Rich Young Man

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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