October 13, 2024
21st Sunday after Pentecost – Ted Hackett
Today’s Gospel reading from Mark sounds pretty…
Well…pretty tough. Let’s look at it with some care.
As often happens…Jesus is about to hit the road…
He seems to have pretty much lived on the road with his disciples… stopping at villages along the way to preach and get food and sleep.
So today he and his gang are setting out…
And first thing…a devout young man appears, falls down on his knees in front of Jesus and beseeches him…
“Good Rabbi… “What do I have to do to have eternal life”…
Jesus scolds him:
“Don’t call me good…only God is good!”
Oops! Not a good start!
But then Jesus speaks to him in a kindly way…
“you know the ten commandments…”
And he recites three of them…
Interestingly…the three relate to how we treat each other and don’t mention God.
I’ve never known what to make of that…
But then, Jesus often baffles me…
But anyway…the young man says: “Rabbi…I have kept the Commandments all my life…”
I doubt that anyone of us could make that claim…to have kept all ten commandments all our lives! How about never coveting a possession of a friend?
Even as a kid?
Boy! Did I ever covet Billy White’s new sled!
Wow!!!
And Jesus is impressed…
he looked at him…. and loved him…
There is something else to earn eternal life…
Sell all you have…and come follow me!
Oops!
That is a knockout punch…
The young man had many posessions…
There was no law against that…
The young man is devastated!
How would he live?
What would his friends think?
And his Father and mother?
Leave his life and his community?
It was too much to ask…
Jesus had gut-punched him…
First there was amazement…
And then an empty grief…
And he got up without looking at Jesus…
And with his head down…
He went away…
Grieving…
And Jesus turned to his disciples and said:
“How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God.”
Throughout Christian history, lots of people have grappled with this text. Many, like St. Francis, have taken it literally and lived lives of extreme poverty…
Others have decided to live frugally and gave away what they didn’t need for a comfortable life…
And many of us walk around with a secret guilt that we aren’t really living as Christians since we don’t sacrifice enough.
And Jesus seems to be saying that we are right…
It’s as hard for someone who has accumulated wealth and has kept it as it is for a camel to get through the eye of a needle…
In other words…not good odds.
The disciples are dumbfounded…
If that’s true…what are we doing out here on the road preaching the nearness of the Kingdom of God?
If this is true…who can make it into the Kingdom of God?
Then Jesus adds something…
Something pretty important…
In fact…something crucially important….
“For mortals it is impossible; but not for God. For God all things are possible.”
In other words…we cannot save ourselves…only God can do that!
So there was a reason that when Jesus quoted only certain parts of the 10 Commandments to this young man when he first showed up, kneeling at his feet.
The parts Jesus quoted were…
Don’t murder…
Don’t commit adultery…
Don’t steal…
Don’t bear false witness…
Don’t defraud…
Honor your father and mother.
That seems to be it…that’s all he quotes…
But notice something…
Jesus has selected certain of the Commandments…
And every one that he selected is about…
How you treat other people!
Don’t murder, steal, commit adultery, bear false witness or defraud…And honor your father and mother.
And…furthermore ….Don’t make it a big deal to make yourself look good…or to take credit…
God has given you what you have so that you may enjoy God’s creation…
And so that you may love others and help them!
Remember just a little while ago..
Jesus said: “Don’t call me good…only God is good!”
What is important here is to remember that we are…after all…creatures among millions of other creatures of God…just on this earth…
And literally God only knows what other living beings there are in this incalculably large universe we inhabit.
So we live in a paradox…
We are both transient, insignificant creatures…and we are children of God.
Those are hard to keep in mind…
On one hand we are pretty helpless…
Like the disciples who suddenly realized they could not save themselves any more than they could get a camel through the eye of needle…
But then discovered that…it didn’t matter…God could…and would…save them…would open God’s kingdom to them anyway…
So much of Jesus’ teaching is about forgetting yourself and forgetting about the barriers society puts up between us…
About what we need to do to be saved…
Then asking: “What does my neighbor need”…
And then asking: “Who is my neighbor?”
When we come to that question…we have to go to some other accounts of Jesus…
Accounts of him eating with hated tax-collectors and protecting prostitutes…
His stories about the shepherd who loves the rebellious lamb…or the rebellious Prodigal Son…
All this is to say…
The young man in our story…
Was not ready to accept a hard thing…
What we are called to do as Christians is to first understand that we are loved…
Loved in spite of….
Maybe even loved, in some strange way …
Because of our imperfections…they are part of who we are…
Loves us even in spite of our sins…
God loves us…
And knows even our sins are part of who we are…
So God loves us…
Sins and all…
So God loves us…even when we lack…
Even when we lack a lot …
Notice…Jesus did not bring up the subject of what more the young man had to do…
But Jesus sensed the young man wanted to know the next step…
So Jesus said… “well…if and when you are ready…sell all you have and come with us…”
The young man didn’t see that he didn’t have to sell all he had,
He’d really done enough…
Jesus looked at him and loved him…
As he was!
Back in the day when I was teaching…Bishop Tutu came to teach on the Theology faculty…he was there about four years…his office was next to mine.
I stepped out into the hall to ask him a question and realized he was walking with a student…
The student was agitated…plainly upset.
The Bishop had been talking about poverty in the third world…and the young man was distressed that he couldn’t do anything.
The Bishop listened very sympathetically… Then smiled that miraculous smile he had, a smile that lit up the room… and put his hand on the young man’s shoulder and said:
“Don’t worry my son…you have no idea how low God’s standards are!”
There standing before me was a small black man in a purple shirt…who was…for the moment…Jesus with the rich young man …
A young man who was told: “Do your best…and don’t worry about if it’s enough…it’s fine.”
The Bishop was saying God’s grace is enough to get you over the finish line!”
And that Tutu smile that said as words could not:
“You are fine…
God loves you as you are… The Kingdom of God is here!”
October 6, 2024
20th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 22, Year B – Bill Harkins
The Gospel: Matthew 11:25-30 Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
In the Name of the God of Creation who loves us all, Amen. Good morning, and welcome to each of you on this Feast of St. Francis a day on which we hear a surprisingly challenging Gospel text. And, we prepare for the blessing of the animals today we also give thanks in this season for All the Saints whose lives are intertwined with ours, often in ways we cannot see.
In today’s Gospel from Matthew we are reminded that some forms of wisdom cannot be obtained by working harder and harder for them. Knowledge of God, it seems,
September 29, 2024
19th Sunday after Pentecost – Bill Harkins
Proper 21, Year B
The Collect of the Day
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Gospel: Mark 9:38-50
John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble,
September 22, 2024
18th Sunday after Pentecost – Bill Harkins
Proper 20, Year B
The Collect of the Day
Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
The Gospel: Mark 9:30-37 Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
In the Name of the God of Creation,