Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland
October 11, 2009
Mark 10:17-31

What Defines Us?

When I was born, my parents named me after one of my foremothers whose name was Betsy Sanborn. She was the daughter of a colonel in the Revolutionary War. As the story goes, Betsy was given a cherry highboy on her wedding day. It was passed down in the family and, when I was a little girl, I would see the highboy in the hallway where my father’s half-sister kept table linens. Eventually, her daughter asked me to come and get it. It was too tall for her little ranch house and, besides, I should have it since I was named after Betsy Sanborn. I had it for a number of years, and, then, about 20 years ago, I sold it at Christies Auction House in NYC. I needed the money for college expenses for my children. I’ve always been a little sad that I did that. Couldn’t I have made ends meet another way? My head tells me selling the antique was the right thing to do, but I lost a little bit of my history, my family origins, my story.

What is it about our stuff?

In the gospels, a “rich young ruler” comes and kneels before Jesus with a question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He has followed the commandments all his life, but something is still missing. Obeying the rules is no substitute for a relationship with God. He is wealthy, but his possessions are not satisfying. Surely there is more to life than this.

And then Jesus looks at him, looks intently at him, sees him for who he really is, and Jesus loves him, a rare description in Mark. What was it that Jesus saw? Was there an emptiness? A deep-seated hunger? Loneliness? Jesus knows the nature of his longing, and he offers a profound solution: “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

Jesus holds out just what the young man longs for – a meaningful relationship with God, not simply a rote following of the commandments. Jesus holds out a life worth living. Will he take it? But Jesus asked him to do the one thing he could not do – to give up all of his stuff. Mark tells us that the young man “was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” He had asked Jesus a big question – a profound question – and Jesus gives him a big answer – and a choice. The rich young ruler could go and sell and come back to Jesus – or he could go back to the life he had left, to business as usual.

The disciples were dumbfounded! They had left everything for Jesus – but they didn’t have much to lose: a few fishing nets perhaps, a boat or two, some friends. And speaking of boats, Jesus was always rocking the boat, presenting a counter-cultural perspective to the disciples’ thinking. In the ancient world wealth was an indication of God’s blessings; now Jesus is telling the young man to sell everything! (Even today, in our world, owning a McMansion in the right neighborhood, driving a classy car, or sending our children to the best schools, is taken as a sign that one has “made it,” that one is blessed, isn’t it?)

What is it about our stuff?

Jesus looked around and said to the disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples are perplexed, so Jesus paints this word picture for the disciples who have seen the narrow gate in Jerusalem that a heavily-loaded camel cannot get through, even on its knees: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

How shall we in the modern world understand this text? If we sell all and give to the poor, then we become hungry and homeless, too, and we have too many people eating in soup kitchens and living in shelters and tents as it is. How would we clothe and educate our children? And get to work? Surely Jesus doesn’t expect us to sell all and give to the poor, does he? Is this an impossible demand? Surely it’s a simplistic one for the complex society in which we live! Money makes the world go round! John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement in England in the 1700s, knew this when he urged his followers to “Earn all you can, give all you can, save all you can.”

But wait; maybe this text isn’t about money at all. Jesus doesn’t criticize the man for having money, or that the money is evil. He loves the rich young man; he’s conscientious and devout and would be a real asset to any undertaking. Jesus invites him into the inner circle of followers. But Jesus knows that sometimes we are most afraid of what we most need. Will he accept the offer? Or has Jesus asked too much? What is it about our stuff?

Perhaps it’s not about the money per se. It is about whatever stands in the way of our discipleship. For some of us, it may be money or possessions. For others, a title, or a position, or an attitude, or a deep anger, or disappointment, or an achievement, or an unhealthy relationship – you name it!

The rich young ruler is a man whose entire life has been defined by wealth – and Jesus comes along and challenges him to re-define himself. Jesus invites him to seek a new self-understanding, that of a disciple. But in order to do that, he must put money and all his relationships in their rightful place. He must turn his life upside down. How could he sell the new house he had just built? Who would manage his businesses? What would his employees do without their jobs?

So this passage is about whatever weighs us down, ties us up, prevents us from accepting Jesus’ invitation to discipleship. You’ve heard the story about the elderly woman who refused to move into assisted living because she had 10 rooms of furniture that wouldn’t fit in the small apartment. What is it about our stuff? Do we own it? Or does it own us?

It’s clear that our stuff is more than stuff. It’s our history, our identity, our security, our level of comfort. And it’s next to impossible to give it away, to change our self-image, to risk making changes, to try something new and scary.

Many, many years ago, I attended a meeting in the home of a woman who had been told by her doctor that she had only months to live. She invited us to look around and take anything we would like – a piece of furniture, a lamp, whatever. She wasn’t going to need it much longer. A couple of years ago, I ran into her at a concert at Grace Church, downtown. She looked great! “Weren’t you dying?” I said! “The doctor was wrong. They misdiagnosed me.” She was certainly no worse for having given away her worldly possessions. She had discovered what really mattered – life itself!

Jesus holds out a relationship with God. We put up excuses. Not now! Wait until I get the mortgage paid off, or the kids through college, or find a better-paying job. Maybe when I retire, I’ll think about being a disciple. We hang onto our material stuff – and our emotional stuff – that holds us back. Well, we’d like to be disciples, but right now we need that big screen TV. Well, we’d like to be disciples, but right now we need to work on our marriage. Well, we’d like to be disciples, but maybe after we get a new minister. Discipleship is about letting go of anything and everything that clutters our lives and keeps us from finding the way to God’s door.

And God wants all of us – not just a glimpse of us on Sunday, some Sundays, or a tithe in the offering plate, or our left-over time, if we have any. Being a disciple doesn’t mean that we have to give up what we have – but that we give everything we have to God, that we use who we are and everything we have for God’s work in the world. It means we become disciples right where we are, doing what we are doing, but understanding and redefining our work as discipleship.

What if we do that be creating loving families that grow loving people. What if we do that by choosing work to exercise our gifts and give us fullness of life. What if we do that by contributing to our community and tending “to the least of these.” What if we do that by using our intellect to speak truth to power and to work for justice. And yes, what if we do that by spending our money wisely and being generous with those who have not.

What defines each of us as individuals and families? What defines us as a congregation? The Jesus who looked lovingly at the young man, and saw what he needed to do to have eternal life, holds out his hand to us and invites us to “come and follow.” Let us not keep him waiting!

Amen.