Half Right

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday October 21, 2012, the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Job 38:1-7

Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c

Hebrews 5:1-10

Mark 10:35-45

May the words of my mouth and the mediations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

You know me well enough to know that sometimes, I get an image burned into my head. Sometimes it’s worth sharing, more often than not there’s the reason I keep it to myself or share it only with Marie. Well, the first part of this passage did just that, and today I’m sharing.

I see the dreamy eyes of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the sons of Thunder, as they approach Jesus. In their minds eyes they are sitting next to Jesus, everyone wearing white robes, everyone’s hair flowing in the wind, riding on the back of a classic Ford Mustang convertible, the Homecoming King and his honor attendants.

You know the wave: elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist. Smiling and waving at the appreciative crowd. In my hometown they would have been riding on the back of the convertible on Johnson Drive all the way from the high school down to Nall Avenue, just short of the Baskin-Robbins where I worked. Crowds of people along the way would be getting ready for the big game, but not before showing their undying love for the three in the car.

Jesus is in the middle surrounded by admirers and disciples, sitting in the glory seat. He’s the one everyone adores; but everyone can see James and John, the next most popular kids in the senior class.

Jesus can’t be matched, everyone knows that, but to be next to the Lord, one on his right and the other on the left in his glory, that is the greatest place they could ever hope to be. They sit and wave and bask in the Lord’s reflected glory and just know everyone wants to be like them. That's what they want.

Suddenly, Jesus busts their dream bubbles. “You might think you can get in the car, but do you think you’ll be able to take the ride all the way to Nall Avenue? Will you be able to wear the crown and sash? Will you be able to take everything the crowds have to give?”

I’m sure James and John imagined sharing the love and adulation. “Oh, yes, we most certainly will be able to take it all.” I’m just as sure they didn’t imagine the jealousy, envy, hatred, and scorn.

Jesus gives the blushing boys a nod and tells them the truth they don’t understand, “Well guess what; you will get wear the crown and the sash and you will get to know it all, but whether you’ll be riding in the classic Mustang or not, that’s not up to me.”

That’s when the scenario in my head dissolves into the rest of the homecoming court, the ten who are sitting on hay bails on the flatbed truck behind the classic Mustang, they get upset with the upstarts. You know the rest, kicking, scratching, hair pulling… I can’t decide if my re-visioning of this passage is like a bad teen movie or the spoof of a bad teen movie.

If this reading is giving you a feeling of déjà vu, it should. This is the third time we find the Passion-prediction, apostle-slip, harsh-truth pattern in Mark’s gospel.

The first time is back in chapter 8 when Peter affirms Jesus is Lord. It began when Jesus tells the apostles there will be pain and suffering. Then Peter takes Jesus aside to tell him how to be the Messiah. Then Jesus dropped the bomb, “Get behind me Satan!”

The second time was found in chapter nine, “Then they came to Capernaum; and when [Jesus] was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another over who was the greatest.” [1]

Today’s Passion description precedes our reading from Mark. In it Jesus says, “We are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him. Three days he will rise.”[2] Then James and John ask to be second in command. Then Jesus tells them what’s going to really happen.

This is the third time Jesus had told his disciples that he will be mocked, spat upon, flogged, killed, and after three days raised from the dead.  It is completely absurd that immediately after this teaching, the third repeat of this same teaching, the Sons of Thunder ask if they can sit next to Jesus in his glory.

There’s an old expression: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” So what do we do when the apostles are fooled a third time? Jesus does what he did each of the other times; he showed them where they were half right and tried to teach them the other half. If the end game is redemption of the whole of creation, what else is there to do? That’s grace in action.

What makes this painfully human is James and John asking to sit next to Jesus in his glory. They were seeking power and glory in this earthly kingdom, seeking the good things power and glory can bring. This is what they thought his glory would be. They asked and Jesus told them they would share his baptism and share his cup.

What they didn’t grasp was that his full glory was on the other side of the Passion. What didn’t get through their skulls was that the cup wasn’t anything anybody would want to share. “Cup” often meant a cup overflowing with misery and woe. They are anxious to be next to him in his ecstasy but not in his agony. Holy Week shows us this. On the heels of his last Passion prediction, they ask Jesus if he will let them hear the cheers, but nobody asks to scream in terror.

There’s a holy “nannie-nannie-na-na” to hearing Jesus tell James and John that those places on the left and right are not for him to grant. It is glorious to hear that those places are “for those for whom it has been prepared.” In a grim turn, those places will belong to two bandits, one on his right and one on his left.[3] We want to bask in his reflected glory, that’s the easy part. It’s not so easy to share the anguish. We beg to be next to Jesus in his glory, but nobody wants a piece of Golgotha, the place of a skull.[4]

Let’s not sugar coat this either, Jesus knows his fate will be horrific.  And he knows that being fully human, born from the womb of a woman; he will feel the pain.  He will know the horror of crucifixion. He will know the horror of abandonment by those closest to him. Being the Messiah does not come with its own spiritual morphine.  He is God and he is human, he will know the pain of a crucified man.

Being baptized in his own blood walking to his death? Drinking from the cup of the Passion? The passion Jesus told them about three different times? I wonder if they would have asked the same question if they had known what they were getting themselves into. It’s the good old fashioned “Beware of what you ask for, because you just might get it.” I wonder if this little heart-to-heart came to mind when the promise that they will be baptized with the same baptism and drink from the same cup was being fulfilled.

One more time, Jesus tells them what true leadership means. Jesus tells the disciples that the powerful lord their authority over the Gentiles. And the high officials lord their power and authority over those leaders. It’s a power struggle. It’s a top-down power struggle and as long as you can push your load downhill it’s all good. It’s being covered in what rolls downhill that gets nasty.

Whether it’s taxes or being forced to carry a soldier’s pack one mile, or any of the other nasty things the Romans or the Temple elite could require the people to do, being at the bottom of the ladder has no perks at all.

There’s one more truth about this fact, it’s not what Jesus wants us to do. “Not so with you,” he says, “instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” Microsoft Word warns me that that sentence has “verb confusion.” If that’s the only confusion it carries that would be enough, but what’s confusing in this sentence extends beyond the verbs.

He says “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” Here’s an important point that often gets missed, to be a servant or a slave you must have a master. Let me say this again, to be a servant or a slave you must have a master. So here’s the question Jesus leaves unasked. He doesn’t ask the apostles. He doesn’t ask the disciples. He doesn’t ask the Jews or the Gentiles. He doesn’t ask the civil or temple leaders. He asks “Who are you going to serve?”

In 1979, Bob Dylan released his “Slow Train Coming” album, much to the dismay of the listening audience. Suddenly this young Jewish man who had played folk and rock suddenly took a turn into gospel and Christian rock long before it was cool. The big single on “Slow Train Coming” was “Gotta Serve Somebody.” The chorus rings out as plain as day:

You're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

You're gonna have to serve somebody,

It may be the devil or it may be the Lord

But you're gonna have to serve somebody.[5]

It doesn’t get any easier than this. It’s an either/or choice. Like Dylan sings you have to serve somebody and our choices are the devil or the Lord. Jesus proclaims “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” and “whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” Jesus shows how he has made up his mind, “for even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.”

Jesus tells us to be servants, slaves of all. That is the example he has set for us and continues to set. Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve. His life has been given to pay the ransom for many. That is what we are called to do if we are going to be great. That is what is required because this ransom was paid for us. This is the example Jesus sets for all humanity.

It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Often people say they have no master. Nobody has command over them. There’s a fierce independent streak among westerners in general and Americans in particular that insists no man is master over me. That’s not the good news because when we become our own masters we let bad things become our masters.

For an easy example, some of us are slaves to chemicals. Whether it’s tobacco or alcohol or chemicals we get legally or illegally, sometimes these chemicals become our masters. On November 1 I will celebrate 25 years without a cigarette. It’s been a long time coming, but I have to tell you, there are still days when I crave a cigarette. It’s been 25 years and I can still feel that hot smoke fill my lungs and sinuses and remember how it made me feel.

It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Power, authority, and prestige are also things we think we can control, but in the long run they can gain control over us. This is what tempted the sons of Zebedee, the sons of Thunder. If we say we know better than that we make the devil’s favorite mistake, we forget we’re just as human as they were. When we want the things that bring us glory, we are hoping for the wrong things. Certainly this was a part of James’ and John’s thinking; after all they were only human.

Yesterday was Homecoming at East Texas Baptist University. Homecoming is this coming weekend at Marshall High School. That's a lot of custom cars with lots of pretty young ladies and handsome young men. They’ll be flying the colors and waving the flag. They’ll be cheering on the home team. They’re making a commitment, a decision. Not the most important one they will make, but still, they’re showing their loyalty.

We have two choices about who we serve, Jesus or the world. It may be the devil and it may be the Lord but we have to serve somebody. In the end, we need to remember that by the grace of God, through the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been bought and paid for. God wants us to behave like this matters to us. God wants us to be first by being the slave of all. The disciples got it half right. It’s up to us to seek Christ’s way, even the baptism and the cup, and continue God’s work, getting the other half right too.

---

[1] Mark 9:33-34

[2] Mark 10:33-34

[3] Mark 15:27

[4] Mark 15:22

[5] Dylan, Bob. “Gotta Serve Somebody.” Columbia Records, 1979.

"Point of View" and "...then how?"

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday October 14, 2012, the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Psalm 22:1-15

Hebrews 4:12-16

Mark 10:17-31

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

I like to start with something that has a little more pizzazz than this. I like starting with stories that either take an unexpected turn or stories that seem completely unrelated to the Gospel I had just read. Every pastor has their own way of beginning a sermon, but this one was illusive.

I mean these are some pretty heady readings. Hebrews tells us that Jesus has been tempted and tested just like we are yet is without sin. So let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence. At first look from a cautious point of view that doesn’t sound like such a good idea. Jesus was tried, tempted, and tested just like we are everyday, but he didn’t succumb to Satan’s antics. Jesus has been through the same things we have, and he did much better. How can we approach that?

The gospels are loaded with stories of how Jesus was tried by Satan after forty days in the wilderness, his family when they thought he was nuts, the Presbytery—er, Pharisees, and finally by his own. Yes, saying “by his own” I’m talking about Judas, but Mark’s gospel has shown us that many of the disciples who were named were named because they were making a mistake. Peter, even after he is declared to be the Rock of the Church, told Jesus how to be the Messiah.

So we should approach boldly, with confidence? With our sins and his sinlessness we how can we approach Jesus at all? If we approach with confidence had better make sure we don’t approach in arrogance. Otherwise we could end up like the Nazi’s at the end of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” after picking the wrong Grail cup.

Our Call to Worship this morning taken from the 22^nd Psalm begins with the greatest lament in Christian Literature! “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I know my share of sorrow, grief, and shame—but these words take the cake. “Oh my God, I cry in the daytime and you do not answer; by night I find no rest.” Abandoned by God, the psalmist cries out.

You can expect fair-weather friends and bad-weather enemies to betray you, but when the times get hardest can you imagine being abandoned by your best friends? It happens to Jesus at his moment of greatest despair. It didn’t just happen, he prophesied it would happen.

Of course our Old Testament reading was from Job. Last week’s reading from Job set up the scene for a man’s great downfall. His wife cries out “curse God and die!” Job refuses to curse God. He asks “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” So Job did not sin with his lips.

By this time in the story, Job is not a happy camper. His three “friends,” Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, each try to tell Job why he is bad, wrong, evil, sinful, or whatever. Job is done. He wants justice. He’s so upset that he wants God to come and hear his complaint. He figures no great power would ever press charges against him. Job riles because God is absent, he is abandoned. He is lost, but he is not silenced by this darkness.

So with all of these stories, we see despair. People looking for what’s good. People looking for what’s just. People looking for peace in a world that looks like God is looking the other direction.

To this, we bring you the story of the rich man. The rich man asks the question of the hour, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Let’s be honest, in one way or another, everyone has asked that question. We may scoff because we know how Jesus will respond, but honestly, everyone wants to know what we have to do to inherit eternal life.

At least the rich man doesn’t ask what he has to do to earn eternal life. To earn eternal life implies that there is something we can do, something that has to be done so that we can earn eternal life. At least he got that part of his question right. We can’t earn eternal life, we can only inherit it.

So Jesus gives him the quiz. Using the last six of the Ten Commandments, Jesus asks the rich man how he has treated the people around him, how he has lived in the community. He has kept the commandments of God since he was a boy.

So Jesus told him what comes next. Jesus used five verbs: Go, Sell, Give, Come, and Follow. He tells him to trade his treasures on Earth for treasures in Heaven. Then he can come and follow. He asks the man to do as the other disciples had done, leave it all behind and follow. This is the fate of the apostolic disciples. They gave all they had to God, in exchange God was all they had.

The Dutch missionary Andrew van der Bijl is more commonly known as Brother Andrew. The first of the many books he wrote was the memoir “God’s Smuggler.”[1] It tells the story of his early childhood, conversion to Christianity, and adventures as a Bible-smuggler behind the Iron Curtain. It has now sold over 10 million copies in thirty-five languages and is a model for the modern conversion and missionary story.

One of the major themes in the story is Andrew’s utter dependence upon God. When in Seminary in Scotland, one of the lessons that was impressed upon the students was that they all faced obligations, they all faced challenges, and these could only be met by complete and utter faith in God.

The seminarians who tried to rely on “keeping a little back in case of a rainy day” soon found that every day was rainy. When they began to depend upon themselves and their own money management skills two things happened:

The first was that the demands seemed to increase.

The second was that the miracles seemed to dry up.

The theme of God providing everything was first and foremost in the book. Miraculous acts and gifts provided what Andrew needed, from safety and provision traveling in Eastern Europe to toothpaste.

Nothing was too small or too big for God’s concern. I think we can safely say that this rich man’s story is the antithesis to “God’s Smuggler.” He wanted to follow the Lord, but the rich man didn’t want to leave his safety net behind.

After a bit more of this, noting how difficult it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God, the disciples ask the big question all over again, “Who then can be saved?”

This is where folks often begin to feel a little smug. After all, none of us are rich. We certainly don’t have the riches that the rich man has. We don’t have the world at our disposal. The world is not our oyster. The only oysters we have are found in a Po’ Boy; and we say “po’” because we don’t have enough for the whole word “Poor.” We try to distance ourselves from this narrative because we’re nothing like this rich man, nothing like him at all.

This is how we perceive ourselves, our point of view. When our point of view begins to exclude us from specific scriptures, we fall into one of scripture’s traps. When we begin to think that lessons of scripture don’t apply to us because we’re nothing like that, we begin to pare not only the breadth of God’s sovereignty and authority, but the reach of God’s love.

When we think we are poor, it is because we don’t look around. No, I don’t live in that gated community on South Washington, neither do any of us. But when we look around, and see the poverty that surrounds us we learn that there are some who see us as the rich man who won’t give up what he has to help the poor and follow Jesus.

Also our reading talks about financial wealth. This is surely the most accessible form of wealth. But this is also when I wonder if this point of view isn’t overly restrictive. Our wealth extends beyond our treasure. It includes our time and our talent as well.

Some of us have made sacrifices. Some of us have taken jobs in places where our talents are needed to help those who don’t have the same resources we do. Some of us have taken jobs in places where our talents are sorely needed to help those in crisis and in danger. Some of us have served our country to help preserve the freedom of the rich and the poor. Some of us have taken our lives and shared them with the sick and the widowed and the orphaned. All who do this forsake worldly wealth in exchange for Christian service, but is there more?

Even more than all of this, we are called to set aside our egos. We are called to set aside what we think is best so that we can find and follow what God thinks is best. Setting aside our selves, our notions, and our identities is even tougher than emptying the bank account. From our point of view what we have is limited, and it’s ours! From God’s point of view, what we have been given, given, is everything!

In “Call to Conversion,” Jim Wallis reminds us “Evangelism can no longer mean simply taking people out of the world, running them through some process of conversion and then placing them back in the same world and somehow expecting them to survive. If conversion is the translation of persons from one world to another, from one community to another, then conversion to Christ requires a new environment in which it is more possible to live a Christian life.”[2]

We are called to accept the gift of eternal life and everything that comes with it, the good and the bad. We are then called to share those blessings with others creating a new community that is only possible through God.

So, there is nothing we can do to earn eternal life. There is nothing we can do to purchase our inheritance. For us it is impossible. We can’t buy our way into the family, yet there is a great cost, whether economic or not, to following Jesus like the first apostles and disciples. Our point of view may even keep us from seeing the price we are being called to pay. So then what, what can we do to inherit eternal life?

Gloriously, our earlier readings not only ask big questions, they give us big answers.

Hebrews says that Jesus has been tempted and tested just like we are yet is without sin. So let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence. This still sounds pretty heady and then we finish reading the verse. We approach the throne of grace “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace and mercy are things we cannot hope to earn or purchase. Offering anything for grace or mercy would not make them grace or mercy at all! The cautious point of view I mentioned earlier is not what God wants from us. Jesus didn’t show us a way we could imitate, he showed us Himself. We can’t be sinless, but we can follow Jesus. This is why we are called to ask. This is why we are called to be bold.

As for the psalmist, too well we know the cry “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But regardless of how David feels about his earthly situation, he still knows God is God. He cries, “Yet you are the Holy One, enthroned upon the praises of Israel, our ancestors put their trust in you; they trusted, and you delivered them.

As for Job, well, he’s seeking an audience with the Lord trusting the Lord is just.

So here’s my point, and it gets back to verse 18 from our Mark reading. Jesus asks the young man “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except for God alone.” This repeats what Hebrews and Psalms teach us. God is good and no one is good except for God alone. It also reminds us that Jesus did not come to eliminate the law. Jesus loves the man because he follows the law! But to follow Jesus, there is more.

We don’t really know the fate of this rich man. He may have gone home and died a rich man who told stories about the day Jesus told him to give it all up. He might have told that story as a grand joke or as a sad lament. Then again, he may have repented. He may have done as Jesus asked, not immediately, but he might have.

Scripture doesn’t say he did, and scripture doesn’t say he didn’t.

What I say is Jesus is in the business of reconciliation. Our take on the shape of reconciliation isn’t always to our liking. It wasn’t to the liking of a lot of people. That’s our point of view, but it is God bringing us together in the name of Christ. And that’s who can be saved, everyone through Christ; because only in God are all things possible.

---

[1] Brother Andrew with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, “God’s Smuggler.” Old Tappan, NJ: Spire Books, 1967.

[2] Wallis, Jim, “The Call to Conversion.” San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1992), 115. Found at http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1208.

The Way It's Meant to Be

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday October 7, the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Job 1:1, 2:1-10

Psalm 26

Hebrews 1:1-1, 2:5-12

Mark 10:2-16

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

The Christian Century Magazine recently ran a cover story called “The Gospel in Seven Words.”[1] The magazine recalls a story from Will Campbell’s autobiography “Brother to a Dragonfly.” In this part of Campbell’s story, his friend P. D. East badgers him for a succinct definition of Christianity. East did not want a long or fancy explanation. “I’m not too bright,” he told Campbell. “Keep it simple. In ten words or less, what’s the Christian message?”

Campbell obliged his friend saying “We’re all bastards but God loves us anyway.” This led them to an extended discussion that stuck in East’s mind. He wasn’t sure he bought it, but it gave him something to think about.

It’s a wild gospel, “We’re all bastards but God loves us anyway.” I guess the first question that comes to a more reserved mind is what did Campbell mean using “The ‘B’ Word”? I ask because he could have meant we are the illegitimate children of creation. He could have meant we are a wicked, spiteful sort compared to the glorious perfection of our creator and our Lord. He could have meant to use it to capture the attention of the listener, then the reader, and now you today. Any or none of these may be right.

Whatever the reason, the magazine suggests Campbell begins with the bad news that we are who we are, because without the bad news there is no longing for the good news. The good news is that God is who God is, the lover of all sinful humanity.

The Christian Century asked several authors and theologians to contribute their version of the seven word gospel. Some examples include:

Christian Century Contributing Editor Martin E. Marty contributed “God, through Jesus Christ, welcomes you anyhow.” He says the “anyhow” hints at the mercy in God’s welcome.

Donald W. Shriver makes a similar move with “Divinely persistent, God really loves us.”

Beverly Roberts Gaventa goes the same direction saying “In Christ, God’s yes defeats our no.”

The human tendency to mess things up and long for another chance is essential, if unspoken, in Mary Karr’s “We are the Church of Infinite Chances.” Karr was the only respondent to squeeze in a mention of the church—there’s no second chance without a church to offer it.

M. Craig Barnes boils it down to four words: “We live by grace.”[2]

The “Letters to the Editor” section of the magazine and the comments section to the internet article brought a fruitful harvest of examples[3] including:

“Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself.” and the similar, “Love one another as I loved you.”

“God loves the whole world...  No exceptions!”

One reader took advantage of punctuation to give himself more words writing, “All things (heaven/earth) reconciled in Christ.”

One reader uses his words not only to affirm God’s purpose, but to affirm our missional purpose in God’s vocation, “You are Love. Act like it.”

Something else I like about this one is that it points out the difference between the way it is and the way it’s meant to be. Our Gospel reading leads us into a conflict between the Law of Moses and the Way of God. So we start with a question that seems straightforward and is anything but; the Pharisees ask “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

Asking this question, the Pharisees tried to draw Jesus into their argument between rabbinical schools of thought. Evidently, controversy over divorce is as old as marriage itself. 

At this time in Ancient Israel, there were three different rabbinical schools of thought about divorce. The position taken by the Shammai School was very strict, while a more lenient stance taken by the Hillel School. Somewhere between the two fell the teachings of the Aqiba School.[4]

If Jesus takes one position over the others, then the uproar begins. Sit on the fence and everybody gets upset. The trap has been laid and it’s the ultimate no-win situation. Gloriously, Jesus knows the game they play and he knows the truth is the only way to answer their question.

They ask “Is it lawful?”  Jesus asks them back, “Well, what did Moses command you?”

Willing to answer their own questions, the Pharisees say “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” With just a word from Moses, the woman is eligible for a pink slip. I imagine one group of rabbis were happy to hear this. I am just as sure that those who sided against the others were dismayed, ready to make their point before the Lord.

But Jesus will have nothing to do with their arguments over the Law of Moses.  Jesus, the Word Incarnate, turns away from interpretation and shares the Living Word with all who will listen.  Jesus reminds them all the reason Moses said what he did was not because of marriage, but because of the people who married.  Moses said a man can write a certificate of dismissal not because marriage is hard, but because people become hard. 

This word, hard, has a specific meaning for the Rabbis and the Pharisees; it doesn’t describe something hard like a rock or difficult like ruling the people or perilous like crossing the desert.  In this case, Jesus meant that the people of God were as stubborn and unyielding as they were when Moses used this word in Deuteronomy 10:16 summing up the essence of the Law saying to the people “Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer.”[5]

In this passage Jesus stands for what God wants. Jesus stands for the better way.  Jesus stands up for people who are married more than he stands up for marriage. He stands for people sharing life together in the love of God rather than institutional wedlock. He stands for grace and love over law and certificates of dismissal. Jesus stands up for loving and caring relationships, not legal documents that either bind or unbind a couple.

Yes, the Law allows divorce; and Jesus doesn’t stand for the wayit is but for the way it’s meant to be, something better, a life worth living.

A life constrained by legal bonds and contracts is hardly a life worth living. Life isn’t meant to be lived in court; it is meant to be lived in the unconditional love of God. A love we are given not despite who we are—not despite the fact that there is divorce and remorse—but because of who we are—because we are the children of God. It is as the children of God that we live life the way it’s meant to be.

Jesus knows that this connection, this untainted love, is best shown by children; children who do not know what we grown-ups horribly call real life. Children, who in the best of circumstances, can’t imagine shattered relationships. Children who inherently trust; trusting and loving so graciously that Jesus says the kingdom of God belongs to children such as these. Jesus says “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

We live in a complicated world, and it just keeps getting more complicated everyday. The things that don’t get more complicated get bigger and faster. If I told you that it is easy to live in our world like children you would probably laugh and rightfully so. Yet no matter how hard it is by any definition of hard, God gives us what we need to live the way it’s meant to be.

About twenty-five years ago a nationwide poll asked, “What word or phrase would you most like to hear uttered to you, sincerely?” The most frequent thing the respondents wanted to hear was “I love you.” The second is as glorious as the first, “You are forgiven.” The third seems different from the others. It’s “Supper is ready.”[6]

Today, in worship, we hear all of these things. Today, the Lord our God tells us these things. Today we have heard God’s love, and we respond to God’s love sharing God’s peace and love with one another. We have confessed our sins against God and against one another and have heard “Christ who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.”[7] Soon we will hear the words of invitation to the table, the call that supper is ready as we celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper. 

By the grace of God we are given what we need to live God blessed lives, lives worthy of the kingdom of heaven, and the hard cold world we see all around us. We are given the blessings of God’s love, God’s forgiveness, and God’s nourishment. We have received love and grace, plate and cup; and we have received them from Jesus.

We are called to come together and revel in God’s grace, and hope. We are called to come together and share. When we ask what we have to give one another, we can only give from what we receive. We must learn the songs of God in our own lives so that we may sing aloud our song of thanksgiving, recounting God’s wonderful deeds. 

We are called to share what we are given with the world. We can spend all the time we want lamenting what we don’t have with one another because we live in a world where the Word does not fully live, not right now. But we must be willing to share what is here already, and in Christ we have everything that’s worth sharing.

By this, we share the gospel. By this, we build relationships. On this World Communion Sunday, we join with Christians around the world and celebrate what brings us together instead of what tears us apart. And today, to nourish all creation for this task, we are fed by the sacrament. 

You might be wondering what P. D. East thought of Will Campbell’s response to his request for ten words. East replied, “If you want to try again, you have two words left.” I wonder what the gospel in seven words looks like to us. Let this be a great point of discussion about who we are and whose we are and who we are called to become. Share it together at lunch! Or go on-line and share! Go ahead and post it to my facebook page once I get this sermon uploaded.

Finally, let me offer my seven words: “God loves, forgives, and redeems. Supper’s ready.”

If I say “Amen” would say that’s eight words. Oh well, supper’s ready, come and get it! Amen.

---

[1] http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-08/gospel-seven-words

[2] These examples are only vaguely edited from the Christian Century article. It’s really very interesting, you should look it up.

[3] http://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2011-10/whats-gospel-seven-words

[4] Williams, Lamar, Jr.  Mark, Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.  Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1983, pages 175-177

[5] Ibid.

[6] http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1193, With thanks to James A. Harnish, "Walking With Jesus: Forgiveness," Tampa, Fla., March 22, 1998.

[7] Kirk, James G. “When We Gather, A Book of Prayers for Worship.”  Louisville, KY; Geneva Press, 2001, page 233.

What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Lakin, Kansas on Sunday October 25, 2009, the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

“Job then answered the Lord.” Now there’s a statement that takes some guts; Job answered the Lord. Of course, Job asked quite a question himself. Job asked “Why?” Why did he lose all of his earthly possessions? Why did he lose his family, his seven sons and his three daughters? Why, why, why?

Now, Job didn’t start off asking these questions. In the beginning, after losing everything, Job’s wife offers this advice: “Curse God and die.” “Get it over with,” she says. “Just do it” the good folks at Nike tell us.

Job curses too, Job curses creation, specifically his creation. “Let the day perish in which I was born.” He curses the day of his conception, “Let that day be darkness.” But curse God, no.

Job had led a blameless life, fearing God and turning away from evil. He made offerings not only for himself and his wife; he made them on behalf of his children just in case they slipped. There is no one like him. When the accuser comes before the Lord after “going to and fro on the earth” the Lord asks, “Have you considered my servant Job?”

Job was blameless. Not without sin, but he was blameless; and he knew this. What we call “the gospel of prosperity” is nothing new. Do good, get rewarded. When it gets taken away, it’s obviously because of something you’ve done. This is the argument Job’s friends are making through the text. The pity is that Job gets suckered into this argument.

Job begins to argue with his friends with the wisdom of Proverb 26:4-5:

Do not answer fools according to their folly,
or you will be a fool yourself.
Answer fools according to their folly,
or they will be wise in their own eyes.

Job begins to argue back with his friends, answering them according to their folly. It is then that Job asks “Why, why, why?”

Finally, nearing the end of the book of Job, the Lord asks Job a question. The Lord demands and the Lord asks:

“Gird up your loins like a man;
I will question you, and you declare to me.
Will you even put me in the wrong?
Will you condemn me that you may be justified?

Job asks “Why?” He wants to hear the Lord God explain what's going on. He wants to know, “Why me?” And the Lord tells Job to “Cowboy up.” Understanding the work and the will of God are outside of Job's pay grade, and he had better get used to it. “Why?” The answer to that one's just not in the cards.

Job comes to the conclusion that what God says is true:

I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Job knows that some things are too wonderful for him to know.

Job had lost everything in his life, everything which the culture tells him is important. He had lost his wealth and his children. These things were returned to him, and returned in abundance. He is so grateful that he even gives his daughters a full share of inheritance along with their brothers, something unheard of in that day and time.

The Christian singer Michael Card discerns one thing more that Job receives, or rather, one more thing that Job never lost. In all things, in all times, and in all trials, Job is never outside of the presence of the loving God. Job is never outside of the protection of the grace and peace of the Lord.[1] Even when his life is the bleakest, even when all Job has is sackcloth, ash, and friends like these; Job is in the presence of God.

Bartimaeus was a blind beggar. We know so very little about Blind Bartimaeus that we don't even know his name! As Mark points out, Bartimaeus is the Son of Timaeus. In Aramaic, Bartimaeus means Son of Timaeus. We know so little about him that we don't even know his name; we know his father's name, but not his.

Bartimaeus is not a terribly popular man. He sits on the road outside of Jericho on the way to Jerusalem. Jericho was a sort of a resort town and the road to Jerusalem was a busy place. This is where he begged. When you drive in a big city and see people at a stop light using a squeegee to clean windshields for money, on the first century road between Jericho and Jerusalem, that would be Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus hears the commotion and finds out who is coming, Jesus of Nazareth. This is the last healing miracle found in Mark's gospel, so we can take it for granted that by this time in his earthly ministry the word had been passed up and down the road. Jesus of Nazareth is coming and he heals the sick.

“Jesus, Son of David,” Bartimaeus cries, “have mercy on me!” And the people rebuke him; they demand he shut up. The obvious reason the people tell Bartimaeus to be quiet is that they don't want to disturb the Rabbi while he is on the road. But there is another possible reason too. While at this point in Mark's gospel there is no question, no doubt about Jesus’ messianic identity, this is the first time anyone uses the royal title, “Son of David.”

To the religious elite, this is like calling a First Lieutenant fresh out of ROTC “General,” but with eternal overtones. The people were on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover, there were bound to be religious leaders along the way with the group. We know all to well that not everyone considered Jesus to be God with us, so suddenly a blind man sees more than the Scribes and Pharisees hope or imagine. I expect that there are a lot of people trying to tell the blind man to close his mouth along with his eyes.

Can you imagine the looks when Jesus told him to come down? Jesus stops the crowd in their tracks and says, “Call him here.” The good people along the route tell Bartimaeus “Take heart, get up, he's calling you.”

I like this translation, “take heart.” The New American Standard Bible renders it a little differently. It says, “Take courage.” These two together go a long way toward what the original language intended. The New International Version and the New Living Translation rendering of “Cheer up” in this passage doesn't do it for me. Bartimaeus sits on the road all day begging from strangers and travelers. He learns Jesus is coming and invokes the royal name of God to address him. He will not be quiet when the crowd demands it. It seems of Bartimaeus’ needs, he doesn’t need cheering up.

I guess another way to translate this is “Cowboy up.”

Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, sprang to his feet and comes to Jesus.

I grew up in the Kansas City area. One of the places I would frequent during the more misspent parts of my youth was Westport. While running around there, I met a man named Curtis. Curtis was a homeless man, burned over half of his body. His face was scared; he had just one arm, and a pronounced limp.

Whenever I would see Curtis, regardless of the season, I would see him wearing a parka. That parka had all of his worldly possessions. One night, a kind of a chilly night, particularly late in the night, or early in the morning if you will, I saw him sleeping in a doorway, using his parka for cover.

Bartimaeus' cloak served the same purpose as Curtis' parka. It kept the sun off of him during the days and kept him warm at night. It held his worldly possessions. Living on the road in ancient times is not so different from living in the streets in midtown Kansas City, both of them could be dangerous places, even for those familiar with the ins and outs of living there. To lose his cloak would have been a huge loss in the life of a man with out vision or even his own name.

Bartimaeus throws off his cloak and comes to Jesus. The odds of it being there when he got back to it were poor; very, very poor. Yet Bartimaeus is willing to throw away all he has for the hope of seeing Jesus.

Jesus asks “What do you want me to do for you?”

The first request from Bartimaeus had all ready been asked, “Have mercy on me!” This request is granted. Jesus shows him mercy. In a world where we see just a blind beggar, in a world where we don't even know the man's name, in a world where we hope the crazy screaming man will just be quiet; Jesus shows him mercy. Jesus calls Bartimaeus to him. The Lord our God calls the dirty, smelly, poverty stricken, blind man to his side.

Jesus gives Bartimaeus the most important thing anyone can give someone, dignity. Jesus welcomes this man who society shuns into his holy presence with out condition. Unconditional love, love he cannot earn. Bartimaeus receives grace and mercy.

Then Bartimaeus asks for the gift of sight. “Rabbi, My teacher, let me see again.” No frills, no spitting in the mud, it is the faith of Bartimaeus that makes him well, faith that in Jesus Christ all things are possible. By grace through faith Bartimaeus receives the gift of sight. Faith that in Jesus Christ, even when the people around us say we have nothing, not even a name, we have a place in the arms of God.

Job had everything taken from him, Bartimaeus left it behind voluntarily. The results for both of these men was the same, they had their vision restored. They were both able to see the light of God at work in the world, and in their own lives. Job had to learn what this truly meant through the loss of everything. Bartimaeus left everything in his cloak on the side of the road just to follow the vocation laid before him on a dusty road to Jerusalem.

The Lilly Foundation funded a project to study evangelism in the seven mainline American churches using denominational records and followed up with over 1,200 interviews. One of the things they discerned is that the people who have never heard the gospel can be split into different populations.

One of the nine groups who need the Good News of Jesus Christ is those who are “far from the church” and are “hurting.”[2] These are people who are burned out by congregational conflict. These are people who find the theology of their youth to be oppressive. These are people who have experienced tragedy and for whom the church has provided no comfort or support. These are the people who have been judged and shunned by the church.

Job is one of these people. Job was met by his friends and received the holy counsel, “So, what did you do to deserve this fate from the Lord?” Bartimaeus is one of these people. Because of his blindness, he is so shunned by his people that we don’t even have his name. What we have in these stories, what we have to share with the world is that when the world is at its worst the Lord God does not forsake us. The Lord God never abandons us. The Lord God never deserts us. The Lord asks “What do you want me to do for you?”

When the world turns its back on us, the Lord is at our side. The Lord calls us. The Lord lets us see in a world blind to the work of God. This is our call, this is our vocation; we must again learn to speak so that those who will hear us will understand we have something to say. And what a thing we have to say. What a thing we have to share. We believe that faith makes a difference in our lives. We believe that we are saved by faith through grace.

As the body of Christ, we are called to be the presence of God in the world. In this truth, we must recall the teaching of Aquinas, “Share the gospel, use words when necessary.”

When the world is at its worst, the Creator is at our side; Emmanuel, God with us. And by this, we are called to take God’s word of grace and peace into the world, using words when we must.

[1] Card, Michael, “A Sacred Sorrow.” Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2005, pages 41-45
[2] Reese, Martha Grace, “Unbinding the Gospel, Real Life Evangelism.” St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2008, page 90.

The Sons of Zebedee

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday October 18, 2009, the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Job 38:1-7, (34-41)
Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45

May the words of my mouth and the mediations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

You know me well enough to know that sometimes, I get an image burned into my head that I just can’t get rid of until I share it. Sometimes it’s worth sharing, more often than not that’s the reason I keep them to myself or share them only with Marie. Well, the first part of this passage did just that.

I see the dreamy eyes of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, as they approach Jesus. In their minds eyes they are sitting next to Jesus, everyone wearing white robes, everyone’s hair flowing in the wind, riding on the back of a classic Ford Mustang convertible, the Homecoming King and the attentive court.

Actually, the image in my head was Homecoming Queen because my high school didn’t do a Homecoming King, but I don’t want to make this image any more unorthodox than it all ready is.

Still, you know, the wave: elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist. Smiling and waving at the appreciative crowd; riding on the back of the convertible along the parade route. Crowds of people along the way would be getting ready for the big game, but not before showing their undying love for the three in the car. Sure, Jesus is in the middle, surrounded by admirers and disciples, sitting in the honored seat. He is the one everyone adores the most; but everyone looks to the Sons of Zebedee, James and John, as the next most popular kids in the senior class.

Jesus can’t be matched, everyone knows that, but to be next to the Lord, that is the greatest place anyone could ever hope to be; a place that can’t be matched. James and John sit and wave and bask in the Lord’s reflected glory and know everyone wants to be just like them.

Suddenly, Jesus busts their dream bubbles asking, “You might think you can get in the car, but do you think you’ll be able to take the ride? Will you be able to wear the crown and the sash? Will you be able to take everything the crowds have to give, the love, the adulation, the jealousy, the envy, the hatred, the scorn?”

“Oh, yes, we most certainly will be able to take it all.” It’s almost as if they didn’t hear the second half of the litany Jesus laid out.

Jesus gives the blushing boys a nod and tells them the truth they don’t understand, “Well guess what; you will get to wear the crown and the sash and you will know the love, the adulation, the jealousy, the envy, the hatred, the scorn. But whether you’ll be riding in the classic Mustang or not, well, that’s not up to me.”

That’s when the rest of the homecoming court gets upset with the upstarts. You know the rest, kicking, scratching, hair pulling…

I can’t decide if my re-visioning of this passage is like a bad teen movie or the spoof of a bad teen movie. If this gives you the willies, just imagine what I share only with Marie and then imagine what I keep to myself.

As silly as my re-visioning of this scene is, what is even sillier is its context. The disciples are on the road going up to Jerusalem during this passage. Immediately before our reading, Jesus shares this with the disciples, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”[1]

This isn’t even the first time Jesus had predicted his Passion; his death and resurrection. This is the third time Jesus had told his disciples that he will be mocked, spat upon, flogged, killed, and after three days raised from the dead. It is completely absurd that immediately after this teaching, this repeat of this teaching; the Sons of Thunder ask if they can sit next to Jesus in his glory.

Perhaps what makes this entirely too sinfully human is that James and John ask to sit next to Jesus in his glory; this glory they anticipated would be far greater than any earthly kingdom. Their question, absent any reference to the Passion, would have been a request to sit as princes in this earthly kingdom. They were seeking power and glory; I hope they were also seeking the good things power and glory can bring.

They are anxious to be next to him in his ecstasy, but not in his agony. On the heels of his last Passion prediction, they ask Jesus if he will let them hear the cheers, but in this scene nobody asks to hear the cries.

It’s easy for us to swell with knowing as Jesus tells James and John that sitting at his left and right is not for him to grant. It is glorious to hear that those places are for those for whom it has been prepared. There’s a certain ethereal joy knowing there is a place is prepared for the Church Christ ordains. It gnaws at the pit of my stomach when I read that with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left.[2] People, we beg to be next to Jesus in his glory, but we hardly beg for a place at Golgotha, the place of the skull.[3]

In the meantime the rest of the disciples get angry with James and John. While scripture is particularly silent on the reason, I suspect that they were angry with them for their request. The others were probably angry that James and John had done an end-around on them and asked for the good seats. I wonder if they were angrier because they hadn’t thought of it first. I can’t imagine they were ticked because they wanted be the first to share in the terror Jesus predicted.

I wonder if they would have asked the same question if they knew what they were getting themselves into. How often do we remember the Passion when we hear Jesus say, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.”

I hope James, and John and the rest were thinking about justice for the poor, care for the hungry, healing for the sick; things that a Godly kingdom brings. I hope they were thinking about the things Jesus talked about in his words on how Gentiles lorded power over one another. Jesus warned about exercising power like tyrants; warning against capricious laws, greedy taxes, and lustful appetites.

The Presbyterian Lay Committee is a group of Presbyterians who come together and share common concerns and seek common interests. There are dozens of such “affinity groups” scattered around the Presbyterian Church, running the political gamut from very liberal to very conservative. I do not think it is a disservice to categorize the Lay Committee as one of the more conservative affinity groups.

What follows is a commentary by the Rev. Parker Williamson from the September 4, 2009 edition of their newsletter, “The Layman.” Rev. Williamson is Editor Emeritus of “The Layman,” consultant to the Presbyterian Lay Committee, and an honorably retired PC (USA) minister.

Health care is not an entitlement issue. Those who frame public discourse on this subject in the language of “rights” – sadly, this is the approach employed by political lobbyists for the Presbyterian Church (USA) – reveal their ignorance of Scripture and of the human condition.

If human beings had a right to good health, then billions of us – ultimately, all of us – may file a grievance against our Creator. Some of us are unhealthy at birth. All of us are born hosting bacteria that under conditions beyond our control can result in illness and death. Scripture informs us that there is a time to be born and a time to die. These times are not set by us, and they most certainly should not be set by our government. They are the province of God.[4]

I can’t read that without sorrow. Williamson holds up the “human condition” in the same way antebellum American slave owners held up the “Curse of Ham” from Genesis 9:22 to say that Africans were cursed to be slaves. “God ordained their slavery; it says so in the Bible. The plantation is just one way to help every cotton-pickin’ one of them live into their godly office.” He holds up birth defects and grave childhood illness as an expression of Ecclesiastes 3:2, “Hey, there is a time to die, and some die sooner than later. Can’t stop it, God’s plan.”

In fairness, there are some valid points in the commentary. Williamson goes into the fact that for many, lifestyle is a factor in health, obesity for example. For these folk, he recommends a bootstrap approach. He quotes Jesus to the man at Bethsaida asking the, question “Do you want to be healed?” He implies that those who do not wish to take care of themselves in the first place really don’t want to be healed. Sure they want symptom relief, but not healing.

The article ends with this: “We [the Lay Committee] will respond to the Lord’s call for compassion, challenging the wisest among us to implement that compassion through policies that define reciprocal partnerships between donor and recipient.”[5]

This statement seems a bit unwieldy, so let me share what I think it means. I read “donor” as the one who pays for health care reform and “recipient” as the one receiving health care services. By virtue of his place in the organization, Rev. Williamson is saying the Lay Committee will support a call to compassion, but only one that calls people to lead a healthy life and that people be healthy before the “donor” pitches any pennies in their direction. The Lay Committee is willing to respond to the call for God’s compassion, but not willing to lead.

When I read Rev. Williamson’s words, what I see is not compassion; I see pity for people who do not live healthy lives. There is disdain for those who do not live up to his expectations. These folk may be pitiable creatures, but they do not deserve his helping hand.

I don’t read compassion for those whose injured lifestyle damages their health. I don’t sense the Lord’s call to compassion in his words. I sense blaming people for hurting themselves and taking money from his pocket to help subsidize their unhealthy lifestyle. I sense a laissez-faire approach to compassion; let them care for themselves first.

When I read his remarks, I read that he supports a program that calls for the Lord’s compassion. As for action, he is willing to say no to plans being considered right now, but not willing to suggest alternatives. He is not willing to go out and touch all of God’s children who are hurting right now where they are right now. It seems in this case he is not willing to say “we who are great among you must be your servant, for whoever wishes to be first must be slave of all.”

I say this is a shame. As the children of God, we must be willing to reach out. To be great means to be the slave of all.

James and John wanted to sit at the right hand of the Lord to bask in his glory and exercise his power. Jesus says that it is for the Son of Man to come, not to be served but to serve, and give his life for a ransom for many. Jesus knows that we cannot take on the obligation that he alone fulfills.

Jesus calls us, as his blessed children, to go following his example. Jesus sits with the poor; Jesus breaks bread with sinners; and yes, Jesus heals the sick. We are called not to be served, but to serve. Yet, we cannot save anyone; that alone is his work. He alone is the great High Priest. He gives his life for a ransom for many. We cannot save the world; instead we are called to be the hands, eyes, ears, voices, and hearts he will use to save the world.

We are called to live our lives in his service. We are called to live as the children of God, not the children of Zebedee.

[1] Mark 10:33-34, NRSV
[2] Mark 15:27
[3] Mark 15:22
[4] Williamson, Parker, The Layman, http://www.layman.org/News.aspx?article=26338, retrieved October 16, 2009.
[5] Ibid.

The Call to Live

I looked so bad this morning that the congregaton sent me home. I can't blame them, my head cold is pretty bad and Marie has a touch of pneumonia. Still, this sermon would have been heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berrryville, Arkansas on Sunday October 11, 2009, the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Psalm 22:1-15
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

From time to time, you might be curious about what is involved in preparing the sermon, the Word of God interpreted. Let’s begin here, that’s what I start with. The sermon is the Word of God interpreted and if it is anything less than it is wholly and holy inadequate. The purpose of the sermon is to share the Truth of the Word of God (with a capital “T” here) with the people of God in this time and place; and the first priority is God’s word before all else.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes:

“We must not be afraid to spend the time and effort required [to become acquainted with the Holy Scripture as the Reformers knew it, as our fathers knew it]. …How are we supposed, for example, to achieve certainty and confidence on our actions and in our personal life and in the church, if we do not stand on solid scriptural ground? Not our own heart but God’s word decides our path.”[1]

Yes, time and place matter, but the Word of God matters more than the time and place where they are heard. Only through the Holy Spirit by critically reading and seeking the Word of God in the written Text, in the Holy flesh or in the spoken word; only by being in the word of God will we live Bonhoeffer’s words achieving “certainty and confidence on our actions and in our personal life and in the church.”

So this, this particular piece of scripture gets dicey. If I bring this message of the Good News of Jesus Christ poorly, I will make you shut it out considering it to be what we call in the United States very, very bad news. There is a “Gospel of Prosperity” heard in churches around the world that is as pervasive as the “Law of Prosperity” heard in the time of Jesus. In Jesus’ time and even long before, those who were rich, or as in this case “have many possessions,” were considered to be very blessed by the Lord God. Where the world and the common interpretation of the Law saw this man as blessed, Jesus saw what this man lacked and told him what to do about it.

Most Presbyterian Churches are blessed to have members of power and wealth, but there is a slippery side to power and wealth. Marie Bolerjack tells the story of a Mississippi man who wanted to join the Presbyterian Church in their town because that’s where the “movers and shakers” were. While I do not see that man’s motivations in this part of the Body of Christ, I will not say it’s absent from every church in America, particularly the Presbyterian.

So yeah, this gets a little dicey.

An unmeasured look at this Word reminds me of the title of an old song by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “Give Me Your Money Please.” A more measured take would be from the 1990’s; “Give It Away” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But being the guy reading the scripture, and being the guy who will later say, “Do good and share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God,” it is perfectly reasonable for you to hear “Give Me Your Money Please.”

The man runs up and kneels before Jesus and asks him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” What must I do to inherit? The man tells our Lord that he has been a good boy, and a good man. He has kept the law; the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.

Jesus loves the man and tells him what he did not expect to hear, he begins with this little phrase, “you lack one thing.”

So here’s the good news, the man is doing all of the right things, or at least he’s doing nothing wrong. He’s keeping the law; he’s evidently not cheating anyone. He honors his parents and doesn’t covet his neighbor’s ox or ass. I assume he gives his tithes to the temple and keeps a kosher table. He’s a good doo-bee, but he lacks one thing.

That’s when Jesus drops the bomb.

“Go and sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” The man goes away grieving because he has many possessions.

I love the word “grieving” in this passage. I don’t have a lot of stuff, not compared to many who “chase the American dream;” but I love my books. I love to read them. I love to study them. I love to use them in work and in play. I love to organize them. I love to discuss them. I love to teach them. So if I were told I had to give away all of my books, I am sure that I would ultimately ask, “You mean this one too?” Surely as I would ask that question I would hear “Especially that one.” I get that kind of grief.

Jesus looked around at his disciples and said, “How hard will it be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.”

Yes Paul, “Especially that one.”

But did you notice what Jesus did here? He shifted the focus of the dialogue. The man asked what it took, what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus shifts the talk on life to talk on the kingdom of God.

Eternal life and the kingdom of God are two distinct things, if it were not so, Jesus would not have made the distinction. But is there a difference between these distinctions? Let me share a couple of stories with you.

This look at eternal life comes from the Kiester, Minnesota Courier Sentinel:

A little girl was distraught that her cat had been hit by a car and killed. Her mother, seeking to console her, said, “Well, honey, at least you know that your cat is now with God.” The girl screwed up her face, thought for a second, and said, “I don’t think so. What would God want with a dead cat?”[2]

This look at the kingdom of God comes from the C.S. Lewis classic “The Screwtape Letters.”

Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is “finding his place in it,” while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home on earth, which is just what we [the “we” here are demons of which Screwtape is a manager] we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle-aged and the old.

The truth is that the enemy, having oddly destined these mere animals to life in his own eternal world, has guarded them pretty effectively from the danger of feeling at home anywhere else.[3]

The little girl and Screwtape have the right ideas. What does God want with a dead cat? What is eternal life if we are dead? It is in our living here on earth that we have our foretaste of the kingdom of God. The Lord has given us a place and it has little to do with our place in the world. Our life in the kingdom has little to do with power and importance, good work and an agreeable home. As we strive for the things of this world, we often feel that the important things in life are slipping away, and this is Lewis’ point. As we strive for life on earth, the kingdom presses on us oh so much more, making us realize that it is not stuff that makes life worth living.

Life worth living is about relationships. Kingdom life begins with a relationship with Christ and flows into relationships with people and the world around us. In a way, this is what Jesus was telling the man. Eternal life is something we receive, but it is in the kingdom of God that we live.

The man asks what he has to do to receive the inheritance. Let me ask you, what have we ever done to receive an inheritance? Our inheritance laws are a little different from those of ancient Israel and Judea. In that day and time what you had to do to receive an inheritance is to be a son. To inherit eternal life we are called to be disciples of Christ Jesus, this is how we join the family. We become heirs of the eternal life. There is nothing we can do to earn an inheritance. An inheritance comes from family and we are the family of God.

We are called to be members of that family, we are called to take up our cross and follow God. We are called to become citizens of the kingdom. These passages from Mark make it clear that one of the crosses we all have to bear as citizens, particularly those who have much, is dealing with how we use our wealth.

We’re back to the dicey part.

So here is a point worth making, we are to give, but if we don’t give well it can be worse than if we never gave at all. This is perhaps our most difficult undertaking. You know, anyone can just give it away, but giving it away well is a completely different matter.

Living in central Austin, the Seminary warned us students and family not to answer our doors to strangers; seems pretty obvious. Honestly, as students on financial aid, if we answered the door for every person who came by for a handout, we would soon be opening a café. The only difference between our set up and a regular restaurant would be that nobody but us would be picking up the check. There was one woman in our complex who did open her door and give and give and give; until it became a revolving door. It made her so anxious that it ruined her health and a barrier formed between eternal life and the kingdom of God in her life.

Say every single one of us liquidated our stuff; land, property, cars, the whole kit and caboodle; say we took this pot of funds and went to any one of the hundreds of homeless shelters between Memphis and Fort Smith. Suppose we tossed the accumulated millions of dollars into the air giving it to the poor, what do you think would happen? Honestly and horribly, I can say from experience, that the next millionaire would be the owner of the closest liquor store owner. I don’t say this to be cruel; I do say it because unfortunately it is true. I have seen people begging for money in Austin and Kansas City and walk away when someone offers to buy a sandwich instead of giving cash on the barrelhead.

To give well is important in the call to give. Giving poorly, as these circumstances show us, is giving dangerously. This is the difference between giving and good stewardship.

We never hear what happens to this man with many possessions after he goes away. Here’s what I would love to have happened. I would love to believe that the man did as Jesus commanded. I would love to hear that he liquidated his assets and helped the poor. Maybe he gave to the temple, maybe the Salvation Army; maybe he started a foundation or a school. Maybe he started a school for kids in places where schools are uncommon. What if he funded the Qumran community, sitting on the library board perhaps? This is my hope; that he followed Jesus without ever leaving home.

And maybe, just maybe, we never hear from him again because he is so busy living his life in the kingdom of God, he no longer worried about eternal life. To paraphrase Bonhoeffer, maybe he was able to achieve certainty and confidence on his actions and in his personal life and in the church by standing on solid scriptural ground with God’s word deciding his path.

Life in the kingdom of God is better than a dead cat any day.

[1] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, I Want to Live These Days with You, a Year of Daily Devotions, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, page 294.
[2] From the Keister, Minnesota Currier Journal, cited in http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1593
[3] From C. S. Lewis, “The Screwtape Letters” cited in Christianity today found at http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1034.