October 11, 2009 Sernon

“That Which Weighs Us Down” Mark 10:17-31 Lawrence Jackman

Today we read from what is one of the more disturbing passages from the New Testament and from a terribly unsettling book of the Old Testament. Don’t ask me why the lectionary took us here, but it did. Both passages, it seems to me bring us “face to face” with the issue of what is allowed to stand between our souls and the Devine. It is axiomatic in the story from Mark that “possessions can stand between us and God.”

The book of Job, however, goes several more steps in laying out a picture of righteousness that lets nothing stand between Job and God. The clear intent of the book is to lay out the proposition that, for the righteous individual, nothing will stand between God and good people. Even as Job develops personal contempt for God, the relationship is still there. Job does not like the relationship and is clearly angry, yet he does not abandon the working principle of his life—that he is and is to be in relationship to God.

Now neither of these stories have much comfort to offer us. There are some caveats that really need to be mentioned. First of all, you need to understand that the Book of Job is some very powerful things and, at the same time, it is not a whole bunch of things. It is not a story to be appreciated in a concrete way. This is a morality play. It is akin to any other morality story that spins a yarn in order to, in the end, assert a rather simple lesson. But the story itself, puts the lesson in a setting like a gemstone in an extravagant ring. The lesson would mean not near as much if the story wasn’t told for setting.

Aesop’s Fables, Uncle Remus’ Tales and others come to mind as this sort of literary form. You can hardly say, “slow and steady wins the race”, without someone chiming in with “the hare and the tortoise”. “Don’t throw me in the briar patch” is equivalent with another being outsmarted and punishment ends up meaning that you just got turned loose from real pain or even death. Now, even though people will finish your quote when you say, “the patience of a ……” , with “Job”. The book has a bigger message than that one simple word.

So here is what not to get carried away with when you hear the story of Job. Skip right over the malevolent set up for this story, that is not what it is about. The set up is God and Satan playing a chess game in which the character Job becomes a pawn. “Let’s see how much grief we can give him before he curses you and the life you propose”, says Satan. “You are on”, answers God and the play is begun. That is all literary device to establish the sequential ripping away of all the tangible things in Job’s life in what ends up being a trial of unbelievable proportions. This story is about the character Job and not about God or Satan. It is most certainly not about who wins the chess match.

While part of the issue may be patience, much more of this story is about the perseverance of a single human as he seeks to be faithful to the creator. This is a story about a human and his relationships with his family, with his well meaning friends, and with the Creator.

This story is not about God testing a man in a game of “one-up” with Satan. It is, rather, a story about a man’s passion for God that will not be overcome.

The story in Mark is a bit different. It is about a person who lets possessions come between him and doing what he knows to be the homecoming of his soul. Now this is also a story that really needs some perspective. We say, rightly, this is the story of the rich young ruler. Look, I am old, I don’t rule anybody and I am not rich—it is not about me. And, we add in our hearts, this is certainly not about my possessions. I am not wealthy enough. The message is from us to God, “don’t mess with my possessions”.
And that boils down almost to a threat—it says this is something that can come between me and God.

We probably ought to explore, just for honesty’s sake, the assumption that we are not indeed rich. There is some stunning information out there. A high school student working fast food for 20 hours a week makes more money than, ready for this? That student makes more than 85 percent of the world’s population. Throw in a very minimum value for the housing, food and transportation that the parents provide and you have someone who rates up there in the 90’s.

Last Thursday our presbytery approved a minimum salary schedule that places a starting minister in the top couple percent. A starting teacher in this country is richer than more than 90 people out of 100. A starting lawyer is in the top three percent.

My observation is that we are, everyone of us, rich young rulers. Some of us just happen to be not terribly young. The ruler lets his stuff come between him and God.

So what is it we let enter and stay in that space between God and our soul? Because however proximate we are to another being. However close to the other, there is always a space or a gap. There is the arena where “freedom of choice” lays. And the things we allow in that space are that which weigh us down. They weigh us down when they are on a purely human level and certainly when they involve us and God.

It isn’t that those things must be selfish or that they are bad. It is what our free choice makes them to be that can become a problem.

We can be weighed down by good and wonderful and highly valued things and even by people. It is clearer when it is something material that we can measure objectively but it is just as operational when it is something like a human relationship, or even the cleanest human love of which we are capable.

My friend Jay was a good man. He came from and lived in a rough and tumble world where people struggled, confronted and intimidated each other. Tears were streaming down his face because he had just lost his dear son to an illness. “I just left to go get a sandwich in the cafeteria. I was only gone for a minute.” He said to me.

I responded to his implied question. “Kenny couldn’t get out of here with you hanging onto his ankles. You were holding him down. He needed to go home.” That could have been a cheap thing to say. But what I said was born in a relationship with me and Jay and Kenny and it was OK to say. Then, when it was no longer Kenny, it became a conversation that said Jay still sought, loved, and wanted God more than ever. The loss wasn’t going to weigh him down.

So what floats around in that space for you or for me? What are the highest and best and most beloved realities that you let hover up there with God in that divine arena where we can and do make choices?

For the rich young ruler it was his things. If he had to make a choice between God and his stuff, he would turn his back on God. Remember it was not without sadness that he did this, he was sorry that he was making the choice. It wasn’t about belief—he believed in God and even in Jesus. It wasn’t about understanding; he had that too. It wasn’t about good or bad behavior because that too was in place. This was a good behavior young man. One might presume that this man had it up on more than half the disciples as presenting good character. He would have made a pretty good Presbyterian, you know? He was a presentable, correct, and appropriate guy—just what a person might want for a son-in-law.

My space is occupied by good and wonderful things along with a good and wonder filled God. My space of most dear things is occupied by a wife, by my kids and grandkids, by the lifestyle I want to live and by valuable chores to attend. My space has a lot of church stuff floating through it. There is a rich heritage of tradition, of education and of types of service. None of that is bad. All of it is good. But I can’t let any of those most dear realities come between me and God.

The challenge here is not about money, much that stewardship season might want us to see. It is simply and always about ultimate priorities.

In organizational work of planning a direction for an organization we often go through a process. You put all the good ideas up on the board. Then you rank them in a sort of moral ranking. This set of things are good, but low on the list. This set is higher but not yet the highest. Then, left, is a set of realities that are highest and best.

But even that set must be prioritized. So up there someplace are the things which you rightly claim as the highest and best. God’s claim on your life is among the items on that list. Now is time to look at what is highest.
Amen