2024 Sun Oct 13

I. Theme –  Working for Justice may cause us to change our lives and lifestyle

“Rich Young Ruler”

“He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, 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.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” – Mark 10:20-22

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Amos 5:6-7,10-15 Psalm – Psalm 90:12-17 Page 718, BCP Epistle – Hebrews 4:12-16 Gospel – Mark 10:17-31

Today’s readings encourage us to work for justice, to release our attachment to things and to trust Jesus to form us into a people of compassion. Amos decries Israel’s unjust treatment of the poor and oppressed. Trusting in God’s justice, Job wants God to hear his case in person. The author of Hebrews points out that only through Jesus will any of this be fully accomplished—as our apostle and high priest, he builds us into “God’s house.” In today’s gospel, Jesus advises a wealthy man who seeks God to obey God’s commandments and to detach from his possessions and focus fully on God. With God all things are possible!

Being faithful to God calls us to live into God’s ways of justice. We need to love our neighbor as ourselves—it is the commandment Jesus gives us—and we cannot love our neighbor without seeing to their needs. And it is hard for us to see to their needs when we are too busy caring for our stuff, worrying about our material wants, rather than seeing the needs of others. This is a difficult lesson for us, and I’m not sure I’ll ever fully be able to let go of all the things I have. But I know that faith is a lifelong journey, and I don’t have to accomplish it all now. Before God, all our sins are exposed, but before God, all things are possible, all forgiveness is given, and all things are made new

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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.

1. David Lose, Minister, Former President of Luther Seminary

"But what if this scene isn’t the liberal version of an altar call but instead is a healing story. Did you ever notice, Dear Partner, that all the people in Mark’s gospel who kneel to Jesus and ask for a blessing either have some dread disease or are demon possessed. And almost every time Jesus orders someone to go, like he does this guy, it’s in relation to a healing.

"So what if this guy isn’t just pious but sick, heart sick, and somewhere deep down he knows this and so seeks out Jesus with his question about heavenly entrance exams because he knows that whatever his appearance on the outside, whatever his faithful and pious life, he’s still missing something, something important, something that matters, something that’s a matter of life and death. If this is the case, then maybe Jesus really does love him. Maybe Jesus sees that all this guy has – his knowledge of the law, his perfect piety, his abundant wealth – has distorted his sense of himself, and of God, and of his neighbor. And so maybe Jesus tells him to divest so that he can really live by faith in God and in solidarity with neighbor for the first time in his life, which would be like having, when you think about it, treasure in heaven.

"If this is true – and I’ll admit that it may be as much a stretch as the other readings – if this is true then Jesus might just be doing the same thing to us even now. That is, Jesus might be looking at us with love and, perceiving the deep heart sickness in each of us, actually asking something of us, giving us something to do, something to give up or away, somewhere to go. Now don’t get me wrong: this is not about our salvation; we are saved by grace through faith for Christ’s sake alone. But what if it doesn’t end there? Or better, what if, in one sense, it only starts there. That is, what if God isn’t only concerned about our eternal destiny but also cares about the life we enjoy here and now, with each other in God’s creation.

"My goodness, but if that’s true, then maybe God’s gift of salvation can actually free us to do something: to love each other, to care for God’s people and world, to share the good news…right here, right now, wherever it may be that God has placed us. Not from any hope of winning God’s favor, but rather from a spontaneous kind of basking in God’s favor.

2. Suzanne Guthrie, writer

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “You lack one thing,” Jesus said. “Sell what you have, give the money to the poor, and come follow me.” The rich young ruler turned and walked away, shocked and grieving, “because he had many possessions.”

Jesus loves him, but he walks away. The heartbreaking image of the rich young ruler who Jesus loved, turning away in grief, is too much a mirror of daily life. Jesus loves me, but I turn away because of my life of glittering distractions. It doesn’t even have to be money, although money is often connected to it.

Is this story about poverty? Upholding voluntary poverty in times of financial distress seems a little callous and ignorant, as if poverty were some nostalgic romantic ideal. On the other hand, the wildly imbalanced culture of greed for possessions and power drove us to cause the current global economic crisis. Where is the balance? Where is love?

3. Mark G. Vitalis Hoffman, Teacher

Ultimately we all have the same problem of earning our way into salvation. It can’t be done. What, then, is the answer? Gazing at his disciples, just as he gazed at the rich man, and loving them just as much, Jesus says, “With humans it is impossible but not with God, for everything is possible with God.” (v. 27) This is not a cheap grace solution that allows us to carry on with business as usual. Something still has to change for God’s impossible possibility to be realized.

Let’s go back to the rich man’s question that initiated this whole incident: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” His question already hints at a deeper answer. What can anyone do in order to inherit anything? Inheritance is more about belonging to a family than earning something, and this explains what is going on in vv. 28-30. Leaving everything and following Jesus, as Peter says the disciples have done, brings them into a new family. This household of God is an incredibly rich present reality, but one that is marked with persecutions. It is also a future reality characterized by fullness of life where first and last will no longer have any relevance.

Finally, keep in mind that for an inheritance to be given and experienced, someone has to die. How can this be? Thanks be to Jesus, the good teacher, that all things are possible with God!