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19th Sunday @ ) Pentecost, Lectionary 28, Proper
23. Mk. 10.17-31, Mtt. 16.30ff, Lk. 18.18ff. How many of you have more than two cars? How many have
enough to eat every day? How about adequate health care? How about luxuries, like tickets to the Phillies, the Opera,
or the latest Pop Concert or the Eagles? And all the gadgets that make up our crowded lives: Plasma
TV’s, Computers, GPS, I Pods, cell phone?
A microwave to heat up the pizza, make coffee, running water hot and
cold, a climate-controlled home – and what percent of your budget makes up
gifts to the poor? Who is poor and how do we know that? Where to go with this lesson from the Gospel of Mk? Let’s start with a short lesson in
hermeneutics – What does the passage say? What is the context then and now?
Those who were here last Sunday will recall that Jesus was asked about divorce… “Is it lawful…?” Jesus reminds his “call committee” that the only reason that
Moses allowed for it, was their “hardness of heart.” We are fortunate to have these conversations with Jesus and
his detractors as remembered by Mark, because they give us an insight into the
heart and mind of God. The only thing we know of the identity of the man is that he
is well-off. He has no name-- i.e. remember the rich man and Lazarus? His posture is one of supplication – he kneels. He asks the ultimate question. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Kneeling is a posture of humility. In our time it doesn’t
happen often, at least not in the physical sense. In Jesus' time it happened
often. Eternal life is not something talked about much any more.
Maybe the “good life, the full life, the happy life” but not the eternal life. Last week, one of the national networks ended its evening
news with a clip from Deepak Chopra,
the Indian-born American immigrant -- happiness guru of Self-help books are a billion dollar business for Barnes and
Noble, Atlantic Books-- others… So what is the answer that Jesus gives to this question? It
is important to know that in Jesus' day, and I would suggest not much has
changed, we learn that the disciples were “perplexed” when they learn that it
would be easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than rich folk to go to heaven. Much has been said about that phrase – like that in Jesus'
day the small portal that let you through the outer walls of a city was called
the “needles’ eye” but there is no evidence to that effect. Others remind us that the Greek word for camel and rope
(Kamelon/Kamilon) are so close that they could easily have been interchanged… The fact is that there are enough passages in the NT that
would suggest that wealth and being a follower are a difficult mix. NOT
absolute but difficult… What amazes the disciples is that since wealth and status
were considered signs of God’s approval, that Jesus reverses what everyone
believed to be true and challenges his would-be follower, to divest himself of
his wealth by selling it and giving the money to the poor. In other words, happiness, possessions, are considered by
society as evidence of blessings… and here Jesus is adding a new dynamic as a
requirement to discipleship. Of course there is always the OT book of Job that questions
the equation of wealth and God’s blessings… yes, Job was blessed! He had it all until he lost it all in a bet between God and
the devil… and the remedy proposed by Job’s friends was that Job come clean and
confess his sins, his transgressions, and God would again restore him to his
former prominent place in the community. It is no wonder that the disciples where totally confused…
had they not left all? Home, family, occupation… One more brief side note to help us understand what is going
on here. In the world of Jesus' day, when a well-to-do person pays
you a compliment it was expected that the compliment be returned in some way. In other words Jesus was expected to say something nice
about the man who called him “good.” Jesus isn’t taking. He reminds the would-be disciple that in the OT, as part of
the Shema, only God is called good and since he fancies himself as seeker after
eternal life, he must surely know what God requires: don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, don’t bear false
witness, don’t defraud… teacher all these I have kept since my youth.” And now listen to what happens next. Jesus, looking at him, loved him. So here we have a deeply religious man, who probably had
served his synagogue well but still felt that something was missing… The key is not how many times you have read your Bible, the
key is found, not in how many times you have been through the Bible, but as has been said elsewhere whether the Bible
has been through you. So what was missing? He had religion, he had wealth, he had
position. For me the clue comes in vs. 24 when Jesus calls his disciples
“Children…” “Children, how hard it
is to enter the kingdom of God!” So let’s all be children again. Preschoolers… and your world
is complete. An all-knowing parent provided for your every need. Your days are
as regulated as time itself. And then you start school or K garten… and someone whispers
into your ear “there is no Santa Claus.” You run away. You run home and you are consoled; for a
little while longer you are a child. And on a another playground and another day some one
whispers that your life began not in a cabbage patch but in your parents'
bedroom and again you run home as your heart skips a beat, and you blink as
your eyes fill with tears…and you realize that the Garden of Eden is not a
story about a long time ago and a far-away place but that it is about you and
it is about here and now. You are the one who ate from the tree in the garden… You are
the one who is naked and ashamed and childhood innocence is for ever only a
distant memory. And you have ever since that time looked for the “one thing”
that is missing. Searching, you enter adolescence… and instead of the
security of family you look to the security of friends and later the security
of a mate and later the security of a job and family and on and on… What must I
do to inherit eternal life? Most of us, if we are honest really aren’t too worried about
eternal life… we would just like peace of mind or “peace,” period. Jesus, in this story
confronts the illusion of Religion. The man had kept all the commandments… and Jesus loved him
for it. But he had not
found that “something”… that he called “eternal
life.” With one stroke, Jesus identifies this man’s religion, in
this case wealth and the social standing that comes with it; his adherence to
the “letter” of the law which had not given him peace of mind. Jesus gives him the missing piece… go, sell, give, and follow…. If you are still looking for Eden… for the lost innocence of
childhood you won’t find it in a book, be that the Bible or one of the many
self-help books… or a Guru from India with a strange accent and words hard for
us Westerners to pronounce…like Aryvada. You will find it in this year’s stewardship slogan “Keep It
Simple.” Keeping it simple means just that – gadgets, wealth, status,
degrees, religion, won’t work… Childhood cannot be recaptured any more than Jesus put it this way “For
mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” What must I do to inherit eternal life? Go Sell Give Follow me. Amen |
