Nineteenth Pentecost
Mark 10:17-31; Hebrews 4:12-16; Job 23:1-9, 16-17
The phone rings. I look at the caller ID and see it’s Sybil. I answer knowing exactly what I am going to hear. “Hello” I say. The voice on the other end of the line replies in a lilting southern drawl. “Hello. This is Sybil. Is Mrs. Meyer there?” I love hearing her say Mrs. Meyer in the southern drawn out accent that I can’t even begin to imitate with my northern Yankee heritage. Sybil is one of the many callers we have each month from organizations like the Purple Heart and other groups that collect clothing and household items for resale. Sybil always asks if we “might have just a little box” that they could pick up. I think she calls about every 5 or 6 weeks and somehow Chris and I always have enough to fill a little box, and sometimes even a not so little box. I will admit that I feel a little guilty about the fact that every month or so I can remove items from my clothes closet and dresser draws and yet they never seem to go empty. Many of you still remember the sermon I preached a few years go using a portion of George Carlin’s monologue about “stuff”. We are a people who enjoy filling our lives with “stuff” but we also know that there is more to life than just stuff. We all know that and yet…
One of the most unusual counseling sessions I think I have ever had occurred in the first year that Chris and I were here at Holy Spirit, that’s two building projects ago. A 36 year old man topped by and said he needed to talk to me. I remember we withdrew to Pastor Chris’ office because mine had several water leaks in the ceiling and the plinking of water in the buckets was rather distracting. We sat down and after a short pause he looked at me with a great sadness in his eyes and said, “I don’t know what to do any more.” Needing a little more insight I asked “do about what?” “Oh, nothing in particular, just do,” he replied. “I’m getting bored with life. There should be more, don’t you think?” What I eventually learned was that he had been very, very successful and fortunate in his life. This was in the days not only before the most recent market collapse but also before the dot com implosion. His company had been bought out and it had really been “his” company. He had more money than he could have ever imagined needing. By his own assessment he had everything he needed, a beautiful house (which he felt he had built a bit too large), a family, wife, children, dog, and a fine collection of cars both necessary and vintage. His challenge was that when he sold the company he had signed a no competitive clause which kept him from working in his field for three years. He wanted to know what I could suggest he do to find meaning in his life at the age of 36. We talked about faith, which he assured me he had, and then I explored volunteer activities he might consider but he could not imagine doing something that was not producing a dollar return. So I suggested he consider helping not-for-profits get a dollar return and I even suggested he give some of his money away. He laughed at the idea that giving his money away could be any good for anyone. In the end he drove away in his sports car and I returned to my office with the leaking roof.
My experience may sound familiar since it comes very close to capturing the story told of Jesus in our Gospel lesson for today. A rich young man comes to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus tells him, sell everything you have and give the proceeds to the poor. The final picture we remember is that of the rich young man sadly walking away with all his possessions. And we hear Jesus observe, “How hard it is for those with wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven.” And most of us on hearing Jesus’ words sigh in agreement about those, those others, with wealth. They are not us. A recent Gallup poll found that 80% of Americans considered themselves to be middle class. That’s one really big middle and means few are left to be really poor and really rich. In fact, another survey found that the income most Americans felt they needed to be on their way to being rich was about two and a half times their current income regardless of whatever their income was.
A picture of what this quest for stuff is like is suggested in a sermon by Stephen Crotts. Imagine for a moment that you are lost in the woods. It’s getting dark and you are afraid. There is a drizzling rain that chills you to the bone and you are lonely. Off in the distance you see a light and you move in that direction. There you discover an untended campfire. No one is about, but never mind! You’re warm now. The light eases the fear. And something about the cherry crackle chases away your loneliness. With all your needs met for the present, you curl up and fall into a contented sleep. Some hours later you awaken to discover that the fire has burned out. There is nothing left but cold, unfeeling ashes. You are cold again. It’s dark again. There is the loneliness again. So you get up, look around and spotting a twinkle of light in the distance you move in that direction. It’s another campfire. Again you fall asleep only to awaken to another campfire gone out. And again you are cold, lonely and afraid, lost in the forest. From campfire to campfire to campfire becomes a life’s journey.
If I can just get a new car I’ll be happy! All I need is that new home and things will get better. One more rung up on the social ladder, a raise in salary, making head cheerleader, that promotion, a lake side cabin. And when we get what we want, we curl up and sleep with it contentedly, but then we find that we awaken one day, sometimes years later, and discover it’s all ashes. The man in our gospel lesson is someone who reached just such a place in his life. After running from campfire to campfire he was now tired of it all and came to Jesus with his urgent inquiry. Tell me what to do. What do you want from me? What must I do to inherit eternal life? We usually focus on the word “do”. Certainly that is what Jesus even did in his immediate response. The young man was a good student of scripture, torah, the law. He had learned his lessons well and he knew that if he kept the laws God would judge him righteous. But something seemed to be missing so he came to Jesus with his question.
Jesus first probes his understanding of obligation under the law. The young man proves himself a good and honest man of faith who has kept the letter of the law. And that is when Jesus takes the young man beyond the letter of the law to the heart of the God who gave the laws. “You lack only one thing,” Jesus said. What the young man lacked was the ability to place himself in relationship to God and the law. What the young man lacked was an understanding of the deep connections of life. While he lived his life faithfully, properly, ethically and filled with good deeds, he also lived it individually, selfishly and in isolation. In all good conscience he could look Jesus in the eyes and say that he had kept all the laws of the covenant people. He had not killed. He had not stolen. He had not coveted his neighbor’s wife. The death of a Palestinian or Israeli was of no concern to him. His charitable contribution was made for maximum tax benefit, a charitable contribution, nothing illegal. A tax deductible contribution with the possibility that it could also benefit others and maybe even advance his reputation a bit. But Jesus was looking for more than charity. The meaningful life is not just being or doing good. Jesus invited the young man to be a part of the kingdom of God and to live a more abundant life centered in God’s grace. The young man actually asked the correct question but we need to focus on the right word. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Question. What must I do to inherit anything from my parents? Answer: Be born into my parent’s family. I do nothing. Any possibility of inheritance comes not from my action but my parents’. I was born into a family with no choice or act of will being involved. The advice columnists seem to be regularly reminding people that an inheritance is a gift from one generation to another. It is not a right nor is it something to be earned. A true inheritance is a gift of grace, given simply because you are born into the family. And so it is with us, the people of faith.
The rich young man’s struggle to be faithful to the covenant had diverted him from understanding the acts of God’s redemptive purposes as something that he had been given, not something that he accomplished. Jesus tried to place the young man into relationship with the wholeness of creation, and so we are also challenged. Jesus had nothing against the man’s possessions, the problem was in seeing the relationship between those possessions and humanity. The kingdom of God calls us to see the world differently. Jesus says to the young man, “You have to discover how strange life in the Kingdom will look to one who has grown up in your culture. Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor. Give it all away and live in confidence that God will give you your next meal as you have always prayed. The words in the prayer are “Give us this day our daily bread” not “Reward us this day for our good works.
It is so easy to get caught up in doing and not receive what would be given to us. We are baptized into the body of Christ, the family of God, which makes us inheritors of eternal life. That’s it, that’s all there is to it. But there is so much we want to hold on to.
Each Sunday at the end of the worship service Pastor Chris, Vicar Eric and I greet the congregation at the doors. The handshakes are many and varied in form but most fascinating to me are the youngest children of the congregation who invariably come forth from the sanctuary carrying all their things: small toys, food items, papers, coloring and drawing utensils, books, various stuffed animals, action figures, dolls and maybe items of clothing. I will extend my hand to greet them but their hands are so full of their stuff that they rarely have a hand available, unless mom or dad helps them. And therein lies the point. The helping hand that lifts the stuff from our lives and opens us to receive those around us.
After the young man had departed, the disciples probed the situation with Jesus and he explained the seductive power of possessions and things. In desperation the disciples cried out, “Then who can be saved?” To which Jesus replied, “For mortals it is impossible but not for God, for God all things are possible.” This is inheritance talk. Plot and plan all you want but the inheritance will be a gift or it will be nothing at all. Live by grace. Give by grace. Receive by grace. Of course we like to believe that we are doing the best we can. The disciples were no different. Peter pointed proudly to all that he and the other disciples had given up. And Jesus assured them that their sacrifices would not be in vain, but he also reminded them that their way of thinking was still not God’s way. The first shall be last and the last will be first. Life based on merit, reputation, deeds or possessions will lose out in the end. Even when we think we have it all figured out there is the unexpected that stalks us. The fires at which we warm ourselves all ultimately turn to ash.
For mortals it is impossible but not for God, for God all things are possible. It is not a matter of our doing but our responding to what has been done for us. Responding to that which we inherit, that which we have been given. Next Sunday LifeSource will be here receiving blood donations in the fellowship hall. I know that they will gladly accept a monetary donation, but what they really need money can’t buy. The gift of life they seek from each of us comes only from our very being. Bags of food are being returned this morning for the food pantry. The response is always amazing as people take the time to shop, investing themselves for a few moments into the meeting of a few needs of another. These are really all signs of the miracle of grace, rehearsed again and again.
Grace found this morning not only in the sacrament offered to us but also in the lives offered to God. Not a Sunday passes that lives are not offered to God in service as teachers, offered as time spent preparing food and providing care for the homeless, in talents shared in the music of our worship. From this place the witness of the Gospel enters the world in hearts that are opened to the pain and struggle of others, bearing the promise of prayer, presence and God’s grace. And he said to Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life.” The fires burn brightly, flames of faith. As we have been blessed so now we pass on the blessings and inherit the Kingdom of God.
Amen