Listen to the Sermon.
“You lack one thing.” “Oh, yeah, what’s that?” We can imagine the man’s surprise and dismay at Jesus’ words. “But I’ve done everything I was supposed to. I kept the law and the commandments.” Doesn’t that make him righteous? He has a comfortable life, with many possessions. Isn’t he successful?
From the outside this man looks like he lacks nothing. Even the disciples are perplexed at Jesus’ judgment. Jesus tells the man to sell everything he owns and give the money to the poor - and then come and follow Jesus. The man goes away grieving at the thought of selling his many possessions.
What IS the one thing the man lacks?
Poverty? Humility? Dependence? Aren’t those things exactly opposite to the definition of success in our culture? It’s not the first time Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven honors values that oppose the dominant culture. In Mark, Jesus often speaks of little children as those who will inherit the kingdom of heaven and exhorts his followers to be like children, those who were least noticed and least powerful in the ancient world.
Poverty? Humility? Dependence? Aren’t those things exactly opposite to the definition of success in our culture? It’s not the first time Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven honors values that oppose the dominant culture. In Mark, Jesus often speaks of little children as those who will inherit the kingdom of heaven and exhorts his followers to be like children, those who were least noticed and least powerful in the ancient world.
Jesus invites the inquiring man to a new way of living in the world, one that is free of the assumptions and privileges of having many possessions. It’s easy to focus on our things, on getting more, on maintaining what we have. In doing so, we often forget to truly see and hear and know the people around us. We lose our ability to see ourselves as relational people. Jesus invites the man to be in genuine relationship with him, the disciples, and the poor by eliminating the ‘things’ that distract us from being genuine and honest in relationships.
At the same time, Jesus looked at the inquiring man and loved him. Jesus saw him with eyes of love, with deep compassion. And then he invites the man to come and follow.
This parable invites us to consider what Jesus would say WE lack, and what we must do to follow Jesus. Jesus says “come and follow,” which implies that following him involves leaving the comfort of where we are to go where he is.
Like the man in the parable, we love our possessions, our life comforts. Whatever we have, we have worked hard to accomplish and accumulate our way to where we are in life. We may have a strong sense of pride in our independence at making our way in the world, at figuring out how to play the game of life so that we are seen as successful in some way. In our education, our professional integrity and accomplishments, in our health, in our family or home. This is ours! We earned it! We worked hard for it, and no one can take it away from us!
But what if we choose to give it away?
We believe that all that we have is a gift from God. Our life, our health, our family, all that we have. It comes from God. Not that God is a magical vending machine. More that we are given the opportunity to be stewards of it for a time. Stewards of our bodies and minds, our society and social relationships, our world - to use these resources to create the kingdom of God here and now. Our things, our possessions, are ours to tend, to use and nurture, to harvest and re-invest as God would.
These gifts are not ours to own, or to hold onto forever. God asks us to love our life and our gifts like they are our own, AND to be ready to offer the entirety of it back to God. We are not our things. Like them, we are God’s creation. As humans we are uniquely created in the image of our Creator - and we give all to God because God gives everything to us.
This understanding of stewardship, with its detachment from the possessions of this life, is what the young man lacks. He lacks the realization that he MUST live in relationship with other people and with God - relationship that loves, honors and dignifies every human being and all of God’s creation. The worship of and desire for things, for possessions, for success in this world, can pull us away from real, genuine relationships with the people around us and with Jesus. All Jesus asks of the young man is that he eliminate the ‘things’ that stand between him and a full relationship with Jesus.
Footnote: we actually don’t know what the wealthy man chooses to do, whether he becomes a Jesus follower or not. Mark leaves the story open, as a way for us to find ourselves in it.
Like the inquiring man, the choice of how we steward our gifts is up to us. Choose eternal life in the kingdom of heaven over the lifespan of your iPhone. Choose the kingdom where love and forgiveness and grace stand up to fear and hate. Where every person is welcomed equally, as another beautiful and unique human being created in God’s holy image.
As for our ‘things’ - the ones we would grieve to consider selling or losing:
What are the gifts God gives us?
How can we use them to God’s purposes?
How will we to separate ourselves from things in order to know one another and God more deeply?
Let us pray.
God of the narrow way, you call us to shed all that burdens the lightness of life: help us to surrender false wealth, embrace our need of you and live for your kingdom above all things; through Jesus Christ, the richness of God. Amen. [1]
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[1] Steven Shakespeare, Prayers for an Inclusive Church (New York: Church Publishing, 2009), Collect for Proper 23, Year B.
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