Sermon - Almost Ready

Almost Ready
Mark 12:28-34

October 28, 2012                                                                              James Sledge

 When someone takes flying lessons, the first big milestone in the process is flying solo.  The first time the instructor gets out and says, “Take it around the pattern yourself,” is a huge moment in the life of a student pilot.  Many students who solo never actually get their pilot’s license, but still, they have flown by themselves.  They can truly call themselves pilots.

That first solo flight is a big deal among pilots.  It’s traditional to cut off the student’s shirt tail and tack it to the flight school wall with the student’s name and the date of the solo flight.  Not surprisingly, many students are anxious about when they will solo.  They bug the instructor.  “Do you think I’m ready yet?  Do you think I’m ready?” 

A few students never get it, but they are rare.  For most, eventually it clicks, and the instructor says, “You’re starting to get it.  You’re almost ready.  Let’s schedule your next lesson, and if everything goes well, you’ll solo at the end of it.”

It’s an exciting moment in the life of pilot, and even if you’ve never held the controls of an airplane, most of you can probably understand.  After all, life is full of such moments.  At some point, babies are almost ready to walk.  Children are almost ready to take the training wheels off.  Students are just about ready to graduate.  Couples are almost ready to get married or start a family. People are almost ready to retire.  We all experience such moments.  We reach those points in our lives when we are ready to move on to something new. 

In our gospel reading this morning, a scribe who has noticed Jesus’ keen religious insight asks him a question.  It was a question much debated among rabbis.  What commandment took precedence over others?  Or as the scribe says, “Which commandment is first of all?”

Jesus does not break any truly new ground with his answers. He quotes Scripture, first from Deuteronomy, then from Leviticus.  And interestingly, he can’t stop with one commandment but requires two, although both involve love.

The scribe is clearly impressed with Jesus’ answer.  And I don’t think it’s simply a matter of his agreeing with Jesus.  I get the impression that the scribe’s eyes are opened just a bit.  Things come into focus for him, and he gets. “You are right, Teacher. Now I see. To love God with every fiber of your being and to love your neighbor as yourself, that’s the point.   It’s so much more important than getting the liturgy or music or rituals just right.

And then it’s Jesus’ turn to be impressed. He says, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”  At least that’s what our Bible translation says.  But translating from one language to another is never an exact business. There’s usually more than one way. And this one could also be translated, “You are almost ready for the kingdom of God.”

Almost ready. Much like being almost ready to graduate, to start a family, or to make a solo flight in an airplane, this fellow is almost ready for God’s kingdom, God’s new dominion or realm. And considering that Jesus says his ministry is about this kingdom drawing near, being almost ready for it is really saying something.

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I’m one of those people who loves to read the newspaper.  I go completely through the Post most every morning.  Admittedly I only scan some articles or note the headlines.  But there are some parts of the paper I never skim. I always read the comics, and, though I hate to admit it, I always read the Dear Abby type advice columns. 

If you read such columns, you’ve no doubt occasionally seen letters from an aunt or grandparent telling how they have dutifully sent presents and gifts of money over the years, but none of these gifts have ever been so much as acknowledged.  A final straw was an especially expensive gift for a graduation or such which has also gone unacknowledged.

Invariably such letters want advice regarding a plan to cut off the thankless little so-and-sos until they learn some sense of appreciation or gratitude. Some of these letters are a little petty.  But some have a different tone. They hope something better for these children.  They hope that they might someday move beyond a childish sense of entitlement and recognize how lucky and blessed they truly are. And if they can, perhaps they will be almost ready to take a big step, to become mature adults capable of genuine, loving relationships with others rather than seeing them simply as resources to be used.

I think Jesus hopes something similar for us. He hopes that we can realize how blessed that we are. He hopes that we can move beyond seeing God or spirituality as one more consumer item to make our lives better, that we would be almost ready for something so much more, for genuine, loving relationship.  That’s why Jesus is so impressed with the scribe in today’s gospel. He’s gotten it.  He’s almost ready to discover something wonderful.

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When I was talking with the pastor nominating committee about whether I might become the new pastor here, I heard a lot about readiness. The nominating committee, others who knew the congregation, your interim pastor, and people from the presbytery office all talked about how this congregation was ready for something big, to move forward, to take off.  They pointed to the many blessings this church enjoys: great facilities, a fantastic music program, a wonderful staff, dedicated members, lots of young families with children, no major conflicts, blessings that a majority of Presbyterian churches do not enjoy.

All the people I talked to seemed to think that it would not take much, considering all the good things here, for this church to move to a new level. They implied, or sometimes said out loud, that all this congregation needed was the right pastoral leadership and watch out. 

Now whether the right pastoral leadership is here now remains to be seen.  But in today’s gospel, Jesus speaks of another essential component to being ready.  Love; love of God and love of neighbor.

Love sometimes gets lost in stewardship season.  It is easy to get focused on the very real issues of how we will pay for the excellent music and other programs, the wonderful staff, and the great facilities.  It is easy for stewardship to become quid pro quo fund raising. If you enjoy the music, help pay for it.  If your children love Godly play or VBS, help pay for it.  It is all very reasonable and makes perfect sense, but it is hardly the language of love.

When Jesus first begins his ministry, he talks about God’s kingdom, God’s new dominion or realm, drawing near.  And it draws near in a remarkably extravagant act of love. Out of the depths of God’s love for us, Jesus devotes himself to others, going so far as to offer his life as a gift to us.  What amazing, wondrous love!

And to enter into a loving relationship with God, with Jesus, means to respond with love of our own.  To see God as a resource to get things we want or need is to remain stuck in a childish relationship, like grandchildren who simply assume that it is their grandparents’ job to give them nice things.

This year, our stewardship campaign has talked about tithing, or about Growing One towards a tithe. For those who’ve never tithed, it can seem a ridiculous extravagance that they could never afford.  And from a fund raising standpoint, I suppose it is a little ridiculous.  But if you’ve ever been in love, you realize that no extravagance is too ridiculous or impossible.

Next Sunday, when we present our pledges to God, I hope you will join with me and the Stewardship Committee and many others in making a commitment of love.  I hope you will not wait till the end of the year or until you’re getting your tax documents in order.  Rather, I hope you will join us for a commitment ceremony where we pledge our love to God. I hope that every one of us, knowing that we are each a vital part of the body of Christ, will together as one to profess and declare that we are ready, ready to love God and neighbor in ways that will reverberate through this community.

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A deeply religious man came to Jesus, wanting to know what was the core principle around which he should organize his life. He asked, “Which commandment is first of all?” Jesus gave him two commandments, one about God and one about neighbor, each one a facet of Jesus’ core principle of love. And the man gets it. “Yes, that’s it Jesus, what I’ve been looking for. To build my life around love of God and neighbor is so much more important than all those things I’ve paid so much attention to and spent so much time on.

And Jesus smiles and says,  “You’re almost ready.”