Scriptures: Amos
5:6-15, Psalm 90:12-17, Hebrews 4:12-16, Mark 10:17-31
In this morning’s Gospel reading, Jesus is accosted by a man
who runs up to him and asks, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal
life?” I have to say, that image of a
man – who we later learn is a rich man – running up to Jesus captures my
attention. People had run up to Jesus
before, often to ask for healing for themselves or someone else – and if
someone is gravely ill, on the point of death, this is understandable. But to ask about eternal life – what’s the
hurry? There’s no indication that the
man expects to die anytime soon; in fact, in other Gospels, he’s described as a
young man. He had his whole life in
front of him. So where’s the
urgency? Where’s the fire? What’s the rush? Besides, given his wealth, it’s surprising he
himself went at all – he could have sent messengers, and had his people talk to
Jesus’ people and arrange a time when he and Jesus could do lunch. But, no, this man for whatever reason was
desperate for an answer to his question, perhaps as much so as those who came
to Jesus for healing.
We’re told that Jesus was setting out on a journey, on his
way out the door, and so initially Jesus gives the man what sounds, at least to
me, like a bit of a brush-off answer:
“Why call me good? Only God is good. You know the commandments……” and
then Jesus lists several of the commandments, among them don’t murder, don’t
commit adultery, don’t bear false witness.
The man quietly replies “Teacher, I’ve kept all these from my
youth.” And now he’s gotten Jesus’ attention. It
seems to me that up to that moment, Jesus had probably been focused on his
journey and may have been only half paying attention to the man – the way I
unfortunately sometimes only half pay attention when I’m in a rush to get
somewhere and someone on the street asks me for spare change – it’s easy to
just put a couple quarters in someone’s extended hand without seeing their face
at all, and to that I plead guilty as a serial offender - but now Jesus stopped
what he was doing and paid attention. We’re
told that as Jesus looked at the man, looked him in the eye, Jesus loved him,
loved him as someone who had sincerely tried to follow the teachings of the
faith that he and Jesus shared, loved him as a potential kindred spirit.
And yet, for all that the man had followed his faith and
generally tried to do the right thing, something was missing from his life –
something was absent from his life that overflowed from Jesus’s life - so much
so that the man felt compelled to drop whatever he had been doing, run to
wherever Jesus was, and interrupt Jesus’ travel plans, at least for a
moment. As Jesus looked at the man, he
likely could see the man’s well-fed look, his soft, clean hands, with no signs
of callouses from manual labor, his fine clothing and costly footwear. And Jesus made a diagnosis. “You lack one thing,” Jesus said. And the man probably gave a sigh of relief –
I only need to change one thing, that doesn’t sound so bad. But then Jesus went on, “Go, sell what you
own, and give the money to the poor, and you’ll have treasure in heaven; then
come, follow me.” Jesus asked the man
to do just one thing, but it was the one thing the man could not, just could.
not. bring himself to do, because, we’re
told, the man had many possessions. We’re
told that the man was shocked, and went away grieving – probably not running;
more likely walking away slowly, maybe with a backward glance at Jesus now and
then.
I’d like to contrast what Jesus did with what Jesus could
have done instead, with what I might have done in the same circumstance. If a rich man came here and asked what he had
to do to inherit eternal life, I’d
likely tell him about Jesus, offer him a Bible, pray with him to invite Jesus
into his life, invite him to join the church.
Especially I might have encouraged him to use some of his wealth to
support our church - all good and worthwhile things. Maybe with the rich man’s wealth, we could
afford to make some of the building repairs we need, or maybe even put in a
chair lift. In any case, I’d want the
man to stick around. And the man’s
wealth could have been a big help for Jesus and his disciples, could have made
their life on the road a lot more comfortable.
And yet, while Jesus loved the man and invited the man to follow him, ultimately
the man walked away, and ultimately Jesus let him.
Why didn’t Jesus let the man keep his possessions and follow
him anyway? Jesus knew that, if he
allowed the man to keep his wealth, the man’s possessions would always be a
distraction. The man would want to stay
close to his property so he could keep an eye on it, and that would have limited
the travels of the rest of the group.
The man might have been tempted to use his money to throw his weight
around among the other disciples – “after all, I’m paying all the bills around
here,” the man might have said, and we’re told the disciples were already have
squabbles over which one should be in charge.
In fact, had they come to rely on the rich man’s wealth, they’d have
forgotten Jesus’ teaching about relying on God.
And so the man’s wealth would have undermined Jesus’ mission instead of
enhancing it. And the man himself would
still have lived with that nagging sense of discontent, would have missed the
transformation that comes from truly following Jesus.
We’re told that the man had many possessions. He possessed many things. But that word “possessed” is also used to
describe people who are controlled by outside forces, such as demonic
possession, or even when I may say, “I don’t know what possessed me to say such
a thing.” (The thought occasionally
crosses my mind when I read over my old sermons.) And so, while the man possessed many things,
he himself was also possessed – possessed by his possessions. The things he controlled, also controlled
him. His responsibilities to them
limited his freedom, kept him in bondage.
Jesus offered him a key and a way out, but he preferred the comfort of
his golden chains. We might think of
Jesus’ words from two Sundays ago advising his followers that if their hand or
foot caused them to sin, it would be better to cut it off. For the rich man, leaving his wealth behind would
have been like amputating a limb…and while he was ready for a spiritual nip and
tuck, a spiritual face lift, the man simply wasn’t prepared for radical
surgery.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus makes the observation about how
hard it is for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God, that it’s easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter the
Kingdom of God. And preachers have tried to minimize this teaching,
saying that there was a narrow gate in Jerusalem called the needle, and so
taking a camel through this narrow gate was only inconvenient, not impossible….I
don’t know for sure whether or not that’s true.
But in any case, Jesus’ words shock the disciples, but they remind Jesus
of all that they had given up to follow him.
And Jesus tells them that whatever they’ve left behind – house or fields
or families - they’ll receive a hundred times as much in this life, and eternal
life in the world to come.
At our last dinner church, I read a portion of the Sermon on
the Mount, Matthew 6:25-34, where Jesus teaches, “Do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Look at the birds of the air, they don’t sow
or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they…. Jesus concludes, “Seek first God’s kingdom
and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” And I threw out the question, that so many in
our city and even in our congregation struggle just to have enough to eat, and
we’re not exactly seeing manna coming down from heaven. Can we trust Jesus’ words? And one of our members said that the key is
to seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added. Perfect answer!
But I’d like to unpack it a bit: what does it mean to seek the Kingdom of
God? I think we’re drawn to an
individualistic interpretation, that if we let God reign in our individual lives,
then God will rain down blessings on us as individuals. And this can be true – God’s surprising grace
can provide in amazing, unexpected ways, and I never want to rule out miracles. Given our church’s limited resources, we
depend on miracles to keep our doors open. However, I believe we can all think
of faithful people in our lives, people genuinely seeking and living the reign
of God, people whose faithfulness puts mine to shame, who nonetheless may not
know where their next meal is coming from.
And so I’d like to expand beyond this a little bit. We’re told that the two great commandments
are to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbor as ourselves –
and to love our neighbor, we need to be in contact with our neighbor. We might call this the law of the kingdom of
God, the law of love. Indeed, just as an
earthly king doesn’t have just one subject, but many, seeking the reign of God
in our lives inevitably leads us to our neighbor, leads us into community, and
a healthy sense of community leads us to be willing to share what we have with
sister and brother. In today’s Gospel
reading, Jesus taught that whatever his disciples gave up as individuals –
houses, fields, families – they would have many times over from the shared
resources of the community of God’s people, of what Dr. Martin Luther King
called the beloved community. And I
think this is one sense in which Jesus taught his followers to seek first God’s
reign, to join in the beloved community of God’s people who are willing to let
go of their possessions, and that from the shared resources of the community,
God would provide. Indeed, this is the
record we have of the early church in the book of Acts, 2nd chapter,
vs 43-47: “Awe came upon everyone,
because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all
things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute
the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day
by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at
home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having
the goodwill of all the people. And day
by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” I believe this is how the earliest Christians
lived out Jesus’ vision of the reign of God.
It is one sense in which that those who seek for the kingdom will have
their needs met. And it is this vision
of beloved community – this vision of the kingdom of God - that the rich man
rejected.
The drive to gather and hoard wealth brings death, not only
spiritually but physically. We live in a
world in which the wealthiest eight individuals on the planet hold more wealth
than the poorest half of the planet’s population combined.[1]
While eight people are partying,
billions are starving. On Monday, a report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, said that we have twelve years – until the year 2030 – two
years into what I fervently hope will be my retirement from my daytime job - to
make the radical changes that would continue to allow the planet to continue to
support human life.[2] And the primary change needed is to reduce
carbon emissions by radically reducing and eventually eliminating use of fossil
fuels. The report states that if we continue on our
current course, by 2040, wildfires, drought, food shortages, and changing
coastlines – as in say goodbye to Miami and other coastal cities - will become
a fact of life. (On a positive note, we
may not have to drive as far to get to the Jersey Shore.) Now, I
have no particular expectation of being alive in 2040 – I’d be pushing 80 then,
and my family doesn’t tend to live that long – but your children and
grandchildren likely will be. And do you
really want your legacy to them to be a dying planet? What’s standing in the way of the needed
change is the fossil fuel industry, and the politicians who benefit from their
donations. And sadly, while some other countries is
making needed change, our country’s policies are moving in the opposite
direction. So concentrated wealth in the
fossil fuel industry can bring not only spiritual death for the individuals
involved, but physical death on a global scale.
For the rich man in the story, his own wealth held him back
from following Jesus. But other things
may hold us back – a desire to hold power, or maintain comfort, a desire for
respectability that may keep us from wanting to hang out with the poor and
disreputable with whom Jesus associated.
And underneath all of that is fear – fear that our lives will be
diminished if we give up wealth or power or comfort or respectability. As some of you know, I was at a clergy
retreat earlier this week, under the title “Telling Truth In a Culture of
Lies.” We clergy shared our experiences
of struggling to preach against the lies of our culture – struggling more
faithfully some Sundays than others – but we also shared our struggles with the
lies in our churches, such as our temptation as clergy to maintain a
comfortable status quo when in many of our churches, change is urgently, even desperately
needed if our congregations are to survive let alone thrive – and the lies we
tell ourselves, that we are more faithful and effective pastors than we really
are, that we have all the answers when we really don’t. We pastors were challenged: what are the
truths you wish you could tell your congregation? And what is stopping you from telling these
truths? And for all of us clergy,
without exception, in one way or another, the obstacle to speaking truth is
fear. Now, because I have a daytime job,
I don’t share the fear of many of my colleagues of being fired and losing a
paycheck. I’m not here for the money,
and nearly all of what I’m paid goes back into the offering plate or otherwise
supports the church. But I do share with other clergy many other
fears – of confrontation, of disapproval, of provoking conflict that I’m unable
to resolve, of sinking the congregation.
And beyond that, I struggle constantly with my personal fear of being
fully present and fully known beyond the “Pastor Dave” hat I wear on Sunday.
“Seek first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness,”
Jesus taught. Jesus also said, over and
over throughout the Gospels, “Fear not!”
May we allow the perfect love of Christ to cast out our fears. May we who are possessed by our possessions
and other attachments and addictions be repossessed by Christ. May we with holy boldness seek out the reign
of God in our lives and in our community. Amen.
[1] https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/just-8-men-own-same-wealth-half-world
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