Sermon

Looking for Loopholes

by The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean

In his day, W.C. Fields was known for his wit as well as for his notoriously irreverent and indulgent life. The story is told that as Fields' health was failing and the end of his earthly life was drawing near, his doctor walked into his bedroom to find him propped up in bed, reading the Bible.

The doctor was flabbergasted, and wondered if it was a final gag meant to elicit laughs. The doctor asked, "W.C., what are you doing with a Bible?"

Fields replied: "My boy, I'm looking for loopholes."  [Suzanne Smitherman, Synthesis, Proper 23B]

It is incredibly tempting to study this morning's Gospel lesson with a microscope in order to find a loophole. But we might as well save our energy.

These fifteen verses make up the longest sustained treatment of any ethical issue in Mark’s Gospel and reflect Jesus’ ethic of radical discipleship. In three sections Our Lord deals with riches and poverty.

First (verses 17-22) we hear a narrative about a good-hearted and pious man who refuses Jesus’ invitation to become a disciple because “he had many possessions.”  He simply cannot face up to the challenge to sell what he has, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow Jesus.

The second episode (verses 23-27) is a private instruction to the disciples in which Jesus reminds them how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.  Wealth and possessions have great power as distractions from living as disciples.

The third episode (28-31) contains Jesus’ promise that in return for putting aside their worldly goods and following Jesus the disciples will be rewarded more than amply – a hundredfold – not only with eternal life in the fullness of God’s kingdom but also in the present time.  [Sacra Pagina, p. 302- 308]

As hard as it is to hear (and teach) this, the truth is that the New Testament often speaks of riches and possessions as obstacles to discipleship, and rewards come to those who voluntarily undertake poverty for the sake of God’s kingdom.

The rich man sets all this in motion by asking: What must I do to inherit eternal life?  The disciples at the end of the reading also ask: Then who can be saved?

In the verses prior to this reading Jesus has emphasized that eternal life is a gift from God, it cannot be earned, it cannot be bought. But still the question: What must I do?

Taking that well known phrase of a camel going through the eye of a needle, a Jewish midrash, a commentary on the scriptures, looks at the image in a different way:

"The Holy One said, 'Open for me a door as big as a needle's eye and I will open for you a door through which may enter tents and camels.' " [Ibid.]

In other words, God only needs for us to open up just a bit, to accept the call to radical discipleship, in order to come pouring into our lives, transforming a barren landscape into a lush oasis, showing our possessions to be no heavenly good. The door of grace is the size of the needle's eye.

The call to discipleship requires life-altering actions.  As a friend said recently, “The Church is not about making converts; we are called to make disciples.”

In today's gospel reading Jesus continually challenges us to give up the religion of possessions. And with genuine compassion and honesty he says to do so, some things in our present behavior must change if we are to inherit eternal life.

Jesus asserts that when the rubber meets the road, one must give it all away and follow him; but that strikes us as simply impossible. And like the man in the story, we are shocked and go away unhappy at best, frustrated and defeated at worst.

How true are the words from Hebrews:

“The word of God is living and active, sharper that any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.”  [http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermons_that_work_115056_ENG_HTM.htm]

The man who approached Jesus proves a new saying: Too much can be too little.  Like this rich man, we know ourselves, we identify ourselves, we define ourselves, by our possessions, our things, our "stuff." This young man was so possessed by his "stuff" that he could unstuff himself neither for the sake of the poor, nor for his own sake and his quest for eternal life. Faced with the choice between his old secure, in-control, in-charge self and the unknown possibilities of life as a disciple of Jesus, the rich man clung to his human illusions of power and control.  But as baptized people, we are to cling to Christ. And we are to follow, as disciples. With God, all things are possible.
[ http://www.sermons.com/viewSermons.asp?theFileName=Year_B_Proper_23_Mark_10.html]

This is our inheritance as baptized people, marked as Christ's own forever. When we live into the radical call of true discipleship, we have no need of loopholes. 

© Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral