The following homily was shared at our Sunday Evening Eucharist service 10/13/24.

Scripture Readings:

“Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Teach us to number our days aright,
   that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
   Have pity on your servants!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
   that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Make us glad, for the days when you afflicted us,
   for the years when we saw evil.
Let your work be seen by your servants
   and your glory by their children;
and may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
   prosper the work of our hands for us!
   Prosper the work of our hands!” (Psalm 90:12-17)

“As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,
knelt down before him, and asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother."
He replied and said to him,
"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
"You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
"How hard it is for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words.
So Jesus again said to them in reply,
"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
"Then who can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said,
"For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God."
Peter began to say to him,
"We have given up everything and followed you."
Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."“ (Mark 10:17-30)

How can we ask of the Lord, “Make us glad, for the days when you afflicted us, for the years when we saw evil”? How can we be glad? I think that when we give things up to God, it frees our heart from worry and opens it up for rejoicing. Consider the man who has followed the Ten Commandments all his life, a good man whom Jesus looks at and loves. When Jesus told him he must get rid of everything he has and give to the poor, “…he went away sad, for he had many possessions.”

It is indeed a sad thing for us to consider- losing everything. But as it is written in the book of Job, everything we have was given to us by God in the first place. Should we be dismayed, then, if he were to take it away? Yet, he doesn’t always wrench things out of our grasp. Instead, he wants us to give up our things, as well as our own lives, freely.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that we must get rid of every possession immediately; just that we must hold everything with open hands. This includes money, our resting place, belongings, and even human relationships. Jesus says, “…there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come." Here he promises us a hundred times more now even in the present age. I don’t know how this can be, but all things are possible with God. So life can be abundant for us even here on this sin-damaged earth.

The truth is that we were never our own. We never are truly in control of our own lives or anything in them. That is why we should entrust ourselves to God.

Jesus teaches us also to give glory to God. "Why do you call me good?” says the Son of God. “No one is good but God alone.” This is how we can be glad, though we have seen many years of evil: we can daily acknowledge that nothing we have belongs to us, that all the glory and power belong to him. We are solely dependent on the Living God, who loves us. He knows that this world is dying because of the damage of sin, and so he calls us out of dust to depend on him, the only one who will last. And he is already redeeming creation through his Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself is certainly no stranger to giving things up for the Father; he gives up his security in life and his own body and blood in death. And after giving up these things he was resurrected, as is our hope, as well. Through him, even we can be saved. For all things are possible with God.

To Depend on Him: Jamie Palmer

POWERED BY SQUARESPACE