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The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost October 4, 2015

This Weekend's Readings (click each reading to view the passage)

Genesis 2:18-24; Psalm 8; Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16

Pr. Steve's Sermon - Entitlement Reform

Children's Sermon - Being Included

Youth Bell Choir - Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus

Youth Bell Choir - Blessed Assurance

Sermon Notes from Pastor Steve...

As the presidential primaries continue to evolve (or devolve!), one topic that's sure to be talked about, but not really addressed, is "entitlement reform." An "entitlement", when used in American political speech, usually refers to things like Social Security and Medicare. They're things that we all pay for through our payroll taxes, and things that we're all promised will be there for us when we get older, or that will continue to be there for us if we're already receiving them.

It's really kind of odd that we use the word "entitlement" to describe these things, because being or feeling "entitled" usually connotes a sense of arrogance or special privilege. But for a few a things, especially Social Security and Medicare, most of us are perfectly willing to use the term "entitlement" because we really do feel entitled to something when we've:

Paid for it and earned it ... (honestly, even if I don't use the word, if I pay for something, I generally feel like I should get it!)

Achieved a certain status ... (whether it's reaching a certain age, or gaining a certain level of experience and expertise in my job, I often do feel that there are certain things I should be able to expect...)

Got power to enforce our expectations... (sometimes, people just get robbed; but when you've got the power to prevent yourself or others from being taken advantage of, you generally use it; which is why of course, the letters I now get regularly from AARP remind me of the power of voting!)

And honestly, when we feel, rightly or wrongly, that our entitlements are at risk, it makes us uneasy and nervous.

And actually, "entitlements" form the context of the discussions that people are having with Jesus in today's Gospel reading. Although the initial question from the Pharisees is presented as a question about marriage and divorce, the real issue behind the question was whether somebody should be able to feel entitled to a sense of righteousness and belonging in the kingdom of God based upon what they had or hadn't done.

Because everybody knew the answer to the question. From ancient times, people had been getting married. And from ancient times, people got divorced. It was a sufficiently difficult enough situation that even the Old Testament, which lifted up marriage as permanent and indissoluble, set up rules and procedures for when marriages ended. The Pharisees knew this, and so did Jesus.

So Jesus' answer isn't anything new. Jesus reinforces God's hope for loyalty and commitment in relationships. He acknowledges the pain and brokenness that often happen in human relationships. He calls that pain and brokenness sin. And notice he doesn't single out divorce as the worst sin or an unforgivable sin.

But what Jesus does do is to refuse to sweep the pain and brokenness under the rug. Because what the Pharisees were really asking was whether they could find some legal loopholes - not just about marriage and divorce - which would allow them to continue to live with a sense that they were really entitled to God's love and to inclusion in God's kingdom.

So what Jesus is really doing is "entitlement reform"! That is, he's challenging every sense of human entitlement to God's love, to inclusion in God's kingdom, and to a sense of personal righteousness.

Because people then and now, even if we don't like to admit it, often live with a pretty big sense of entitlement when it comes to God and righteousness. Sometimes, that sense of entitlement comes from the feeling that:

We've earned it because we've done the right things, or not done the really bad things (or at least, "if I have done something "bad", I've properly "repented" of it, whereas YOU on the other hand...!")

We have a certain "status" (we're people God loves; and of course we are! After all, what's not to love about you and me? Yes, we're grumpy sometimes, but basically we're "good" people who try to be good, and that should count for something, right?!)

We've got the power to change our relationship with God if it's not going right (we can pray harder and louder, or change our behavior, or at least look more "holy" to others, and that should make God change his mind about us...)

So against this sense of entitlement, Jesus takes a little child and says to his disciples, and all of us, "whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." And what does it mean to "receive the kingdom" as a child? We're often tempted to think of children in idealized terms of being sweet, innocent and pure. But that wasn't at all the view of children in the 1^st century world in which Jesus spoke these words.

Rather, what Jesus is pointing out is that a child has:

No way to earn anything - everything the child has the child gets because of the parent's love (whether the child is being sweet and nice or obnoxious!)

No status - even the disciples think children can be disregarded; they could be seen but not heard, and they really didn't "count" for much of anything until they reached legal age...

No power to enforce his or her rights - they still don't vote! And in the first century world, there wasn't even any sense of "universal human rights" that should be afforded even to a child; the child is completely dependent upon the love and care and mercy of the parents...

And that's Jesus' point. It's the great thing about Jesus' "entitlement reform". You don't get in, and you don't stay in, the kingdom of God by any kind of entitlement or sense of entitlement. Instead, you can only "receive" the kingdom by the love, mercy and the power of God.

Jesus' "entitlement reform" means that you get God's love even though you can't earn it. You get to be part of the kingdom of God even though you don't have the right status. And the power that keeps you in the kingdom is not the power of your own efforts to do good or to avoid sin, but rather the greater power of God's love and God's forgiveness.

Amen.