Making a Sale?

I was always relieved when the folks would either ask me what extra things we had along with us, or even better, just took the eggs with no further questions.

With that background, it is with interest that we read our Gospel today and think about Jesus' approach to people.

He is not the usual sort of salesman at all!

--He doesn't sugar-coat the difficulties that will come to those who follow him.

--He doesn't minimize the risk.

--Nor did he shrink from the challenge as I did.

He simply puts it out there: “here is Good News for you,” he says,

“whether you are ready to hear it, or want to hear it, or have even thought about it at all.”

He does not seem to be worried that what he has to say may provoke discussion or disagreement;

in fact, he expects it!, even with friends and relatives.

“A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown,” he says.

We have a secular form of his saying: an expert is someone whom you pay to come, from at least 100 miles away.

Someone close to home – we know him or her; and what could he or she have to offer?

This is exactly what people said about Jesus.

Jesus is unperturbed by this kind of carping; he simply goes right on preaching and teaching the in-breaking kingdom of God., and doing the healings and other signs that point to the way that things will be when the kingdom of God is complete.

He keeps the goal firmly in mind, and that makes it possible to deal with all sorts of controversy along the way.

--Unperturbed, resolute, forthright are good words to describe him.

He is anything but a scheming huckster.

And then he prepares the disciples to go and to do the same things – preaching, teaching, healing.

And, even though they do not understand all that was happening in and through them by the power of God, the disciples preached, and taught, and did the signs that point to the ultimate power of God.

Later, they report some success, and still do not know why it is happening.

They only realize that they are not in charge of it all, and somehow God is using all their work in his revealing of the kingdom of God.

If those who were close at hand were thus amazed, sent out, and report results for which they cannot claim personal credit, is it not the same with us?

We were chosen by God in Holy Baptism, with no prior demonstrated aptitude, and almost at once are sent out with an impossible commission – reach the whole world! – and are given on-the-job training at many points along the way.

“Love God,” is the first direction.

“worship only him” is part of the specification: call upon the Lord your God in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.

“Love one another,” the second direction.

“serve” is the specification.

And to one who are more for specifics by asking the question “Who is my neighbor?”,

Jesus replies with a story, not an approved list of actions.

How different it is from McDonalds or other similar situations, in which success is measured by how closely one follows the list of exact specifications.

Here in the church, we are given two overarching principles for our job of 'make disciples” and incredible latitude in carrying it out.

What we should not do is to try to play one principle off against the other, as if they were in competition.

“Love the Lord your God” and “Love your neighbor” are much too closely intertwined for that.

Until we get to the fullness of heaven, the command to worship will be imperfectly fulfilled.

The Lord God deserves our very best, not second-best, not leftovers.

Until we get to the fullness of heaven, the command to love neighbor will be imperfectly fulfilled.

Those around us deserve our very best, not second-best, not leftovers.

Jesus is not the typical sales-manager, because he does not give us a detailed list of instructions of how to do both things at the same time.

He just says Love God and Love neighbor, and speaks out when people try to do one without the other.

Remember when Jesus worshiped in the Temple:

Herod the Great had spent an incredible pile of money tearing down the old one and rebuilding it on a vast scale.

Jesus didn't say anything about that, but he overturned the tables of the money-changers. Because the people were using that beautiful place as a cover for cheating, stealing, abusing their neighbors, instead of loving them.

Remember also when some grumbled about a woman had poured a jar of costly ointment on Jesus as an act of worship.

“Why wasn't that sold and the money given to the poor?”

Jesus replies, “You can be kind to the poor anytime, but she has anointed me for burial.”

Summary: we cannot love God without loving our neighbor; we cannot love our neighbor without loving God.

Whether we are gathered together as a congregation, or scattered around as individuals, Jesus gives us the task of figuring out how this applies in a given situation.

One cannot come to worship with a consumer mentality and grouse about “not getting anything out of it.”

Worship happens for the glory of God, not for the filling of some psychological need of our own.

On the other side, one has not worshiped faithfully if the person can leave without a resolve to change things in his/her own life, or a resolve to help a certain neighbor in a specific way.

Worship implies, calls for, leads to service for neighbor; service implies an invitation to worship.

Since Jesus has given us room to wrestle with the problem and to come up with the best answer we can for this time and place,

we should keep on asking a question:

How does whatever we propose to do fit with our basic job of making disciples?

Does it express the love of God; does it express love of neighbor?

And that will be a fruitful conversation for us to have – in our homes and here in the congregation gathered. 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.