Year B Proper 23, 14 October 2018
St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA
“All Things Are Possible”
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.
Job 23 excerpt: 8-9,16-17
"If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!"
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 Job: "If I go forward, God is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!" (Job 23 excerpt: 8-9,16-17)
Ever feel like that? I have. Many of you probably have as well. I do not see or feel God anywhere, and if I found him I would not know what to say or do and would want to hide. Job was like that, and he told his friends who kept saying he was an obvious sinner that he demanded an audience with the Almighty. I know if I had an audience with the Almighty, I would probably cower and shake like the Cowardly Lion before the Magnificent Oz! But in Scripture we are promised that what we expect is not what we are going to get.
Today I could spend all my time talking on just a single verse. If I were to put it in modern parlance, the phrase would be Appearance vs. Reality. Or Expectations vs. Outcome. Jesus phrases it this way when closing the conversation with St. Peter, “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Theologians often refer to this as the Great Reversal. The World turns on its Head.
When the time comes, what you think you will see is not what you will get. I think of how many times I have sabotaged myself or situations because before I got there I had decided what it was going to be like. I worried and fretted, using up so much of my energy on nothing.
Dan Zadra said, “Worry is a misuse of the imagination.” This Wednesday I spoke on how John the Baptizer needed to assuage his worries by sending his followers to check with Jesus if he really was the One. Jesus did not say yes or no, he merely quoted Isaiah with what the Messiah would be like, the lame will walk, the blind will see, the Good News will be preached to the hopeless. And he assured John that all these things were happening. Jesus was really saying, “You know the answer, John, if you stop worrying and see what is right in front of you.”
We all have worries and frets, but they are a distraction most of the time. “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength,” said Leo Buscaglia. We fret and worry attempting to control what in most situations is uncontrollable. Our mental and emotional energy devoted to this does not do one ounce of good to us nor does it contribute to the situation. It is in a word, a waste.
In the Gospel reading today, we see someone who needed to be sure that they were “good.” In fact, the worry he brought forward was really, “Am I good enough?” Now that worry is very different than being good. One is an economic equation. One is a relationship. If we worry about being “good enough,” we are doing it for what we get out of it. Approval. Acceptance. Heavenly reward. We bribe the Almighty with our behavior (and the bare minimum at that) to receive the reward. That is so far from what God wants from us.
God wants us. God wants us to be in relationship, in that loving, mercy and grace-filled relationship where we KNOW that we are loved and approved of, and in a relationship that is drawing us to not just the Good but our BEST SELVES. That is what the Hebrews passage is getting at. Hear this. It is SUCH WONDERFUL NEWS!
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.
We need not be the Cowardly Lion. We need not ignore the Man Behind The Curtain. We can approach the One on the Throne Boldly. Today when we say the Lord’s Prayer just before we receive the Eucharist I will say this line: “And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say…” And then we name God our Father. It all comes back to relationship.
In the Gospel when the young man ran up to Jesus asking what must he do to be “good” Jesus said, you know the rules. The young man said he had been doing it all his life.
Now here I am reading into the text, but I think it is accurate. He had done everything right, but he knew in his heart he was wrong. The Older Son in the Prodigal Son parable had done everything right, but missed out on the Love of the Father. But the younger son, the Prodigal, did everything wrong but ran back to be in relationship with the Father. God wants you to do what is right, because of Love.
Think of it this way. I do not cheat on my wife. I would not. Now if my mental reasoning was I do not want to get caught, there is not a lot of love there. I put the Love first. I love my wife, and because of that I would never cheat on her. The relationship must come first and foremost. My relationship is not a list with checkboxes of done or not done. My heart has to be in it, and it must come first.
When the young man came to Jesus having done everything “right,” the often meager Mark says these fascinating words, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” Jesus saw him for who he was, and appreciated a person searching for a way to fill that hole in his heart. He loved him even when he was missing the boat. He loved him where he was. And it was in love that he said the one thing he lacked.
Now once again, I admit I am reading into the text here, but after years of thinking, praying, and wrestling with this, this is what I believe to be true. The one thing he lacked: “go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Now, too often I have heard this as a justification that we must be poor. Like many Scriptures given in a particular context, this young man was given this One Thing because it was what keeping him from that Relationship with God. We all have some thing or things which if we excised from our lives would enable us to be closer to God. It could be a habit, an unhealthy relationship, or a presumed Construct on How Things Are.
The Young Man, like many of the Rule-Keeping Righteous of Jesus’ day, tied personal prosperity with the Divine Blessing and Approval. Over and over again Jesus attacks this attitude. You are blessed because of who you are in God. In the One in whom we “live and move and have our being.” Grace is about Who and Whose We Are. It has NOTHING to do with What We Do or even worse What We Have.
Even in our collect for the day we prayed about this: Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works… Grace through that relationship comes before and after us to enable those good works. If we put works first, something is terribly wrong.
Remember the original question: “What must I DO to inherit eternal life?” In Job, it is about relationship. In Hebrews, it is about relationship. In Mark, it is about relationship. And the young man left empty because his first relationship was his possessions.
The disciples, who saw Jesus day in and day out, who heard him teach and preach for hours, still had not unlearned the “blessedness of riches.” They obviously stilled lived by that old mental construct. When Jesus made this intentionally ridiculous analogy, It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. [Sidenote: there is a gate going into Jerusalem with the three way turn about shoulders’ width apart and Jesus may have been speaking about this gate instead of a literal needle. Either way it is hilarious and very visually engaging.] When they ask, “Who then can be saved?” they were serious. They had to unlearn and rethink what it is ALL ABOUT, what GRACE is all about.
“Who then can be saved?” Jesus’ response is one of my favorite encouragements in Scripture. It applies to any situation I find myself in, whether it is something of my own doing or just the misfortune of where I happen to find myself. “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
Salvation is IMPOSSIBLE for you. There is NOTHING you can do that will enable your salvation. BUT NOT FOR GOD. FOR GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.
Brothers and Sisters, if you hear nothing else today, hear that. There is one who loves you, wants and works toward your best, and for whom NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.
I think of the times in my life when I felt like Job. When I felt that the world was dark, and there is no way out. When I was with family members breathing their last. When those who are closest to me were suffering or were endangered. When I have stood in a hospital room and assured people of the never-failing, never-ending love of God no matter what the doctor just said. When I in the still of the night worried and fretted, thinking that things were impossible and there is no way out. To those memories, and the days ahead where I am not at peace, I hold these promises.
FOR GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.
THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST, and THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST.
There will be a Great Reversal, where God is in control and there will be no sorrow or gnashing of teeth. We may see through a mirror dimly for now, but then we shall see face-to-face. We need not wander away sad, suffering from the affliction of affluence. It is open to all. Just as the young man was invited by Jesus, we are, too. “Come, follow me.” Amen
