Sermon – What Am I Missing?
1 Samuel 1:3-11a; Mark 10:17-22 Matthew 27:45-50
3/8/26
Raise your hand if you have always gotten all that you ever wanted in life. Go ahead, don’t be bashful. No one? Let’s simplify – raise your hand if you got everything that you ever wanted over the course of one year… maybe one month… maybe one week… I am not going to say one day because someone might want to make the case that they had an exceptional day at some point in which everything went their way, but that would mean traffic was great, emails were not bothersome nor phone calls vexing, work was appropriately challenging, other people were respectful, your food was spot on, and the extra-curriculars were pleasantly entertaining – and of course, all of your personal demands were fulfilled, the expressed and unexpressed. Sometimes we might find ourselves on a delightful excursion full of fun and wonder, like our recent trip to Hawaii, but even there in the Aloha State, there was no one day of total Aloha.
In fact, not only do we NOT often get what we want or have things go our way or receive every expectation filled, we tend to notice much more the deficiencies around us. Maybe you know people who tend to point out what is wrong or what is missing or the failures of the life in which we dwell. Maybe you ARE one of those people. That is an actual personality type that thrives in pointing out the shortcomings of the world around them. I was raised with some of that myself. It can be hard because there is a LOT happening all around us that is lacking.
Where there is lack, however, is where God likes to work. Take the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel in which the lack is the focus of this origin story for Samuel. He was born out of this God-given lack. Hannah desperately wanted a son to honor her beloved husband as many, many, many people over the millennia have wanted children when they were unable to have them. The number of parents who could have or did pray to God for help with that sense of lack is innumerable, yet here God is expressed as part of the story. In this story, it IS a God-given lack, and the author frames the situation as God’s doing to begin with. This is all supposed to be God’s work – the inability to have a child and the ability. This is different from those cases in which people who could not have children then go on to do so, some after having adopted. That was not on Hannah’s mind, of course, as she poured her heart out to God. She really seems to be going about this the right way. She brings her sense of lack with her to the heart of God’s presence at this holy place Shiloh. She presents to God her need and pours her spirit out to God so fervently in prayer that the priest Eli thinks she is intoxicated. She passionately and faithfully wants a child for her husband and is even willing to give the child, should God desire, back to God for a life of service. She conceives baby Samuel, one of the greatest prophets and judges in the Old Testament, and once he is weened, she turns him over to the Temple and to Eli for a lifelong ministry in which he would even end up anointing David as King. It was Samuel who begrudgingly transitioned the entire nation into a fledgling kingdom.
Her inability to conceive is the very springboard for God to work. This goes for others in Scripture like for Sarah and Abraham, Rachel and Joshua, and Elizabeth and Zechariah, but the point here is not that God gave them children or not. That is just one profound way that people may notice what they believe they are missing. Here it is IN that feeling, that need, that desire for something that God often speaks to us. That feeling, that need, that desire for what we are missing can move us to reach beyond what is right in front of us. Love itself begins as the pursuit of what we do not have. Capitalism depends on people being hungry for more. The future is ever elusive but always pulling at our thoughts. Every tv commercial is counting on you being in need. So much of our world is framed with the fact that we are missing something. This is why I so enjoy moments of paralympic glory. As if YouTube knew I was preaching on this today, a video popped up in my feed highlighting the swimmer Gabriel Araujo (Aroshzo) who won the gold medal in backstroke in the last Olympics. The reason he is called the Brazilian Torpedo is because he does not have any functioning limbs as we might expect. Most striking is the fact that he has no arms whatsoever. With the way that he undulates his torso, he easily won gold against others, many of whom had both arms, in the 100m backstroke – that’s two lengths of an Olympic pool… in less than 2 minutes. Tell me there is no God.
Others seem to have abundance but don’t know what to do with it. In fact, that is what happens when we take our lack and bury it under a mountain of abundance. It is absolutely fascinating that the man who seemed to have everything was caught up in one last, lagging and nagging need – how can I be saved? Mark wants us to dwell in this man’s situation. It is so easy to skip on to the next miracle, the next teaching, the next healing, or the next parable. Don’t. The man whom we often call the rich, young ruler represents the best of us. He has been successful and seems to be a decent person. He is very tradition focused and righteousness focused. He has followed the law from his youngest years as any good Jew might hope, and he has abundance. In this day and age, we might call that the American dream, but he recognized that he was still missing something. That sense of lack brought him to Jesus.
There is no malice or ugliness here. The young man might be trying to butter Jesus up – after all, he is a probably a successful businessman, but there is no harm intended, and Jesus loves the young man. But he will also hold him accountable for what he has. You might remember that I mentioned earlier that God loves to work in the lack, in what we are missing. It is a call for change. When we are confronted with what is lacking in the world around us, it is a call for change, for action. Jesus was confronted with poverty all around him. The average Palestinian in Jesus’ day was poor by any modern standard. Most people were poor. This rich, young fellow could have done something about that because he also felt a need to follow God in a greater way. Jesus gives him the simple answer: if you want to be part of my life and kingdom, give up what you have for those who are drowning in poverty. But he couldn’t do it. It was his by every right. He had either earned it or inherited it, maybe both, but it was his. He loved what was his more than he loved his place in God’s heart. He loved what was his more than he loved the people of God. He loved what was his more than he loved the call to serve. He loved what was his more than he was willing to confront the lack.
There is still a lot missing out there in the world today. People are forgotten in poverty. You know communities long ago gave up much of the responsibility of helping our neighbor. People, many in silent desperation, subsist on their lack. That scares us and we would rather not even face it.
C-67 9.46 c. The reconciliation of man through Jesus Christ makes it plain
that enslaving poverty in a world of abundance is an intolerable violation
of God’s good creation…. A church that is indifferent to poverty, or evades
responsibility in economic affairs, or is open to one social class only, or
expects gratitude for its beneficence makes a mockery of reconciliation
and offers no acceptable worship to God.
But I will tell you this. Where the church recognizes the true needs of those around us and walks into the lack with what we have, we will be the true church. We will be the true Body of Christ. Where we meet others and recognize their needs as part of our own needs, we will find the Spirit of God. That need that we know is an invitation for something better in this world, and where we are willing to work together, something amazing and glorious can happen. There is so much that is wrong with the world, but there is also so much that can be right. Even if I cannot fix the things around me, simply recognizing those who are without as precious in God’s sight can invite room for love. Where we share in the lack, we can look for God.
To God be the glory. Amen.