10/26/25 I Got Nothin'

1:40 so back in seminary, our last year of seminary, we were all ordained deacons, and it was one of the situations where we got to go out to our teaching parish. We were assigned a parish, and we got to preach every weekend, almost every weekend, and so my friends and I, we'd have this ritual that just organically happened as that here we are Friday night, like scrambling to find something to say, Saturday all day working on trying to find something to say, and at some point during the course of that Saturday noontime afternoon, someone would show up in someone's doorway at their dorm room and just walk up and go, I got nothing. That was it, like, Schmitzy, I got nothing. And I'm like, yeah, I got nothing either. Like, that sense of, like, we know the day is coming. We know the moment's coming. We know Mass is going to start. You got to get up and you have to say something. And yet there's that, I got nothing. I don't know if you ever felt like that, where it comes to, like, here it's due. Whatever the thing is, you have to do the thing and it's all you can say sometimes it's just I got nothing here's a question this last summer we had a we had a our camp we have every single summer and we asked these middle schoolers and high school students and college students this question the question was this if you were to die tonight and you walked up to the gates gates of heaven and they asked you one question. They asked you the question, why should we let you in? What would be your answer?

3:07 Like the moment you die, you get, you're there before the gates of heaven. Why should we let you in? What would be your answer? I imagine maybe some of us would say, well, I don't know. I go to mass. Let me in. I pray. I read my Bible. I follow the commandments. I try to be a good person. Keep in mind, those are all good things to do. but as an answer to the question why should we let you in those are all wrong they're the wrong answer not like oh but someone else is no it's wrong it's not it is an incorrect answer that is not it again that's not those are not wrong things to do those are good things to do keep going to mass on sunday keep praying but it's the wrong way to approach god and i don't just mean to approach god at the end of our lives it's the wrong way to approach god today that's how some of us do this. Here's how some of us approach God. Some of us approach God with our resume.

4:02 We walk up to God and we're like, okay, God, you know, we have resumes, right? Your resume, your college application or your resume for a job interview. And what's on the resume? These are all of the reasons why you should accept me to your school. That's the, this is it. Or your job resume. These are all of the reasons why you should choose me. These are all of the reasons why you should want me. And many of us have what you might call a resume faith. That how we approach God is that. We approach God with all of the reasons why he should listen to us, all the reasons why he should accept us, all the reasons why he should love us. maybe you've done that God I've been praying so you should listen to me God I've been going to mass so you should hear me God I've been trying to be a good boy I've been trying to be a good girl and that's why you should hear my prayer that's like the Pharisee in the gospel today that's literally what the Pharisee does the Pharisee comes before the in the temple comes before the Lord and he lays out his resume he's bringing God his resume He's like, I fast twice a week.

5:08 God, you should listen to me. I pay tithes on my whole income. You should listen to me. I'm not greedy. I'm not adulterous. I don't do all those things. These are all of the reasons why you should listen to me. Remember, those are all good things to do. The things he's doing are all good things. They're very, in fact, he's pretty impressive. I mean, twice a week, struggle for one. Tithes on everything. That means 10% of all of his income he gives to the Lord. It's pretty impressive. Those are not wrong things to do, but they are the wrong way to approach God. This is so important for all of us, especially if we have resume faith.

5:43 Here's one of the reasons why it's wrong. One of the reasons it's wrong is if I come before God and say, God, here are all the reasons. All these things I'm doing, these are all the reasons why you should love me. These are all the reasons why you should hear me. These are all the reasons you should accept me. Then these are also all the reasons why you shouldn't hear me when I fail. These are all the reasons why you shouldn't accept me when I don't do them. God, these are all the reasons why you shouldn't love me when I fail to do these things.

6:12 See, if we base our relationship with God off of a resume faith, these also become all the reasons why I stay away from prayer. Ah, God, I haven't been going to Mass, so I'm just gonna stay away. God, I haven't been praying, so I'm just not gonna show up. God, I haven't been a good kid. So you don't want anything to do with me. This is one of the crazy things. I take a look at my resume and either I say, oh God, these are all the reasons why you should love me, or I take a look at my resume and say, God, these are now all of the reasons why you should not love me. When we have resume faith, we either look at what we've done and say, that qualifies me, or we look at our resume and say, God, these are all of the things that disqualify me. It's one of the reasons why self-reliance, as a Christian, self-reliance is a dangerous trap because self-reliance will almost always lead to self-condemnation.

7:06 Because you might be good right now, but we rarely stay good. We might be performing right now, but at some point, we have to realize you don't need to perform. So how do we approach God? We approach God with those words, I got nothing. In this sense, God, I've got nothing to offer, and that's okay.

7:30 This has to be one of the ways we approach the Lord. God, I have nothing to offer. Get to heaven. Why should we let you in? Not because of anything I've done. This is so important for all of us. Why should we let you in? Not because of anything I've done. In the same sense that why should God listen to you? Not because I have anything to offer. This is one of the first things, first approaches to the Lord. Every one of our prayers this week needs to be defined by this. God, I got nothing to offer. But also, two other things. First, the first movement is, God, I got nothing to offer. If you listen to me, it's because of your love. It's because of your goodness. It's not because of anything I've done. The number two is this. I don't know if you've ever been to an outdoor store where it's really intimidating.

8:11 Are outdoor stores really intimidating? Or like, there's some like, you guys, they are. They hire the coolest people in the world. They hire people who like could live off of the land. They hire people who could, they could win alone. Like the kind of people who get hired at outdoor stores are the most intimidating, or like maybe a really expensive store, a really fancy restaurant. If we go to a really fancy restaurant, is just like, I don't think I should be here. The temptation in those moments is what? Temptation is to sort of prove that you should be there. Here's the thing. Here's my story. Going into outdoor stores, you know, that we have cooking or camping and climbing, that kind of store. I always feel like this. I always feel like the workers there are looking at me, telling me, thinking, prove to us you're cool enough to shop at our store. Or if you're at a fancy restaurant, prove to us that you're wealthy enough to eat in our restaurant.

9:04 Sometimes that's just how it is. I remember the day I stopped doing that because I felt so intimidated. The day I stopped doing this at least once, I was up in Ely. It was my last summer before I got ordained and I went into one other, again, a really cool outdoor store and I wanted to get a kayak but I don't know anything about kayaks. I'd gone kayaking twice and I knew that when I went in there, they would say, hey, do you kayak much? And I'd be tempted to be like, well, I've gone twice if that means anything. So I decided I am not going to pretend. I'm not going to pose.

9:35 I'm not going to, I'm going to say no. So the guy asked me, have you done much kayaking? Actually, no, but it seems like a lot of fun. And it was one of those moments where I just said, no, I'm not going to pretend. I'm not going to try to prove to you that I'm cool enough to shop at your store. Another way to say it is I'm going to stop auditioning for acceptance. because that's what a lot of us do when it comes to going into the restaurant or the store or the class or work or meeting friends. We find ourselves auditioning for acceptance. And so even when it comes to prayer, auditioning for acceptance, God, I have to prove to you, I have to prove to you that you should listen to me. The two first steps in prayer, God, I got nothing to offer. And secondly, God, because of you, I've got nothing to prove.

10:27 Imagine if you prayed like that. God, I've got nothing to prove. You know, like a year and a half, two years ago, I came across what is maybe the most revolutionary teaching of Jesus. I'd heard it my entire life. I did not realize how revolutionary it was. It's in Matthew chapter 6. It's on the Sermon on the Mount. And it's a story. It's a teaching. You have all heard this, where Jesus says, when you give alms, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. your father sees it. When you're praying, don't let people see it. God sees it. When you're fasting, don't let people see it. God sees it. I don't know if we understand how completely revolutionary that teaching is. What is Jesus saying? Not only don't show off, what he's saying is ultimately, no matter what you do, everything that you do, God sees, he notices, and it matters to him. this was unthinkable before Jesus.

11:24 This reality, that no matter what you do, big, small, hidden, visible, God sees it, he notices it, and it actually matters. And that's why he says, when you pray, don't babble like the pagans who think that because of the many words they'll be heard. Have you ever heard that phrase? When you pray, don't babble like the pagans who think that because of the many words they'll be heard. What was happening back in the Greco-Roman world is when people are going to pray, what they believed is, they believed they had to fight for the God's attention. They believed they had to prove that they were worthy of the God's blessing. And so they go through all this rigmarole. If I say the right words, if I do the right thing, then I can prove to God that he should hear my prayer, he should answer my prayer. And Jesus is saying, you do not have to convince God to listen to you. When you pray, simply say, Abba. When you pray, simply say, Father. here's the revolutionary teaching of Jesus when you pray you do not have to audition for acceptance why? because your father already knows he already cares, he already loves you you have nothing to prove Here's a question.

12:32 Do you believe that? are you aware and convinced that that's true because I imagine this I talk to people all the time who will say this they'll say like I was raised Catholic raised Christian and I've heard my whole life that God loves me I've heard my whole life Jesus loves me and I guess it's kind of maybe true but here's what I found I found most people who have heard that Jesus loves them or heard that God loves them don't really believe God loves them they believe God tolerates them Thank you. are you someone who believes that God loves you or do you believe that God tolerates you and that every time you come to prayer you have to audition for acceptance or do you say no I got nothing to prove you know what it is to be aware and convinced of God's love the word convinced is the word convinciere right so the Latin is con with vincere means victory so to be convinced of God's love means you've been conquered by this reality You've been conquered by his love.

13:32 That this isn't just something you're like, I acknowledge this. No, it has won you over. And because of that, whenever we come to prayer, I got nothing. Meaning. I got nothing to prove. I have stopped auditioning for acceptance from the Lord. So I got nothing to offer. I got nothing to prove. And the third one is this. we pray like this, I got nothing to hide.

14:02 That doesn't mean everything about us is awesome. Doesn't mean everything about us is amazing. Doesn't mean everything about us. Doesn't mean we don't have any flaws or any faults. What it means is with my flaws, with my faults, with my stuff, I got nothing to hide, meaning I'm just not going to hide any of it. We all have that, though. We have this temptation, I think, to hide. We have this temptation to hide our weaknesses. we have a temptation to hide our sadness we have a temptation to hide our sins, our faults even when it comes to God I was talking to a young woman a number of years ago and she was talking about how she's a prayer she prayed every single day, almost like an hour a day she was like a black belt, like a brown belt in prayer, like she was good at it like she was consistent but she was saying how her prayer felt so hollow, it felt so shallow it felt so dry and barren so I just asked her like, what's going on in your prayer you say well here's what I do I read the Bible then I just kind of talk to God about what I read and I'm like okay but do you talk to God about your worries? Do you talk to God about your desires?

15:03 Do you talk to God about your fears? Do you talk to God about your relationship with your boyfriend? All these kind of and she's like well no not really those aren't things God's interested in so they're not really things I talk to him about she was convinced that he didn't God didn't want to hear about the things that were important to her God only wanted she was convinced God only wanted to hear about things that she imagined he wanted to hear. So, well, how about this? How about whatever's in your heart, the things that matter to you, start talking to God about them. A couple weeks later, it's like, how's it going? She says, actually, Father Mike, you're really, really smart. I'm like, I don't know. No, but she said, actually, it's completely different. She said, actually, you're right. Because why? Because the whole time she had been hiding in her prayer. what is the sorrow you actually have in your heart what are the desires you have in your heart what are the things that you're afraid of in your heart what is the broken heart that you might have to be able in our prayer to say, I got nothing to hide, is so important.

16:06 Especially when it comes to our sins. I think sometimes we hide our weaknesses from God. Yes, you've heard of the thing called the sin against the Holy Spirit. In the gospel, Jesus says, there's only one sin that can't be forgiven. He calls it the sin against the Holy Spirit. People are like, okay, what's that one? I want to avoid it. Well, that's good. You want to avoid that one. What is the sin against the Holy Spirit? Sin against the Holy Spirit is not one sin. the sin against the Holy Spirit is any sin that I don't allow God to forgive.

16:32 So any sin could be the sin against the Holy Spirit. The sin against the Holy Spirit is any sin that I hide from the Lord. because why we come to prayer coming to this prayer and say i got nothing to hide there's not one part of my life that i will not let god have i don't know if you've ever tried to have a relationship with someone where you're hiding something from them it is really hard a couple weeks ago a couple weeks ago we had our clergy conference out of town it was up at giants ridge and on tuesday night of the clergy conference i had to come back for ocia class and we had a meeting as well. And so I texted Bishop, like I'm on my way, actually I think he even had the class already. I texted Bishop something along the lines of, oh Bishop, I got called away, I'll be back tomorrow. And he writes back right away, no problem, you know, this is the missionary diocese, missionary priests have to be flexible and was really encouraging, have prayers for whatever's going on back in Duluth.

17:29 And I'm like, oh shoot. Like he, I made, here's the thing, I made the text intentionally vague so it sounded like it wasn't my fault. I made it vague enough so it sounded like maybe it was an emergency, not planned. See, here's the thing. My uncle once told me when I was a kid, he said this, he said, better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. And I like tattooed that on my heart. It's not his fault, it's my fault. And to a fault, I hold onto that. Here's the next day, I get back to the clergy conference and he's like, how was it? Are you okay? I was just praying for everything back in Duluth. I'm like, oh shoot, yeah. Yeah, that was, I, we had mass and he's like, the Lord be with you. I'm like, I know.

18:13 I felt so bad. I couldn't look him in the eye. Like I was, that was deceptive, right? It was vague enough that he could take it that one way instead of me saying, Bishop, I left and I didn't ask your permission. So that night before supper, I'm like, I can't do it. I can't do it. I was a bishop. I called him aside and I said, I need to tell you something. He's like, okay. He said, I need to ask your forgiveness. He's like, okay. I said, I need to go to confession. I said, Bishop, I told him the whole story. And he's like, okay. want to have supper? I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. But that was the thing, you know, if you ever have that where you know that you're hiding something from someone that you shouldn't hide anything from. Bishop's my spiritual father. There should be nothing hidden from him. Our Lord is our, our God is our, is our dad. There's nothing that we should hide from him. So it's that this has to be our prayer. I got nothing to offer. I got nothing to prove. I got nothing to hide. Here's the last thing. if you died tonight how do you approach God not with a resume because I've got nothing to offer not not with on in addition because I've got nothing to prove and also not with perfection because you have nothing to hide when you die when you die and you stand before God you stand before heaven and they ask you why should we let you in there is one answer that answer is because of what Jesus has done for me This is it.

19:44 This is the answer. When you die and you stand before God and they ask, why should we let you to heaven? The answer is because Jesus died for me and because I live for him. That's the answer. I'm giving you the final. The question is going to be, why should we let you in? The only answer is because Jesus died for me and now I live for him. Jesus has offered it all. Jesus is the one who purchased your soul and my soul at a price. Jesus is the one who conquered death and conquered sin and conquered everything that conquers us and gave us new life. So the answer is Jesus. Not my resume, not my audition, not my perfection.

20:26 Jesus died for me. So now I live for him. we get to say, I got nothing. In heaven, I got nothing to offer. Heaven, I got nothing to prove. In the face of heaven, we can say, I've got nothing to hide.