26th sunday B 2nd homily

You've Failed Big

For sinners only.

"If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off...If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off...If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out"

Mark 9:43,45,47

A famous "country" preacher had been invited to deliver a sermon in a big-city Church. When the preacher arrived, the host pastor warned him that certain people in the congregation were in the habit of leaving the Church early, some of them even before the sermon was over. "It's a big-city bad habit they've acquired," he said. "Always in a hurry. They do the same thing at plays and concerts--always heading for the exits before the curtain comes down." Having been forewarned, the visiting preacher mounted the pulpit and made the following opening announcement: "The first half of my sermon will be directed to all the sinners in the congregation. The last half will be addressed to the non-sinners." No one left early that day.

In harmony with Jesus' words in today's Gospel, this sermon is for sinners only. Only the saints may leave early.

A novelist was doing some research for a book about life in a New England town during the first half of this century. He thought he might get some insight from a visit to the local cemetery. He soon discovered that almost all the tombstones erected during the period in question contained a short epitaph. And, without exception, each epitaph had only words of praise for the deceased. Words like "kind," "generous," "upstanding," "loving," appeared everywhere. This prompted the researcher to ask, "I wonder where they buried the sinners?"

Well, all who were buried in that cemetery had been sinners, of course. And so are we who still walk the earth. I, and each of you, fall into that category. None of us is perfect. Each of us, to some degree, is estranged from God, out of harmony with God's Rule, which is what sin is all about. This is something that Jesus places great emphasis on in His teachings. The one thing needful in your life, your number one priority in life, Jesus says, is to draw ever closer to God. And the worst evil that can befall you is to be moving away from God. Better to lose a hand or a foot or an eye, Jesus says in today's Lesson. Moreover, there is nothing in this life that will pull you further away from God than the sin of leading another in the same direction by demeaning or destroying his or her faith. Using powerful rhetoric, Jesus says in today's Lesson, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea" (Mk. 9:42). This is an important lesson for the parents of our time.

God's goodness is deeply rooted in this world. The job of Christian parents is to condition their children to see the goodness of God everywhere--in the everyday common things of this world. The job of Christian parents is to lead their children to God and to show them how to embrace Him in this world. The job of Christian parents is to help their children see the goodness of God in the wonder of a newborn baby, in the silence of a star-filled night, in the daily routine at school, in leisure time, in visiting a friend. The job of Christian parents is to help their children see the goodness of God in wind and sun and rain and fire and bread and water and animals and clouds. The job of Christian parents is to help their children experience the goodness of God in the warmth and tenderness of their hugs and kisses.

"Let the children come to Me and do not hinder them," Jesus said (Mk. 10:14). Pride, greed, self-centeredness, dishonesty, lust for power and prestige, dog-eat-dog competitiveness, insensitivity to the needs of others, lack of compassion, unwillingness to go the second mile in trying to understand--these are the things that hinder the children from moving ever-closer to God. And to the extent that Christian parents allow their children to see these mean and ugly things in them, they are committing the sin that Jesus comes down so hard on in today's Lesson. Again, in His words, it would be better for them "if a great millstone were hung around their necks and they were thrown into the sea." There is no greater failure in parenting than to block a child's view of the goodness of God and the beauty of God's creation.

After pursuing a course of religious instruction in a certain parish, a housemaid told the pastor that she would like to be baptized and become a parishioner. The pastor asked her to give some of the details of her conversion. "I had something come into my life that I had never experienced before," she said. "Can you be more specific?" he asked. "Well," she said, "I can't talk theology to you, and I still don't know my Bible very well. But I can tell you that ever since I got religion I don't sweep the dirt under the rug anymore."

Now, I'll say it again: There is no greater failure in parenting than to block a child's view of the goodness of God and the beauty of God's creation. It's sinful, and it can't be swept under the rug merely by taking the kids to Church and giving them books with color pictures of Jesus in them and making them say their night prayers. The plain and simple truth is that a child's view of the goodness of God and the beauty of God's creation comes through the child's parents. And if it isn't coming through, it is being blocked by the parents. A mother who came to realize that this very thing was happening in her relationship with her baby daughter has written a very moving account of how she changed all that:

I remember the day I had wandered so far away from God; I felt too weak to move. I couldn't clean house; I could barely wash myself and the baby. Finally, I couldn't hide from it anymore; bitter depression set in. I tried to drag my withered spirit back to God, but my throat had become so parched that I could hardly speak to Him.

"God," I begged, "I'm so weak. Help me! Feed me! comfort me!"

As the minutes wore on, my baby intruded on my struggling. "Not now, Meribeth," I whispered "Not now, Meribeth! Can't you see I'm too weak to help you?"

She began to cry. It was almost her dinnertime, but I didn't care. God wasn't helping me like I wanted Him to. I grew desperate. But I couldn't give up. I needed Him! Meribeth would just have to wait.

"When she stops crying," I said to myself, "I'll pick her up."

She cried for fifteen minutes. Finally, in her misery, she started to crawl away. And, finally, I realized my hypocrisy. Here I had asked God to comfort and feed me--to show me His goodness--yet I had refused to comfort and feed my own child, to show her God's goodness through me. I picked Meribeth up and held her close, and love flowed. God's love flowed through me to her. As I fed my little girl her dinner, I began to feel strengthened. She became quiet now, but I began to cry--and repent.1

"When you've failed at love, you've failed big," said a wise old grandmother to her grandchildren. When you've failed to let the children see the goodness of God and the beauty of God's creation in you, you've failed big.