Sermons

Oct 15 - The Rev. Brian C. Taylor - Wealth, Camels, and Eyes of Needles

Listen to audio version of this sermon.

I wonder if the Balloon Fiesta is scheduled for these two weekends by wealthy people who have divorced and remarried, so that people could avoid church when two very hard gospels are read. Last Sunday we heard some pretty uncompromising words about divorce. Today we are told that the wealthy – which most of us in this room are, by the world’s standards – will have a harder time entering the kingdom of God than a camel squeezing through the eye of a needle.

What do we make of this gospel? Let’s begin by taking a look at the context of this story. For three years, Jesus roamed the countryside with his followers, teaching and healing and begging for food from the villages. Jesus and his disciples threw in their lot together for this brief time, leaving behind family members, occupations, land and possessions so that they could hit the road with this itinerant rabbi. Anyone who wanted to really be a part of Jesus’ movement during those three years had to do the same.

As they went from town to town, they came to know Jesus and one another, experienced miraculous events and heard astonishing new wisdom. In this fellowship they became changed people. This became evident to those they came in contact with, and in every town new converts were added to their numbers.

From a distance, the rich young man saw what Jesus and his disciples had: love, healing, real community, and a joy and peace that comes from utter trust in the goodness and nearness of God. Jesus called this experience eternal life, or the kingdom of God. The young man saw it and he wanted it, too.

And so, naturally, when the rich young man approached and inquired about eternal life, Jesus invited him to join his merry band, to come along anard see what they were up to. Just like everyone else, he would have to sacrifice his comfortable life, at least for awhile, and hit the road and be in relationship with Jesus and his friends, and learn about the ways of God. That’s how this movement worked.

But the young man was shocked at the invitation. Jesus said You want what we have? You want to enter the kingdom of God? You want eternal life? No problem, just sell everything, give the money to the poor, and come along with us! It was way more than he was asking. He wanted a shortcut, an easy way where he would not have to give up anything. Couldn’t Jesus have given a simple answer, a little sound-bite that would tell him how to be right with God? Can’t we just quickly add on eternal life on top of what I’ve already got?

He slunk away sadly, unwilling to leave behind his wealth. He cared more about maintaining his lifestyle than taking the time to learn about the ways of God from this wild man and his compadres. He was the camel standing in front of the impossibly small eye of a needle.

After his refusal, Jesus assured those who had accepted the invitation that there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age--houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life.

There is much in this story that rings true for us today. We see something in Jesus, in those followers of his who have taken him seriously, and in the lives of the saints. We see Christly love, healing, peace, real community, and trust in the goodness of God. We see eternal life, the kingdom of God, and we want it for ourselves.

When we ask for it, Christ invites us into his fellowship. He wants us to be in relationship with him, to spend time in his presence so that we can learn and grow in God’s kingdom. And all around us are means by which we can do this: the sacraments, the gospels, plenty of material written about the Christian life, resources for prayer and spirituality, the Christian community itself, and more.

But in order to be in Christ’s fellowship, in order to really be in relationship with him and learn from him, we too must hit the road and enter into a journey of discovery and transformation with him.

This often involves leaving something behind. In order to live a more Christ-centered life, a more spiritual existence, some of you have been called to leave behind a comfortably detached, skeptical world view in order to enter the riskier land of faith. Some have had to drop your resentment and anger, your addictions, or jobs or relationships that were unhealthy.

In order to be able to connect with God, sometimes we have to leave behind things that stand in the way of that. And like the rich young man, we’re not always willing. We may know very well what we need to be in real relationship with God, but we convince ourselves that we can’t possibly live without whatever prevents that. We’re like a big old camel, staring wistfully at that little eye of the needle in front of us.

The encounter with the rich young man was not the only time in which Jesus made it clear that wealth was a potential barrier to the spiritual life. He consistently called people to simplicity. He said Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3). He said Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear…But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:25,33).

Jesus knew that one of the chief requirements for connecting to God was simplicity, purity of heart, focus on what is important. Conversely, he knew that the chief obstacle is a complex, externalized, busy, superficial lifestyle that is consumed with all the wrong things.

This, of course, is a particularly modern danger: stress, lack of unscheduled time, over-commitment, over-work. And then there’s our unexamined submission to our consumer culture: allowing ourselves to be marketed to death, buying far more than we need to, sustaining chronic debt, filling our houses with things, but never having enough because none of it delivers the satisfaction it promises.

So we stand before Jesus and those who have been transformed by him, envying the peace of mind and trust in God they seem to exhibit, and he says to us Sell your possessions, simplify your home and your time, create room for me, slow down, become like a child, do not worry, strive first for God’s kingdom. And like the rich young man we say But I can’t.

We believe that we can’t possibly change how we live, that a centered and sane life is only possible for the few, for the real saints. We walk sadly away, and the complexity and superficiality of our external life continues to block us from a vibrant inner life.

We’re like Jesus’ disciples: They were greatly astounded and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."

It is impossible for us, all on our own, to leave behind the things that block us from a life with God. But the wonder of grace begins to work the minute we admit that we want it. It begins when we pray for the grace to do what we cannot do. It begins when we admit that we’re not living the way we want to, that we want to become like a child and drop our worries and preoccupations, that we want to strive first for the kingdom of God.

For when we know what we want in the depth of our heart, an inner shift takes place. If we can stay with that shift of perspective, if we can encourage it daily with prayer, if God sees that we mean what we say, then the Spirit begins to change us.

For mortals it is impossible, but for God, all things are possible. Come, follow me, Jesus says. If you find that you are blocked from the vitality of God’s life, turn to God and express your desire for it. You may find that God asks you to do something radical – to sell your possessions and give the money to the poor. Or you may find that God asks of you something smaller, but no less important - to simplify, to become like a child, to drop whatever baggage you think you cannot live without.

But whatever God may ask you to sacrifice for Christ’s sake and for the sake of the good news, [you] will…receive a hundredfold now in this age, and in the age to come eternal life. Simply put, the kingdom of God is more than worth the price of admission.