Between Possible and Impossible

nb:  Because this one is a couple weeks late, I'm only going to add the outline without commentary.

Mark 10:17-31

• The man was excited.
  • He finally had his chance to see Jesus
  • We don’t know his story, but we imagine he’s been successful
    • He had things, he had means
    • He also had been religious, growing up in the faith of his ancestors
    • He did what he was supposed to do, and if the world had rewarded him for it, so much the better.
  • And when he finally did it, finally saw Jesus, he fell to his knees.
  • And he called him good!
    • So rare for rabbis to be called good
    • But the man knew how special this Jesus was.
  • When he heard Jesus’ first response, we can imagine his relief.  His confidence.  His relief.
  • And then Jesus looked, and he loved him - this really was a good man.  This was someone Jesus valued, and wasn’t looking to denounce hypocrisy.  
• This is love?
  • You know, you do the right thing all your life and this is what you get - the request for the one last thing, the impossible thing.
  • The Message: "The man’s face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go."  Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language(Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Mk 10:22
  • Our temptation here might be to try to soften this blow - that maybe there was something else here, but instead, Jesus decides to double-down on his disciples - it’s not just this one guy where there can be a struggle, but it can be so many others.
    • Obviously this might shock some of the disciples
    • And while we weren’t there so we don’t know exactly how Peter responds here, I think it’s possible that we can relate to his comment in Mark:
      • One of smugness - that yeah, we did better than that rich person… we gave up our boats, look at us.  We’re gonna be the ones to get into heaven.
      • One of frustration - Jesus, really, we’ve given it all.  What more do you want from us?
  • This passage gives us permission to acknowledge the difficulty of this journey - our time here on earth is not entirely straightforward, and there are choice we need to make.  They’re not just the moral “right and wrong” but they extend into the very way we set our lives together.
  • And as much as we’d like to proclaim that when things are right we receive a reward, it’s not necessarily the case… the things that provide us comfort here might not be the the things that will help us as we head towards the Kingdom.  
• Example: Amos
  • Amos’ main criticism in prophesy was against the northern tribes and their comfort.
    • This was at a time when both kingdoms were at the zenith of their power
    • Lots of people who could lounge 
    • It’s caused them, according to Amos, to “push aside the needy at the gate”
    • The gate is the place where economic and legal actions were done
  • Amos’ strong claims remind us of a world where the wealthy and the powerful have made choices to care for themselves against the less wealthy and less powerful.  Sound familiar?
• Between Impossible and Possible
  • There might be some of you that are bristling right now.
    • This is another money sermon, you might think.
    • The guy’s emboldened by being here a few months, maybe it being his birthday and there’s cake?
    • And that could be one way to look at this
      • Yes, we are in part talking about money, and things, and our definitions of success
      • The prosperity gospel is a powerful force in our society for a reason.  
      • And I don’t think that Amos and Mark give us an ability to excuse the consequences of our accumulated wealth and how we are able to care for ourselves
    • And I think if we keep thinking this way, keep having the same arguments in this direction, we’ll keep heading towards the same impossible conclusions, the same impossible tasks, and we’re just as like to be like the rich person and shake our heads, clouded vision.
  • But what’s between possible and impossible, between excitement and rejection, between the stone house and the gate, is love.
    • And it’s not a love that is contrived only from humanity.  History is indicative that love is hard to muster on our own.
    • But it’s God’s love - God’s love that reaches into the human heart and works to redeem it.
    • It will strike us at the places that may be where our love moves away from God and the other - God will reach out to our broken human love and invites us to God’s love.
      • Our love of things, of ourselves, of our way of life.
      • And that is a hard thing to have to endure.
    • But we don’t have to walk away.
      • Jesus doesn’t say the wealthy won’t enter the Kingdom, but that it will be hard.
      • The rich person in this story just walked away.
      • What if he had taken him up on his invitation?
        • It may have meant that he sold things sure
        • But his heart would have been towards love as well.
    • And we don’t have to do figure it out alone.
      • Jesus’ reminder to the disciples was that yes, there are difficult things that come out of live into God’s love - we work against a system that can please us as humans.  
      • But we gain a family.  Each of us trying to figure out how to invite God’s love into our hearts, praying for new ways of living.  That we want at times to walk away with our heads down.  We can invite each other back.
    • Joking how no new seminarian should start out in Mark.  It’s hard, it’s complicated, it’s unnerving.
      • But perhaps, it is where we can find God’s love most distilled.  That in Jesus, that reaches into us and invites to move one step closer to him.
      • It is scary, it is difficult, but, again, it’s where God is.  So again, as I’ve invited us over and over again, let’s go together.  Let’s seek community together.  Let’s seek God’s love together.  Let’s find ways to explore the impossible because we follow God.  Amen.