“Precious”

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

October 13, 2024

The ring of power (from "The Lord of the Rings"

Amos 5:6-7, 10-15

Mark 10:17-31

Children’s Message:

I’m going to share with you a story called, “The Quiltmaker’s Journey,” by Jeff Brumbeau.

(A sequel to “The Quiltmaker’s Gift:” The quiltmaker grows up wealthy and sheltered, but radically changes her life after she discovers the poverty and need outside her town. When she realizes that she has the power to help people, the young girl finds a strength and peace she never knew before. Making the loveliest quilts in all the land, the young girl decides to give them away.)

A man had asked Jesus what he had to do to have a heavenly life. Jesus told him to give away all that was precious to him and simply follow Jesus. What do you think? Could you do it? It sounds easy, but it was really hard because he had lots of things he loved. And in the end, though he was very sad, he left Jesus.

It’s hard for anyone to give up what is precious to us. God knows that, which is why God gave up the most precious thing to God—God’s own Son—in order to be with us, instead of us trying to be with God.

Let’s pray. Dear God, thank you for all the love you share with us. Give us the courage to share your love with others. Amen.

Message:

You’ve heard the phrase, “Over my dead body.” It’s used to show complete opposition to an idea or action. “You’ll have to kill me, first.” Or, another favorite, “You’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.” That’s sort of what today’s gospel reading reminds me of. Not so much opposition to something happening but an absolute inability to let it happen.

Many of you are familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” If you haven’t read the books, they’re at least available in movie format. And if you’re familiar with the stories, you’re familiar with the character, Gollum. Once a hobbit-like creature, he came into possession of a powerful ring which led him into a space of darkness. It caused him to turn inward. And over the course of hundreds of years, the ring sucked from him his very soul. In the end, it destroyed him.

That ring was the only thing he treasured. He treasured it above all else—even his life. It led him to lie and kill and deceive to maintain his hold on it. To maintain its hold on him. For that is what was really going on. He didn’t own the ring. It owned him.

Tolkien understood the power of sin and its hold on us—that it’s more than our outward actions. It’s our orientation to God and the world. Amidst all the interrogations of Jesus by the Temple leaders, today we get the sense that the young man who runs to Jesus isn’t testing Jesus but asking out of genuine concern. How do I get eternal life?

Now, when we hear ‘eternal life’ and later, when the disciples ask, “Who can be saved,” our 21st Century ears think immediately of heaven after we die. That’s not what is being asked, here. To be saved is to be made whole. Eternal life isn’t so much the quantity of life—infinity and beyond—but the quality of life. This man wants to know why, after keeping all the commands, living an exemplary life, and—most importantly—being blessed and favored by God to have so much riches, does he not feel more spiritually satisfied?

Shouldn’t he feel happy and content? Shouldn’t he feel closer to God? He’s done everything he can to get it right. Jesus looks at him, and—the only time Mark uses this phrase about Jesus—he LOVES him. Not pity. Not concern. Not even quite compassion. Agape. Love. He wants this man to follow him and be one of his disciples. He wants him to feel whole. He wants him to feel God’s love and mercy and grace.

And he says, “Just go sell everything, give the money to the poor, and you’ll be free—free to follow me.”

It’s too much to ask. Especially when the belief is that the possessions one had were a sign of God’s blessing and favor. The more you have, the more God clearly loves you. We still believe that today. No, we don’t say it that way, but we live it. If you’re poor, you clearly did something to deserve it. Meaning, your sin has caused your predicament, and your predicament is a sign that God doesn’t favor you as much as someone with many possessions.

So, if the man sells everything he has, that feels like thumbing his nose at God’s goodness toward him. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He says to give it to those who have little. Because, you see, Jesus is teaching him that God’s favor isn’t shown through what we own, but God’s grace can be shown through how we care for the poorest in our midst. The problem is, the more we have, the more we stand to lose. The more we have, the harder it is to let it go. The more we have, the more we think we deserve. The more we have, the more we want.

I’ll give it to the disciples. When Jesus compares someone who is rich with a camel trying to go through the eye of a needle, the disciples recognize that no one can do what Jesus is asking. No one. Not even those who have nothing to sell—nothing to lose. It’s not about what we have but our orientation toward God and the world.

As long as we look to stuff to save us, we will never fully trust the goodness of God. We will never truly feel spiritually satisfied. We will never acknowledge the full grace that God has given and continues to give us. It simply is not within our ability to do so. The power of sin keep turning us back to ourselves and away from God.

So, instead of an endless battle of God spinning us back around again and again, God places God’s own self between us and sin. God stands in the way. God gives up everything—gives everything to the poor, to the creatures of God’s heart that have, from the beginning of time, chosen power over grace. God lets go of power, lets go of retribution, lets go of life itself. Because God is the only one who can.

Hanging from the cross, God stands between the power of sin and the vulnerability of humanity and dies. And on the third day, God’s presence in the risen Jesus is proof that sin no longer has the power it once did.

And yet, we still live in a world where wealth is seen as a sign of favor. We live in a world in which the discrepancy between the wealthy and the poor is a signal that unjust systems and practices are alive and well. We live in a world in which we still think we can be self-sufficient—where sin still whispers, “You don’t need anyone else. You don’t need God. You don’t need grace, as long as you have…whatever is precious to you.”

And God looks at us and LOVES us and reminds us again and again, “My grace is enough. You cannot save your life. But I will make you whole.” The question for us today is simply this: What gets in the way of hearing that blessing? What do you cling to? What will God have to pry from your cold, dead hands? And is it worth it?

Pastor Tobi White

Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church

Lincoln, NE