Not Alone

by the Rev. Dr. Paul S. Nancarrow

This sermon is based on Genesis 2:18-24, Psalm 8, Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12, and Mark 10:2-16. 

An audio version of this sermon is available here. 

“It is not good for the man to be alone.”

This verse from the opening of our first reading sets the tone for all our scripture lessons today — in fact, it sets the tone for all our prayers and liturgy and communion as well. Everything we do here today is held together by the central proclamation of God’s will that we human beings should not be alone, God’s will that we be in relationships, all kinds of relationships, relationships in which we can give to each other and receive from each other with freedom and generosity and grace and joy. The message today is that it is not good for us to be alone; or, to put the same truth in a positive way: It is good that we are not alone. 

And that central truth echoes through all our readings. It’s there in the Genesis passage, when God makes a human being, and doesn’t want the human being to be all alone, and so plants a garden full of wonderful trees and plants and flowers and fruits, and puts the human being in the garden to till it and keep and be in a relationship of caretaking with it, and then makes all kinds of animals come out of the ground to manifest different aspects of God’s goodness and to receive names from the human and to be in all kinds of relationships, and then finally turns the human into a man and a woman for the most mysterious and amazing and surprising relationship of all. All that happens because God creates the world for relationships, and in such a world it is good that we are not alone. 

And that central truth is there again in Psalm 8, when the psalmist expresses awe and wonder at the intricacies of God’s creation, the heavens, the work of God’s fingers, the moon and the stars God has set in their courses — and then is pulled up short in sheer amazement that in all this wonder God makes human beings so important, God crowns human beings with honor and glory, God gives to human beings “mastery” — which means not just “control over” but “faithful caretaking of” — domestic animals and wild animals and birds and fish and things so far out of human ken that we don’t even have names for them, so that the whole Universe is one big exaltation of God’s Name. All that happens because God creates the world for relationships, and in such a world it is good that we are alone. 

And that truth is there again in Hebrews, where the author quotes from Psalm 8 to show that Jesus is the one who sums up and exemplifies God’s will for all our good relationships. Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s being, from whom all things come and to whom all things return and in whom all things are sustained by his powerful word. Jesus is the one in whom God’s revelation of love is made perfect, the one who shows us that God’s love is stronger even than death, the one who shares God’s love with us so that we may be sanctified, that we may be blessed and we may be a blessing. All that happens because God creates the world for relationships, and in such a world it is good that we are not alone.

And that truth is there in the Gospel, when Mark shows Jesus debating with Pharisees and welcoming children. The Pharisees challenge Jesus about the lawfulness of divorce, and Jesus says, Yes, in the Torah it is lawful — but just because it's lawful doesn’t mean it’s what God really wants. What God wants, Jesus says, is that marriages, like all other relationships, be tender-hearted, intimate, caring, mutual. Sometimes hardness of heart gets in the way of God’s ideal for relationships, sometimes hardness of heart does lead to divorce, sometimes hardness of heart leads to disciples trying to prevent children from coming to Jesus. But wherever there is hardness of heart, Jesus says, wherever there is acting in un-love, Jesus says, there we need to remember that God creates us for relationships, God makes us for each other, and it is not good for us to harden our hearts and try to go it on our own, but it is good that we are not alone. 

Over and over again in our scriptures today we hear that central message: It is good that we are not alone. And today at Trinity we bear witness to the Good News that we are not alone in two particular ways. 

Today we have our Blessing of the Animals. Every year at the beginning of October, near St Francis Day, we bring pets and four-footed friends and companion animals to the churchyard, and pray in thanksgiving and blessing that God has placed us in such a goodly multi-species company. In a way, every Blessing of the Animals is a re-enactment of today’s Genesis story: we name our animals, and in naming them bless them. The Blessing of the Animals is a reminder that we humans on this earth are not alone, but we are one part of a vast web of life, a delicate dance of relationship between people and animals and plants and bacteria in the soil and chemicals in the air and plankton in the oceans and microscopic creatures living in our own bodies and helping our bodies to function — we humans on this earth are not alone, and we could not live without all these others to sustain us. The Blessing of the Animals is a witness that it is good that we are not alone. 

And today we begin our fall pledge drive, Trinity Gives. October is Stewardship Month, and during October we will have cottage meetings and stewardship moments and shared reflections on how we pledge ourselves to the financial support of God’s mission at Trinity Church. And I think that pledging to the church is another kind of witness to the truth that it is good that we are not alone. Of course giving money to the church has the practical consequence of keeping the lights on and the doors open and the building maintained and the staff paid. But more than that, giving money to the church is a material sign of our relatedness, of how we recognize that we are in this together, how one person’s gifts and talents are complemented and completed by other persons’ gifts and talents, how my shortcomings are made up for by your abilities, how all our hopes and needs and aspirations and dreams are made more whole by being shared with each other. Pledging money to the financial health of the church helps to create this environment where our Christian relationships can thrive. We celebrate that we are not alone when we make music together, and support the program that makes the music in our pledge. We celebrate that we are not alone when we worship together, and support the people who lead the worship in our pledge. We celebrate that we are not alone when we are transported by the beauty of this building, and support the upkeep of this building in our pledge. We celebrate that we are not alone when we send mission trips to Honduras and Haiti, and budget financial grants to aid agencies that operate throughout our area, and engage our Sunday school classes and youth groups in service projects in our community, and support the parish infrastructure that enables those acts of service in our pledge. So much more than just writing out a check, making a pledge of financial support of the church is an outward and visible sign of our spiritual relationships. It is an act of caretaking, an act of stewardship, as much as Adam in the Garden or Jesus with the Children, that shows forth God’s amazing gift to us that it is good that we are not alone.

Stewardship Month, Blessing of the Animals, Genesis, Psalm, Epistle, and Gospel — everything this morning points us to God’s gracious gift that we are not alone. Let us be not-alone in communion here today, and in lives of love and service and relationship every day. Amen.