Living as Those Who have No Inheritance?

19  Pentecost b P.23  October 11, 2015

Job 23:1-9, 16-17, 10-15  Ps. 90

Hebrews 4:12-16  Mark 10:17-27

Lectionary Link

 The rich young, law abiding man came to Jesus and asked, "Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

  And in this question resides perhaps the greatest dilemma of life.  Do we live in our lives as children who think that we've been disinherited or who have no inheritance at all?  Do we live believing that our heavenly Daddy has left us out of the will of eternal life?  Perhaps we do have major "daddy" issues then.  Am I good enough for Daddy? Am I good enough so that Daddy's eternal legacy will always be in my life?  Or maybe the issue is that we do not feel as though we have any heavenly “Daddy” at all?  Maybe we live as “divine orphans” being passed around by the foster parents whom we have a hard time pleasing?

  Perhaps this feeling of being disinherited people expresses the feeling of alienation from God.  Perhaps it expresses the very essence of what motivates our lives.  I want to be recognized eternally by someone.  I want to have an inheritance which lasts beyond my earthly days.  In this life eventually everyone dies out who would remember us except in the case of the few who make the history books but even the heroes are remembered for for but a handful of deeds which they did. It may be a real dilemma to live as those who are not memorable enough beyond a few years in the great passage of time.  What can we do to inherit eternal life? 

   How did the early Christian communities struggling for existence instruct their members about the lasting significance of their lives?  They presented the teaching narratives of the life of Jesus.  In one of these narratives, the Socratic Jesus began to question the rich young man.  "You say you want to Inherit eternal life?  What does your experience of Judaism tell you?  Doesn't it say that you have to keep the ten commandments?"  The young rich man answered, "But Jesus I have kept all of the commandments and can you tell me that I have now inherited eternal life?" 

  Jesus answered this rich young man by essentially saying, "But have you kept the next commandment?"  The rich man was wondering what his next commandment was and so Jesus told him, "Your next commandment is to sell all that you have and give it to the poor."  And the rich young man went away with sadness because he had many possessions.

  Every one of us has a next commandment just like the rich young man.  It may not be wealth or possessions for us; it may be something else which we are holding onto which is hindering us from being better.  If you and I are brave, we will ask God about the next commandment for our own lives.  And we may walk away for awhile because next thingmay be something which is too hard for us to do given our history and our habits.

  So, may God give us the courage to discover and take on the next commandment of each of our lives.  Mine will be different from yours.

  This Gospel story is a teaching unit of the early church about the inheritance of God and the issue of success and wealth in our lives.

  There is a long tradition in Judaism and in religious thinking that by doing and keeping the law and fulfilling religious behaviors we will be guaranteed blessing, success, recognition and attain a good afterlife.  But Job, the prophets and Jesus and many other martyrs are proof that really bad things can happen to really good people.  So the disciples of Jesus expressed their doubts and this doubt was expressive of the kind of blessing theology which which is often held in life.   "Well, if rich people whose success is expressive of God's blessing cannot enter the kingdom of God, who can enter the kingdom of God?"  The belief of blessing theology is the belief that success and wealth are proof of God’s blessing.

    And so we have the speaking in riddles by Jesus, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

  What are the implications of the riddle of Jesus for us?  Should we look for the development of nano-camels to pass through the eyes of needles?

  I think the implication of the riddle of Jesus is this: one cannot do anything to receive an inheritance except be a son or a daughter.  Probate laws states that what belongs to parents belongs to children.  If we believe in God, our heavenly parent, and believe and accept that we are sons and daughters of God, then we have already inherited the kingdom of God.  God created the world.  The world and life has always been a part of the all-encompassing kingdom, realm and presence of God.   God as parent has shared everything with us as God's children.   Sin is the state of alienation of losing our identity of knowing ourselves as God's children and therefore thinking that we need to seek an inheritance.  Since we don't accept ourselves as children of God and we may have "daddy" issues in thinking that we have do things and commit good religious behaviors in order to please "daddy" and be written into daddy's eternal will.

  But with God all things are possible, always have been.  We were made as children of God and made for God's kingdom.  It is only the alienation of sin that has created the sense of separation within our own minds and hearts.  Rich, poor, black, white, male, female, gay, straight.....we all have to have the humility to accept ourselves as God's children in God's kingdom.  Being Episcopalian or Roman Catholic or Lutheran or Muslim or Jew will not make us more or less a child of God with an eternal inheritance.  Being a member of God’s family is a gift of God's grace in Creation and a gift of poignant re-coverery in the witness of Jesus.

  Friends we never were kicked out of God's family; we never were disinherited; we have always lived in the kingdom of God.  Now let's  just accept it!

  But Jesus we want to have the pride of earning it ourselves.  We want to have the pride of saying that my way of earning it is better than others.  We want to say that being Episcopalian is better than being Lutheran, Roman Catholic or Baptists.  Yes, we want to make it about our works or family or religious group identity.   God's grace is an impossible human work.  Do not reduce the inheritance of God’s grace to a human work.

  But you say, "If this is the case, what is the point of trying to be good?  What is the point of being Episcopalian or Christian?"  The rules and the laws and the disciplines in life have their own preventive effect in our lives.  If we live by good rules actuarial probability theory will tell us that things are more likely go in our favor, as in, "if we never drink and drive, we will have the guaranteed blessing of not being arrested for a DUI."   That's how rules and disciplines create the probability of preventing what is bad and guaranteeing the probability of goodness for us.  We get rewarded by living good lives.  But we do not live good lives in order to be children of God or to receive the inheritance of eternal life.

  Eternal life is the life of knowing that one is a child of God and committing the preservation of one's life to the greatness of God's memory to reconstitute us forever.

  God does not need our money or our life styles to make us children of God; God only needs our humility to accept our status as children of God.  As we recognize our status as children of God, then we will live our lives in the way of generosity.

  God does not need our money nor does God need us to live the lives of good Episcopal Christians.  However, St. John the Divine does need our money and our community needs us to live the lives of good Episcopal Christians.  We give and we share as a celebration of knowing that we are already children of God who have been given an eternal inheritance.  So let us live our lives generously today, knowing that our "Daddy and Mommy God" has included us in the will of eternal life.  Amen.