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Pentecost 19, Proper 23 Lesson: Amos 5:6-7, 10-15
October 11, 2009 Psalm 90:12-17
The Rev. Kirk Lee Epistle: Hebrews 4:12-16
St. James’ Church, Marietta Holy Gospel: Mark 10:17-31
I speak to you in the Name of God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Over the years, in many countries around the world, I have met very wealthy and very poor people. Regardless of their wealth or poverty, I found that people can be sorted into two general groups – those who are content and those who are not. There are those who are generous and those who are not. There are those who show their lives expressing the grace of God within them and those who do not. Wealth is not inherently evil, nor is poverty inherently good. What matters is how we live, our values and our goals for life.
Today’s reading reminds me of a story. In You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Lucy creates a fantasy for herself: “When I grow up, I’m gonna be the biggest queen there ever was. I will live in a big palace with a big front lawn. And when I go out in my coach, all the people will wave at me…And in the summertime, I will go to my summer palace – and I will wear my crown in swimming, and everything.”
Linus interrupts her with a little reality testing, explaining that the only way to become a ruling queen is to be born into a royal family. After protesting that this is undemocratic, Lucy recovers her fantasy, now transformed into the American dream: “Then I will work very hard, and get very, very rich, and I will buy myself a queendom! I’ll buy myself a queendom, and I’ll throw out the old queen. I will be head queen. And when I go out in my coach, all the people will wave at me…And in the summertime, I will go to my summer palace – and I will wear my crown in swimming, and everything.”
The young man who comes to Jesus with his anxious question is also seeking a royal inheritance; he wishes to inherit eternal life. He thinks the way to qualify for this inheritance is to keep all the rules, to do all that is required. Yes, he says, he has kept all the rules he is aware of. And Jesus’ heart goes out to him.
Why is Jesus not angry at him, as Jesus was often angry at those who claimed to have met the law’s demands? Perhaps because he saw in this young man not a proud hypocrisy, but an anxious perfectionism, making him worry that there might be other rules he has not heard of. If only this good rabbi would lay out for him the absolute requirements!
Jesus’ response seems to be just what a perfectionist would dread – a new, unheard of requirement, stricter than the old rules, a yoke too heavy to bear. Sell all you have, give it to the poor, follow me. The found man hears an unbelievable demand, and goes away sad.
But, perhaps if he had not come expecting a demand, he might have heard something different in Jesus’ reply – and that is an offer of an entirely different way of living. He might have heard Jesus coaxing him to unclench his hands, to spread them open to give and to receive. With his hands holding his possessions, he will not be able to catch the life God is tossing him. Giving to the poor is not so much a good deed he must do to qualify for life, as it is inseparable from living in grace. Our hears cannot be open to God without also being open to those in need.
Like the rich, young man, the disciples hear Jesus making an impossible demand. If it is harder than a camel squeezing through a needle’s eye, then who can be saved?
Yet the disciples had heard, as we did last week, to whom God’s dominion belongs – to little children. Is it because of their perfect obedience, their ability to meet the strictest demands? I do not think so. What child do you know who is perfectly obedient? Or is it because of their trust, their open hands ready to receive what is offered? If we must become as little children, though, that also seems humanly impossible.
As another rich man, Nicodemus, pointed out, it is not possible for a grown up to be born again; the birth passage is too narrow; it might as well be a needle’s eye.
We cannot buy or earn ourselves a queendom as Lucy imagines. Not even by working very hard; not even by acts of charity. But we can be born into a royal family; in baptism, that has already happened.
So come to the meal for those who are born into God’s royal Kingdom. You have only to open your hands to receive the inheritance of eternal life. Pray that they stay open this week, to receive what you need, to give to others in need. If by your hands the hungry are fed, or they find shelter, or they are healed, or they find work, then you will know that, as Lucy dreams of, the queendom of God is within you. Amen.
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