How hard it is...

Amos 5:6-7;10-15  Hate evil and love good

Hebrews 4: 12-16 The word of God cuts more finely than a double-edged sword

Mark 10.17-31 Give everything  you own to the poor, and follow me

 

‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God;

for God all things are possible.’

(Mark 10.27).

 

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‘The word of God’, the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, ‘is living and active, sharper than 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’. (Hebrews 4.12)

 

That is some description.

 

Anyone who thinks the Bible or Christian belief and practice is undemanding or ‘easy come; easy go’ is in for a shock.

 

And those of us who already profess the Christian faith and consider ourselves disciples of Christ are pressed further, into considering what our faith really means to us, and what the demands of that faith are.

 

This is what the man in today’s gospel, who had many possessions, found out to his cost.

 

Or, perhaps better put, he was not prepared to pay the cost of following Jesus which, in his case, was to sell all he had and give the money to the poor.

 

People have speculated if that is a general instruction to us all – to sell up and give it all away – or a particular one to him.

 

That hardly matters: Jesus’ call to ‘come, follow me’ always calls for some form of renunciation: material, emotional, economic.

 

To follow him the fishermen put down their nets.

 

To follow him Matthew, the tax collector, walks away from his sharp practices and creaming off tax income for himself.

 

To follow him Mary Magdalene lets go of her physical needing Jesus.

 

To follow him Zacchaeus makes restitution of his financial misdealing.

 

This rich man with many possessions is told that to follow Jesus he must sell all those possessions and give the proceeds to the poor.

 

The gospel poses the question: to follow him what do you have to let of of?

 

It will be something you have to give up to make way for taking on the way of Jesus Christ more deeply.

 

Following Jesus means for each of us that we don’t just say put, stuck in a rut of our own self-satisfaction, pride or comfort.

 

We can’t.

 

Not when the word of God is ‘is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow… able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’

 

Discipleship begins with decision; a movement of the heart.

 

‘Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?’ Will you, or won’t you?

 

If you will, then life will change.

 

It’s telling that Jesus was on a journey at the beginning of this passage, for he is always on the move.

 

That translates today into the fact that being a disciple of Christ is not a static experience: the disciple will change, will experience metanoia, which is often translated as ‘repentance’, or ‘changing’, or ‘turning around’.

 

The Greek word metanoia joins two words: meta, ‘to go beyond’, noia, from ‘nous’, meaning ‘mind’.

 

In other words, it is when we go beyond our present mind - changing our thoughts, our habits, our compulsions, our preoccupations - that we are ready truly to be a disciple.

 

We go beyond our present state of mind to see things through the eyes of Christ.

 

And just as Jesus calls disciples in the Gospels in different ways so your call to discipleship will look different from mine; we’re all different people with different sins and shortcomings, but we are all people who Jesus ‘looks at and loves’, just as he did that rich man.

 

And that man who comes to Jesus is so nearly there.

 

Just observe.

 

He comes to Jesus when Jesus is on the move, it implies he’s ready to join the journey, go where Jesus goes, literally and figuratively.

 

He runs up to Jesus; he is eager.

 

He kneels down at Jesus’ feet; this is deepest act of respect to give to anyone.

 

He asks Jesus, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

 

So nearly there.

 

What the rich man was demonstrating was that he was a great observer of the Law of Moses: something the Pharisees did assiduously.[1]

 

But Jesus didn’t say, ‘well, you’ve come to the right man, it sounds great what you’re already doing, keeping the commandments and all that. And thanks for calling me Good.’

 

Instead Jesus does and says something that, ‘is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow… able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’.

 

First, Jesus looks at the man, and loves him.

 

And then, precisely because he ‘looks at him and loved him’, Jesus can’t leave him stuck where he is, being very rich, possessed by his possessions, feeling great about the commandments, and going through the motions of righteousness.

 

He needs to be challenged.

 

Here it is again:

 

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘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.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. (Mark 10.21,22)

 

The gospel reading last Sunday ended with Jesus describing how the kingdom of God is to be lived by those who are utterly dependent on love and grace, as you can see in a person who always accepts of the love of others – the child being the exemplar of that way of being.

 

‘How hard it is…’ we might say, just like the disciples did.

 

And that’s exactly what Jesus says too, ‘Children’ - that’s what he calls them – ‘children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!’ (Mark 10.24b)

 

Hang on, we might say, doesn’t Jesus welcome everyone, unconditionally?

 

He certainly welcomes unconditionally those who ‘get grace’, as we heard last week; but adults, and those possessed by possessions, he welcomes conditionally: the condition being, ‘are you ready to let go?’

 

Letting go of what possesses us like habits and things - be that money, possessions, overbearing clinging to other people, our pride, self-satisfaction – letting go of those things is not a deprivation but a completion.

 

The logic of the Kingdom, the logic of the Cross, is that when you give away, then you receive; when you are last, then you are first; when you have nothing, you have everything; when you die to self-obsession, you are born to eternal life.

 

If you’re ready to that then eternal life, life in Christ, life in the Kingdom, is yours.

 

If you are not ready to that, then you will, like the rich man, find yourself shocked, and go away grieving.

 

And those who don’t come near to Jesus or do not go away grieving probably weren’t sincerely seeking him in the first place: yet still he looks at them and loves them…

 

‘How hard it is…’

 

Well, yes, taking up the cross and following Jesus is, but it is the way to the fullness of eternal life.

 

As Jesus says: ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’ (Mark 10.27).

 

 

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[1] NB This is not a derogatory remark about Pharisees, but a point that Torah observance was fundamental to the Pharisaic tradition.

Those whom God has joined together

Genesis 2.18-24 A man and his wife become one body

Hebrews 2.9-11 The one who sanctifies is the brother of those who are sanctified

Mark 10.2-16 What God has united, man must not divide

 

 

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One of the most moving and lovely parts of the wedding service is the moment when the priest takes his stole and wraps it around the joined hands of the bride and bridegroom and says, ‘those whom God has joined together, let no one [separate] put asunder’.

 

They have already made their declarations to ‘love, comfort, honour and protect [each] other, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to [each other] as long as [they] both shall live’.

 

And they have made their vows:

 

to have and to hold

from [that] day forward;

for better, for worse,

for richer, for poorer,

in sickness and in health,

to love and to cherish,

till death us do part;

according to God’s holy law.

 

The action and the words of tying the stole, speak clearly and embody Jesus’ declaration that ‘what God has joined together, let no one separate’.

 

The Church of England Marriage Service draws deeply on the language of marriage that the scriptures are soaked in. This is what it says:

 

Marriage is a gift of God in creation

through which husband and wife may know the grace of God.

It is given

that as man and woman grow together in love and trust,

they shall be united with one another in heart, body and mind,

as Christ is united with his bride, the Church.

 

Marriage is a gift of God in creation. That’s a short way of saying what Jesus said in the Gospel today:

 

… from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ (Genesis 2.6-9)

 

And it also reflects the Biblical language of marriage, Covenant and faithfulness that we see from Genesis to Revelation.

 

Genesis describes the givenness and complementarity of male and female. What does that mean?

 

It means that our biological identity is written into us, and that men and women are made to be together, to find love and comfort in one another and the capacity to make new life together, in other words, procreation.

 

It’s important to say, that creativity is focused in, but not restricted to, children.

 

Marriage is a gift of God, the Wedding Service continues, through which husband and wife may know the grace of God.

 

That’s another way of saying marriage is a sacrament – an outward sign of an inner grace – that benefits husband and wife.

 

Genesis is clear. Men and women are to complete not compete with each other; one is not superior and the other inferior. Sadly, of course, human nature being what it is forgets this all too easily and women have often been on the receiving end of that.

 

Two equal but different partners become husband and wife, as a sign pointing to something even bigger than themselves.

 

If marriage is a sign of something bigger than itself, which is what Jesus is saying, then what is it?

 

The Marriage service says that the union of a man and woman in marriage sees them, ‘grow together in love and trust, [and] be united with one another in heart, body and mind’, the point being as Christ is united with his bride, the Church.

 

This is where the readings lead us.

 

They speak of the union of a man and a woman; they speak of its fruitfulness, of children and of love; they speak of faithfulness in the marriage covenant.

 

And in doing so they speak of the union of God and man; they speak of the fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit and of gift of life in all its abundance; they speak of God’s faithfulness in the Covenant.

That’s why marriage is a high calling; Jesus is unambiguous about the demands of it.

 

Human beings don’t all succeed in sustaining the marriage union, just as all of us succumb to unfaithfulness and adultery in our union with God.

 

Other gods – with a small ‘g’ – catch our attention and imagination: read the book of Hosea for a devastating critique of that.

 

We err and stray; spiritually we ‘play away from home’, which we should call what it really is: adulterous betrayal.

 

That break, that divorce, in covenant and communion is deeply painful and sad.

 

Yet God calls us back insistently and continues to invite us to the life of heaven, what he calls ‘The Marriage Banquet of the Lamb of God’, a marriage and banquet that we see in Holy Communion.

 

Whether you are single, married or widowed you are called to union with Christ in his marriage banquet at his altar.

 

We ‘get hitched’ to Jesus at our baptism; we ‘walk up the aisle’ every time we step forward to come to Holy Communion; we ‘tie the knot’ when we receive his body and blood.

 

But our marriage to Jesus it is not ‘till death us do part’, for through his saving death on the cross, our union is consummated in the banquet of heaven.

 

And, please God, may we never - as a Church and individual Christians – never ever divorce ourselves from his love.