Proper 26 B + Silver and Gold + 10.31.21
All Santos,
Oxnard
(Ruth 1:1-18; Psalm 146; Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 12:28-34)
From the
Book of Ruth, Chapter 1 today:
Where you
go, I will go;
Where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people
shall be my people,
and your God my God.
Where you
die, I will die—
there will I be buried.
And from
today’s gospel reading from Mark Chapter 12:
Then the
scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is
one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart,
and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s
neighbor as oneself,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt
offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to
him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
What is family? What is faithfulness? These are the questions
that come to mind for me today. For Ruth, it is the tragedy of losing two close
family members to death and one to separation that causes her to reconsider
whom is her family.
Many of you know that last week I had the pleasure of being
at a wedding for two dear friends, Armanda and Evan. While both had many family
members there, it was a very gay wedding in that chosen family was definitely
present also. The officiant was a long-time friend of one of the brides, and I
had the honor of saying grace. Well, you know what happens when you ask a
pastor to say grace. I could not help myself. I shared John O’ Donohue’s
blessing for a marriage, followed by some actual blessing of the food and those
present in English and Portuguese (in honor of one of the brides). The end of
the blessing goes like this:
“As warmly as the air draws in the
light,
May you welcome each other's every gift.
As elegant as dream absorbing the night,
May sleep find you clear of anger and hurt.
As twilight harvests all the day's color,
May love bring you home to each other.”[1]
May love bring you home to each other. I love this blessing
poem so much because it speaks of how marriage and indeed every loving
relationship is a choice. We choose to be family. We choose to work through our
issues and always return to love. We are a chosen part of God’s family too, and
in that we remember our baptism.
Jesus meets a scribe in today’s gospel reading. Unlike the
others who strive to test him, this one almost seems random. Just another Joe
Scribe. But no one is random. God puts people in our lives for a reason.
Perhaps you have experienced this. The people who just happened to be your
coworkers but turned out to be like family. Perhaps you had an intense
experience with another group, and in it you became close friends with certain
people who surrounded you, even if you had nothing in common when you first
met. An extreme example of this can be seen in the movie “Queen and Slim,”
(2019) in which an African American couple meets on a date having connected on
an app, only to have everything go sideways when a police officer stops them on
what should have been a routine traffic stop. Instead, their lives are forever
changed and they unwittingly become the face of a movement. In this complex
movie which shows the problems of anti-police violence even as it confronts the
problem of police violence, this couple goes from being total strangers who do
not even like each other very well to being a couple that is completely
dedicated to each other.
God puts people in our lives and sometimes they come to mean
a lot to us. Sometimes the people that should mean a lot to us feel distant
from us for a time.
Who is your family? Chosen or otherwise? Perhaps some of your
chosen family is at this church. I hope you have people here who have your back
even as you support them.
Just as Ruth dedicates herself to Naomi and their
relationship, I ask you today, what relationships can you nurture? Remember, it
takes two to tango, so you can invest in certain relationships but if another
person cannot or will not respond, it may be good to find the one or ones who
will be there for you too. Sometimes others will not respond as we expect, but
we also need to ask for what we need from each other. Work on all the newer
relationships in your life, even as you maintain whatever relationship you can
with your family of origin. It is like the girl scout saying, “Make new
friends, and keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.” The truth is,
family may be people who are blood relations, or they may be people of no
relation to you who treat you like family.
To whom have you made a special commitment? While I was in
New Jersey, I also got to spend some time with Alene’s and my godchild, Inori.
It felt so good to spend a couple of days with her family and her just being
present, playing and reading Bible stories together. If there is someone to
whom you have made a similar commitment, try to find a time to be present to
them in the next week or month, letting them know what they mean to you. If you
do not have a godchild, perhaps this is a friend or relative you know needs
extra support right now.
Because God is most present in the love we show each other.
As Jesus
said in the gospel, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord
is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this,
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment
greater than these.”
Amen.
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