Homily for September 29

Homily for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Scriptures for today's Mass

Welcome to the fourth week of a message series for the fall

that we’re calling Lost & Found.

This series is about our experiences of feeling lost in life

and how we can work toward feeling found.

We all feel lost from time to time.

• Maybe you feel lost in your family.

You find yourself disagreeing with your family more and more

or just drifting further and further away.

Or there’s family drama

and you're smack-dab right in the middle of it all.

Either way, drifting apart or right in the thick of things - you feel lost.

• Maybe you feel lost in the need to make a really big decision.

You’ve got to decide about a job opportunity, a big move,

a new house or apartment, a new car

-and you can't sort out all your options.

There are pros and cons on every side,

but the bottom line is: you don’t know where to land -

and you feel lost.

• Maybe you feel lost in a particular state of life.

You’re retired!  Now what?

You finally got that degree you worked so hard for

- now how are you going to put it to use? what's next?

You’ve drifted into a new life phase

and you're having trouble finding your bearings,

you feel lost.

• Or maybe it’s not something in particular but rather

just a persistent restlessness.

When you slow down, if you slow down long enough,

you get this restless feeling,

like someone or something is missing…

restlessness that leaves you feeling uncomfortable, unsettled lost…

When you feel lost, you tend to respond in one of a few ways...

• Maybe you go into panic mode - consumed by fear and worry.

• Maybe you try to escape - you look for anything

to help you avoid the feeling of being lost.

• Maybe you pretend to others - or even to yourself

- that you’re not lost at all!

But the bottom line is: when you’re lost - you don’t want to stay lost.

• No one wants to stay lost.

We have a strong, built-in human desire to get un-lost:

a desire to be found.

• Over the last three weeks we've seen that

being lost comes at a cost;

being lost can cost us time, energy, peace of mind, … 

So we started off by counting the cost of being lost.

• And then we looked at what might be the first thing to do

when you realize you’re lost: talk to God about it.

Bring it to God in prayer.   Share with God what you’re feeling lost about.

Even if you’re angry about being lost - especially if you’re angry. 

• And last week we saw that what often causes us to get lost

is relying on our own wisdom - instead of God’s wisdom.

So we asked the question:

"What or who am I allowing to guide me in my life right now?"

- to try to ensure that I not end up lost!

(And if this is your first week joining us

or you missed any of the previous weeks of this series,

you can always find our message videos on our Web site

to catch up or to share them with a friend.)

• This week’s readings serve as a warning to us

about the danger of thinking we’re found - when we’re really lost.

The rich man in the story is - well, rich.

He’s successful.  He's living the dream!

We don’t know how or from where he got all his money:

maybe he worked hard for years - or maybe he inherited the money.

Either way - he's got the bucks!  He's living a very comfortable lifestyle.

But he’s blinded to the reality of this poor man Lazarus

who's camped out right at his own front door.

• So we have a rich man and a poor man

and their financial realities are definitely part of the story

but being lost or found isn't all about losing or finding success,

it's about relationships

and while that certainly includes my relationship with God -

that's not the whole story.

It's not enough to say, "I'm good with God so I'm all set."

It's not enough to say, "See, God and me - we got it all worked out."

• Being found is about my relationship with God

AND my relationship with others.

There's no way the rich man could consider himself found

when he's lost any recognition of poor Lazarus on his doorstep

and of his responsibility for him.

• As we move toward the end of this series, I want to continue to focus

on how we find and walk the path - toward being found.

• Let's look, then, at what St. Paul wrote to Timothy, 2,000 years ago.

 Paul was Timothy's mentor in the faith

and Paul believed in Timothy's leadership potential so deeply

that he appointed him to head the church in Ephesus.

Like all church leaders, Timothy faced some problems

so Paul wrote this letter to inspire and encourage him

and to help him with some of the challenges he was facing.

• But the letter wasn't meant exclusively for Timothy.

 It would have been read publicly in the church at Ephesus

- just as it was read this morning in our church.

• Paul reminds Timothy that people sometimes fall away from faith

in pursuit of other things in life, when they follow their own wisdom.

• So Paul counsels Timothy:

“But you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith,

love, patience, and gentleness.” 1 Timothy 6:11

• It’s as if Paul is grabbing Timothy by the shoulders, shaking him and

looking him straight in the eye and giving him this urgent challenge,

a challenge to not pursue the things of the world around him

but to set his sights on higher values and greater goods.

"Goods" like devotion and patience and gentleness.

And then Paul tells Timothy, 

 “Compete well for the faith.” 1 Timothy 6:12

Compete well for the faith. What does that mean?

• Well, here Paul's using a sports analogy for faith.

Think for a moment about athletes and how they act.

• Good athletes eat the right food

and they make exercise a part of their daily routine.

• They get enough rest.

• They discipline themselves and their bodies

to push themselves to their full potential.

• They engage - they compete.

You get this if sports are a part of your life or your kids’ lives

or your grandkids lives - even if you just watch sports on TV -

you know that athletes try to bring to their sport

all the discipline, commitment, intensity and focus that's needed.

• Now, faith isn't a sport

but that doesn't mean that we might not approach our faith

with the same discipline we bring to the sports arena.

This is what Paul is urging Timothy to do.

To train, to practice, to get in shape - to compete.

• You see, here’s the thing about being lost:

you don’t get found by being a couch potato.

• Yes, God is looking for you even when you’re sacked out on the sofa.

But the desire to be found invites you -even requires you -

to engage, to work out, to practice -to take part in the effort.

You’ve got to get off your butt and move!

Or as Paul puts it, you have to "compete!"

• You don’t get found by accident or simply by growing older.

It doesn't happen by merely showing up at church on Sunday.

You have to engage - with God and with others.

• OK, so if it’s some sort of competition, what are we trying to win?

Good question.

• Here’s how Paul answers that question:

Tell them to do good, to be rich in good works,

to be generous, ready to share,

thus accumulating as treasure a good foundation for the future,

so as to win the life that is true life. 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Paul says it’s all about winning the life that is true life.

That's the prize - that's what we compete for.

• We're tempted, all the time, to try and find life

in things that aren't truly life,

in things that don't truly satisfy our hearts or enrich our souls,

in things might look like true life,

things often advertised and sold to us as life-giving

… but they aren't.

• We often expect power, pleasure, possessions and prestige

to fill our hearts and enrich our souls,

just like the rich man in the Gospel story.

But we know from our experience that at the bottom line,

these things fail to satisfy in any lasting way.

All kinds of people, all kinds of things, promise us life

- but they don't, they can't deliver what they promise.

•And that vague feeling of being lost?

 That disquieting, unnerving sense of restlessness we experience

- sometimes even when most things are going pretty well?

• That restlessness often comes

from our pursuit of power, pleasure, money, success, prestige -

and as big as these things may appear to be,

they're really too small, too meager

to satisfy our hearts' deepest desires in any substantial way.

• Our hearts will never truly be satisfied by small things, by lesser things.

They're incapable of giving us the true life God made us for,

the true life God wants us to have.

• So Paul sets a super-size agenda of goals for Timothy - and for us!

"Pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.”

Compete well for the faith.

Do good, that you might be rich in good works,

generous and ready to share,

thus accumulating as treasure a good foundation for the future,

so as to win the life that is true life."

• And that "true life" we all desire is found in God,

in God who is always seeking us out so that we might be found!

And so Paul counsels Timothy bluntly,

“Lay hold of it.  "Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called!"

Pursue that life!  Train for that life!

Compete for that life!   Lay hold of that life!

• If we want the life that God wants for us,

the life that fills our hearts and truly enriches us,

if we want to be found,

we've got to pursue that life, compete for it,

we've got to lay hold of it.

And what does it look like, to compete well for the faith?

• Maybe start with Paul’s idea of “being rich in good works.”

• Do something this week that’s not about

your personal glory or success or good feeling.

• Do something this week that’s about something bigger than you.

• Maybe there’s something you feel God’s calling you to do. Do it.

• Maybe there’s a needy person as close as your front door,

as close as your neighborhood, your work place, your school,

someone begging to be served

someone you’ve been too blind or busy to see. Serve them. Do it!

• Maybe your spouse or your kids

have been begging you to do something with them or for them

but it hasn’t worked out yet. Do it.

• Maybe there’s an opportunity you have to serve in an organization

or to serve here at church but you’ve been hesitating. Do it!

• Make the call. Send the email. Do it!

• Maybe it's something only you and God know about: do it!

• All across Belmont today

there are people going for a run, a bike ride, a kickboxing class.

There are kids playing soccer and football and going to dance class.

They’re training and competing!

• What if we all left here today committed to competing well

- not in a sport - but in our faith?

• What if we ran after our pursuit of God and our pursuit to be found,

our pursuit to be rich in good deeds and our pursuit of virtues...

• What if we treated that pursuit

with the same discipline and intensity and focus

with which good athletes train for their sport?

• God’s writing an amazing story in the world

and he’s inviting each of us to be part of it,

but we have to choose to accept that invitation.

• God’s sending us out, right now,

he’s putting us in for the next play, the next period,

the next leg of the race.

• If you’re feeling lost in life, don’t stand still.

Pursue, compete, lay hold of… make a move

towards the life God offers you - just do it!

Because when you do, when you make a move and enter into God’s story,

you make a move towards winning life that satisfies, life that lasts,

you make your way down the path to being found.

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