The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15
Hebrews 3:1-6
Mark 10:17-27(28-31)
Year B/ Proper 23
I used to have some
stationary that said “Keep this, so that
you can prove you knew me before I was famous”. I guess it should have read
“infamous”, because that’s about how I feel this morning. If the man who
breathlessly rushed up to Jesus in today’s gospel did find eternal life and is
somehow looking upon us, perhaps he feels the same. No doubt he would have been
astounded to know that his question to Jesus would draw the attention it has
through the centuries. All he wanted was to move further along his spiritual
journey. So, why the fuss?
Victoria Wood perhaps said it
for all of us when she prayed, “Please
Lord, let me prove to you that winning the lottery won’t spoil me.” She
clarified the essence of what just about everyone wants; wealth and a
relationship with God. Usually in that order.
In ancient times wealth was a
sign that God liked you best; better than others in fact. Like everybody else,
the man who ran up to Jesus would have just assumed that God must love him very
much – otherwise he wouldn’t have so many possessions. However, long before the
time of Jesus Amos came along to say this kind of thinking was the most ridiculous
thing he’d ever heard. Amos said the exploitation of the powerless by those
with the most power and the most money had become a way of life. He said it was
the biggest reason why the nation of
Recently Time magazine had an
article about the gospel of success that many evangelists are proclaiming these
days. God wants you to be filthy rich they say. God wants you to have the best
house and a Rolls Royce in every garage. God does not want you to be a street
person. I believe that’s true; God does not wish suffering upon his children,
but the greater truth is that God wants us to be free enough to follow the path
to which he calls us.
The man who rushes up to
Jesus today assures him he has kept the law in every way. Jesus sees his
sincerity, so much so that scripture tells us he looked upon him with love;
touched by his request so much that he looked deeply into him and then knew
what it was that was holding him back. He was possessed by his possessions.
So Jesus said to him, “You lack one thing”. The man’s heart
must have raced. Now his life would be complete! Now he would be given the one
thing that was missing, the key to everything. But then Jesus said, “Give everything
you have away, give it to those who have need of it – and come, follow me”.
He was stunned – and
sorrowful. And here we need to remember that sorrow does not come from
ignorance, but knowledge, knowledge that he knew immediately he could not risk
doing that. So he got up, walked back to his Porsche, and drove off; the only
person in the whole of Mark who turns away from an invitation to follow Jesus, the
only broken soul who refuses to be healed.
This story is usually
interpreted in one of two ways; either by saying it’s all about money or by
saying it’s not about money at all. Money is power. It can do a lot of good,
but because it is power it can be used in a manipulative way as well as a
helpful way. So this gospel is about
money but it is not only about money.
We can keep the commandments until we get all “A’s” in behavior and we can give
money to a plethora of worthy causes but that will never ‘earn’ our way into
the Kingdom, because the Kingdom of God is not for sale. The
Jesus sent a depth charge
into this man’s soul; this man whom he looked upon and loved. He told him half-measures
will not do when it comes to following where God leads you. It has been said
that the only difference between a rut and a grave is that one is just a little
deeper than the other. Our need for security, our need to avoid risk, our need
to want things both ways, leads to a grave that has nothing to do with physical
death. Yielding to the powerful call of the Holy Spirit leads to life, pure and
simple. This is the “Abba experience” we all long for – but few accept.
This man’s sorrow came from
knowing he was not free. In this case it was his possessions that tethered him
down. So Jesus tells him the
There was a poignant scene in
the movie “
The things that bind us and
weigh us down are not necessarily bad things. They can be possessions, but they
may be reputation, career, fear of risking what is secure for what is right. No
wonder Jesus says it’s easier for a 747 to slide through a mail slot than for a
rich person to enter the
It’s the same for all of us.
It’s the same for me. There are days when walking a high wire can seem easier
and less risky than following the Holy Spirit’s magnetic call. Just tether me
down to anything that will hold me fast and keep me secure against that
magnetic force. Who is possibly free enough or brave enough to risk the things
God calls us to do without anxiety? What will your friends think? What will
your children think? What will your bishop think? The real question is what
does God think and what is God’s will?
I cannot speak for you or for
the Vestry, but in my own attempt to seek reconciliation with our Bishop, at
first I did everything I could not to rock the boat; everything I could to find
blessing instead of curse. But security over fear and risk was beginning to
kill me. I became the one kneeling at Jesus’ feet saying, “I have been your faithful servant. Please tell me what more to do”.
But I was hanging on for dear life to everything that felt safe – and not
letting go. And the answer to me, as it is to each one of us in every situation wherein we are afraid
to let go, was to let go and trust God, who will never lead us in a wrong
direction.
We would like a faith which
gives us life without bringing us to the point where we are called to surrender
to the author of life, but that is simply not possible. Those defining moments
in our lives are never easy or completely black or white. That is why they can
be so difficult. But, as Bishop Michael Marshall says, “We must ever forget it was good men who crucified Jesus, not by going
too far but by not going far enough” So there is a time for enduring and a
time for letting go.
The acid test of our love is
sometimes how much we are willing to let go of, how much we are willing to risk,
in order that we might receive all the blessings God longs to give to us.
We are never told what
happened to the man who walked away sorrowful from Jesus that day. What I hope
is this. I hope that what Jesus said to him began to agitate inside him like a
grain of sand in an oyster shell, moving him, not into a life of poverty, but
into a life of freedom; whereby he could accept the
AMEN
The Rev. Virginia L. Bennett,
D.Min.
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church