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When I was a student pastor, a Baptist preacher in SC told me this story that has echoed in my soul ever since. A man died and went to heaven’s pearly gates. He called himself a “Christian,” so he was annoyed to be kept outside, told that his name was not among those scheduled for admittance. He demanded to see St. Peter, who soon arrived, checked the paperwork, and then asked the man what he had done to deserve entrance. St. Peter said, “Maybe there is a mistake. What in your life did you do to show your faith?”

The man thought. “Well, a homeless man needed some change for a cup of coffee. I gave him a dime.” “Yes. Anything else?”

“Oh, and I threw a nickel into the Salvation Army bucket one Christmas.” “That’s nice. Can you think of any other kind or generous act?”

“Yes. I gave a dirty little girl ten cents to help her buy a can of soup. I guess that’s it.” “Nothing else?” “I can’t remember anything else.” St. Peter turned to his assistant and said, “Give this man his quarter back, and tell him to go to ….” Well, you know where.

The story’s humor is born in our sense of justice, I suppose. It pokes fun at the hypocrite, the person whose talk isn’t really matched by his walk. The story works well in the church, because, of course, our standards are always higher than we can attain, so it makes fun of us all. It calls us to integrity of living the faith we say we profess.

Lent calls us to examine ourselves, to take stock of our lives, to see if our doing matches our saying. Walking the talk is not a new problem, as the lessons for today remind us. Both Paul and Luke show us that their churches were similarly challenged. Paul reminds the Corinthians that their pedigree and even their sacraments won’t help them unless they live holy – that is to say, faithful – lives. What you do with your faith is important, Paul tells them. “So,” he says, “if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12, New Revised Standard Version) And Luke recalls a parable Jesus told about a fig tree that doesn’t produce any fruit. He’s ready to cut it down, to replace it with a plant that gives something back. “Sir,” says the gardener,” let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, [then] you can cut it down.” (Luke 13:8-9, New Revised Standard Version) We’re called, the lessons remind us, to look at ourselves, to match our profession of faith with our daily living of the faith.

Like little Eliza Lee, whom we baptize today, most of us were baptized as infants. We received love from our parents, our extended families, and our churches before ever doing a thing to deserve that love. Parents and families love the children in their midst, because they hope and believe that their children can be taught to share that same generous love with others. And we know that our children learn from us most of what they live – and they learn most from what they see us doing, not by what they hear us saying. We receive God’s love as a gift, yes; AND we are called to the gratitude of loving God and others as a response.

Some years back, in a need to affirm one another in their common Christian faith, bumper stickers appeared on lots of cars down where I then lived. It said simply, “Honk if you love Jesus.” They were everywhere, it seemed. But then follow-up bumper sticker appeared, asking for a bit more commitment. It was simple, too, but challenging: “If you love Jesus, tithe. Any fool can honk.”

My point is not merely about appropriate stewardship. This Lent, as we think of what it means to walk the talk of our faith, we could do worse than to follow the five promises new members of our church make when they join the church: to support the church with our prayers, our presence (being here at worship and in some group), our gifts (financial commitments), our service (actually investing time in helping others) and our witness (inviting others to join us in this community of faith). But, in truth, I’m really trying to make a deeper point: God gives us so much, as we celebrate in the sacrament in which we participate today. The table reminds us of Christ’s broken body and shed blood – we are loved here by God and taught here what it means to love our neighbors. And the child we receive reminds us that faith is not just a moment of graceful acceptance, but the challenge to live and grow in a faith that will sustain us, with her, for a lifetime.

God is faithful to us, and God hopes that we’ll be faithful, as well, shaped by a community of grace, and bearing the fruit of the faith. God loved us in the walk Jesus made from Galilee to the cross; God calls us, then, to go forth from here to love God and our neighbor in all that we do. That means different sacrifices from each of us, to be sure. But surely loving God and neighbor will require more from you and from me than we easily assume. Something more than a couple of dimes and a nickel, I’m sure.

God’s love for us has made more than a quarter’s difference in my life. Has it for you? If so, isn’t it time to bear fruit in your life that gives witness to the truth of your faith?

Amen.

Mamaroneck United Methodist, March 7, 2010.
 

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