The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost-The Rev Melanie Lemburg

The Very Rev Melanie Dickson Lemburg

25^th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 27B

November 10, 2024

 

A letter to Sullins Hughes and Tinsley Watson upon the occasion of their baptisms.

Dear Sullins and Tinsley,

Happy baptism day, babies!  And what a joyful day it is!  You are gathered here with your families and your friends, with your church family, and in just a few moments, your parents and godparents will make an important statement on your behalf.  As you all stand together before God and this gathered congregation, your parents and godparents will acknowledge that God has created each of you and has claimed you as God’s beloved since even before your births.  In your baptism, we are all accepting God’s claim on you as God’s beloved, and we are promising to uphold you in living your life as God’s beloved.  We all are promising that just as we try to live into our baptismal covenant, the framework of what living life as God’s beloved looks like, we will teach you to live this way, too: proclaiming the gospel by word and example; seeking and serving Christ in all persons; loving our neighbors as ourselves; striving for justice and peace among all people; respecting the dignity of every human being. It’s not easy living this way, and it’s why we need each other: to offer encouragement, forgiveness, and hope when need it most to continue on this path of faithful living as God’s beloved and disciples of Jesus.

Two of our readings offer interesting perspectives on your baptism today, sweet Sullins and sweet Tinsley.  In the Old Testament reading of Ruth, Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi leave Ruth’s home of Moab to journey back to be with Naomi’s people the Israelites.  Now Moab and Israel were two neighboring nations who shared the same language, and much of the same history—they were essentially cousin-nations.  And throughout much of their existence, they were at war; they did not get along.  There was a deep enmity between the two peoples. So for Ruth to leave Moab and journey with Naomi back to Israel was a real challenge.  There was a risk that she would not have been welcomed there.  Naomi has encouraged Ruth to stay with her own people, but she refuses, and so she travels with Naomi to a place where she is a stranger in a strange land, where people will look down on her because of who she is.  In today’s reading, we see Naomi working with Ruth to catch Ruth a husband and to secure the future of these two vulnerable women. 

The story of Ruth and Naomi is a story that emphasizes the loyalty and fidelity that can be found in familial relationships, and you both know something about being firmly ensconced in a loving, extended family.  In fact, each of you bears a name that ties you firmly into the line of your family, even as your names are unique enough to give you space to forge your own paths. 

Interestingly enough in today’s passage, we see how Ruth and Naomi’s family becomes enlarged even beyond Ruth’s marriage to Boaz, as the women of the neighborhood act as surrogate family for Ruth and Naomi, even going so far as to name Ruth’s child.  It’s an important reminder for all of us today that when we become a part of God’s family, our family expands to include all of God’s beloved—even those people we wouldn’t normally choose, those who we might consider to be stranger or even enemy.  All are included in the family of God; all have been created as God’s beloved.  And together we have so much to offer others, even the stranger, (especially the stranger) as God’s extended family. 

In our gospel reading for today, we see two parts to this reading.  In the first part, Jesus in Mark’s gospel is offering a critique of his own religion—specifically calling out the hypocrisy and the ways that the religious elite take advantage of vulnerable people.  He lifts up the widow, who is one of the vulnerable, and points out her generosity as a commendation of generous living and a critique of those who harm her because of their own greed and selfishness.  We would do well to be mindful that Jesus’s critique is just as pertinent to Christianity today as it was to the Judaism of his day, as we renew our baptismal covenants today and we see clearly all the ways that we fall short of being faithful followers of Jesus.  We are mindful of the ways that we choose ourselves over the needs of others.  We remember all the ways that we have been hypocritical in saying one thing with our mouths and doing another with our actions.      

Jesus gives us the widow today as an image of what faithfulness and what generosity can look like, when we are seeking to serve God over ourselves.  The widow can inspire us to ask ourselves the question: What does it mean to live a generous life?   What might my life look like if I were to try to live it more generously?[i]  Maybe it means giving more to those in need?  Maybe it means seeing injustice and working to remedy it?  Maybe it means giving people the benefit of the doubt instead of making assumptions?  What might my life look like if I were to try to live it more generously?  It is the call of the family of God, and it is a question that we, God’s beloved, should wrestle with throughout our lives, and we will help you remember it and wrestle with it as well as you grow here in the life of your faith. 

You will teach us, Sullins and Tinsley, and we will teach you.  And together we will fail, and learn, and grow, and try again, offering forgiveness and hope and the promise of the resurrection life as the family of God’s beloved.  I’m so grateful you are joining us!

Your sister in Christ,

Melanie+

 

The Big Question this Week:  Who are the vulnerable people in the family of God who I need to pay attention to, to open my heart to, to give the benefit of the doubt?  How am I being called to live a more generous life? 

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[i] This question originated with Sullins’ grandfather Rick who shared that he is reflecting on how to live more generously since his wife Holly died last week, being inspired by her witness to live generously.