Don't Do It All, Baby

Sermon by Pr. Sharai Jacob on the Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 29 + October 13, 2024

As a first call pastor, I’ve learned a lot in the past few months. I’ve learned how to chant the great thanksgiving and that owning a car in Chicago is way too expensive. I’ve learned more about my uber drivers personal lives than I should ever know. I’ve learned not to put the tab in my collar until I’ve reached my destination. I’ve been surrounded by a loving community as I’ve figured out the flow of worship and endlessly messed with mics and sound equipment.

At the very start of this year, I learned some new things about myself. I was faced with decisions about where to give of my time and energy, and in my excitement to begin ministry, I felt like I needed to say yes to every opportunity I found to live into my call! But I realized that I was spreading myself too thin. All of a sudden what had been excitement about my call became a desire to prove myself worthy of my call.

It seems like the rich man in our Gospel reading today is also trying to prove his worth. He has painstakingly followed every single commandment since his childhood. Even after all of that, his desire to inherit eternal life is so urgent that he came to Jesus on his knees.

Jesus' answer to this man was to show him that he could not be perfect - it just isn’t in our nature as human beings. No one is good but God alone. We are all imperfect, sinners. Even this rich man who followed every commandment could not let go of his wealth. And while greed plays a large role in the destruction and evil we see in the world today - there are plenty of ways in which we all fail to reach perfection. The rich man, in holding on to his riches, walked away from the opportunity to follow Jesus. It grieved him that he could not do what was asked of him. 

Like the rich man, I felt that something was wrong, but hadn’t realized that the problem was that this desire to prove my worth had become my motivation in my call.  So, like the rich man, I came to Jesus in prayer asking how I could be better, expressing that I felt that I needed to say yes to everything. Walking away from a prayer like that without an answer was difficult enough, the answer that the rich man received must have been excruciating for him. He leaves before Jesus explains that it is impossible for a rich man to enter heaven alone, but with God all things are possible. He left too early and missed out on the grace.

When we look at the question that the rich man asked again, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” we can see that what he’s asking is strange in itself. There is nothing you can do to receive an inheritance. You get an inheritance by being part of a family. 

It’s difficult for anyone to enter into heaven, we all have things or ideas that we cling to. Maybe you cling to a certain image of yourself, like hard worker, perfectionist, or overachiever. Or maybe, like me, you cling to the goal of achieving more, becoming more perfect, becoming more hard working. Maybe you cling to wealth the way the rich man in our Gospel reading did. Or your thing might be that you follow all the commandments and that is what you cling to and hope in. 

 But Jesus explains that when we let go of what we’re clinging to and hold on to Jesus instead, we will receive what we let go of a hundredfold! … Jesus offers us the opportunity to become family with him and with one another. It won’t be perfect - in this life there will be pain, but we are offered an inheritance of eternal life which will be free of pain. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection show us how to live as part of God’s family. God gives us eternal life as a gift, not because we worked as hard as we could to earn it, but because of God’s love for us. To God, our worth has nothing to do with how hard we work. To Jesus we are worth everything - we are worth dying for simply because we are family. 

I walked away from my prayer time without an answer. Later that week I spent time with some friends who are artists and musicians. When I came home I prayed again, hoping for more of an answer this time. Song lyrics came to my mind, so I scribbled them down during my prayer time. They came together in a song that was an answer to my prayer. I have faith that the rich man eventually received the rest of Jesus’ answer to his question too. The song I received went like this:

Don’t do it all, baby who told you that you were not enough? 

Trying to be everything they say will never fill you up. 

Don’t do it all, baby who told you perfection was the way?

They told a lie and made you think, if you weren’t perfect I wouldn’t stay. 

I am the waves at the ocean where you played when you were new. 

I am the dirt in your fingernails; the rain that falls on you. 

I am the wind that tossed your hair, the breeze that kissed your cheek. 

I am the dark that covers you and holds you as you sleep. 

Don’t do it all, baby there’s nothing that I could ask of you, but to be who you are right now and if you have the time could you:

Play in the waves baby let the rain fall down upon your head. 

Run with the wind and let freedom reign in your life instead. 

Don’t do it all, baby let me hold your hurt and broken parts. 

I’ll be here if you fail or fall to tell you you’re enough.