We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

The Gospel, Oct 13 – Preoccupation with “Stuff”

From the SALT Project of Sun, Oct. 13, “Mark 10:17-31”

Link to the Gospel, Mark 10:17-31.

1. “There’s a lot packed into the man’s question: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

2. “You lack one thing,” Jesus says, an ironic remark to a man who, with his “many possessions,” ostensibly has everything. But what exactly is the “one thing” he lacks? Is it moral virtue, the ethical standing that arguably comes from selling everything and giving the proceeds to the poor? Perhaps…but if that were true, if this selling-and-giving were simply the good and right thing for human beings to do, we might expect Jesus to recommend it not only to this man but to the crowds as well, or at least to his disciples — but Jesus doesn’t do that.

3. “So, if it isn’t moral virtue the man lacks — what is it? Perhaps the clue is the opening exchange about “goodness.” Perhaps the man, preoccupied with “doing good” so as to achieve his own salvation, trusts too much in his own resources, material and otherwise (“What must I do…?”). Perhaps what he lacks is trust in God, who is, after all, the ultimate source of all goodness and salvation. This interpretation would help explain at least two things in the story: first, why the commandments he has followed “since my youth” are the neighbor-oriented commands (5-10 of the famous ten), not the more explicitly God-oriented ones (1-4 of the famous ten), suggesting, perhaps, a lack of trust in God; and second, why relinquishing wealth is the specific remedy Jesus prescribes, since that would help dispel the man’s illusion of self-sufficiency and afford him a more vivid, tangible experience of depending on God.

4. “On the other hand, however, it’s worth noting that Jesus doesn’t call the man to simply walk away from his possessions, or to burn them in a bonfire, but rather to share their value with neighbors in need. Accordingly, perhaps the “one thing” he lacks is generosity: the joyful sharing of blessings with others. Indeed, one of wealth’s hazards is that it can cut people off from genuine, kind-hearted participation in the wider community, which is to say, from living a fully human life.

5. “Perhaps the man’s preoccupation with his own efforts and resources, betraying a lack of trust in God as the source of goodness and salvation; or perhaps his lack of generosity with regard to others in need; or indeed, perhaps both.

6. “The good news of the Gospel in this week’s passage is that God’s grace, not our own efforts at being “good,” is the true source of salvation; that Jesus “looks at us and loves us” (Mark 10:21), and so invites us to move beyond concerns with our own inheritance and focus instead on sharing our resources with others in need; and that God seeks to transform even and especially our economic lives into beautiful, humane, generative patterns of love and grace.