BACKPACK RELIGION
A sermon by Earl William Greene, Jr. for the 21st Sunday of Pentecost, and based on Mark 10:17-31.
There could be many reasons why someone would not follow Jesus. Here, wealth is the reason. But this is not a sermon about money. This is a sermon about *us*- and that there is - for all us, a *cost* to taking Jesus seriously.
"Come, follow me," says Jesus. Who wouldn't want to follow Jesus? Jesus, that kind and gentle teacher. Baby Jesus, who came on Christmas Eve where there was a stable with shepherds and angels and Mary and Joseph. That's the Jesus most people love.
Who wouldn't want to follow Jesus - that nice man who blessed children; that poet who created the Beatitudes, the Great Teacher who taught us the Lord's Prayer, that considerate man who - as he was dying- was concerned about the welfare of his poor mother.
"Come, follow me," says Jesus. Who wouldn't want to follow someone so gracious, so caring as to heal the sick, give sight to the blind. Jesus, the man of courage in difficult circumstances. A man's man - holding his head high, refusing to bend under pressure. Who wouldn't want to follow Jesus the hero!
So many had come already. People were swarming about Jesus. People - crowds of them! And, there were the disciples who had left everything to follow him. None of them knew how it would all work out. But they went along anyway.
Now, mid-point in Jesus' ministry a bright young man seeks Jesus out. "What about me, Jesus? I've followed all the commandments. I've been a good man. Is there anything I'm missing?"
And Jesus is touched by his sincerity. What a good man! Jesus thinks for a moment, and wonders, "where is this young man in his life? Confident, pure, successful - is there anything that stands in his way to a more spiritual life? Yes, there is one thing - one obstacle: Go, sell what you have and give to the poor."
"The poor? I give alms for the poor. I've worked hard for what I have. I'm on the way "up." The young man took a long glance at Jesus, and went away - sorry, very sorry - about a lot of things, but the cost of following Jesus in this way was too high. He walked away.
We can sympathize with him. Jesus wasn't talking to a multi-millionaire. He was talking about someone who probably had no more than *we* have. Hard to believe as it might seem, *we, every one of us* would be among the wealthy if we lived in first century Palestine. This story is closer to our situation than we may think!
We can understand how this young man felt. We all know we have more than we need to live, but imagine leaving everything to follow Jesus today! There's a house, there are obligations, connections, responsibilities. You just can't walk away from these things!
Like this young man, setting priorities, and keeping focused on the really important things is no easy task for any of us. Can we really blame this man for walking away?
A member of one of our former churches said to me, "I've been coming here for years, and I like your sermons, but I've come to the conclusion that I wouldn't follow Jesus if he were living today." He went on to tell me, "I'm sure you're interpreting Jesus' teachings correctly, but I don't like this business of including everyone, of forgiving people who have done terrible things, of sending money to third world countries just so they can end up fighting us. It's not about money at all. It's about who gets it! No, I wouldn't be a disciple if Jesus were living today." And that man left our church, sprrowfully. The cost became too high.
There's an old story of the evangelist who made an altar call at the end of the service. "Come, to the altar and give your life to Christ." No one came.
In frustration, the evangelist said, "come to the altar as a way of saying that you honor and love God." No one came.
The evangelist tried again, "come to the altar if you want to live a better life." No one came.
Finally, he said, "come, to the altar if you love your mother!"
And that story reminds me of a Deacon in my first parish. He tried to give me this well-meaning advice: "Bill, you need to make Jesus as pleasing as possible so that everyone will want to join this church."
The story is told of Clarence Jordan, the great preacher who long before the "civil rights movement of the sixties" preached an inclusive gospel in the deep south long before it was popular to talk about "being inclusive."
Clarence Jordan visited an integrated church in the south, and was surprised to see some many different kinds of people there - Black and white, rich and poor - and in the early 1950's even!
Jordan asked the old country preacher, "how did you do it?" "Well," the old preacher said, "my first Sunday I opened the Bible to read the part from St. Paul that says "there are no longer any Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, males or females, because you is all one in Jesus." Then he said, "I closed the Bible and said to the congregation "if you are *one* in Jesus, you are *one* with all kinds of folks. And if you ain't, you ain't."
"What happened then?" asked Clarence Jordan."
"Well," the old preacher answered, "the Deacons took me into the back room and told me they didn't want to hear this kind of preaching any more."
"What next?" asked Jordan. "Well, it was the only good news I knew, so I just kept on preaching it! I preached that church down to four people, and then suddenly it grew and grew. What I learned was this: revival isn't about making everybody feel comfortable. It's about telling things the way it is!"
It may not be about money. It may not be about "including everyone." Jesus was gentle with the Samaritan woman who had had five husbands, but nevertheless he pressed this point in her life until she understood that a relationship is basically a spiritual issue.
In the inner-city perhaps black males needs to hear that following Jesus means becoming a responsible husband and father. In Thousand Oaks it may be that in order to follow Jesus bankers need to stop supporting companies that oppress the poor, and make the rich richer.
There are "vanilla churches" where no one ever becomes offended by the gospel of Jesus. The truth is told in such ambiguous ways that no one ever knows when they hear it. Everyone is just comforted, and never, never challenged.
Or, we can be more forthright about what following Jesus means, and proclaim that this church is about changing lives, this church is about promoting fundamental changes in ways of thinking and believing about God and other people.
We can be "up-front" that we believe that a church of Jesus is about changing the world- challenging the power structures, challenging the idea that materialism is our savior, challenging the notion that some people count and others don't count. We can be forthright about our belief that following Jesus isn't about dogma and rituals, it's about new life.
The sermon today is not about money, for if it were we could all buy our way into heaven even if it took all the "plastic" we had. We can keep all the commandments, we can attend to all the religious rituals until we're mesmerized by all the incense, but Jesus asks for more of us.
Jesus looks right into our lives and pinpoints the vulnerable thing that keeps us from God - probably different for each of us - some attitude that stands in the way. For the rich young man it was money - money that was supposed to "free him" from worry. But talking with Jesus, the young man discovered that even with his great possessions he was not really free. He was obligated to funds, trusts, and accounts. He wasn't willing to believe that the opposite of "rich" could possible be "free" instead of "poor."
Others did follow Jesus, understanding what freedom is all about - that it means leaving some things behind, traveling "lighter," carrying a back-pack to be sure, but being more selective - setting priorities, re-thinking some of the powerful myths that have held us down all our lives.
Jesus may ask a professor of theology to throw away her books with their foolish dogmas and feed the hungry a week from this Tuesday night right here at 370 Royal Avenue. For another person God's call may be to get out of the "rat race" and walk the beach and sit in the sun for a year, and rediscover the "soul within."
Jesus invites us "Come, follow me. Yes, you can stuff your backpack, but be sure to bring the right things and leave the rest. Then you will be truly free." Amen.