It has been a while since I last updated my blog, so I thought I would post my sermon from last week. It was delivered by Pam Boone at Trinity and Bill Bennett at St. Paul's. I was at the Diocesan Convention in Helena last weekend, so I couldn't deliver it in person. ;-)
A Gift From the Heart
The Rev.
Keith F. Axberg, Rector
Proper 23 ~ October 14, 2012
This is a Sermon based on
Mark 10:17 – 27 (28 – 31)
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Over the
years, I have received many gifts.
You have
seen me wear a Canterbury Cross;
It was a
gift to me
From the
Downriver Clericus
When we left the Diocese of Michigan
To move out to California.
I have a
traveling Communion Kit
That I use
for home and hospital visits,
That was a
gift from Church of the Redeemer in Republic (WA)
When I left there to serve the
church in Michigan some 20 years ago.
I have a
college class ring was a Christmas gift from Barb a few years back, which she
gave me to replace one that had been lost or stolen some years earlier. Each
gift is, obviously, replaceable.
If you do
some searching, you can find Canterbury Crosses in gold, silver, stainless
steel, and other metals; you can find Communion kits in church supply
catalogues; you can find class rings at jewelry stores and college campus sites
around the country (and on the internet itself, of course).
And yet each
of these gifts I’ve talked about is irreplaceable, because they didn’t
come from catalogues or stores, but from the heart of the giver of the gift.
The best
gifts are the ones that come from the heart.
Over time,
we receive a lot of gifts that really aren’t. When we first moved to Fresno, we
received a lot of gifts from people wanting to sell us water softeners.
“Hi.
We’re so and so from such and such. We want to welcome you to the
neighborhood! We have a gift for you, and would like to spend just a few
minutes getting acquainted.”
One guy came
by and didn’t even have the gift!
He gave us a
certificate, instead, and told us we could come down to the office to pick up
the gift, (Some sort of stove top cooker) …
“But call first and make sure
they’ve got them,” he said.
Another
water softener company called, offering to test our water and bring us a
“Welcome to the neighborhood gift”.
I told her
we had just installed a water softener, but I would be happy to have the water
tested.
“Well, that
would be a waste of our time, now, wouldn’t it?” she said.
I said,
“Does that mean we don’t get the gift?” And she hung up!
Some gifts
really aren’t gifts; they come with strings attached.
“Here’s a
gift; I’d like you to do me a favor…”
That’s not a
gift; it’s a bribe; it’s an incentive; it’s an inducement.
There’s
nothing wrong with buying and selling. There’s nothing wrong with engaging in
business. I just don’t want you to call something a gift, if it is really a
wedge designed to part you from your money – or me from mine – or to part us
from our time, or our energy. Just be
honest about it.
In the
Gospel today, we’ve got a man who’s wrestling with the truth:
The truth about God, and the truth
about himself.
Like Willy
Nelson, Jesus is back on the road again, and a man runs up to him, kneels, and asks
him:
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit
eternal life?”
The first
thing I want you to notice is that he’s running.
In that
culture, Rich people don’t run; Rulers don’t run.
They send
servants to do their running.
They send
servants to do their bidding.
For this
young man to run to Jesus tells us something.
He’s
ignoring protocol.
He’s
ignoring custom.
He is shameless.
There is no
way you can run in a long robe without hitching it up and exposing your legs (Which
is something, in the culture of the ancient near east, a man would simply not be seen doing).
When Jairus
came to Jesus, when his daughter was dying,
Mark tells
us “he came to Jesus.”
Even though
his daughter was dying, he didn’t run.
He came
personally … the issue was THAT was important.
He didn’t
send a servant,
But neither did he run despite the
gravity of the situation.
Culture
affects us … all of us. We are creatures
of our world.
We’re not
immune from doing what the world tells us to do, or behaving in a manner the
world tells us we ought to behave.
But this young
man has heard something or has seen something in Jesus that has him all
excited.
Jesus is
moving on, and in the story we’ve just heard, it’s as if this young lad has just come to his senses and realized
that the time to strike is now!
It’s like
when you’re sitting at home and watching TV,
And all of a
sudden you see one of those
“Once in
a lifetime opportunities to buy something,”
And if you
call right now, they’ll throw in that wonderful set of Ginsu knives
At NO EXTRA
CHARGE.
You scramble
through the house trying to find a pencil and paper so you can write down the
800 number and be one of the first thousand callers to call in the next 10 minutes
… “While Supplies last!”
Well, maybe
it’s not quite like that,
But you get
the idea.
You’ve got
the opportunity of a lifetime to do something, to go somewhere, or to buy
something, and you just can’t wait.
When the i-Phone 5 was coming out,
People lined
up for days,
Camping
outside the Apple stores to be FIRST
To part with
200, 300, 500 bucks (or whatever it was);
They just
couldn’t wait.
And that’s
what it was like for this rich young ruler:
Jesus,
better than Ginsu … Got to have it!
But there’s
the problem.
He’s got to HAVE “it.”
He’s rich.
He’s young.
He’s
impetuous.
And he’s got
to have it.
And he’s got
to have it … NOW!
“What must I
do to inherit eternal life?” he
asks.
You know,
someone’s got to die for you to inherit something.
Jesus often talks
about the kingdom of God as something that is “breaking in …” not as something
we inherit.
The kingdom of God is like
a mustard seed,
Which starts off ever so small,
And yet it grows into a wonderful, fragrant
bush,
Where birds can build their nests, and people can find
some shelter from the heat of the sun. The kingdom of God is like that.
Or: The kingdom of God
is like a field,
Ripe
for harvest and ready for workers.
Or like a pearl so valuable it is worth
selling all you have in order that you may have it for yourself!
He does not
talk here about the kingdom of God as something to be grasped, earned, or
purchased; but as the Spirit of God reaching out and housing us instead, or
putting us to work instead, or grabbing us instead!
It is the Spirit of God
working in us – that’s the kingdom of God! Says Jesus.
But Jesus
loves the impetuosity of youth.
As a teacher
might say,
“Here
is a teachable moment.”
“First of all, Why do you call me good? Only
God is good,” He says.
In other
words, Jesus is gently, politely saying,
“You don’t need to
flatter me or patronize me.
It doesn’t work, and it
isn’t necessary.”
I like that.
God wants us
to be honest with him.
We don’t
NEED to get on our knees and say, “O God, I’m not worthy so much as to gather
up the crumbs from under thy table.”
God knows
we’re not; God knows the state of our hearts and minds. It’s good to be humble,
but we don’t need to be obsequious about it.
So Jesus
says, “First,
let’s be honest with one another.
“Second, you know what
you’re supposed to do, don’t you?
You know right from
wrong, don’t you?
“You know the
commandments?
Do not murder,
Do not commit adultery,
Do not steal,
Do not give false
testimony,
Do not defraud,
Honor your father and
mother.”
Notice that
Jesus changed one commandment.
He doesn’t
say, “Do not covet.”
He says, “Do
not defraud.”
The point is
that coveting probably isn’t this
lad’s problem, but fraud is.
It is as if
Jesus is saying,
When you get so rich that
you don’t see the pain,
you don’t see the hunger,
and you don’t see the loneliness of those around you,
It is very easy to
begin to think that you are possibly better than you probably are,
and that you deserve most (if not all) of what you have,
and to use your power,
Not for the good of everyone,
But as leverage to gain even more.
This is NOT
to say that money is bad, or that being rich is a terrible thing.
In fact,
most people do not and would not consider themselves rich. Do you notice how so
many politicians play up their humble beginnings? They’ll tell you they were
all born in log cabins, if you ask them.
By third
world standards, we are rich, but we
don’t think of ourselves as being rich, and as much as a million dollars may
sound like, it doesn’t take many lottery winners very long to blow through a
million bucks.
Part of our
nature – part of our human nature –
is to think of life in terms of scarcity, and that’s where the rich young man was.
“I’ve got enough for this life. How
do I inherit the next life? How do I make SURE I’VE GOT MY PLACE at the head
table when Messiah comes? I have done EVERYTHING I was supposed to do. Did I
miss anything?”
And then we
get that wonderful line:
“Jesus looked at him and loved him.”
It would be
very easy to look at this kid and to write him off, but Jesus loved him, and
when you love someone, you tell them the truth.
“One thing you lack,” he said.
This man who
has everything, lacks one thing (AS DO WE ALL)!
Each of us
has something – or a lot of things – that stand between us and eternal life,
and the fact is, there’s nothing we can do to buy it, earn it, or to deserve it.
What did the
rich man lack? Was it honesty? Was it charity?
Jesus
identified one deficit:
The
young man had no need for God.
The only
thing we inherit in life are genes and property (and maybe some behaviors).
Maybe Jesus
saw or heard something that told him the rich young man simply wanted to add
God to his collection of knick knacks.
“Until you need God,” said Jesus, “You’ll never really be able to go where I am
going.”
Salvation is
not our doing, but discovering our dependence on God, and divesting our lives
of the stuff that owns us …
… that is what will free us to follow
God, and serve him freely and faithfully
the rest of
our lives.
The young
man went away heavy hearted, for he was a rich man, and had a lot of stuff, and
he couldn’t bring himself to let it go.
Doesn’t that
affect us, as well? Don’t we want to inherit eternal life? Don’t we crave a place at God’s table?
If you are
here, I hope it is because you want what
Jesus had.
Jesus left
home so that he could share the vision of the kingdom that God had given him.
He did not think about it as losing his home, or business, or family; Instead,
he thought of it as gaining the whole world. Letting go of things, he was able
to bring the whole world into his loving embrace. He was able to pick up where
Adam and Eve had left off – taking care of the Garden that God had given him.
If you want
what Jesus had, ask him the same question the young man asked. Ask Jesus: What must I do to inherit eternal life?
Then listen
to what Jesus says to you. Let Jesus look into your heart and tell you
what needs to change, and then ask yourself: Am I willing to give that up? If
you are willing, you will have received a marvelous gift: you will have
received an opportunity to take a major step, falling in with Jesus and his
band of merry men, women, and children – and finding refreshment in this crazy oasis
we call Church. It is God’s gift, so costly, yet so freely given. Enjoy it, and
share it, in Jesus’ Name – for it is a gift from the heart. Amen.
