I have an image for you. I used this image on Good Friday, back in 2007. The image was so good I want to use it again. It involves how we look at ourselves and God.
[Hold up an empty glass] Let’s say that this glass is you. For most of you, you are trying your best. [With each of the next phrases I pour some water into the glass] You try to be good, you say your prayers, you try to be kind to all people, you’ve gone to school, you have some kind of career. But still there’s that feeling of . . . . “Is this all there is? Is this is what my life is all about?”
We even fill ourselves with many things, e.g. this job, this award at school, this house, this new phone . . . this, this, this. But still we don’t feel “right” so we turn to God and beg God to help us . . . “Be with me, God.” And God says, “sure, I’ll be with you.” [Pour water from pitcher into glass, making it overflow to the ground]
It's the same when realizing that something is missing, So a logical place to turn, is to God. Trouble is . . . turning to God when we are already filled, can cause lots of problems. For us to have an openness to God, we have to let go of so many things.
Jesus says in the gospel, “Follow me.” When the two men answer with “Yes,” they first need to do some things (which don’t seem that unreasonable). Jesus’s response seems to discourage more than encourage. But we can’t take the answer literally (for we need to look at Jesus’ entire message about honoring parents or care for the deceased). Instead he is challenging them (and us) to EMPTY ourselves, of all the things that we think are so important.
Fr. Richard Rohr says that letting go involves 3 areas:
[pour water back into pitcher with each]
letting go of our need to be in control
letting go of our need to be perfect
letting go of our need to be right
What I have been working on lately is really trying to trust that God can and will fill me. The question I pose to you all: “Imagine how your life would be different IF God were enough for you?” Think of all the things that you now fill yourself with. Many of which are good things, like the gospel presented, but what if God filled you and we didn’t’ rely on other things to fill you?
[Drink from glass as I say the following:]
If God were enough for you with your relationships issue, would you worry so much?
If God were enough for you with your health concern, would you sleep better?
If God were enough for you with that nagging fear, could you relax more?
If God were enough for you with your financial woes, would things turn out better?
If we empty ourselves to follow Christ . . . even with any of those concerns, and more; when we ask for God to be enough, God says, “OK.”
We will be practicing that “trust of God” as a parish, in one small way, starting in July. You know how we dedicate each month to a social outreach? For example the Princeton Food Pantry or Passing the Bread in Zimmerman, or hurricane relief, or as we did last month to our sister parish: St. Mary’s of Red Lake. Well, starting in July we will no longer have a second collection, in those blue buckets, for those causes, but instead will tithe 5% of the monthly donations to the same project or organization.
This does a few things . . . i.e. less checks for you to write out each month, but also a chance for us a parish to trust that God will take care of us AS we take care of others. So, I want each of you to include the amount that you would normally be giving in the blue bucket to your regular offering. You give . . . so that we can give. I suggest that you increase your donations by 5%, as we use that same formula to take care of those needy causes.
Trust that by doing so, God will be enough . . . for you as an individual and for us as a parish. Some of you, like me, donate with the electronic donation form. I will be increasing my amount each month to cover what I would normally contribute to outreach fund. Please consider doing the same.
[Show a second glass full of water.] If you have any woes in your life, perhaps it’s time to empty yourself and let God fill you. To let God be enough.
Thomas Merton (a Trappist Monk) wrote this prayer:
"Loving God, you have willed to see me more really as I am.
For the sinful self (the filled self) is not my real self.
It is not the self you have wanted for me, God,
only the self I have wanted for myself . . . .
and I no longer want this false self."