Friday, October 19, 2012

10-14-12 - Sacrifice leads to Growth


Mark 10:17-31
 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?’Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You 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; Honour your father and mother.”  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.
 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’
 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’ 
Sometimes I wonder what happens to the man in today’s reading from Mark.  We naturally assume that he did not do what Jesus told him to do.  After all, he walks away grieving, for her had many things.  But it doesn’t clearly say that he doesn’t do it. There is the possibility that he does do as Jesus tells him to do, that he does sell his things and give the money to the poor and follow Jesus.  It could just take some time for him to do it, to go through the mourning process of dying to the world in order to live in Christ. 
 I can understand grieving the loss of things.  I am a sentimentalist, I love to hold on to things that remind me of the past, that remind me of the good times that I have had in this blessing that is called life.  I like to have things that bring me entertainment, that distract me from the trials of life.  I like to have things that are beautiful, that bring joy into my life.  But in the end they are all just things, things that can easily distract us from God and from being in a relationship with one another.  And yet it is hard to let them go, it is hard to trust God and to be in true relationships.  It is far easier to get sucked into watching television than it is to have really meaningful experiences and relationships.
And that is what Christ is really telling the man to do in today’s reading.  The man asks about eternal life, but it is not what Christ answers about at all.  Instead he answers about the Kingdom of God, which he already has said has come near way back in the beginning of Mark.  The kingdom of God is not eternal life, as we can see when Jesus tells the disciples that they shall receive houses, and mothers, and sisters and brothers and children a hundredfold in this age.  No, the kingdom of God is the relationships that we have with one another the good news of God that fills our lives with love and compassion for one another, that destroys hatred and injustice, and that unifies us as the family of God.  The kingdom of God is right here and right now, and the rich, meaning those who have things, including each and every one of us here, have a problem with this because we become to attached to our things and too blinded by them to see the goodness of life and the relationships that we have.  We become guided by our things and our desires for more things, for more activities, for more prestige that we fail to be guided by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who tells us that the last will be first and the first will be last.
            For Jesus, eternal life was not the all important reason for His life and death and resurrection.  Those were definitely in his mind and we thank God for that wonderful gift each and every day.  But he did not want that to take over in our minds.  He did not want us to live purely in the future.  After all, if our entire faith was solely based on the gift of eternal life after we die, and a much happier life, then it is amazing that Christians didn’t turn into a suicide cult and that we would actually have any left in the world.  No, instead our faith is one that is built on the present, it is built on the love of God for all of creation, and it is a faith that is built upon servant hood.  And that is what Christ is trying to teach the man in today’s reading.   The man had done all that is right by the law, he followed the commandments, but he had not been a servant.  So Christ orders him to be a servant to the poor, instead of a servant to himself.  And is in this that the man grieves.
            Sadly, this is something that we have to continue to learn as well.  So often we focus on the question “Who is saved?” and “What do I have to do to attain eternal life?” instead of focusing on the will of God and living in the kingdom of God.  To steal from JFK, Ask not what can my God do for me, it is What can I do for my God?  And what can we do for God?  We can serve his children, all of them, no matter skin tone or status or history, we can serve his children, all the people of the world, and especially those who are poor and oppressed.  And we can stop with the constant need to be important, the constant need to accumulate things.  We can stop being slaves to our economy and the world and start being true servants of God.
            It requires sacrifice in order to be God’s servant though.  It may lose us friends, who do not understand why we are out serving the poor or going to church instead of just enjoying ourselves.  We will definitely lose out on “things” that we may want, but that really only serve as distractions away from God.  But we will also gain.  For we gain wonder when we look into the world and we see all the things that God has done.  We gain relationships, as we become family with so many more people outside of our current little groups.  As Christ said, we will have mothers and sisters and brothers a hundredfold, for we shall be family with all of God’s children. And when we serve and when we focus on the will of God, we can begin to stretch ourselves to see other denominations as truly our brothers and sisters instead of just those wackjobs who don’t know what they are taking about.  We have already started doing this, with our work with Catholics and Presbyterians for VBS when we serve the children of this community. And the more we serve and the more we focus on God, the more that we shall expand and grow in ministry and in understanding of one another.
            And truly, ministry is the purpose of the church and it is the natural outflowing of the love and forgiveness that God has already shown us.  When we see and feel the love of God upon us, we shall want to and will serve others and do the ministry of God, for each and every person here is a minister.  Each and every person has the gifts and abilities to serve God by serving our neighbors, both nearby and far away.  We have seen this just recently, as 110 quilts and over 30 health care packages were sent from this congregation to Lutheran World relief to help those in need.  We can do amazing things when we are united and we are focused on love.  It is only when we focus on our things and we become grieved that we may have to make sacrifices or when we focus on anger and intolerance that we are stopped from doing ministry, from showing the love of God.
            It is one of the hardest things in the world to let go of things.  It can be so easy to be sentimental over an object or so proud of our reputations, but yet we are called to give away our love of these things.  We are called instead to sacrifice in order to glorify God.  We are called to give our resources away to those who are needy, that the hungry may be fed and homeless may have shelter.  We are called to be servants of all, to see ourselves as the least instead of the greatest.  And yes, this goes against our traditions and our heritage as Americans, where we clamor to be the best and to have the most, but we are called into being citizens of the Kingdom of God, right here and right now.  We are called to live in justice, and love, and compassion, instead of hoarding.
So Rejoice!  Do not be afraid, but instead enter into the light of God.  Be free of the love of the things of this world and rejoice in the family of God and rejoice in your freedom!  May the Lord bless and keep all of us, and may God teach us to truly be His servants. 

Amen.   

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