Bonus:  Dialog Sermon
Please note - A Poem a Sunday follows.

Saint Mark 10:17-31

Pentecost 20 B - October 11 – 2015

Dialog Sermon - "That Is Impossible"

A. You’ve got to be kidding, Jesus can’t mean it!

B. Yes, he does mean it!

A. “Sell all that I have and give it to the poor?”

B. Yes.  Through the ages preachers have tried to find ways to soften the blow here.  The Church through the ages has tried to dull Jesus’ sharp warning about wealth and riches.

A. I’ve been good – I have pretty much obeyed the commandments – never murdered anyone, or intentionally stolen anything.  I give my Tithe to the Church…I kinda feel for this this man who asks:  “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

B. He answers well – obey the Torah – live in a compassionate relationship with God and neighbor.  But that kind of goodness, as good as it is – does not yield an eternal inheritance.  You see, God is only good. 

A. So what makes God only truly good? 

B. God’s grace to the poor and marginalized – God’s lavish largess that requires nothing from those to whom it is given.

A. You mean – unconditional grace?

B. Yes, unconditional grace.  ‘Give to the poor and least of these unconditionally just as God does!’

A. What that is impossible!

B. You bet it is.

A. So now what?  How do we inherit eternal life – by trying to be as good as God?  By giving all away?  Who can do that? 

B. None of us!  And just maybe that is the point here.  Jesus uses this idea of inheritance as a gift.  In the narrative just before this he calls his followers to receive the Kingdom in complete dependence as a little child.  But this man asks – “What must I do?”  Inheritance is a gift – not something earned by doing certain things. 

A. In other words if you are going to be ‘good like God’ – ‘give like God’?

B. That is one way of putting it:   ‘Give like God!’  And of course, we cannot ‘give like God.’  In fact it is as absurd as trying to put a camel through the eye of a needle.  Let us not diminish that metaphor or dull these sharp contrasts that Jesus is making.

A. So what is impossible for us….

B. Is possible for God!  In the economy of the Kingdom – God gives grace unconditionally.  As Mark continues his story we see the destitute widow who only has a mite – the least valuable of coins – give it all at the Temple.  This is an interesting contrast to the story of this rich man – but it tells us just how the first will be last and the last first.  The Kingdom of God is unfolding in Jesus and its in-breaking is turning the world upside down.

A. Is Jesus saying that wealth is an obstacle to following him in the way of the Kingdom?

B. Yes, but Jesus looks with compassion upon the man who questions him.  Jesus sees how he is captive to wealth.  He is not free.  So, Christ reaches out with both judgment and grace.  A life captive to wealth is a life of bondage.  A life centered on Divine grace is a life that is set free. 

A. Maybe an example will help.  Do you have any?

B. Spiritual teacher and Jesuit Priest, Anthony deMello, writes:

You never possess things.  You merely hold them for a while.  If you are unable to give them away, you are held by them.  Whatever you treasure must be held in the hollow of your hand as water is held.  Clutch it and it is gone.  Appropriate it to yourself and you soil it.  Set it free and it is forever yours.  [Source:  The Enlightened Heart, pages 24-25]

A. Yet the story of this man shows judgment on the wealthy.

B.  Yes, and we should not diminish or water down this challenge of Jesus but see it as a call to a reorient our lives – to take the warning that we can be possessed by possessions and to have our hearts moved toward the poor.

A.  But there is grace here, too!

B.  Oh, yes – God’s grace is unconditional and there for the wealthy man, but all too often wealth and independence can blind one from the need for God’s unconditional love.

A.  There is a real tension in this Gospel for today.

B.  A tension that we need to leave unresolved.  Our life as followers of Christ is a process – a journey and as we follow Christ we live in this tension between Law and Gospel – Challenge and Grace.

A.  “Sell all that you have and give it to the poor!

B. “With God all things are possible.”

A & B.  Amen.

Written by Rev. Kenneth R. Storck for Open Table Ministry 10/11/2015