19 Pentecost Yr B

Being that the Twins are in the playoffs, I thought I’d begin with a baseball joke. Hank and Frank were baseball buddies. They were the biggest fans in the whole U.S. Both were stars on the St. Swithins Episcopal Church team, the Faith Lutheran team, just in case, and coached the little boys T-ball for the elementary school team. The guys made an agreement between them that whoever died first would try to come back and report on whether or not there was baseball in heaven. Hank died first, and as he promised, came to Frank as in a dream. “Frank, Frank,” Hank whispered into his buddy’s ear, “I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. The good news is that there is baseball in heaven.” “And the bad news?” Frank asked. “You’re pitching tomorrow night!”

We make a mistake when we think this gospel story in Mark is about the reward at the end of life. What must I do to inherit eternal life seems like a question about what happens next. But life is not about the reward at the end; life is about now. The Kingdom is now, Jesus inaugurated the kingdom, Jesus is the first-born of the kingdom, we are citizens of the kingdom, now. That’s what the whole life, death and resurrection story is about. The question is not about what happens after life; the question is about participating in God’s kingdom now. The question is about who we are and how we behave as those who God loves abundantly and absolutely. The answer is difficult, as the young man discovers, so difficult that he turns away from it. The answer is about being lean and thin. You gotta to be pretty darn thin to get through the eye of a needle.

The kingdom is about being exactly who you were created to be, no more, no less. You were created to be a lover, and you were created to be loved. Not a lot of extra weight on that, and I know a thing or two about extra weight. This is about being lean. Sometimes we’ve looked at this passage and decided it was all about divesting ourselves of our wealth, a rich man cannot get in but a poor man can. There is an issue of wealth here, but I don’t think it’s just about wealth. I don’t think it’s about sacrifice or how much you give. I think it’s about being found by God, and about living right now as a grace filled child of God. I think it is about the power God gives us to live fully alive. And some in our tradition call that salvation.

Jesus was talking about being lean when he said to this young man it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. God loves you, abundantly and absolutely. But you need to be thin; you need to be lean. You need to put yourself in God’s presence, you need to divest yourself of all that which makes you fat. And you need to give up trying to buy the kingdom, or eternal life, or whatever people want to call it, and you need to place yourself squarely in God’s presence.

The kingdom can’t be bought, it can’t be bought with your time, it can’t be bought with your money, it can’t be bought with your life. That’s already happened, that’s already been done for you, Jesus already did that on your behalf. In response, your job is twofold. Your job is to divest yourself of all that makes you fat, all that puts extra barriers around you to keep you from being fully in God’s presence and abundant and absolute love. After that, you need to turn to the question of the relationship of worship and ethics.

What barriers do you set up that keep you from being fully receptive to God, to God’s grace and abundant and absolute love? What keeps you from being lean? For the young man in the story today, it was power and status. The young man followed the commandments, but Jesus asked more of him. Jesus loved him, and asked him to divest himself of power and status, the wealth that defined him. The young man could not do it. In 1st century Mediterranean culture, power and status were a hot commodity. His very being was defined by his power and status, not unlike our present culture. To divest himself of that was to reorient himself to the kingdom, and he was not willing. This young man was missing out on living the new life that Jesus offered him.

What are your barriers? What gives you false security? What role do your possessions play in your life? What provides false confidence in your life? What hurts do you live out of and hang on to that are barriers to you being fully receptive to God? What resentments do you hang on to, what revenge do you seek? All of these are barriers to being fully receptive to God’s love and grace, to salvation.

Secondly, how are worship and ethics connected in your life? I love all this we do together on Sunday mornings, and I get to do it all again on Wednesday mornings and sometimes even on Wednesday nights. I love the music that takes me to places just the words cannot. I love the words that connect me to saints past and saints yet to come. I love the actions of breaking bread, gathering shoulder to shoulder to love and support each other as we eat the bread, the mystery that contains the unexplainable, all pointing to the God who loves us, and comes into our lives, the God who feeds us, cares for us, the God who is known and unknowable. But none of that matters without the leanness, without the divestment, without the removal of the barriers and reorientation to the Kingdom. That’s what the first will be last and the last will be first is about; it is about being reoriented to the Kingdom. What we do matters, what we do in community matters, what we do at work matters. Worship needs to reorient us to the kingdom, worship needs to point us out into the world, what we do in the world matters, what we do here together in church matters. Loving one another matters.

I think for many in our culture today the fat is layers of pride and ego. Many are so concerned with being right and marginalizing those who disagree with them, or who are different from them, that they put on layers and layers of fat. I believe it’s better to be loving than right. Compassion and empathy prepare us for that journey through the needle, pride and ego and the need to be right make us fat and prevent us from making it through that small space.

Anne Lamott, author of Traveling Mercies, and Plan “B” said in a recent interview, "I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right.”

Being light enough to dance, to sing, to play, slipping through that needle’s eye, you don’t have to be right, just thin. Live your life as if every moment matters, as if each person is loved by God just as you are. You are a part of the kingdom.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him.