October 11, 2009
The Nineteenth Sunday of Pentecost (Year B)
Job 23:1-9,16-17; Psalm 22:1-15; Hebrews 4:12-16;
Mark 10:17-31
There are so many things to talk about in today’s lessons that I found myself writing sermon after sermon in my head this week, but when push came to shove, it was the rich young man that kept calling me back to him. It was the rich young man that I empathized with and recognized in myself, in you, in our culture. So, of course, it is the rich young man with whom I will wrestle this morning.
He was a good hearted person; he was faithful. He was asking existential questions any reflective person would ask. He kept the law. And yet, he knew there was something missing, something in his gut told him that he was missing the point and so he approached Jesus, who loved him. Jesus loved him! And he had a frank and open conversation about the heavy things that were on his mind.
I know many of us ask these same kinds of questions. Another way of asking, “What must I do to inherent eternal life?” could be, “What happens when we die? Is there life after death?” “Does what I do now determine what happens to me then?” It might also be, “Am I doomed or am I going to be forgiven?” It might even be, ”I have done the very best I could, served faithfully, given to the poor, been full of integrity. So is there anything else I need to do to insure that God and I are okay with each other?’
And the answer to all these questions is, “No.” There is nothing any of us can do to make any determination, good or bad, about what happens when this life is finished. It is all given to us by God and by God’s grace.
“For God all things are possible.” That is the way Jesus put it.
Now, no matter how well we know this bit of theology and have mouthed the words and prayed the prayers, read the scripture and accepted the gift of God’s grace, we still often live as though we don’t really believe it. And for me, the way I would describe that living is the eternal struggle we have with being human. We struggle with our human need to be in control, to find rules and ways that if we follow them, we are rewarded, like As on tests and report cards. We want to do the work and get the reward.
We who live in this town in these times – which I admit are tough – if we are frank and honest with each other, we still know we, when compared to the rest of the world, are incredibly blessed in almost every way.
Indeed, we are very much like that rich young man because we have a lot, a lot that we would have to give up if we believe that Jesus meant that we must sell it all and give it to the poor. I doubt that any of us could do that easily. We are too used to being in control, too used to having the ability to purchase our way out of any trouble with our money or with our ingenuity and/or training and skill. But what Jesus is trying to tell the rich young man – and I think our whole nation and generation by extension – is that we are called to the freedom of being reliant on God’s grace and not our own resources! And when we do depend on God alone, we know freedom for the first time.
Now I am not saying, even in this stewardship season, that you must give up your money, give it to the poor, give it to the church, give it away with no strings attached so that the church can meet its financial budgets or that poverty will be solved or that you will be rewarded with an A on your list or a gold star in your crown. Your wealth is not a pawn in some cosmic testing ground, that is if it is used right, given to the right people in the right way, then you are rewarded! No! I invite you to think about giving away as much as a tithe, give it away not because it will benefit someone else, but because it will grow your soul. Because when you do, there is a kind of freedom from being possessed by your possessions that you cannot find any other way. Give away as Jesus urged the rich young man to do, for the freedom of knowing what it is to be bathed in God’s grace alone. It is better than owning the latest in possessions, this freedom of God’s grace.
That is what Jesus wanted the young man to know.
Can you do it, can you know that freedom in Christ, without divesting yourself of all that you own?
Of course! This is a biblical story and like many biblical stories it is, after all, metaphor and hyperbole, but the truth this story contains is neither symbolic or exaggerated. It is true that our money owns us, and we think we can purchase with it anything that we desire, even God’s favor. In fact many see wealth as a sign of God‘s favor. That certainly was true in the first century Palestine and on throughout history. The rich were then and, I dare say ARE TODAY, seen as especially loved by God.
I would submit, though, that the rich are no more loved than the poor or the unlucky or the indigent, at least not by God. The rich are just more accountable, held responsible for more because they have been so lucky. Wealth is not a slam dunk sign of God’s favor. I would say it is more a difficult and treacherous test of our character. It is a test of our ability to let go of our need to control or purchase our world around us. It is a hard test to pass.
Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” – a metaphorical saying which Fredrick Beuchner modernizes to say: “for a rich man to get to heaven is about as easy as for a Cadillac to get through a revolving door!”
This parable is meant to shock, shatter, and put to rest once and for all the idea that rich people, wealthy people, are closer to God than the poor, that wealth is a sign of God’s favor. That simply was not what Jesus taught nor what we should continue to perpetuate – though I think, subconsciously at least, we all do.
Jesus loved the young man; he loves all of us. That we can count on. But God will not love our behavior when we get to putting our possessions and dependence upon them ahead of the freedom there is in letting go of some of our wealth, a generous portion of that wealth, an ever increasing percentage of that wealth, for the sheer joy and freedom there is in letting it go without strings attached. When we continue to need more and more, crave more and more, even worship what we have and its preservation rather than let ourselves give it away generously and without remorse or regret or the need to define how, once given away, it is spent, then we are behaving like the rich young man who walked away sadly, shaking his head, wondering, “How could he do that? How could he do what Jesus asked?”
He was not a bad man. Indeed, he was quite prudent and wise with his money. He was generous and gave the prescribed ten percent, but he couldn’t let go of his need to control it all. And I dare say he couldn’t let go of the fact that he believed he had earned it by living according to the laws, worshipping faithfully, living justly, or that he was entitled to it, or even that he was the right steward for all that he had in life. He was not a bad man, but he was not a free man either.
We have a choice, my friends. We can be like the rich young man and walk away sadly, or we can begin to reorder our lives, one day at a time, until we have given away enough to know what it is to be free in Christ’s eternal grace, free in God’s love. You can begin with your pledge or your contribution to the Millennium Development Goals (Mugs) or victims of Quatrain or in any way that begins to loosen the control you have over that which you call yours and give it away, in God’s name. But Begin! Do not be like the rich young man who walked away sadly. Begin!
Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd