Our Response

Job 23:1-9, 16-17, Psalm 22:1-15, Hebrews 4:12-16, Mark 10:17-31

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, October 15, 2006

Heritage Congregational Church, Madison, WI

I have just returned from vacation, which was great, very relaxing. Before I left, my last three sermons were about stewardship. I’ll bet you wondered what was happening when the gospel reading from this morning was about Jesus’ encounter with the rich man. But, rest assured, this sermon is not about stewardship. Instead, I’d like to invite you to consider the difference between reacting and responding.

About six months ago, I was confronted with this idea from two separate sources. First, I attended a Stress Reduction/Management Workshop, facilitated by a good friend of mine. He had been inviting me to these workshops for the past four years, but I have always been too busy to go (proving his point that indeed I might be stressed and it would be a good idea to attend!). But last spring, I was free on a Friday morning, and went to the workshop.

The second source was a book I read for my Doctor of Ministry program last May. The book is called Blink! and talks about how we make decisions in the blink of an eye—faster than a second. Malcolm Gladwell is the author.

Both the class and the book spoke of the the difference between reacting (taking action without conscious thought—assumptions, experience, etc.) and responding (taking action after just a moment of discernment—taking the time to think). Sometimes our initial or gut reactions are good and healthy. Sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes they are true to what we believe is right and sometimes they aren’t. There are times when we say things we wish we could take back or when we do things we regret.

In the Stress Reduction/Management Workshop we learned about how these gut reactions work—what the actual process is that happens in our brains. It is called the Ladder of Inference, and this is how it works:

First of all, we observe data or have an experience. Next we select data from what we observe (we don’t remember everything, just what we select—like three people giving different accounts of the same event—they have selected different data to remember). After the data is selected, we add meanings, both cultural and personal. Then we make assumptions based on those meanings. From the assumptions we draw conclusions. Next we adopt beliefs about the world from these conclusions. Then, and only then, do we take actions based on the beliefs.

It all happens in less than a second. These are our gut reactions. If we can slow it down at all, if we can take a moment to think, we are able to manage just a bit our interpretations, feelings and behaviors. Then we can respond rather than react. Today’s passages show us examples of people either reacting or responding in their relationships with the Divine. You decide what you think is happening in each situation.

We meet Job again today. He is in a bad way, and is having a terrible time. Job has lost everything: family, wealth (animals), health, and today, friends. Last week we found people reacting to Job’s situation and telling him what to do. Job’s wife wanted him to denounce God. Yet Job responds calmly and firmly, saying that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Job’s friends react similarly, believing that Job must have sinned and God is punishing him. If he will only admit his sin, then all will be right once again.

Today Job’s lot is even worse. He has no friends left. Where can he turn? Job has answered his wife and his friends at every turn (today we read his response to the third friend. And through it all Job is the same. He is constant in his faithfulness to God. Job responds in faith. He wishes to plead his case before God (did you notice the legalistic language—acquittal , etc.). Job wants to find God and face Him. He wants to get to the bottom of the matter, and trusts God as a fair judge. He believes in God’s goodness, and wants only to immerse himself in God’s presence. The language at the end of the passage says that Job desires to vanish in the darkness, that his face might be covered by thick darkness. That darkness is like the cloud of God passing over. Job wants to be a part of God’s presence.

The Psalmist today finds himself in sickness and despair, much like Job. He is physically ill and suffers from the torments and taunts of his former friends. Like Job, he cannot feel God’s presence and pleads for God to be near, to rescue him. He is persistent in approaching God, and does not turn away. Instead, he remembers God’s goodness and nurture when he was but an infant. The Psalmist wants to meet God.

In Mark we find two sets of reactions or responses. First, there is the rich man, who approaches Jesus willingly, truly seeking to follow Him. But when Jesus answers his inquiry, the man does not think—he reacts (my opinion) instinctually and quickly. The rich man is shocked. He turns and walks away with grief in his heart. As the passage continues we find the disciples, asking Jesus to explain further this business of loving God or money. They are perplexed and astounded the text says. They jump to their own defense, reminding Jesus that they have left everything to follow Him. They do not seem to measure their part in this interaction.

All the readings have God’s people hearing things they don’t want to hear. Some react and some respond. This is not unusual in the Bible. We have read of Abraham, who heard an unwelcome message when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Moses did not want to accept his calling, saying that he could not speak well enough to be a leader and Jonah ran the other way when called to Ninevah. The list continues and is very long. Time after time God’s people react, sometimes they respond.

Why do we react so often when encountering God in our lives? God calls us into territory we don’t want to enter, and to deeds we want no part of. They go against everything we know of living in this world. God’s message is not one of the status quo. God turns our world upside down and offers us a new kind of world, an alternative life, an eternal relationship.

We have all heard messages that we are tempted to react to, rather than respond. There have been times when we wanted to walk away from God (like the rich man) rather than face God (as did Job and the Psalmist). We see in Job that a faithful response is that immersing ourselves in God’s presence—believing God is there, whether we can find God or not, whether we can feel God with us or not.

About the same time I was beginning seminary, my friends Sue Ann and Jim went through a terrible time in their lives. Everything seemed to go wrong. They lived in Rockford and had family there and good jobs. Jim was offered a great job on the east coast, and so they made the difficult decision to leave all that was familiar and go for it. Sue Ann did not have a job yet and they were barely settled when Jim’s job was gone. The company he was working for was investigated for fraud and the whole place was closed down. They were all alone with nothing and no one. And to make matters worse, a member of the family had a serious health problem and they were not there to offer support.

Sue Ann wrote to me and said that all she wanted to yell at God. It was all so unfair, and she felt like demanding justice from God. Yet, she was conflicted. Part of her just wanted to walk away, but she didn’t feel good about being angry with God. Sue Ann had always been a faithful and involved church member, her faith in God was deep. She was unsettled and didn’t know what to do. I encouraged her to go ahead and yell at God. I said that to me it was far better to stay and be engaged with God than to walk away. I asked her if she had ever read the psalms, because her situation reminded me of the many psalms where God’s people are lamenting and yelling and showing every feeling they have to God when in drastic situations. Calling on God and demanding to be heard is very Biblical.

The question remains, why is it better to respond than react? Just what is it we are responding to when dealing with our God? We find part of the answer in the letter to the Hebrews we read today. It tells us that God’s word is living and active, working in our lives and working in the world. God is present and with us, whether we know it or not. The writer offers a suggested response, telling the reader to approach God boldly, openly, confessing our true selves, for the purpose of making our way toward God’s mercy and grace. In Mark’s gospel we are told that for mortals this is not possible, but that with God all things are possible. This is why we respond—because God’s grace is waiting for us.

The difference between reacting and responding is this: When we react we lose our center—our feet come up off the ground and we cannot stand. The threat of change shakes us to the core. We forget to trust God. When we respond, our center is not shaken, our foundation remains firm. Change can be endured— even embraced, so sure are we of God’s love and care, of God’s goodness toward us.

The actual key to responding I believe we heard a few weeks ago in the Children’s Sermon from Ramsey Richards, who is three years old. It was September 17, our first Stewardship Sunday. I was talking to the children about how everything belongs to God, everything made by people comes from the basic materials given to us by God, even we belong to God. The children had just put tags on themselves that said: I belong to God. Ramsey then said, “Does God belong to us?” You have to be prepared for anything in a children’s sermon, and my mind started racing. What should I say? After a moment I answered Ramsey, “Yes,” I said, “God does belong to us. In the Old Testament God says to us that He is our God and that we are His people. We belong to God and God belongs to us.”

Ramsey got it. Our relationship with God is about mutuality. We are in this together. We belong to one another. Life will be difficult, even cruel at times, but we are not alone. God is with us, and what God offers is mercy and grace and the fulfillment of the impossible. Job and the psalmist knew this. When life was tough they stayed and sought God’s presence. The rich man walked away when he heard what he didn’t want to hear. What these passages issue to us is a radical invitation to be God’s disciple, to pledge the allegiance of our very lives to God, to immerse ourselves in God. When we respond, we are saying to God that we will partner with God, working together for God’s will to be done. Amen.