"What Will They Say?" - 7/11/10 - Luke
10:25-28
This past week I attended the funeral service for the mother of a long time
friend. I heard words about her wonderful baking skills and how every party was
made special when she showed up with one of her culinary delights. In her
remembrance in the bulletin there was mention of her love of pets especially a
canary that was important to her. But the most important tribute came from her
son. He talked about how is mother did a lot of needlepoint and embroidering. He
shared with us a particular piece that hung in his room while growing up. He
said before he could read he thought the piece the childhood prayer that the
family said every night: "Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord my soul to
keep, if I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take." As the
years went by and he learned to read and share with us the writing on the
embroidery piece: "Jesus love me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little
ones to him belong. They are weak but he is strong." The son then went on
to tell us how he read Psalms to her in the time before her death when she could
no longer do this for herself. His mother's faith was the legacy that she passed
on to him. A legacy that he is now entrusted with.
What will they say? What will they say after our death that reflects the life
we are living? Will they say she was a good mother, will they say he was a good
father? Will they say she was a good friend? Will they say he was a good
lifetime partner? Will they say she was a faithful church going? Will they he
could be found helping out at MCC every Sunday evening? Will our actions that we
live out during our lifetime reflect our legacy to the world.
As I left the church after the funeral service I knew that this Sunday's
sermon would be focused on what is important now that we can be remembered for
in the future. For everything that we do now is our legacy for the future. I
began to think of a scripture reading that would give us guidance and direction
of how we can make a difference. I looked up the lectionary reading for this
Sunday and there was my answer:
Luke 10:25-37
25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he
said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to
him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?"
27 He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as
yourself." 28 And he said to him, "You have given the right
answer; do this, and you will live."
What could be more central to our legacy than to love the Lord our God with
all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all
our mind; and our
neighbor as yourself. To live each day focused, centered in God's love. To love
God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind provides us with direction and
keeps our priorities in order. What a wonderful testimony to our living that we
never lose site of what we have to pass along. The second part of this
commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. We may or may not have
children, but we can still pass along the love we have to our neighbors. Will
the stranger remember an act of kindness? Will a fellow traveler remember how we
gave them a piece of bread or drink of water when they were in need? Will a
fellow worker remember how we helped them when they were new to the job? To love
a neighbor in our actions through our words does make a difference in our world.
To love our neighbor is the most important legacy we can leave for the next
generation.
What will they say? Our legacy begins today. What we want to be remembered
for begins in the words and actions that we say and do everyday. I encourage us
to begin that legacy by living out the great commandments in our lives. What
better focus than to make the commitment each day to love our God with all our
heart, soul, strength, and mind. To be centered in loving God with all our being
indeed does change the world and give people cause to remember us. And out of
love we have for God we share our lives with the neighbor who needs our
presence. And indeed it will be said of us that we were faithful to the One who
gives meaning to our lives.
