Pentecost III, Proper 7, Year C

Zechariah 12:8-10,13:1
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 9:18-24

For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Several years ago at a wedding here, one of the bridesmaids left her purse. Before a wedding, the bridal party usually prepares itself in one of the rooms off the undercroft. The bridesmaid must have put her purse next to pile of stuff we'd collected for the bazaar or by some used clothing we'd collected for Goodwill or N Street Village. In any event, the purse was lost, and we didn't find it until nearly two years later. We returned the purse to the astonished bridesmaid who told us about the consequences that befell her due to this misfortune.

On the wedding day, the bridesmaid didn't notice that she'd lost the purse. She was having a good time and perhaps slightly distracted by a mild attraction to one of the groomsmen. When the party ended, the two of them said their goodbyes – probably with curious sighs of what might've been, but the bridesmaid was flying back home to Seattle in the morning. Of course, she didn't. The next day she couldn't find her purse, which had her driver's license, and these days no one is flying without an I.D.

She was in a bind to say the least. It took her two weeks to get an I.D. sent out to her so she could fly home. That's a major inconvenience, possibly a major expense – especially if she wasn't someone's house guest. If she were a house guest, at a minimum she would've risk straining a friendship. Hopefully, she had an understanding employer. My guess is that in half of such cases she'd be fired. Likely she had an tightly-packed schedule with too much to do and not enough time, and the lost purse cost her two weeks. It was rotten fortune, full of miserable headaches, potentially a nightmare situation.

However, she made the best of it. She made some phone calls and tracked down the groomsman and told him that she'd been detained in town. They went out to dinner and had a lovely couple of weeks together before the new I.D. got to town, and postponed responsibilities forced her back home. But the couple decided they'd keep in touch, and soon the groomsman flew out for a visit. A bi-costal romance blossomed. In about a year, they were married.

It's a great story in part because the bridesmaid did not let her rotten fortune be the last word; she did not let it make her sad; she did not feel sorry for herself. She was open to change; she was flexible and adapted; she found opportunity in her inopportune circumstances. In her misfortune, God was doing better things for her than she probably dared to imagine, better than she could do for herself.

What seems to us as bad is often the best thing that has ever happened to us. Each of us know this. It's a fundamental Christian truth. In our prayer, in meditating upon God's activity in our lives, each of us should be able to see many examples where bad, annoying, painful things turned out to be good, even terrific; they turned out to be things that helped to convince us of God's love and care for us.

S. Paul told the Romans, "in everything God works for good with those who love him, [those] who are called according to his plan and purpose." (Rms 8:28) In the big scheme, everything can work for the good. We don't always understand how and why, but all things may serve God's purpose of bringing his life and love to every human being. That faith, that certainty, that bedrock Christian belief, gives us enormous strength to deal with all of the hurts and injustices and inconveniences of life.

We often fear change. It's the unknown. It's the risk of losing what we cherish, or at least losing what we're used to. But when we look at our lives the biggest changes and the biggest risks in our lives have produced the greatest fruits: leaving home; trying to get a date; getting married; having children; quitting a job; changing careers; serving our country; moving our home; reaching out to someone; fighting an addiction; getting involved in the Church. These are fearsome decisions. If we refuse to make changes in our lives, then we stagnate. We die.

Faith in Christ gives us strength to change because change is a part of God's plan for every human life. All of life is about growing in God's image. That means we have to change, to try new things, to take risks, to build new relationships. This builds faith. In taking such risks, we are more likely to perceive God's presence with us, his sustaining care. We become more certain that God put us on this planet for a purpose, that we have a role in his plan.

When we allow Christ into our lives, when the Church becomes important to us, we have to remember that we are here to serve God. The Church does not belong to us. We belong to the Church. The Church is not here to fulfill our preferences and tastes. We are here to help the Church. The Church is not a club, seeking our approval, catering to our desires, trying to put us at ease. Not at all. We are here to give our lives to Jesus Christ through service to his Church, through our worship, through loving one another.

There are two ways for us to look at our existence. One, what has life done for me? Or, two, what I have I done to contribute to life? The Christian approach is number two. What have I given back to life? How have I made this world a better place? What have I done for other people? Public policies and institutions and programs are important ways to improve life, but what matters most are ordinary things, daily sacrifices and commitments and kindnesses, simple personal interactions and relationships.

When we look back at our lives what do we see? In S. Matthew's gospel, Jesus speaks of God welcoming the blessed into his kingdom because when he was hungry they gave him food, when he was thirsty they gave him drink, when he was a stranger they welcomed him, when he was naked they clothed him, when he was sick they visited him, when he was in prison they came to him. The blessed ask Jesus, "When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison?" The king of heaven says, "Whenever you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me." We serve God when we serve one another.

What have I done to contribute to life? Each of us should regularly pray on that question, and hold ourselves up to God and ask, "What do you want from me? What are you calling me to do?" We usually apply the word ‘vocation' to God's call to clergy and nuns and monks. That's a mistake. Every human being has a vocation. God calls every one of his creatures to participate in his plan. But we have different roles and ministries.

S. Paul told the Corinthians, "God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing?" The answer is obviously, "No." Everyone makes a different contribution to our corporate well-being. What's important is to contribute. Paul wants us all to do our part. He assures us that no ministries are insignificant.

We are only truly ourselves, we are only truly alive when we are helping other people. Ask God, "What am I doing with my life? Am I supporting friends and family? Am I supporting people I don't much care for? Am I trying to build relationships?" If we're not attentive to God's call, life will seem a waste. We become bored, uninspired, and usually bitter. The best way out of sadness or bitterness or dejection or boredom is by helping other people, being involved with other people. If we want life, then stop worrying about ourselves and focus on other people. Some people choose to be sad and bitter and dejected because it's familiar, it's what they know, and they're too afraid to change, to open to the gospel and to a new way of existence. They may be Christian, but they want to keep Jesus at bay; they handcuff him because the thought of experiencing life in a different way is too frightening.

Life is not easy, but God created us to have joy and contentment, and making Jesus part of our lives, making God's ways our ways, will give us joy and contentment. If we don't have it, the fault is not someone else's. It's in our hearts. There are always going to be difficult times, emotional scars, grief, mourning, disappointments, rejections, injustices, disasters, but if we build a relationship with Jesus, and that involves building relationships with other people, then misery does not dominate our lives. Rather, we have joy and fulfilment.

Jesus said in today's gospel: whoever lives for themselves will lose their life; they will have no life. But whoever loses their life and lives for Jesus, lives for other people, they will have life, and they will have it abundantly.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.