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The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost October 11, 2015

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

Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Psalm 90:12-17; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31

Pr. Christine's Sermon - What Is Found at the Feet of Jesus?

Childen's Sermon - Counting with Jesus

Youth Bell Choir - Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus

Youth Bell Choir - Blessed Assurance

Sermon Notes from Pastor Christine...

Today's Gospel is a curious mix of parable, proverb, and real life. As many of you know, I adore parables and proverbs, because the layers, nuances, and frankly, the ridiculousness of them force me into the mystery of God in a way that the ministry accounts of Jesus' life do not.

As I turn the story around and around in my mind, examining it from different vantage points, it's almost as if I'm having a conversation with Jesus himself.

When Jesus tells me a story, he provokes my curiosity:
"What could He mean by using that metaphor?"
Or "What would I learn about God if I looked at it from this angle?"
Or "Does this fit with my understanding of grace and mercy? And if not, what does that tell me?"

If you've spent any time in a church, you've most likely heard this story about the rich man before. And even if this is the first time you've ever set foot in a church, most of us have heard the proverbial saying, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Heck, if I hadn't just used country music as a metaphor in my preaching a few weeks ago, we'd all be examining the song, "Buy Me A Boat," in which Chris Janson laments the truth that money can't buy happiness, but he'd sure be willing to test that theory. He specifically croons, "I keep hearing that money is the root of all evil and you can't fit a camel through the eye of a needle. I'm sure that's probably true, but it still sounds pretty cool. Buy me a boat..."

Camel through the eye of a needle... Jesus' story to us today.

However, we aren't going to go down the country music road again, except as a foray to:
That's how I've heard this preached before.
There's this rich, yuppie lawyer named Bernard who's got a 6.7 million dollar home in North Bethesda; he has a wife and children that he loves; donates money to the church and even worships most Sundays; he speaks out on honorable topics, such as gun control, racial justice, and affordable housing and he wants to make sure he's done enough to get into heaven.

And Jesus tells him to go sell his stuff and then presumably he's good to go.

Now, honestly, if I was in this man's shoes, which are probably Louis Vuitton shoes and quite comfortable, I'm not so sure I'd end up at the feet of Jesus. What in the world does he need?

Truth be told, I'm a little envious of the rich man. Maybe I shouldn't be, but I'd venture to guess many of us secretly wish we had wealth to hoard. Or at least a little more money - it would make life so much easier. I mean, Lord knows I can't afford a house in Bernard's neighborhood. I can easily wiggle out of Jesus' charge by telling myself, "I don't have money like Bernard, so this doesn't really apply to me." I take myself out of this story, rather than put myself into it.

Simultaneously, I can acknowledge that compared to the majority of the world I do have too much. I haven't given out of my abundance to the extent possible. It is true that 22,000 children die each year from poverty and I've never worried a day about whether I'd have food to eat. It's true that more than one billion people in the world have inadequate access to water and I never have to think twice about it. It's true that 20% of the world's population accounts for about 80% of private consumption and I have a household of 'stuff' which fits into that statistic.

And so, maybe I am the rich man who has too much.

I had professor in seminary that gave me the best and worst advice ever for preaching. He said, and I will never forget this, "If Jesus didn't have to die for you to say it, then it isn't Gospel."

Well, *fabulous*.
I mean.... It's great advice. It really helps prevent one from watering the Gospel down to some moralistic platitudes. But it's also nearly impossible. I think to myself often, 'Did Jesus need to go to the cross for the words I'm proclaiming....?" I don't want to tell you how often I answer myself with a tentative, "Maybe...?"

Jesus didn't need to die for me to preach a moralistic lesson about sharing and caring and giving your money away to those less fortunate. All religions, philosophies, and 'just' societies hold that premise. Interpreting this Gospel text only through this vein is far too simplistic and theologically easy. It's truth, but not the heart of the Gospel.
Don't get me wrong though, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Jesus really does want us to sell everything we have, but it's not going to help us win salvation or inherit eternal life, which seems to be the rich man's concern.

So, today I feel like the clearest thing you can hear me say is this is not about your abundance, but about your scarcity; not about getting into heaven, but about getting into now. We've missed parts of the story.

What is curious is the man in the story, has the story all wrong too and you'd think he would 'get' it, since it's the story of his life. But alas, the part of his story that is so often overlooked, the heartbreaking piece of the story is Jesus looks at the man and says, "You lack one thing...".

In this story of plenty, Jesus sees this man as poor; Jesus sees this man as lacking.

Now the man in the story, I've been calling him Bernard, but I'd invite you to put your own name in the story. The rich woman named Christine; the rich man named Steve; the rich person named _______, Jesus looks at you and me and says, "You lack one thing..."

The question which arises out of the story is what exactly is he lacking? Or better, what are you lacking? This is a very hard question, I know.

Now of course, there's all kinds of irony here, because by material standards, by society's standards, by the measures of the world, he and we lack nothing - absolutely nothing.

And yet...the man falls at the feet of Jesus. He can't help himself. You may not literally be falling at the feet of Jesus, but if you're anything like me, then those words, "Falling at the feet of Jesus" - there's something about them that says, "Yes, yes. At the feet of Jesus I will find something."
And this, my friends is the part that I find absolutely intriguing; this is the part that is just flat out Gospel which Jesus did have to die for.

Throughout Mark's gospel everyone who kneels at the feet of Jesus is asking for a blessing from Jesus, either to rid them of some dread disease, are demon possessed, or dying.

As just a quick rundown:
In Mark 1 - the man with leprosy kneels at Jesus' feet and is made clean.
In Mark 5 - the man possessed by demons who falls at Jesus' feet despite himself is healed.
In Mark 5 - Jairus' daughter is dying and he pleads at the feet of Jesus and she is made well.
And again, in Mark 5 - the woman who has been bleeding for 12 years, grovels along the ground to Jesus feet and is suddenly made whole.
In Mark 7 - the Syrophoenician woman's daughter is rid of her unclean spirit.
Which brings us to Mark 10 and the rich man who lacks one thing and falls at the feet of Jesus...

What if this guy is sick, not in the traditional sense, but what if (and I adamantly believe this is the case) he desperately needs the type heart healing that ONLY Jesus can offer? And what if that deep longing accounts for for his question about eternal life, because somewhere in the caverns of his soul he knows that something isn't quite 'right' in his life - something important, something that matters, something that is a matter of life and death...

But there's something that would change his life, but he alone just can't put his finger on it. But Jesus, Jesus... He just might know. Plus, God knows he's tried everything by being as perfect as he possibly could and still he feels like he's banging his head against a wall. Or as Jesus would put it, he feels like a camel trying to get through the eye of a needle. It's impossible.

And then we are left hanging. The man goes away, never to be heard from again.
Often we hypothesis what happened to the man. Did he sell his possessions or not? We usually have mixed feelings of sadness and judgment for the man.

But here is where I think the ingenuity of parabolic structure comes in. Or maybe more specifically, the brilliance of Jesus comes into play.

We aren't told the end of the story on purpose, because we are supposed to think about how and when and why and if this man does actually get healed.

Because the answer to the question of what can I do to inherit eternal life is NOTHING.
Not EVEN selling all your possessions, giving your life to the poor, or keeping all the commandments. It's already being given to you.

Every time Jesus orders someone to 'go' who has fallen at his feet, like Bernard does, it is because they have been healed.

So is he healed? It says he went away sad and I think he did because he knows he cannot give up everything. None of us can. And in that moment what he lacks is the ability to believe that the miracle of divine grace of Jesus is enough.

What will heal the man is the realization that he can do nothing to get into heaven but that he is being given everything he needs to experience heaven right now.

The only person who can give up everything is best shown in another place in Mark - the one other place where the people who kneel before Jesus are in desperate need of healing. It's in Mark 15.

The soldiers who were at the feet of Jesus at the cross - kneel...
Our story tells us that they struck his head, spit upon him, and KNELT down in homage to him.

Now, you and I both know that they didn't know they needed healing. They thought they lacked nothing that Jesus could provide, but Jesus, even when they cursed, mocked, and brutalized him still promises: There is another way - the ways of grace and mercy.
If Jesus could heal the soldiers, could heal the criminals, could heal the demoniac, could heal the leper, then Jesus can and does heal the rich man.

I don't know what needs healing in you; I don't know the part of you that feels the 'lack,' but I do know one thing: Jesus knows. He does.
At his feet, there is grace and mercy and healing.
And then he will say to us, "Go - give it away... that grace and mercy, because that is the one thing the world needs." Amen.