Loading...What do you crave?
A couple of years ago, there was a fast food restaurant that told us that we craved their burgers.
There is now a high end pet food with that brand name.
Many of us a crave a sense of security – however you might define that (emotional, financial, national)
Many of us also crave a feeling of belonging and of worth.
Society – culture – gives us all kinds of ideas of what we think we need,
plus plenty of attendant fears or anxieties if we don’t have that thing.
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A young man, obviously raised in the faith community,
came to the leader, known as a teacher, to ask for help.
He craved assurance and hope.
So, he asked the teacher for a task, for a thing he could do in order to get and have assurance that he was OK.
He wants eternal life; he doesn’t want to miss out on that.
He’s done all kinds of things, including keeping commandments –
but WAS THAT GOING TO BE ENOUGH?!?
He was full of insecurity, doubt, anxiety, and even fear. While there are some parts of this guy’s life that we cannot related to, this part we probably can.
Insecurity, doubt, fear, and anxiety.
These are pretty significant bug-a-boos.
Most of us would probably not want to admit to others that they are present in our lives or that they have power of us.
Many of us may not even be able to admit that to ourselves.
Yet, are they there?
Maybe not all the time ... but sometimes?
The guy in the story – who is rich, we learn at the end of the story – isn’t sure about belonging, despite keeping the checklist of commandments.
He wants to ensure that inherits eternal life,
but something – doubt? fear? – is nagging at him.
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Did you notice how Jesus ignores the meat of the question and quibbles with what seems to be a distracting side issue? Jesus doesn’t respond to the question of what to do, but asks why the man calls him “good”.
I think this is because Jesus deems the man’s question is completely unimportant. It is non-sensical in God’s economy.
The man is trying to DO SOMETHING to get eternal life.
But, in God’s economy eternal life – fullness of life with God and the loving of God’s whole creation and peoples near and far – is not something you work for or earn.
It is a gift.
So, when Jesus tells this young man who happens to have many possessions, to sell everything that he has and give the proceeds to the poor, he is not prescribing a course of action to do in order to earn eternal life, or even how to have a morally upstanding life.
What Jesus is telling the man –
What Jesus is telling you –
is that you have to get your values re-ordered so that where you find value – in yourself, in life – is not in trusting what you can do for yourself to protect yourself, to save yourself, or to have eternal life.
Jesus is teaching the young man and the disciples who ask for clarification and you and I all of these years later
that you cannot buy your way into God’s kingdom.
Our intellect may nod in agreement with Jesus: “That’s right!”
But the niggling doubt is still there.
It is insidious.
“There must be SOMETHING that I can do!”
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Our culture is all around us – the good and the bad.
We hear and see messages such as
“buy this product and your house will be clean”
“get this app and you will have freedom of time”
“fill your calendar and you will be happy with happy kids”
“study this subject and work in this field and you will have good income”
These and more are the “soup” that we live in.
They tell us that
•we are not good enough as we are
•we can earn more or work better
•there is an ideal that we have to get to
•our own efforts will solve our problems
and they have us focus inward on ourselves.
These messages encourage us to turn in.
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But God’s kingdom – eternal life – is about community
about one another
about all creation.
It invites you to turn outward so that you and all are included.
Jesus’ instruction, then, to the young man makes sense:
Take what you’ve accumulated and done – all that which you have done for yourself – and sell it, then give the proceeds to the poor.
Share what you have, not in drips and drabs, 10% here or 3% there.
Share it all.
Please note, this is not an instruction to impoverish the man so that he becomes one of those who then struggle to find food and a home.
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At the heart of this text there are two deeply important truths:
The first is the question: in whom or what do you trust?
Do you trust yourself, your abilities, your money?
Or, do you trust God, and God’s abundance and grace?
The second truth is that no matter how you answer the above question,
YOU ARE LOVED BY GOD.
The young man is not insincere; he is not self-righteous.
He craves belonging, security, and love.
He tried to fill that craving up with stuff.
He seemed to believe, as many did and still do, that material things and wealth equal God’s blessing and love (and the corresponding axiom, that poverty must equal God’s curse and abandonment).
But, he still felt that something was awry.
There was emptiness, anxiety, doubt, and fear:
“Good Teacher, tell me what to do!”
Indeed.
And Jesus loves him with unconditional love.
The man comes for healing of his angst and Jesus loves him, just as he is.
What is the cure?
•Trust God’s grace and abundance rather than our own doing or any material thing.
•Build connections through community
•Hang out with and build friendships with people whom the world ignores, mocks, punishes, and even kills.
Not so that you can “earn a gold star in your crown” and work your way into heaven!
But to be a part of God’s kingdom right now –
to live into the love that God has for you and for all the world,
to let go of the cultural wisdom that money = blessing,
or the other stories that ramp up your fears and anxieties.
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Jesus looks at you with love and offers you a full life –
not an easy one because you will likely be mocked, etc.
But this is eternal life—
living in the love that God gives you,
building community with people and creation,
and living as the Body of Christ
broken for the sake of the world
nourished at this Table and then sent to share the goodness of God,
and the peace that passes all understanding.
Amen
