Year B Proper 23 2024 Let Go

 Year B Proper 23, 13 October 2024

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Let Go”

Collect: Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Amos 5:6-7,10-15

Seek the Lord and live,
or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire,
and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.

Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood,
and bring righteousness to the ground!

They hate the one who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.

Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and take from them levies of grain,

you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you shall not live in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.

For I know how many are your transgressions,
and how great are your sins—

you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
and push aside the needy in the gate.

Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time;
for it is an evil time.

Seek good and not evil,
that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
just as you have said.

Hate evil and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Hebrews 4:12-16

The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Mark 10:17-31

As Jesus 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; Honor 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.”

From our Amos reading this morning, it closes with these words…

Seek good and not evil,
that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
just as you have said.

Hate evil and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Last week at Shrine Mont I talked about having the sense to follow God’s best practices for living a decent and good life. We call them commandments, but that can often sound restrictive. Best Practices is our current parlance for doing what we should. The Commands could not be more important for us personally, but Amos is clear that it is not just for us. “Seek good and not evil, that you may live.” But he also adds, “Hate evil and love good, establish justice in the gate.” That is equally important.

Now you have to jump into the culture of Israel to understand what is being said. The gate was where people would gather. If you have ever been in the winding streets of an old Middle Eastern town, you would see why the gate was a good gathering space. It was where people came in and went out. It was where the market would meet for the produce of the field could be set up in a stall. And the elders of the town would gather and disagreements could be settled, and punishments could be doled out for those found guilty.

While personally we are to seek good and not evil, we are also instructed collectively to establish justice in the public arena.

We are to be personally and collectively just.

We cannot just be responsible for ourselves. We are our sister’s and brother’s keeper. It is a reminder we are given from some of the oldest stories that we tell.

A righteous, and particularly self-righteous, individual came to Jesus, thinking he had his act together. He had worked hard his whole life to be “righteous.” He had worked hard to be holier than thou, and thou, and thou, and me-ou. He wanted to make sure though. Had he missed anything? Had he gotten every I dotted and T crossed? Had he minded his Ps and Qs?

So he came to Jesus. He had heard him speak and seen the miracles he had performed so obviously God was with him. So he came to the Teacher and asked to appease his worries, and put his mind at ease.

As Jesus 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. 

Now you may find it shocking what Jesus says here. He just said that no one is good but God. Now Jesus is not saying he is not good. He knows that the man did not see him as anything more than a teacher. Also, I believe, Jesus could see the self-righteousness of the man from his concern over being perfect. Jesus is saying, I think, that this man needs to let go of his obsession with being Good. And not just Good, but Blameless, or even Perfect. He cannot fathom a fault in himself, but is checking with Jesus to be sure. So Jesus goes on… 

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; Honor 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.

He had done the big things, those Best Practices from Moses. But he had been so focused on his checklist that he had missed the whole point. He had been so focused on avoiding evil that he never had been good.

His thing, according to Jesus, was his stuff. He was so fixated on his stuff, he could not let it go.

Now it is easy to take this man’s example and say that God wants us poor. But I think that is a simplistic and reductionistic reading. For this man, this was his one thing. And it is easy to understand why. It was taught, and it still is too often here in America, especially, is this: If you are Rich you are Blessed. If you are really Rich, you must be really Blessed and a favorite of God. This is the key principle of Prosperity Theology, upheld and preached too readily in our country. But it goes back to the Pharisees and before them. And this young man had bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

That was his one thing. And it shows in what Jesus said after.

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.”

Even his apostles were struggling with what we now call Prosperity Theology, Rich = Blessed. And Jesus knew that it was pervasive. And I can say that it is as well here and now. Too alive and too well.

For some of us, that may be your one thing that you need to let go of. We can be very good and righteous, and still too obsessed with “Keeping up with the Joneses.”  But we are living very different lives. On the trail of the Camino, Jesus got a hold of me, and let me see what my one thing was. I was shocked and dismayed, and not what I expected. I think the man in our Gospel reading came away with those same feelings. 

When we invite Jesus in to be our Lord and Savior, those words have meanings. A Lord can tell us what to do. A Savior who is our Lord does it so that we can be saved from ourselves. I have shared this poem before but it is so apt here. 

Christ, He requires still, wheresoe'er He comes 

To feed or lodge, to have the best of rooms: 

Give Him the choice; grant Him the nobler part 

Of all the house: the best of all's the heart. -Robert Herrick

Friends, if we invite Jesus in, he will rearrange the furniture. If we invite him in he will check out the whole house. He will look in the closets and the attic and the corners of the basement. He will find the cobwebs, and the things we could have thrown out a long time ago, and the skeletons in the closet.

For this man who came to Jesus, the thing he needed cleaning up was his relationship with his stuff. You have your thing. I have mine, as I learned on the Camino. 

Conversion is not an On/Off switch. There are big things, yes, that are clearly right and clearly wrong.  But so much of life is like a sound board, where we invite Jesus in to be our Sound Engineer, and he tinkers with us. Sometimes we need this dial turned down or up, other times that one. The man was doing so many things “right” according to the law, but his heart was wrong. He could not let go of the thing that would make all the difference.

A story is told of a little boy that was given a little too much lack of supervision at a huge family Thanksgiving dinner. Left alone he had gotten his hand stuck in a vase. It was not just any vase, but a priceless vase that was a family heirloom. It derailed the dinner that so many had traveled hours to attend. It derailed the hours of labor to make the event so special. But the adults paid attention to what needed it, the little boy with the hand in the vase.

They tried water. Nope. They tried soap. Nope. Eventually they called for help, and the EMS crew showed up, and they were dumbfounded. The little boy felt worse and worse as so many people were focusing on him. He did not know what to do.

After everyone had tried everything, the boy finally was able to whisper to his mom. “Mom, I have a question.” 

“Yes, hun. What is your question?”

“I was wondering, what if maybe I let go of my ball, you think that would help?”

As the adults all around groaned, after all this, but thankfully the mom just said, “Yes, let go of the ball.” And the vase slipped right off his hand,  and then the mom was able to turn the vase upside down and get the ball out, too.

This is the same as the man who came to Jesus. No one could see it. No one knew what he was clinging to so closely. Jesus could see underneath the outer veneer that looked so polished and slick and acceptable, praiseworthy even. But Jesus saw a little boy clinging to what he treasured so much and that was what was keeping him from being who he was made to be. As our Hebrews reading said of Jesus:

…we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus sees us for who we are, and loves us as we are, and does what needs to be done to get us to who God made us to be. Believe that. Embrace that. Bring Jesus in to do what only he can do. Nothing hidden. Nothing withheld. And we are brought to the place we need to be. We just have to let go of that thing that holds us back. Amen.