by Steve Houghton, Lay Preacher May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing to you our Lord and Redeemer. This morning’s gospel is hard to hear for our Capitalist Society and those of us who live in it. In fact, in a number of bible studies I have been a part of it has been described as harsh, unrealistic and even un-Christ-like because Jesus would never have spoken with such condemnation about anyone. For that reason many of us dodge this gospel as much as we can. Growing up, my family considered themselves to be middle class. My parents bought their own home, bought new cars every few years and put me and my five siblings through college or an equivalent education. In order to do this my father worked two jobs and my mother worked nights. I don’t think we were rich by any stretch of the imagination but compared to much of the rest of the world we were. In fact, compared to many in our community we were. The cost of being in the middle class was a loss of time for us to be a family. My Dad worked in middle management and also worked at the nearby race track selling bets on the horses at night and on the weekend. As a result he was tired most the time and often not available for family activities. I was sometimes upset that he didn’t take the time to play catch with me or teach me the finer points of basketball ball that he wanted me to excel at as he had in his youth. I believe he was even more upset about it than I was because he spent a good deal of his later years apologizing for what he hadn’t done when we were growing up. My Mom’s job meant that Dad was babysitting for the six of us when he could have been resting or doing something with one of us kids individually, like play catch. It also meant that Mom was feeling under pressure to keep the house orderly, clean, cook the meals and meet the mark as a fifty’s mother and housewife. So as I grew up the mark was set for what success was and what was expected of me. As a young adult graduating from high school I had a bag of expectations. Those included how I was to treat my fellow human beings, how I was to treat women, what role my religion played in my actions in the world, how and when I was representing my family in my actions. There was a lot of stuff my parents gave me to help me become a respectable member of society so I picked up that bag and moved forward. (pick up bag) I went to college and got a whole new set of expectations and obligations to shoulder. Things like thinking for yourself and doing the research in order to make the right decisions. Things like being eligible for military duty when an unpopular and possibly unjust war was going on and should I serve or should I find a way out. (Pick up backpack) I met Charlie and found a new set of expectations and obligations as a husband and partner. What did I need to do to put a roof over our heads and keep us fed while we both went to school. (Pick up backpack) Then our first child arrived and new expectations and obligation came with being a father and guide. Since unemployment was high the best option at the time was to join the military and with that came the obligations of being a noncommissioned officer and leading men in successfully completing our mission. (Pickup bag) When we left the military I needed to find a job that would allow us to have the things my parents had attained so I found a good job and began to build a new division in that job. As you would expect, that included a whole new set of expectations and obligations. (Pick up backpack) So right now I don’t think I can get through the door never mind the eye of a needle and there were and are a lot more bags that I picked up getting to where I am right now. And what does all of this have to do with the rich young man? This story or a variation of it appear in all three of the synoptic gospels. This morning’s reading is from Mark. Mathew has the story at chapter 19(:16-26). Luke (18: 18-29) has the story with a young ruler who has great wealth. Also notice this is not a parable, it is an encounter with a person who has met with Jesus as Jesus is teaching. There is not a lot to analyze or figure out, the facts are pretty clear. In the beginning Jesus asks why the young man called him “good” when only God is good. I had always found that part of the story confusing but as I was focusing on this to prepare for this sermon I realized Jesus was telling the young man that Jesus could not cause a change of heart, only God can do that. And after all Jesus was going to call the young man to make a change of heart. And something that slipped by me in the past was the phrase “Jesus loved him”. If you think about that a minute it tempers the harshness of the comment about how hard it is for a rich man to get into the Kingdom. So now let me start to put all these seeming disassociated things together and explain my thoughts on camels, eyes, and getting into the kingdom of God. The rich young man was a good man and was living up to the expectations of the Jewish faith as he knew it. He was doing it all the right way. He sensed, probably from Jesus’ teaching, that there was something more, another step he had to take to truly be a follower of Jesus. He asks Jesus that very question and Jesus tries to let him off the hook by asking what his faith asks him to do, which I think Jesus already knew he was doing. The rich young man was determined to meet the mark for what Jesus was asking of his followers and so he pressed on and because of that Jesus saw his determination and “loved” him. In that love Jesus was not going to let him off the hook but rather to give him the direction that the young man sought. Jesus said sell all that you have and give the proceeds to the poor and the rich young man went away sad because he had many possessions. Note that we don’t know what happened to the rich young man. Maybe he did sell all his possessions. Maybe he didn’t. Jesus’ focus shifts to address all those who have many possessions and makes a broad observation that it is extremely difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Why would you think it would be so difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom? One reason might be that there is no time to work on entering the kingdom when you are striving to earn or maintain riches. Believe it or not even rich people have to work really hard to hold onto their wealth. It takes hours of work, late meetings, cross country trips and time away from home and family in order to hold your own in our Capitalist Society. Once you attain some of the riches you sought you find a new dilemma in trying to hold on to it. There are the physical dangers of theft, loss caused by nature, market crashes and other monetary disasters. All of these threaten wealth and possessions. There are the social dangers of going to the wrong clubs or attending the wrong churches or supporting the wrong causes or voting for the wrong party. All of these threaten your ability to continue to make more money or cause you to lose it to someone better aligned with perceived right thought. One of the greatest lessons our neighbors in need has taught me is that there is great freedom in not possessing anything. There is nothing to lose. You can take any position you want and no one can or will threaten you. Someone may think to take a swing at you but chances are they could get hurt as well and if you have nothing what does it matter what you say or what cause you support or who you cheer on. Of course that all assumes no one will listen to you. The greatest freedom is time, time to spend however you decide is right. These days very small voices are moving huge issues forward in the areas of equity, justice and fairness. We have evidence of this in our own congregation. The Kingdom of God was and is not a place somewhere out there or in another dimension as far as I know. It is right here, right now. Jesus many times over, said the Kingdom is here. How present it is depends on how much effort we put in to make it present. If we are caught up in chasing or maintaining wealth we won’t have time to try to make it present. So it is really difficult to impossible for a rich man to help illuminate or develop or spread the Kingdom. Also Jesus asks us to feed the hungry, dress the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the injured; all of which requires financial means. It is caring about and for the woman or man who is on welfare and doesn’t appear to do anything at all to help themselves. It means taking the time to put ourselves in the shoes of those we sometimes see as other and realizing the hurdles they have before them. Jesus is not saying that rich people are bad or that they are lost forever. He is saying that many of them may have to experience a change of heart in order to follow his lead. And he is saying that a change of heart is not easy and it is best done with God’s help. I like to think that the rich young man went home and after a lot of prayer began to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty and clothe the naked because of Jesus’ teaching and while he may have not sold all his possessions he became a benefactor to those in his community. And maybe that too is why Jesus loved him. How are you and I going to respond to Jesus call and admonition? Like the rich young man I think we should give it some thought. Amen
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