Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Mark 10:17-27
I have chosen to preach from a very dangerous piece of scripture this week. This text places the preacher into the tension of actually claiming that Jesus wants us to sell everything we own and give it to poor, a claim that will usually lead to a few people getting up and leaving and a few others writing angry letters, or completely spiritualizing this text to the point where it seems as though Jesus would rather us give up nothing at all and remain perfectly comfortable, just the way we are. There is another option. That option is to focus in on the gift Jesus is offering this man and to us.
This is such a radical story, that we tend to want to just ignore it. When we do, we miss one of the most colorful stories in the New Testament. It is so colorful that Matthew, Mark and Luke all mention it. Notice what happens:
17As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him,
The man didn’t shout from across the street, he didn’t grab him by the arm. He didn’t e-mail him. He ran up to him and knelt before him. This man is pretty excited!
17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’
The man has a good question but Jesus throws a little cold water on him.
18Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.’
I should learn from Jesus. When people come up to me and say, “That was a great sermon!” I should say, “Only God is truly great.”
Neither what Jesus said nor what I should say are acts of humility, they are words of refocus. We need to always refocus on God.
I have a wonderful, loving Labrador retriever, but he is easily distracted. When he was a puppy, I had to train him to be able to keep his focus on me and listen for commands, even when there were lots of distractions. I would sit with him between my legs facing me and because he was so interested in the every little thing going on around him, I had to literally grab his head and keep it turned toward me.
But then Jesus answers the question, sort of.
19You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.”’
Not all of us know the Ten Commandments, but most of us know there are ten, and Jesus has left some out. These are the easy ones. Murder, adultery, stealing, lying, we all do pretty good on those on a daily basis. You shall not defraud, well that’s not really a commandment, but I don’t want to challenge Jesus. Honor your mother and father; we can at least pay lip service to that.
Where are the tough ones? Where is the “have no other gods before me?” That sounds easy, until we realize we spend more time thinking about money and things than God. What about keeping the Sabbath Holy, which I plan to do once I get the yard mowed? Oh, and don’t forget about coveting. Maybe we have that one licked. I mean no one here has ever looked at something someone else has and wanted it and wanted it for themselves, have they?
But Jesus just leaves those out for now. The man responds:
20He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’
Alright, so he hasn’t killed anyone, stolen anything, committed adultery, or lied and he has been nice to Mom and Dad.
21Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said,
This may be the most important line of the whole text. Notice that Jesus didn’t get mad at him, Jesus didn’t waggle his finger at him, Jesus didn’t get revved up for a lecture, Jesus looking at him and, loved him. So, what he is about to say comes from a place of love, therefore it is likely not a punishment, but a gift. Parental gifts.
21Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’
The man’s reaction is not unexpected.
22When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Different translations do this differently; he was shocked, he was sad. The word in Greek conveys something that I can only compare to one of those cartoon characters with a dark cloud over its head.
The man is quite discouraged because he either doesn’t see the gift that was offered to him or he just can’t bring himself to accept it.
Thanks for nothing! And he walks away.
Last summer I spent two weeks in New Mexico and Colorado taking a course called An Adventure in Wilderness and Spirituality. The course is designed as a way to consider and develop ones spirituality in the context of a number of wilderness environments and in the context of the dynamics of a small group. In other words 9 of us got into a van and went looking for God.
In order to be allowed to take this trip, I had to agree to some very specific rules. For some of you, these rules probably seem like some form of punishment. We were told exactly what we could bring, two medium duffle bags full. There were no watches, no phones, no cd players, no computers, just clothes, not nearly enough to change underwear everyday, a journal, toiletries, and camping gear. We were told when to be dropped off at the seminary campus and when we should be picked up. We were not told exactly where we would be going. We were told that there would be no contact with our families or loved ones for the entire two weeks, unless there was an emergency and even then, contact might be difficult.
It took a couple of days to get used to living without stuff. We didn’t stay in hotels. At first we stayed on church floors and sometimes in cabins, so showers were a rarity. The small amount of clothing we were allowed to bring, along with no washers and driers meant wearing the same clothes over and over. There were no newspapers, no television news, no phone calls.
The stuff in those two duffle bags seemed like luxury items when we reached the final phase of our trip, 6 days in the backcountry. We split up the tents, stoves, food and other community gear among all our backpacks, and after adding cold weather gear, raingear and a sleeping bag, I had room for one clean t-shirt, one pair of underwear, an extra pair of socks, a toothbrush, a little flashlight, disposable camera, my journal and a tiny little towel. For six days. Packing our backpacks was a great exercise in need vs. want. Can I take an extra shirt? It doesn’t weigh much. My guide would respond, multiply the weight by the number of steps you will take up and down the mountain with it on your back.
21Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’
At the elevation of the Weminuche wilderness of Colorado, with the steep, slippery trails that wind through the woods up and down the sides of mountains and through streams you realize what a gift it is to have less.
All that stuff in my backpack seemed like luxury when we reached the last two days of our time in the wilderness. The stove and the tent got left behind and I got to take the clothes I was wearing, my journal and flashlight, my sleeping bag, a Ziploc bag full of food and a plastic sheet and spend two nights by myself, in the woods. As I was working on this message, I read through the journal I had with me in the wilderness. It is amazing what you dwell on when you are living all alone under a plastic sheet in the mountains of Colorado. Is it going to rain? I am cold. When will the sun come up? Is that thunder? What time is it? What was that noise? I am cold.
What is more interesting is that, in the mere fact that I had an adequate caloric intake in that Ziploc bag, in other words, because I had enough to eat and because I was able to fashion my plastic sheet in such a way as when it rained, I didn’t get wet, I was still among the wealthy. At least, I am not among those one billion people in the world that are considered to be in extreme poverty, meaning that they simply don’t have enough income to provide the basic necessities of life, enough calories to eat, a dry place to sleep.
But for a middle-class resident of the United States of America, I had pretty much nothing. Here is what is interesting. Being stripped of everything I have, being alone, in God’s creation, with almost nothing, none of the comforts I normally surround myself with, none of the safety I claim that I have around me, with no distractions, being alone with nothing to separate me from God, that was one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. An abundant blessing.
Thanks for nothing.
When you strip life down to its bare essentials you realize how all those things we surround ourselves with weigh us down, distract us from the truly important, separate us from God.
As my two nights alone in the woods alone were over, I rejoined the group and started putting things back in my pack. In comparison to being alone with nothing, the tent and stove and fuel in my pack felt comfortable, but heavy. They weighed down every step on the miles back to the trailhead. The weight of my pack made me stumble on the steep decline.
25It 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.’
Every step down off the mountain carried the weight of my own being plus the things I thought I needed to be safe and well and whole. Back on the mountain, under my two giant trees, on the soft ground, I left behind the weightless understanding of only needing God.
Off the trail, back in civilization, there were hot showers and lights and cars and endless distractions. More comfort, but more weight. Travel went from foot travel to van travel, with all of our stuff packed in the back. Back to home where there was television and sermons to write and a million e-mails to return. There were cars to take care of, a house to worry about, bills to pay, things to attend to, so much stuff. There were enough things to keep me well burdened, comfortable and distracted, enough to make it quite difficult to think about things of God. It was nearly overwhelming.
We often talk about giving as sacrifice, but I have realized that giving up isn’t a burden, it is a release, a gift from God
21Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’
Jesus wasn’t trying to punish the man. He was trying to heal him.
This stewardship campaign marks the first one that I am doing as a full-time pastor who is completely done with seminary. While I still have some school debt, I am no longer paying for school or books, I have a full-time salary, and the church helps me with a house. I no longer have any excuse not to make a commitment and follow through. This year, Alisha and I will make a significant step-up toward tithing. We won’t be quite at ten percent, but I hope to stand up here next year and say that we are.
I will say this, at the level I am committed to give this year, I will decidedly have to go without some things I want. My 1996 Chevrolet will have to hold out a bit longer. I may go without the latest electronic gadget, but listen closely, I don’t see that as a sacrifice, I see it has a gift, I see it as God grabbing my head and refocusing me toward God, I see it as a gift from God, for whatever it is I give up will be something that I never really needed and would ultimately keep me from what I do need which is God. Thanks for nothing!
Let me say one last thing. I give because I am trying to accept the gift that God is trying to give me. God is trying to unburden me, God is drawing me nearer. What is amazing about God is what God can then do to transform what we give. Money that would have created more stuff to burden my existence becomes the stuff that can change the world. I am a walking talking example.
I spent 27 years with a giant God-sized hole in my life. That hole would still be there if there hadn't been a church sign to guide me to a place where I could hear about God. My life would still lack meaning if there hadn’t been a trained and experienced pastor there to talk to me about God in terms I could understand. I would have remained floundering and trying to buy happiness if there hadn’t been a Disciple Bible Study where I could deepen my faith.
God transformed generous giving into a complete change of life for me and I am not the only one. The church is in the life changing business and there are a lot of lives that still need change. When I think of what God can do with what give to God, I am so glad to give.
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