Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord. May only God’s word be spoken, May God’s word be heard. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
This morning, I’d like to explore this image of “the journey” in Mark’s gospel. This theme of following Jesus.
For me, this is the meaning of the question “Why do you call me good?” that is addressed to the person whom Matthew calls only “the young man”, but whom for both Mark and Luke, seems to be a somewhat older person. Jesus begins his response by referring to God, whose goodness is at the root of everything. Then Jesus summarizes the first part of the commandments and includes an important addition that is found only in Mark, “you shall not defraud.” The word translated as “defraud” in this verse is from the Greek àpostéresiz which literally means, “withholding what is due.” So, Jesus is telling the rich man, “you shall not withhold from persons that which they are due.” The phrase seems to summarize the list just mentioned “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness.” Oh, and let’s not forget to “Honor your father and mother.” The rich man responds by saying simply, without any arrogance, that he has kept all these precepts. This was the conviction of the well-educated; that it is possible to observe the law in its entirety.
However, following Jesus is much more demanding. Lovingly, Jesus invites the man to become one of his followers. In addition to giving up his wealth, the man must give it to the poor and the needy. Jesus is letting the man know, not to withhold what is due. If the man will do this it will enable him to follow Jesus. It is not enough to respect justice in our personal attitudes; we have to go to the root of evil, to the basis of injustice: the desire to accumulate wealth. But we know how this story goes; giving up his possessions proves to be too difficult for this person. Like many of us, he prefers to live his faith resigned to comfortable mediocrity. He does believe, but not that much. We human beings can profess our faith in God, although we refuse to put God’s will into practice. Jesus takes advantage of this opportunity to make some things very clear to his disciples; attachment to money, and to the power it provides, is a major obstacle to entering the kingdom. The “eye of the needle” comparison that follows is pretty rigorous. I’ve read and heard some who have tried to lessen the impact of this parable by focusing on the likelihood that in the city there was a small door called “the eye of the needle” and for that reason, all a camel had to do was to bend over to be able to go through.
The disciples, on the other hand, understand the message perfectly well. This whole thing seems next to impossible for them. There would have been no mistaking that “to go through the eye of a needle” means placing all our trust in God and not in the material wealth of the culture. It is not easy either personally or as church to accept this challenge and, like the disciples, with would-be realism, we wonder, “Then, who can be saved?” We claim that money gives us security and that it enables us to be “effective.” Jesus reminds us that our ability to believe in God alone is a grace.
So, on our broader journey together through the Holy Scriptures this morning we hear the prophet Amos thunder against the unjust practices of his society: “you turn justice to bitterness…because you trample on the poor and take from the levies of grain.” He tells us in no uncertain terms to hate evil, love good, and establish justice. The prophet warns that those who oppress the poor will ultimately reap disastrous consequences; that life lies in pursuing good.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews offers us encouragement; aware that we are weak, aware that there are hard times when we will be tested and that we are indeed in need of God's grace.
And then, in the gospel of Mark we find ourselves face-to-face with “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven!” and then Jesus reverses the social order; in his Kingdom the first are last, the last first, and wealth is an impediment. The rich man goes away empty, while the disciples, who have left everything, gain everything.
These are challenging passages, and they are as relevant today as when they were written. How do – how can – those of us who live in this culture, and comparatively with such wealth, respond to these passages?
We know that poverty, injustice, and oppression abound in our world. Some of the current facts regarding World Hunger and Poverty include:
- 852 million people across the world are hungry, up 10 million more people than a year ago. Hungry not for just an hour, not for just a day, but always and in every moment
- And today, more than 16,000 children will die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds
- And this year, another 5 million people will become infected with HIV and more than 3 million people will die of AIDS
- And this from last week, on the ground, in Haiti, a country of 8 million people of whom 2 million live in Port-au-Prince where the average income is $1.00 a day and gasoline is $6.00 a gallon because it is 100% imported to one location. At the six churches and five schools visited, only one has water and lights from a generator that also pumps the water. The other five churches and four schools have no electricity and no water, and the only nutrition sites are at the churches. The Diocese of Alabama is planning to fund a well at one of the churches from our MDG funds, beginning in about two weeks. It is what the gospel for this Sunday tells us to do – to share justly what we have. The people of Haiti shared with us what they have – coconut water so that we could have pure water to drink one day up the mountains. A bag of coconuts is worth a week’s wages at market. And theirs is the kingdom of God.
When poverty kills millions of people, when the rules and practices of international trade are so unfair, it is time to stand up against the crushing realities of poverty. It is time to make life-changing choices and put our faith into action.
Yes, it is a lot to ask, to not withhold what is due. In this journey, we share in the disciples' confusion and dismay. But the truth is that this dilemma is the center of the Christian life. Will we trust the security of the culture, or choose to risk accepting God's covenant? With the disciples we find ourselves asking, "How is this possible?"
In this important little book "What Can One Person Do?" two accomplished economists, Sabina Alkire and Edmund Newell, who also happen to be Anglican clergy, have outlined seven simple steps that we people of faith can take to heal a broken world. They are (1) pray for the healing of the world, (2) be informed by study of the realities of global poverty, (3) give 7/10ths of 1% of our own incomes for international development, (4) connect on a personal level with those who are poor and marginalized, (5) get active in events addressing global poverty, (6) become vocal about these concerns, and (7) get political and advocate for the poor in our governmental processes. If you want to know more about how you can become engaged with this work, then getting a copy of this book can be a good place to start, and you can also either talk to me or Father Tuohy, or to Judy Quick who is our parish coordinator for Episcopal Relief & Development.
So, as Rowan Williams tells us, we can give thanks today for truths we did not want to know; for the Savior who saves by telling us how the world is, not by pretending all is well – because if we cut ourselves off from the reality of the suffering and excluded child, we are refusing to learn some aspect of the life we need to receive and understand and love, for our own souls’ sake. We are given a chance to see, to learn the habits of attention.
In the simplest terms, by the gift of Christ’s truth, we are given some of the strength we need for love. The child we leave “on the edge”, unheard or unnoticed, is, if only we knew, God’s gift for our growth, as we can be God’s gift for theirs.
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