Sermons

"What Must I Do?"
Sermon on Sunday, October 13, 2024

 
Dear church,

I love the first part of the young man’s question in today’s gospel reading. “What must I do?” It’s a core question in all religions. After all that worshipping and spiritual stuff, religion places us in a position of accountability before the highest court. How do my beliefs and values inform what I do, how I treat people, where I put my time, energy and money? We also ask this question as a church and in our church council. “God what do you want us to do in this world?”

 It’s the second part of the young man’s inquiry that troubles me. “What must I do,” he asked, “to inherit eternal life?” This comes from someone who was already privileged, blessed, maybe a bit spoiled. He came from an affluent home and had probably been treated to the best education available, ate well, didn’t have a care. And now he wants eternal life. Does he know what he is asking for? Doesn’t he know that you can never “earn” eternal life? To people of means everything seems attainable. It’s just a matter of the right offer, the right amount of money, the right transaction or knowing the right people, learning ten right spirituality with a personal guru. We know this mindset, it’s not just an American or a capitalist mindset. It’s always been there. And now, the object of this young man’s desire is… eternal life. What would Jesus’ answer be?

 We will get to that answer, but let us stay for a moment with the first part of the young man’s question, the good part, the question that we should ask ourselves from time to time, all of us: “What must I do, God?” 

 I have a suggestion from Professor Jones, Indiana Jones that is… I watched Harrison Ford in a German Talk show a while ago, and he channeled this question quite well. When American stars show up overseas, it’s fun to observe how they express themselves in a different context. Ford came to promote his latest and last episode of Indiana Jones as it premiered on the Old Continent. It was a fun project for the aging actor. Sophisticated technology was used which made him look just as young as he was when he started the series, a miracle of technology! I am almost tempted to say, “Jesus, Lord, what must I do to look as young as I was 30 years ago?” Wouldn’t that be nice?

 In the middle of the 20-minute conversation the host asked Ford about his passion for environmental issues, which, it turned out, he cares deeply about. We don’t always like to hear what the bigshots have to say on moral issues. People might say, “This guy, Harrison Ford, owns several fossil fuel-producing airplanes. He travels the world. He flies the skies. Easy for him to tell us what to do…” But I always ask people to listen to the person, no matter whether they are rich or poor or somewhere in the middle. Listen to the person and you can often tell whether they are authentic or not. What I heard was passionate, it was ebullient, it was caring and worrying, and in all of it this question visibly pulsated through the man’s body and spirit, “What must I do? What must we do?” We have an obligation to leave this world to our children and grandchildren less of a mess than it is right now. Can we work on that? It’s one of the major moral questions of our time, isn’t it? And we can’t leave God out of that moral question. 

 Of course we can do little things, of course we can do things we control and influence. I am very grateful that leaders in our congregation came up with this idea last year to install solar panels on our roofs that produce cleaner energy. They tell me that it took quite an effort, so much paperwork, patience, research, to get to this point. But we are there now. The new meters were installed last Friday and on November 3 we will flip the switch officially. A small but meaningful thing that we can do as a church! It was informed by the question, “What must we do?”

 Now let me go back to the original question from the gospel. The young man who approached Jesus asked a more specific, a more difficult question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Very soon he walked away disheartened and dejected as our Lord famously asked him to sell his possessions and give the money to people in need. And he, like most everybody who is here in the sanctuary this morning, was reluctant to follow Jesus’ advice. We love our possessions, right? Therefore, it’s one of the least liked New Testament stories. Let’s face it, we don’t like it when Jesus gets too close to our pocketbooks.

 Here is the rub: the question that the young man asked was outlandish. We can never earn our way into eternal life. Certainly not with money, but also not with moral perfection, that’s out of the question. Jesus taught, and we heard that last week, that we must enter the kingdom of God, the realm of eternal life… like little children. Without calculations. Without quid pro quo. Without looking over our shoulder to see how we do compared to others. Didn’t we hear him say last week that no one will enter the kingdom of God unless they receive it like a little child? We can’t earn it, not with anything in this world. But when we enter the zone of unconditional love and grace, what I would call the realm of eternal life, which is very much present in the here and now, we will ask this question: “Lord, what can I do?” See, it shifts slightly, this question. It goes from “What must I do?” to “What can I do?” I would like to play my part in the blessing of this world, the blessing of creation, the blessing of humanity, the blessing of the universe, the blessing of my neighbors, the blessing of… things and people I deeply care about. What can I do, Lord? Teach me. It’s an important question. Keep it in your heart and listen… and do!  Amen.  

 
Pastor Andreas Wagner