Sermon preached on Sunday, October 14, 2012 at St. Francis Church, Fair Oaks, CA
Gospel text: Mark 10: 17-31
Spirit of the living God Fall Fresh on Me! Congregation repeats!
Sell what you own and give it all to the poor. This text is truly an impossible Gospel
message for most of us to live by.
So what do we make of this Gospel?
How do we find meaning in this text so that we might grow and deepen our
relationship with Christ and give glory to God through all that we are and
have?
For starters I doubt that if the rich young man sells
everything that he will be happy or even solely on this one action gain eternal
life. As a Roman Catholic
religious I sold all that I had twice in my life. I am not aware of any personal spiritual gain from this
exercise. Given my own experience
of poverty my sense is that poverty is far overrated as a virtue.
Growing up our family was working class poor. My dad had
three jobs to keep us all fed, clothed and educated. My parents worked hard so that we could enjoy the rewards
that they did not know. As my
parents made these efforts they also constantly taught us that to the one much
is given much will be expected.
A few weeks ago I shared with you about my time as a Jesuit
in the Dominican Republic. I
learned in the Dominican Republic the way to rely on the providence of God
rather than solely on my will power.
It is my sense that my parents’ influence and my Jesuit
experience in the Dominican Republic has substantially influenced the way I
read the text of the rich young man.
It is too easy to read this Gospel as a condemnation of
wealth. I come to this text in a very different way that may benefit you as
well. Let’s first review the
details from our scripture text.
What do we know?
The rich young man is in a hurry as he “ran up” to Jesus.
The rich young man attempts to flatter Jesus and peppered
him with questions.
The rich young man has kept all the commandments, but still
seems unhappy and wants Jesus to tell him how to flourish.
Jesus says, “sell what you own, and give the money to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come, follow me.”
The question I hear deeply embodied in this text is in what
do we treasure?
We cannot read any scriptural texts literally without
missing the full impact of God’s message.
If we read, “sell all that you have” without attention to “you will have
treasure in heaven” then we risk overly simplifying the Good News.
Another way to think about what we treasure is to think
about that which owns us?
Sell all you own or sell that which owns you are completely
different messages.
The rich young man has done everything and his heart is
still not at peace. We see that the rich young man runs up to Jesus. He has a sense of urgency. There has been a constant theme in my
preaching, in my liturgical leadership and in my evolving leadership of this
parish. I have invited you to slow
down.
Several weeks ago I invited you to do less, so you could
hear the faint whisper of the Spirit. With greater attention to the solemnity
of the Eucharist through more silence you will also see my desire to slow us
down as a congregation. Today we
will not rush from the reception of Holy Communion to the post-communion
prayer. Today we will hear Dr. Tog
play the clarinet as he leads us in singing Amazing Grace.
Jesus’ answer to rich young man might have been to slow him
down. In slowing down the rich
young man might realize the great potential he has to serve the poor through
his possessions without selling everything. The problem is not that the young man is rich. The problem is that the young man is
not at peace with God. He lacks
purpose with and through his possessions.
His lack of purpose is due to his misplaced treasure.
We all at one point in our lives share the rich young man’s
distorted treasure.
So how do we avoid the rich young man’s dilemma?
We do so by discerning the difference between all that we
own and that which owns us.
Before we begin this individual and communal discernment I
want to equip you with some foundational principles to enhance our discernment.
First, God wants all of us to flourish. I love the words of Ireneaus of Lyon,
“The glory of God is the human person fully alive.” Upon a quick reading of this text and the common
interpretation is that the rich young man will not be following Jesus until he
sells everything. I think such a
reading merely scratches the surface of the text and does not reveal the power
of Jesus’ teachings. Jesus invited
the rich young man to rediscover a means for the young man to flourish.
Second, all of creation serves one purpose and that is to
give glory to God. Everything that
God has created is good and created so that we may give glory to God. Our purpose is to give glory to God
through who we are and that which we have been blessed by God.
Sometimes it has been helpful for me to make a list of all
that I own. Then as I review the
list, I note those things that own me.
That is, what are those things that I could not possibly live
without? I exclude those things
that address my basic needs. I
exclude a few special treats and privileges.
A few times a year I ask myself these questions:
What do I need?
What must I have?
What can I not live without?
And then as part of my daily self-examination, I ask myself,
what owns me?
This kind of self-examination process has helped me name
those things in my life that hold me back from full flourishing in the glory of
God.
Next Sunday is healing Sunday.
Each week there is a prayer station where fellow congregants
pray for one another’s needs. I
encourage you to participate in this ministry. The ministry of healing through anointing is intended for
far more than for those who are infirm or sick. Healing is also about healing our spiritual heart, our
spiritual bodies and during my time with you, healing this Body of Christ, St.
Francis Church.
Healing prayers and especially anointing is one passageway
to spiritual freedom. The rich
young man was not spiritually free. The rich young man’s heart was
paralyzed. His possessions were
not the basis of his purpose, his ministry or the way he gave glory to
God.
In my parish ministry I have witnessed the ways that healing
ministry has helped people recover their sense of purpose and freed people to
give glory to God. One way that
today’s Gospel will help you to prepare yourself for healing Sunday is to ask
yourself what owns you.
It might be some of your possessions own you like they did
the rich young man.
It could be a broken relationship or loss in your life that
has paralyzed you.
It could be that the past distracts you from feeling hope
for the future, maybe even hope for this church’s future.
It could be a disappointment that you never recovered from
that still depletes your inner energy.
It could be that you are carrying so much inner pain that
you might doubt the power of the resurrection or the efficacy of the
Eucharist.
Most of us carry things in our hearts, minds and bodies that
hold us back from fully flourishing and giving glory to God. We carry these burdens often alone and
tell few people. Sometimes our
burdens are channeled like the rich young man’s anxious cynicism with Jesus.
There is a process of spiritual healing:
If the rich young man was more aware of his own spiritual
brokenness he might have encountered Jesus differently. Are we willing to admit that we hurt
inside? Admitting that we hurt might just mean coming forward next Sunday in
total silence without naming exactly the cause of our pain, just asking to be
anointed. You may not even be able
to name that which hurts, but you know there is some area in your life that
prevents you from fully flourishing and giving glory to God.
As we continue to discern what owns us, we will at some
point be able to name it and locate and name our pain.
Through the healing ministry I hope in time you will trust
your priest, as you whisper to me your pain and the healing you seek through
anointing.
As this congregation’s healing ministry continues, I pray
with you that we will be freed up from that which owns us and embrace the gift
of healing where we fully flourish as human persons and as a congregation that
is fully alive.
Once we are fully alive, we will be ready to share our
blessing with others. Unlike the
rich young man we will not go away sad.
We will give glory to God for we will be fully alive! In being fully
alive we will have a renewed glimpse of Christ’s resurrection and the
resurrection possible in our individual lives, collective lives and in the life
of St. Francis Church.
God Bless You!
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