21ST Sunday after Pentecost

Sermon: 21ST Sunday after Pentecost, 10/13/2024
Text: Mark 10:17-31, Hebrews 4:12-16
Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
And Jesus looked at the rich devout man, 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.”

This is one of those moments when Jesus says something so utterly uncompromising and radical that we all start to fan ourselves cause it’s getting hot in here. And He doesn’t do this out of spite, take note of that small detail, He loved the rich man to whom He gave this commandment. He says this because of love. So, I have to say that as a modern Christian living in one of the most affluent lands in the world, to preach this text can come with a little blush of embarrassment. For like the rich devout man, many of us are also devout, we love God and try do the right things, and also we have many possessions which we would like to keep. Like the disciples, we might join in their despair: “Then who can be saved?” If we take stock of at least American society, a society whose majority professes the Christian faith, it is evident that this text calling for the abandonment of one’s possessions is not very highly considered. It seems that the opposite is true, we love our possessions. American society, with its emphasis on capitalist economics, is in a sense sustained on the idea of accumulating individual wealth as a sign of blessing, goodness, and having done the right things in life. Jesus unties these things from each other. Instead of possession of things as a way to be loved, Jesus tells us that in the abandonment of wealth, in the giving away of one self to follow Him, there is the way to God’s Kingdom. The treasures of the church are not found in material wealth, but in the love that gives of itself freely for sake of the least of these. Jesus is seeking to disorient our run-of-the-mill capitalist thinking, and to renew our minds with God’s truth and where He has placed our true wealth.

There is a story from the early years of the church, about the 3rd century, of a deacon called St. Lawrence. There was great persecution against Christians in Rome at this time, and the imperial authorities were confiscating the material goods of the churches and executing clergy. As a deacon, St. Lawrence was tasked with ministering the goods of the church for distribution in service to the poor. When he was asked to give up the church’s wealth, he instead gave everything to the poor. He was called to bring the treasury of the church to the authorities, and instead Lawrence brought all the city’s poor and suffering he had given the wealth to. He declared to the authorities:
“Here are the treasures of the church. You see, the church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor!” What a strange scene that must have been for that Roman official. The way of Christ is indeed foolishness to the world, but for us it is the wisdom of God, the way of deep love for those who are vulnerable.

The story of St. Lawrence is a reminder that God overturns what richness is all about. God finds true wealth in giving Himself away as bread for the hungry, as clothing for the naked, as drink for the thirsty, as consolation for the weary; in Christ, He abandons Himself in love of neighbor, not counting the cost, but instead offering Himself as sustenance for us. True wealth is not accumulation, it is giving away, it is abandonment to God’s love for the sake of others. God sees abundance not in shiny material things, He sees abundance in the care of the poor and the alleviation of suffering. It should be clear to us that great wealth in some places is often the result of forced poverty elsewhere, as through the words of St. John Chrysostom: “Not to share our own riches with the poor is a robbery of the poor, and a depriving them of their livelihood; and that which we possess is not only our own, but also theirs… God in the beginning did not make one man rich and another poor. Nor did he later show one treasures of gold and deny the other the right to search for it. He left the earth free to all alike. Why then, if it is common, do you have so many acres of land, while your neighbor has no portion of it?” True richness does not keep to itself, it seeks to rectify the lack that affects the poor by sharing what has been equally given.

Jesus’ demand is upon us, not as a heavy burden, beloved. But because of love, He wants us to declutter our lives from distractions that do not lead to abundant life for all. And in being given away, we do receive something in return. Everything we have left behind is given back to us renewed according to God’s desire. We are given a new commonwealth and community that is based not in individual aggrandizement, not based on classes built on how much money you have accrued or what status you have gained, but in the expanse of a community that gravitates toward the same goal of self-giving love and care. There is a lightness to those who have given away everything to follow Jesus. They are not tied to weight of riches, their attention is not stolen from what matters most: love of God and love of neighbor. They are ready to give all away to God’s poor like Lawrence, and be on the side of the vulnerable instead of Empire. There is no ambiguity, there is the clarity of God’s love. It is better then to be last than to be first, as Jesus says, for in being last we forfeit our participation in the unjust distribution of goods that happens in our society, and instead we build towards God’s dream where the poor have their fill, and no one is excluded from the feast.

Yet, knowing the heart of God in this matter, the question persists for us modern affluent Christians: Who then can be saved? Will it be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for us to inherit the Kingdom of God? Clearly, we are all compromised in some sense by the embarrassment of riches, by the unequal abundance that is accumulated all around us. We proclaim in our churches that our Jesus brings good news to the poor, yet: where are the poor around us? Are we using our resources in the spirit of what Jesus demands? Often, the answer is “not enough”. There is always more that we can give, but the pressures and anxieties of the world assail every one of us, and there is always a line that is just too much to cross. Extravagant generosity is a pathway to vulnerability for the giver as well. But in the midst of our failure to dispossess ourselves, Jesus gives us a powerful hope in the face of a problem we cannot fix alone: “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” When we can’t see the way forward, when we despair over our own incapacity to give ourselves away in love for God’s poor, keep Christ’s words in your heart, for God, all things are possible. Our inability is no obstacle for God, for right now, as your hear the words of Jesus, as you wrestle with His demand of extravagant generosity, His word is piercing through our walls of resistance, He is making us new in His image, sculpting us to inhabit more closely the life of Christ, to begin little by little an openness that is broken through by the power of God for us in Jesus Christ. For us alone it is impossible, but Jesus is working in us right now, softening our hearts, fostering in us, a generosity born from God’s own. We will be generous as if by a miracle. We shall be surprised at how light we can actually be, we will marvel at how many things we can leave behind that could help out a neighbor. For there is one essential thing we need: our gaze focused on this Jesus that loves us and speaks to us these piercing and life-giving words. In Christ, God does the impossible possible, a human being whose love is greater than their attachment to wealth and ambition, a love grounded in solidarity with those who have received the short end of the stick in this unequal society of ours. Jesus opens our hands to receive the true wealth: an all embracing self-giving love of this wounded and weary world. May our dispossessions be the seed for future justice and equity to the poor that God is on the side of. That if there is an end to inequality and poverty, may its end see its beginning here.