"Sabbath Lens"
A Sermon of
The Rev. Dr. David A. Killian, Rector
All Saints Parish
Brookline, Massachusetts
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
Gift Sunday
October 29, 2006
Text: Mark 10:46-52
I
Rabbi Moshe Waldoks was our preacher last Sunday - and he made a bit of history here at All Saints Parish as the first Rabbi ever to preach at our main worship service in our 112-year history. I invited Rabbi Waldoks to preach to us about Sabbath because "Sabbath: Sacred Time" is the focus of our parish's stewardship education program. He gave a marvelous sermon about Sabbath and its meaning for us today. Afterwards, a parishioner remarked that the Rabbi had opened her eyes to a new understanding of sacred time and that she saw more clearly how the Sabbath is God's gift to us. I think he opened the eyes and the minds of all of us to see the way that the Sabbath can restore normalcy in lives that are frantic and stressed. Keeping the Sabbath gives a balance that allows us to see the world more clearly.
The image that came to me is that keeping the Sabbath is like a person with poor eyesight putting on corrective glasses. Keeping the Sabbath helps one see better. And so, with this idea of the Sabbath as a lens restoring faulty vision, we turn to today's Gospel passage about the healing of the blind beggar Bartimaeus. Jesus asks him, "What do you want me to do for you?" Bartimaeus responds, "Teacher, let me see again." Jesus tells him, "Go; your faith has made you well." And the Scriptures record, "Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way."
How appropriate that today's Gospel focuses on "seeing" because October is stewardship month and stewardship is all about seeing. With a "Sabbath lens" we can begin to see our world, ourselves and stewardship more clearly.
II
There's a story about a plane coming in for a landing. The pilot says to the co-pilot, "Do you see how short that runway is? I think we can make it if you apply the brakes as soon as we hit ground and I'll throw the engines into reverse." So the plane touches down, the co-pilot slams on the brakes, the pilot throws the engines into reverse and they bring the plane to halt right near the edge of the runway. The pilot looks out and says, "That's the shortest runway I've ever seen." The co-pilot looks out the other window and replies, "Yes, but did you see how wide it is!"
With a Sabbath lens, we see ourselves and our world from God's perspective. We see how we are loved by God. We have an eternal destiny more important than any of our earthly strivings. With a Sabbath lens we restore our equilibrium and see ourselves as holy and beloved. We are persons of great worth dearly loved by God, something that we forget when we are stressed and harried dashing from one task to the next.
III
A Sabbath lens can help us see that God involved in the work we do, even the most menial of tasks.
A traveler wandered past a giant construction project in Mexico City. He paused to speak with some of the workers. To one working with a chisel and saw he asked, "What are you doing?" The man replied, "I spend my days sawing and chiseling beams." To another worker who was mixing cement with a hoe, the traveler asked, "And what are you doing?" He responded, "I spend my days mixing cement." To another man, straining at lifting a heavy load of bricks, the traveler asked, "What is your task?" He replied, "I spend the day laying bricks." The traveler then passed a stoop-shouldered elderly man with gnarled fingers and callused hands. He was clearly a common laborer hauling debris and sweeping refuse. "And what do you do?" the traveler asked. The old gentleman raised his head, and with a proud, contagious smile replied, "Sir, I am building a cathedral."
With a Sabbath lens, we perceive that each of us, in our own way, can "build a cathedral" because our work serves others and builds up the human community. Each of us can be a part of something beyond ourselves, something that makes the world a better place.
A Sabbath lens helps me see how my work - whether it is a job that pays a salary or volunteer labor that I donate without financial compensation - is a partnership with God. I am building a cathedral. I am building a legacy for the generation to come.
Our Sabbath lens can enable us as a parish to see that we are part of the Church that ministers in God's name in a torn world. Our parish community makes a difference in the lives of young and old, single, married, gay or straight, those who suffer, and those who are going through transitions.
A Sabbath lens can helps us see that our motivation for making a stewardship pledge is based on our need to respond to God's gifts, not the church's need to receive our gifts. Our motivation for giving is not the church's need, no matter how worthy that need might be. It's not that the church doesn't have many needs - such as paying the heat, light and insurance bills; paying the salaries of the clergy and staff; supporting the mission of justice and the service of the poor. These are all legitimate needs - but they are not the main reason to make a stewardship commitment. The reason to do so is to respond in love to the abundance of blessings that God has given me by giving back to God from my very essence. If my gratitude is real, it should cost me something; it should stretch me and expand my comfort zone. I need to give to show that I am truly aware that I have been blessed. What better way is there to respond to abundance than by being lavish in my gift back to God?
Jesus asks us, "What do you want me to do for you?" We answer, "Teacher, let me see." Let me see through a Sabbath lens that the gift of my time, talent, and treasure is my response in love for all that God has given me. Let my gift be the best that I can offer.
May God give us eyes to see and a heart to love.
Amen.