Sunday 19 October 2008 1 Timothy 6:6-10 Luke 18:18-30 Melanie

We pray that God would meet us where we are and move us on to where he would have us be. Amen

I wonder how many of you have ever played this game? Hands up those who haven't done this? Thrown a stone in a still clear pond, and watched the ripples go out and out. Further and further. Everyone here must have done this - Thrown a stone - to see how far you can throw, or competed with someone else. All of a sudden that one action causes endless activity in the water - and yet at the centre is still that one stone, that one place where things are still.

In a way it's the same as we have done today - come away from all that activity that surrounds us, busy lives, things to be done, the ripples and activity of day to day life. We've come away from all that activity, for just a short time, to this place of stillness and quietness. To a place where we can come to God. It is an action that goes against society - against the busyness, the constant movement that surrounds us every day.

It is an action that reminds me of the bestseller book ″The cellist of Sarajevo″. It is the true story of life in a war torn city. Sarajevo was surrounded by snipers, who would take pot shots at anything that moved below them in the city square. Buildings were destroyed - architecture gone; ruins of houses were all that was left. The opera house had been burnt down. In the middle of all this sat a young man. He used to be a cellist in the opera house. All he had now was a burnt stool that he had recovered from the opera house. As he sat in his room he gazed out across the square, and saw people queuing up to buy bread - that most basic of food - just queuing for bread. As he watches this little group of people, a sniper opened fire from a rooftop and killed 22 of them. 22 people dead in an instant. Something snapped in the cellist. He took his stool and his cello, and went to the burnt out remains of the opera house. He sat on the remains of the stage, now open to the elements, and played. He played an adagio by Albinoni. The first time he played, some people came to watch. At the end they didn't clap, they just quietly went away. The next day he did the same - took his stool, and cello, sat on the stage and played. A few more people came, but again no one clapped - they quietly went on their way. The cellist did this for 22 days - one day for each of those that had been killed. Each day, more people came to watch and listen. Each day they all went away silently.

But the miracle was that during that time he played, none of the snipers opened fire. It was as if they recognized that this was a sacred moment, a moment that they could not touch or harm; a moment when God was truly present in that war torn city.

What was even more amazing was that one action was replicated across the world. In New York 22 orchestras joined together to play. All over the world people came together in recognition of those 22 anonymous individuals. The one action by the cellist reverberated throughout the world.
We may never know the consequences of our own acts of kindness. Neither should we. They are there and are held with integrity before God. They are often simple actions that ripple outwards towards others.

Let's go back to those ripples. The interesting thing is that the deeper we throw the stone, the more ripples there are. Unless we get the depth, we don't get the impact of the stone in the same way. With God too, unless we have that deep still point at the centre, our actions are not going to be as effective.

How does this fit into our readings today? Both speak of what lies in our deepest heart. One speaks of what it is that we love most. If we love money beyond other things, then our roots, our heart will be in the wrong place. The other tells of the rich young man. For him, he seemed to have everything in his life in place. But his heart was fixed on riches rather than on what was really important. If our hearts are shaped by wealth rather than the deeper mysteries of life, how can we expect our actions to ripple out and have any real impact on those around? Unless we take time to know God at our very deepest level, we will struggle to make an impact on the world around us.
The readings we have today do not speak against those who are rich or wealthy. Rather they ask difficult questions about where our hearts lie. In which country do we dwell? What drives our innermost thoughts? What will be our answer?

Are we to be like the cellist who had nothing to give except music? Or are we, like the rich man, to turn away with sadness because in our deepest being we prefer to dwell with riches?

Material wealth and security or the unfathomable riches of God - the choice is ours.