Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 18:18-23; Luke 19:1-10; 2 Corinthians 2:17; Matthew 6:21 Series: 2020
Opening a stewardship series, Pruitt asks the congregation what their ‘sacred story’ is—the honest account of who they actually are, including how they spend their time and money. Drawing on Peter Maurin’s line that all the flowing moments of life form our sacred story, he contrasts a life of sincerity (2 Corinthians) with the consumer world that segments us and pushes endless consumption. Jeremiah’s call (Jeremiah 1) becomes a model sacred story, read through the Wesleyan grace sequence of prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace: loved, transformed, sent. He then juxtaposes the Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18), who bracketed off his possessions from God, with Zacchaeus (Luke 19), the sinner who pledged restitution and joy in response to grace. The aim is to invite the church to be a people of sincerity who let generosity align with their claims about God—framing the coming pledge cards not as burden but as an opportunity to put their treasure where God is acting.
Illustrations: peter-maurin-easier-to-be-good, intermittent-fasting-cant-be-sold, marketing-segment-brackets, rich-young-ruler, zacchaeus-wee-little-man, saint-francis-sell-everything, apologetics-misconceptions, sales-getting-to-the-close
October 4
Jeremiah 1:4-10
If you were going to share with someone who you are, what do you share with them? Do you share where you are from? Do you share about your family? Do you share what you do? I want you to take about a minute to think on this. All of you are beautiful, complex snowflakes. It is inherently reductive to describe yourself in one attribute. But let’s try it. What is the one thing?
But none of us are just one thing, right. What you thought of to share about yourself is different from all the ways you spend your time and your money. If someone looked at all the time you spent last year, would it describe who you claim to be?
A french mystic once said, “the story of all the moments that flow is our sacred story.” The story of all the moments of life that God gives and transforms, all of them, from where we are to what we think and do, that is our sacred story. It is not a complicated endeavor. A sacred story is one that can be shared over a meal or a drink. It is not the lie we tell ourselves about how good we are. It is the honest description of what we think matters in this life. Who we actually are, not what others expect of us. It includes what we do, how we live. It includes how we spend our time, it also includes how we spend our money. It includes our generosity. Who are you?
My friends, over the next few weeks we are going to look at our sacred story, especially to see how we can better align how we live our lives with our sacred story. Our sacred story includes things most personal stories leave out, like how we spend our money and how we support what we care about. In 2 Corinthians, Paul says that we are not peddlers of God’s word, but people of sincerity. A peddler is not someone with sincerity, a peddler is trying to do whatever it takes to get the sale. Some of you have been in sales before, trying to get to the close. What does it take to get to the close. In the church, we are not trying to get to the close. We are seeking to be a place of transformation in all of the lives here and the lives outside those doors. Seeking transformation not through a certain set of skills or a path or beautiful words, but through the holy spirit present here. Seeking transformation in being a people of sincerity. People who align the story we tell about our faith, the story we tell about our lives, with what we do, with what we give.
And we can see this, too, by understanding the story that the world demands us tell. Where do you fit in a marketing bracket? Which segment are you a part of? That is the biggest question to most businesses in this world. Where do you fit in that? “How can we get you to consume a little more? How can we get you to spend?”
The world has an unquenchable thirst to segment us, divide us and to make us consume more, more, more. Do you know why intermittent fasting is not promoted more as a weight loss strategy on its on even given evidence? You can’t sell it. There are no fast bars you can sell. There is no fast juice mix. Cleanse is something you can brand and sell. Paleo is something you can brand and sell. Not consuming, that does not fit in to the world’s story.
So what is an example of a sacred story? In the prophet Jeremiah chapter 1, we see a straightforward one. Jeremiah doesn’t it into a marketing segment of interest. The under 10 share doesn’t buy a lot. Scholars break this section into four parts. There is a commissioning by God of Jeremiah. A rejection by Jeremiah of God. “And me?” There is a reassurance by God and then a sign of God’s process. We can rest in any of these spaces, but as a student of the Wesleyan tradition, we can break Jeremiah’s story into three parts: the first begins before he was even born, this is prevenient grace. God is present with him from before he existed. Then the moment of conversion. This is what Wesley calls justifying grace. And finally we have the mission, the purpose, what Wesley calls sanctifying grace. He is loved, he is transformed, and he is sent. You are all loved. No matter where you are in your journey of faith, in your journey of discipleship, you are all loved. Some of you can point to a moment of conversion, a specific moment of grace. Some of you cannot, and that is okay. As well, you all have some sort of mission. How we understand that is different but that we all have a mission is incontrovertible.
So does our life match our story? Does our generosity match our story? Do we give as the people we claim to be or do we give as someone else?
In Luke 18, we have the example of the Rich Young Ruler. He is pious man. He comes to Jesus and says, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus tells him some commandments. Don’t kill. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. And the Rich Young Ruler says I have been doing these all my life, and then Jesus tells him to sell everything he has to give to the poor, and he walked away sad for he had many possessions.
He had many possessions. His sacred story did not include his generosity. The story the rich young ruler told about himself pointed specifically to what he did for himself not what he gave. But Jesus focuses on both. You cannot separate them. You cannot limit the way of God in our life to just the things we do or have that are comfortable with the way of the world.
The rich young ruler had honed following God down to what was comfortable with his standard of living, not what was true. And Jesus presses him on this. So this takes places in Luke 18. What is amazing is that in the next chapter we have the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, some of you remember the song,
“Zacchaeus was a wee little man And a wee little man was he He climbed up in a sycamore tree For the Lord he wanted to see
And when the Savior passed that way He looked up in the tree And said, ‘Zacchaeus, you come down! For I’m going to your house today! For I’m going to your house today!’
Zacchaeus is someone who was a sinner. Someone who has not been following the law. Someone who has been lying, who has been cheating, who has been stealing. But when he climbs that tree to see Jesus and Jesus sees him and tells him, “I am going to your house today,” Zacchaeus repents. Yes, repents, and then he makes a pledge.
These passages are not often read together even though they are super close in the Bible: the Rich Young Ruler who follows the law to a point and stops and Zacchaeus, the sinner, who doesn’t bracket off spaces in his life for the work of grace. He doesn’t defend his comfort against the possibility of conversion. Often enough, even with this passage, Jesus’ command to the rich young ruler is seen as impossible.
It is easy to dismiss the command of Jesus and to think that the God who put a word on Saint Francis to sell everything he had and give to the poor, that that God is different than our God today. But the call for us today may not be to sell everything. It could be, and we cannot bracket out the possibility of God calling us to radical transformations today, but the question for us today is our sacred story limited like the story of the Rich young Ruler? Or can we be a people of sincerity, who match our practice of generosity with our claims about God’s love and presence in our life.
Are there parts of life that we are keeping from God because we do not think that they can be filled with love or because we do not want them to be?
Now each of our sacred stories are different, but we are here together in this one sacred space, Bee Creek United Methodist Church. In two weeks, we are going to go into the sacred story of this space, but I want to share today one of my own inspirations for what the church can be.
Peter Maurin was a French mystic and who said that he wanted to make it easier for people to be good; good in this broken world. This world that tells us that being good is not realistic, that you have to look out for yourselves, it is a dog eat dog world. Yet what is impossible for people is possible for God. I love this line, make it easier for people to be good, because it points to the structural realities we all face (little time, lack of energy, health, interest, etc.) and shows how guilting someone is not going to change them. Nagging comes from a lack of trust. Humility, care, concern, walking with someone, tearing down barriers.
I think about this a lot with apologetics or sharing the faith with non-believers. I can’t make someone believe, but i can address any misconceptions they have. I think that this is one of the ways in which the church fits in. How can we make it easier for people to be good in this world? How can we provide spaces for grace. Spaces for worship, Spaces for mission, spaces for discipleship. They all fit together. And yet the church is also a space to allow generosity. To allow people to align their sacred story all the way from start to finish.
In a few weeks, we are going to be sending out stewardship letters and pledge cards to the members of the church. In one way, a pledge helps figure out the budget for next year. And this is important. I believe in this church and what God is doing here. What God has done here since its planting and the great potential for lives to be transformed over the next few years. We are a place that helps people be good by showing them Jesus and offering ways of Discipleship that draw people closer to God.
As well, I think about Zacchaeus when I think about a pledge. Zacchaeus pledges as a response to what God has done in his life. Jesus has seen him and notices him and forgives him. And out of that, comes a pledge. Part of the pledge is restitution for what he has done. Part of the pledge is joy for what he has received. Giving is an opportunity to align our sacred story fully so that we do not turn into that rich young ruler. So that we do not turn into poor young rulers who limit faith to only a portion of the abundance that God offers to us. Generosity is not a burden but an opportunity. The burden of the world is to imagine that what we do and have defines who we are. The light load of Jesus is defined by what we love, and we can love more freely by being a people of generosity. We are able to follow Jesus more freely by being a people of generosity.
Jesus says where your treasure is, there your heart will be. We all have an opportunity to put our treasure where God is acting this day.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.