origin and goal and about whom and with whom we are able to talk, that means that there is a present tense of God as well.

Origin as God I understand; but what about Goal?

Is life just about living and golden grabbing and then dying?

What if the Goal of living came and lived among us,

faced every problem that we have, including the final problem, death,

and then conquered that problem from the inside?

Then that Goal would be God too!

And if that Goal kept giving thanks to God the origin, that conversation would be God being God as well.

God as activity.

God being God.

God being godly.

God doing God from the beginning, always, and now.

Who is this Goal?

You've heard of Jesus?

I hear it most often as a curse.

Yes, lots of people react that way.

Doesn't seem right at all.

Thoughtless, much of it.

That doesn't make it right, though.

I think he is used to the insults.

He gave his back to the whip and his cheeks to those who pull out the beard.

Isaiah said that.

And lots more.

The suffering servant.

The one who did everything asked of him, absolutely everything.

And there are those who say that he lives even though he was executed.

A brutal death, no doubt about the dying.

And there are lots who say that he is still dead.

There are always the skeptics, about anything good.

What will it be for you?

What do you mean?

Is Jesus dead forever, or not?

Sorry, there is no way around the question.

Yes or No sets the course of your life.

You're being awfully dramatic about this.

No, quite practical and realistic.

Here is the place to address a proper Thank You for what we have and are.

If Jesus is the Goal of life,

come into the middle of life,

conquering every enemy including death,

and speaking to us through the Hebrew scriptures and through his own life and experience,

making promises to those who will follow him....

then yes, this is a very big deal indeed.

Promises?

What promises?

I am the living water.

I am the bread of life...given for you.

Today you will be with me in Paradise.

And we know that these are true words...

because this Jesus lives.

That's what the people who were close by have said.

The tomb is empty.

That never happens.

It has this time.

It is the act of the God who is bigger than the observations we make about the usual modes of operation of the earth.

So there are promises, which this Jesus the Goal can keep because he lives.

Now there is something about which we can give thanks.

Thanks for all of the things that we have.

Thanks for the future we anticipate.

Thanks for including us in the conversation.

The spirited conversation.

God in the present tense right this minute.

God opening our hearts and minds.

God enticing us to live with the Goal in mind.

What was the second thing we were to do when we receive a gift?

Use it well.

Use it in a way that points people to the Origin and Goal of the gift in a spirited way.

Use it also in a way that gives aid and comfort to one another.

Can you do that?

Something so straightforward as planting a tree:

It might give fruit for food.

And the preacher will also remind us of the fruit of the tree that got us in trouble for trying to take God's place in the Garden of Eden.

It can give shade and beauty.

And the preacher will also remind us that a tree was the instrument of Jesus' death, so that he might in the right time be raised to new life.

Well, we've been walking quite awhile, and here's the house.

We've just barely started the conversation.

And quite a spirited conversation it is!

Won't you come in now:

it is time for breaking bread and giving thanks to God for it.

You're welcome to join us.

I'd like to see where else this conversation might lead us.

Here's what I've heard, and I want to know more about it:

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.