There was a special brightness
to the day as you rose in the morning. The sun shining through your window
added particular radiance to morning prayers. The air around you felt vibrant
and alive. You felt as if today would be a special day.
You moved out onto the street, and people stepped out of your path. They knew you were important, but they also thought you were greedy. They kept their distance, just in case you cast your eye on their possessions.
You had space to see everything going on around you. With your clear sight lines you easily noticed some people setting out on a journey. Unlike most groups of travelers, trailing behind these people were women carrying children, Pharisees shouting questions, and sick people who pleading leader of the group. You could see the man was the new teacher named Jesus who everyone seemed to be talking about, how he could teach, and heal. People were even saying he knew the way to eternal life.
So you join the crowd following after the travelers. You hurry to the head of the group, up to their leader, and throw yourself down at his feet, and you ask Jesus about the question burning into your mind..
"Good teacher," you blurt out, "what must I do to inherit eternal life." Jesus replies to your question.
"You know the commandments: You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and mother."
"Teacher," you declare to Jesus with a little smile, " I have kept all these since my youth." Jesus smiles in return, and you know he approves of you. Again he responds.
"You lack one thing; " he says to you. "Go, sell what you have. Give all the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me."
Ouch. Gasps of shock from the listeners around, and dismay. Here is a man who has followed all the rules all his life. He comes to Jesus looking for validation that everything he has done is sufficient. Wham! Jesus says ‘Well, there is one more thing.’ Jesus then posits what seems to the young man an almost impossible task - to sell everything he has and give it away to those who need much.
In the culture of the time, if someone was of good character, then all good things came his way as a matter of course - it was assumed that if someone was wealthy that person was also good; if someone did not have good character he would not be wealthy, and thus if he was not wealthy it must mean he did not have good character. Essentially, prosperity and virtue went together.
Jesus essentially says to this man that the reason for discipleship is not the promise of reward. The man asks Jesus “what must I DO to enter the realm”, and Jesus answers with an action which is more extreme than obedience to the commandments.
You moved out onto the street, and people stepped out of your path. They knew you were important, but they also thought you were greedy. They kept their distance, just in case you cast your eye on their possessions.
You had space to see everything going on around you. With your clear sight lines you easily noticed some people setting out on a journey. Unlike most groups of travelers, trailing behind these people were women carrying children, Pharisees shouting questions, and sick people who pleading leader of the group. You could see the man was the new teacher named Jesus who everyone seemed to be talking about, how he could teach, and heal. People were even saying he knew the way to eternal life.
So you join the crowd following after the travelers. You hurry to the head of the group, up to their leader, and throw yourself down at his feet, and you ask Jesus about the question burning into your mind..
"Good teacher," you blurt out, "what must I do to inherit eternal life." Jesus replies to your question.
"You know the commandments: You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and mother."
"Teacher," you declare to Jesus with a little smile, " I have kept all these since my youth." Jesus smiles in return, and you know he approves of you. Again he responds.
"You lack one thing; " he says to you. "Go, sell what you have. Give all the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me."
Ouch. Gasps of shock from the listeners around, and dismay. Here is a man who has followed all the rules all his life. He comes to Jesus looking for validation that everything he has done is sufficient. Wham! Jesus says ‘Well, there is one more thing.’ Jesus then posits what seems to the young man an almost impossible task - to sell everything he has and give it away to those who need much.
In the culture of the time, if someone was of good character, then all good things came his way as a matter of course - it was assumed that if someone was wealthy that person was also good; if someone did not have good character he would not be wealthy, and thus if he was not wealthy it must mean he did not have good character. Essentially, prosperity and virtue went together.
Jesus essentially says to this man that the reason for discipleship is not the promise of reward. The man asks Jesus “what must I DO to enter the realm”, and Jesus answers with an action which is more extreme than obedience to the commandments.
Through this week, as Hurricane Michael has devastated the
Florida Panhandle, the son of one of my colleagues literally lost everything
except his truck and a few belongings. The RV he was living in is almost
toast. His mother has been in a panic
trying to stay in touch and make sure he is safe. He is a young man who had a
stroke, yet has been able to recover well enough to begin building a home –
living in an RV while he builds. He now has his truck, a few things, and his
parents. Yet in the end the gratitude
that he is alive supersedes everything else. Somehow he will recover and build
again.
Margaret Visser's book, "The Gift of Thanks", addresses a social ritual we take for granted. How many times did your mother tell you to say "Please" and "Thank you"? It is part of our ritual of politeness, and we get irritated at people who don’t say thank you. In Japan, it is even more so. Thanks must be given at every opportunity, and there is a ritual of thanks for every occasion. If you are invited to someone’s home for dinner, and you then don’t see them for another six months, when you do see them you have to say thank you yet again.
Margaret Visser responds to our 21st century experience of dismissing thanksgiving when we say "I don't need gratitude. Everything I want I can buy." She says that "We often forget that it is not gratitude and giving, but advantages taken for granted, and then unshared, that are much likelier to produce and encourage both differences in status and injustice."
A quick Google of “gratitude” brought some interesting results. The website for Café Gratitude - a chain in California - focuses on locally grown foods and an attitude of being generous and grateful.
Then I found a page called Gratitude Quotes. Rev. John Henry Jowett was born in Halifax, England, and served pastorates there. He lived from 1864 to 1923, and for a time was minister at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. He said "Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road."
Margaret Visser's book, "The Gift of Thanks", addresses a social ritual we take for granted. How many times did your mother tell you to say "Please" and "Thank you"? It is part of our ritual of politeness, and we get irritated at people who don’t say thank you. In Japan, it is even more so. Thanks must be given at every opportunity, and there is a ritual of thanks for every occasion. If you are invited to someone’s home for dinner, and you then don’t see them for another six months, when you do see them you have to say thank you yet again.
Margaret Visser responds to our 21st century experience of dismissing thanksgiving when we say "I don't need gratitude. Everything I want I can buy." She says that "We often forget that it is not gratitude and giving, but advantages taken for granted, and then unshared, that are much likelier to produce and encourage both differences in status and injustice."
A quick Google of “gratitude” brought some interesting results. The website for Café Gratitude - a chain in California - focuses on locally grown foods and an attitude of being generous and grateful.
Then I found a page called Gratitude Quotes. Rev. John Henry Jowett was born in Halifax, England, and served pastorates there. He lived from 1864 to 1923, and for a time was minister at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. He said "Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road."
He also said “The real measure of our wealth is how much we would be worth if we lost all our money.”
This goes directly to Jesus’ comment to the young man, who had observed all the virtues, all the rules, and yet was missing the one critical thing.
The rich man came from a detailed, rule-based religion, and was asking a rule - based question. His culture told him there must be a rule-based answer, one which could be fulfilled in much the same way other rules were fulfilled.
Jesus responds first to being called “good teacher”, reminding the rich man that "good" is not a compliment one tosses around in polite company, but a particular state of being that only God inhabits. Second, he says, the rules are clear, there are ten. Follow them.
But this rich man knows something else is needed, and so does Jesus. That is where gratitude enters the story. This rich man has all the advantages - money, comfort, enough food, enough clothing, respect. But he takes it for granted; he assumes it is his right to have it. Jesus is clear he needs to share what he has with others in order to fully enter God’s realm.
Margaret Visser’s phrase sticks with me - advantages taken for granted, and then unshared, which produce and encourage differences in status, and injustice. There, I think, is the key to this Gospel reading. Here was a wealthy man who took for granted his advantages, and did not share them. Jesus directly tells him that sharing can create a difference and right an injustice.
I don’t for a moment think Jesus really was telling the man literally to sell everything he had and give it all away. I don’t think this text is about selling everything off. In Jesus’ time and in our time, that’s not practical. I think the text does ask us to look closely at our own wealth, realistically. Did the rich man need everything he had? Do we actually need everything we have? Does having lots of things mean we are good and caring people? Does being poor and having little mean we are not good people.
The text does bring
us up against ‘all that we have’ – do we actually need everything we have in
order to live? How do we decide between need and want? I think Jesus was
telling the man that by sharing what he has, he demonstrates his gratitude to
God, and brings the realm of God a little closer.
Sources:
1. Inheriting Life, a sermon by Rev. Frank Fisher, Waltham Presbyterian Church, Utica, Illinois.
2. Rule Based Answers, Thanksgiving sermon by Rev. David Shearman, Central Westside United Church Owen Sound, Ontario.
3. Margaret Visser, “The Gift of Thanks”, HarperCollins Canada, 2008.
Sources:
1. Inheriting Life, a sermon by Rev. Frank Fisher, Waltham Presbyterian Church, Utica, Illinois.
2. Rule Based Answers, Thanksgiving sermon by Rev. David Shearman, Central Westside United Church Owen Sound, Ontario.
3. Margaret Visser, “The Gift of Thanks”, HarperCollins Canada, 2008.
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