What Must You Do To Enherit Eternal Life?

Mark 10:17-31

So, I just started to do this blog with some of my other friends that are priests. It’s called Ask The Priest.com. It’s a site that people can go to, submit a question, and one of us will answer it. It is “An Episcopal/Anglican blog where questions are welcome and assumptions are challenged…” The first question I got was this… “After reading the parable of the talents and the saying of a rich man and the eye of a needle. I am bit confused. Can a Christian be rich? How does one marry his views to commercialism?”

After my friend David, the owner of the blog sent this my way, I thanked him – with a note of sarcasm in my voice. This is one question that points to a subject that most people don’t want to deal with – especially in church. Money. Jesus talks lots about money. My personal favorite is the story of him turning the tables over in the temple. Money – most preachers would rather talk about sex, or good works, or anything else than the subject of money, but it is pretty clear from all the attention that Jesus gave money that it is an important subject. Why is that? Can a rich person get into heaven? What difference does it make if you are rich or poor as long as you are a good person? What does money have to do with your soul?

In today’s Gospel lesson, a man comes up to Jesus and asks, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He tells Jesus that he has kept 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. Jesus looks at him and loves him for that. Jesus acknowledges that this man has led a good life and he loves him for that. But, this man has only kept the commandments that have to do with his relationships with other people. Jesus knows that there is a piece missing – what about his relationship with God? This man puts his trust in his own good doings and wealth and achievements. He puts a lot of weight on what he has and what he does. Jesus knew that this man was letting his wealth get in the way of his relationship with God. So, he told him sell everything, give the money to the poor and follow him. The man was shocked. How could he do this? He couldn’t get rid of everything! Jesus hadn’t told Zaccheaus to do this, he hadn’t told some of his other rich followers to do this! So why is Jesus telling him to get rid of everything? The man left, shocked and sad. We never know if he did as Jesus commanded or not.

The Gospel moves on to the teaching of the disciples about how difficult it is for those who have wealth to get into the kingdom of God. “It is easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Now, we know that this could never happen, that is why the disciples are astonished and say – so no one can be saved? They can’t imagine what he is talking about? We can’t do anything to be saved? What? All of this that we have done means nothing? What are we to do? Jesus reminds them, that mortals cannot do this, but it is for God to do. It is through God’s grace and love that we enter into heaven. So, why must the rich man sell everything, give all the money to the poor and follow Jesus? Because he did not have a relationship with God – he did not feel God’s grace in his life – he did not let God guide his life, rather he guided his own life with his money and his possessions.

Now, in many cultures, even our own culture today, having money can be seen as a sign of God’s favor. If you take preachers like Joel Osteen, he tells you that there are seven steps to making yourself a better person and in doing that, you will get all that is coming to you. There are preachers out there that are called Prosperity preachers, those who preach prosperity and happiness without dealing with some of the difficult teachings of Jesus. In our Gospel today, Jesus clearly tells this man that he is thinking too much of himself and what he has or hasn’t done. Jesus is saying, get over yourself, give up the things that are getting in your way and begin your relationship with God.

If we were to go to Jesus and ask the same question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Our answer from Jesus may be different. What gets in your way in your relationship with God? What would Jesus say? Give up your worries? Stop your addictive behaviors? Quit your job? Get rid of those meaningless things in your life and give your time, talent and treasure to those who need it and follow the way of Jesus? What is getting in your way?

I have two friends that I met in seminary, Kevin and Rosa Lee. They have become like family to me. When they first came to seminary, they were just getting by – Kevin couldn’t hold down a job, Rosa Lee was in school full time as was their oldest son and their daughter was in high school. They had enough money, but were not rich as you and I would think of someone being rich. Then, Kevin found a niche. He and Rosa Lee and a few other people we knew started a company and from that company, they made literally millions. For a long time, they struggled with their wealth. They didn’t want it to change them. They didn’t know what to do with it. They were happy that they knew that their kids would be set for life AND they were scared that their family would become lazy, depend on the money and forget all the things they had stood for and against before becoming rich. They were also scared that their relationships with people would change – would people use them for money? Would their friends change? I have to say, they worked hard to figure out what to do with that money and what it meant for their lives. They set up a foundation. They are working with Jeffrey Sachs on poverty and disease. They are working on education in the church and in other areas of the world. They are giving money to things that need money and they are helping to fund things that need to be funded. They are not storing up their wealth, but they are using it to do God’s work here in the world. To bring God's kingdom here on hear

William Loader says, “Following Jesus means engaging the tradition and engaging life in a way that makes a difference.” So how does my life make a difference? How does your life make a difference? What difference does money play in your life.

Jesus preaches so much about money because it is easy to let money take over our lives. Now, I know that most of you are college students and don’t have much money, so you may be thinking, this has nothing to do with me. But it does. Regardless of how much money we do or don’t have, money can lead us though our lives rather than letting God lead us through our lives. Jesus realized that money seems to be the one big thing that gets in the way of people’s relationship with God. So, why is it hard for people with riches to enter the kingdom of God? Edward F. Markquart, a preacher from Seattle came up with these three reasons.

“It is easy to fall in love with money. Money and wealth is seductive and very easy to fall in love with. We become addicted to money and material possessions and like most addictions, we initially don’t realize that we are addicted.

“Wealth creates a false sense of security. We think that wealth will protect us from the disasters of life and we find out that it doesn’t.

“Money often makes people more selfish, so that the purpose of time, talents and energy is to serve ourselves rather than others, to preserve our wealth rather than share the wealth that God has entrusted to us.

He goes on to say that, “A common mistake of American Christians is to forget that we live in one of the wealthiest nation in the world and that our standard of living is higher than 95% of people in the globe. Here in America, it is easy to think of “the rich” as being the top 1% of American society rather than the middle class which is wealthier than 95% of Christians living on this planet Earth. We think that “the rich” are people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Paul Allen whose assets are listed in the billions. We think of “the rich” as being the 538 billionaires listed in the Forbes magazine in 2004. When we have such thoughts, this text is no longer about us and our own lives but about “them, THE RICH people in America, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Warren Buffet, or the professional athletes or movie stars. This text is about THEM, not me.” 1

Well, this text is about us, for we are wealthier that we can imagine. You are going to school, you eat and sleep in safe places, you are able to do many things that you want to – travel, go out with friends, buy books, etc. We have a lot. I have a lot, and it’s easy to forget that because we often can focus on what we don’t have. So again, I ask, what is getting in the way with your relationship with Jesus? What is getting in the way so that God is not able to reach you? Is it money? Is it the lack of money? Is it what we are spending out time on?

So to answer the question, can a rich person get into heaven? Can a rich person be saved? Yes. Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector, Joseph of Arimathea, the rich man who put Jesus’ body in the tomb, Nicodemus, Joseph’s friend, was a member of the wealthy establishment – all of these people were rich and all were saved. God can save any of us, but we have to be in relationship, we have to be in conversation, we have to be ready to give up those things that get in our way in order to follow Jesus. Christians can be rich and follow Jesus, we can be poor and follow Jesus – the point is that we have to follow Jesus and not our money or our lack of money. We cannot be faithful followers of our money, our possessions and our wants, but rather we have to be faithful followers of God and God’s desire for our lives and our souls. What must we do to inherit eternal life? Look deeply, pray about it and follow God’s lead in your life. The answer will come.

1. Edward F. Markquart, Sermons from Seattle

Jesus, Marriage and Discrimination

Here is my sermon from 10.8.06. Readings for Sunday, Genesis 2:18-24 and Mark 10:2-16.

Creation. Today we hear an account of the creation in Genesis. But if we go back to the beginning of Genesis, we can hear God’s pronouncement over and over that “it was good.” God created something and God saw that it was good, and was pleased with what had been created. In the account of the creation story we hear today, we see that God is not pleased with only having one person. God had just created the entire earth and saw the first human standing there and realized that something was missing, that there was something else needed. God was not quite ready to call it “good” yet. God knows that it is not good for us to be alone – now granted – Adam was not really alone – God was there, which is pretty big and there were animals all around him, but God knew that there was a need for another human, for another person here on earth to relate to, to love, to be with.

The core of the creation story is not about roles or who should do or not do what, but it is really about what it means to be a human being. It is about relationship. I’m not saying that everyone needs to be married or be in a relationship, but rather that at the core of what it means to be human is that we are made to be with other people. Even monks and nuns are in relationship because they live in community with one another. We are created to be in relationship, in community. We can only grow into who we are created to be with and through each other. This growth happens in a variety of ways, but it cannot happen alone.

This is where the Gospel reading comes in as it talks about marriage and divorce. I have to be honest that most clergy I know, including myself, dread the Sunday that this comes up because it is such a touchy subject. My parents are divorced, my dear friend got divorced at the age of 25, my brother-in-law is in the midst of getting a divorce. In one way or another, I’m sure that most of us, if not all of us have been touched by divorce or know people who have been touched by divorce. Sometimes it is an amicable split, but I find that those are the exceptions to the rule. Most divorces are full of anger and hurt, fighting and disappointment to say the least. It is the dissolving of a relationship and that is painful. Yet sometimes, divorce, even though painful, brings hope and new life to a person.
So, why is Jesus telling us that we cannot divorce and remarry and if we do we are breaking the law and we are breaking God’s will for us?

I believe that Jesus is not calling us to hopelessly high standards, rather Jesus is calling us to a high vision of what could be and what we should work toward. We are human, which means we will mess up, we will fall and have to get back up and try again. That is written right into the baptismal covenant! Jesus, here and elsewhere in the Bible is teaching us, showing us, helping us see what God wants and is also teaching us that when we fall short of that, we can come back and try again and again. I believe that is why Mark tags on the story of the children being blessed by Jesus. He is showing us again that what we think might be okay, ignoring the least of these – ignoring the people that are other than – ignoring or displacing those who do not fit in – is not part of God’s call to us. As people of God we have to continue to work toward the commandment that Jesus gave us – to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This goes for us, it goes for kids, it goes for everyone, everywhere.

The culture around Jesus at this time was one of contract marriages. It was about joining two families together to share everything with one another. It was more of a business deal than a relationship. It was also mostly about procreation because people did not live to be very old. So, in order to carry on, children had to be born and help out on the farm, around the house, etc. until it was time for them to marry. This is a totally different understanding of marriage than we have in our culture today.

This summer, I officiated at two weddings of good friends of mine. As I think back on those weddings, I was reminded that in this culture, we are not marrying out of contract or out of a business deal. Most of us, if we choose to marry, do so out of love, out of that deep need to be with someone and to love that person.

At one of these weddings, I met a couple who had been dating for years and was pretty clear that they did not want to be married, but rather to live into their relationship. I asked them if they were scared of the commitment, which is usually the case when people decide not to get married. They assured me that, no – they were deeply committed to one another and were thinking about having a party to honor that commitment, much as you would with a wedding. Other people that I know well have decided not to get married because their friends who are gay or lesbian cannot get married. They have said to me and many others that until everyone can receive the sacrament of marriage, they will stand by them by not getting married either, and will commit themselves to a relationship with each other rather than get married in the traditional sense.

In about a month’s time, we are all being asked to vote on a referendum that many people are calling “a ban on gay marriage,” but if you read the language, it is much more than that. This would write into the constitution that only a man and a woman can marry AND that a legal status identical or similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals will not be recognized. This is pure and simple prejudice against a certain part of our community. This would be using the constitution to limit people’s rights rather than securing their rights or giving them equal rights. You many not agree with gay and lesbian people getting married, and you and I can debate that later, but what is at issue here is people being singled out and treated as less than simply because they choose not to marry, but to remain in committed relationships. This means that if a couple, be they gay or straight, decides not to get married for whatever reason, cannot enter into a civil union and have the same benefits of health care, life insurance, etc. as the rest of us. This is pure and simple discrimination and we cannot let that be written into our constitution. Each time that the government as tried to limit the rights of the people, it has been stopped or done away with – slavery, slaves being treated as property, therefore they could not legally marry or own land or vote, women not being able to vote, the list could go on and on. Limiting our very being is not what God intends.

God’s love for us, each and every one of us is an all inclusive love. Jesus ate with the outcasts, he healed people who most would simply ignore, he talked to people of a different culture and did not worry about the laws, he showed us time and again that God’s love is not about exclusion and judgment, but rather about love and acceptance, about welcoming the least of these, about welcoming everyone, even if they don’t fit into our narrow definitions of what is or isn’t acceptable. What we can get from today’s readings is that God’s intention is for us to be together.

Relationships – be they marriages, or committed relationships, or living in a community like monks and nuns, or any other kind of relationship – they are truly about what you can do, who you can be together and as individuals. “At its heart, marriage is not a convenient human institution for protecting property, regulating sexuality, and safeguarding children.” [The Rev. James Liggett[i]] Marriage and relationships are about love and dedication; they are about growth through all the joys and struggles that they bring our way. Marriage is often painted to be a rosy, easy thing but it is not. Marriage and relationships are hard work and no matter who you are with, there are going to be problems, there are going to be things that you fight about, things that you disagree on. The real question is, who do you want to work on these problems with? Who do you want to struggle with in order to make this relationship work?

I believe that what Jesus was getting at in today’s Gospel was not about creating a law against divorce, but rather that he wanted people to focus on the relationship, on the marriage, on the commitment, before they began even thinking of separating from one another. God’s intention is for us to be together, and that is the focus of Jesus’ teaching. Jesus taught us to love, to take care of each other, to live in peace, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and when we fall short on these things, we are to keep coming back to God and working on attaining these goals.

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[i] The Rev. James Liggett has been rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Big Spring, Texas, since 1994. He is a native of Kansas and a graduate of the University of Houston and the Episcopal Divinity School. He has served parishes in Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. Father Liggett and his wife Kathleen have a 20-year-old son.