Amos 5:6-7,10-15 Psalm 90:12-17
Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10:17-27
Lectionary Link
We have read the familiar encounter story of Jesus with the proud rich young man. And he seemed to have a worry?
Have I been disinherited by God? And if I have, what do I need to do to get my inheritance with God back? How can I get back into God's will and inherit a living place with God in my afterlife?
The dialogue with Jesus revealed some assumptions about people, about religious practice, and about God.
This dialogue reveals the state of alienation lived by many people. Why has God disinherited me? Why don't I have faith in my preservation after I die? And what can I do to achieve God's favor?
The rich young man probably came to Jesus less for advice and more for Jesus to pat him on the back and praise him for his outstanding worthiness before God. But he did play along pretending sincere questions. The rich young man also represented a "strain" of prosperity religion, that had its root in the Deuteronomy theology of history. Why and when does Israel and people prospers? When they keep the law? Why and when does Israel and people suffer exile, loss, and occupation? Because God's people did not keep the law and God has a built in system of reward and punishment based upon whether people obey the Ten Commandments.
There is both a truth and a falsity about this system of fate and karma. What is the truth? The truth is that living by the law is good actuarial probability theory. Illustrated simply it goes like this: If you never drink and drive keeping this law, then you will never be arrested and charged with a DUI. Do you see the immediate karmic relationship? Keeping the law about drinking and driving results in the blessing of not being arrested for the same.
This is a simplistic example. In the great realm of genuine freedom in the world the probabilities of what might happen to any of us or any group or country is so complex that it cannot be reduced to a simple formula of if this is done, a particular outcome is guaranteed.
Jesus as the wise teacher baits the the proud rich young man, by testing his understanding of his own tradition. You know the commandments, and Jesus recites some of the Big Ten for him.
The young man essentially said, "Jesus you stop there, you are only reciting the resume of my deeds. I've not killed anyone, I am faithful in marriage, I don't lie, I don't steal, this is my resume and look how I am blessed by God with such prosperity. So since I have such blessing in life, doesn't this mean also that I deserve the blessed inheritance in my afterlife?"
And then came the shocking rely of Jesus, "You lack one thing, sell all you have and give to poor. Then you will have treasured inheritance in heaven."
Oops. Sorry I asked Jesus. Can we appreciate how this vignette reveal the wrong relationship to the law and to our religious piety and practices? Do we see them as a resume to guarantee us that God will hire us for a heavenly afterlife? Of do we see the commandments and religious practices as only temporal moments in learning how to work at loving God and our neighbors? If we use our religious practice as reason to feel morally and spiritually superior, then we have forgotten the most important commandment for anyone at anytime? What is the most important commandment for each of us? It what I call the next commandment. Jesus gave the rich young man a next commandment: God sell what you have and give to the poor.
Each person has a next commandment from God and Christ and it is tailored to each person's spiritual path based upon progressing in the continual life of repentance, of being better today than yesterday. The next commandment is the two edged sword of God's word, which is more than the written words of the law of the Bible. God word as a two-edged sword is the convicting words which comes to us about the next commandment we need to follow.
Since Jesus said that we have to be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect, we, like the rich young man can never rest on our laurels as having done enough.
What is the next commandment that God is asking of us and individuals, as a parish and as a country? God may be asking us to invite people who are different from us to be a part of our life experience. The next commandment for our country involves fully implementing the practice of life, liberty, justice and civil rights for all of our people in a reparative and equal way. And many in our country are finding this very hard to do.
And we often find that we are so stuck in bad habits that the hard and next commandment is impossible. And this is why Jesus says that all things are possible with God. Why? Because God has never disinherited us as God's children; we have the image of God on our lives. We don't have to earn an eternal inheritance; it was given by our birthright in creation.
But we do have to accept our inheritance and accept the early payments of it so that we will match our eventual treasure in heaven.
The grace of Jesus Christ is the early inheritance payments something like God's trust fund for each of us. And we can accept that trust fund of God's grace to complete the mission we have on this earth to progress in loving God and our neighbors as ourselves.
Let us accept our divine heritage today. We don't have to earn it; but we have to actively take the early and often payments of grace of God's trust fund for each of us. Why? So that we will leave this life more godly each day because we have learned to accept grace to do the seeming impossible next commandment. Amen.
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