This story of the rich man who wants to inherit the kingdom of God is in Mark, Matthew and Luke’s gospels. And it runs basically the same way. Jesus is on his journey to Jerusalem and the cross. A rich man respectfully bows before him and asks What must I do? Show obedience to God. I have done so all my life. Then sell all your goods and follow me. It’s a call to discipleship story.[1] And in Mark at least, it’s the only time when someone is called to be a disciple and goes away.[2] It’s a story about discipleship and possessions and how we should give our wealth away. So it surprises exactly no one in any church when it gets used to kick off a Stewardship campaign. Like we are kicking off here today. Please note the pledge form in your bulletin.
When this story in Mark was written, the Jesus followers knew people who had known Jesus before the crucifixion. They may have known people who had met him after the resurrection. There was a feeling that Jesus was going to return literally any day. The early church did try to share resources, to hold wealth in a common purse.[3] And humans being humans, that went about as well as you think it would.
Once it became clear that Jesus was not coming back during the lifetime of the people who knew him personally, the interpretation of this passage shifted. The people who were entering religious orders, they were the ones who were to sell everything they owned and embrace poverty.[4] And we still see that today, nuns and monks in most orders do take a vow of poverty. The only person I know myself who has taken that vow told me it was an incredibly hard decision to make because even if she decided to leave the order later in her life, she would be so far behind financially she would live in poverty regardless. It terrified her family, her parents and her siblings, even as they understood and supported her decision.
And then during the Protestant Revolution, we looked at this passage again. Yes sure, this particularrich man needed to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. But it was just that guy. He had trouble being seduced by what he owned. All of us have something we love more than we love God. Maybe it’s possessions. Maybe it’s fame or reputation or power or beauty. The point is not to allow anything to possess us more than our desire to inherit the kingdom of God. It’s not about wealth and possession, per se, but about what takes us away from God.[5]
I think it’s about wealth and possessions.
I do think that for Peter and the rest of the disciples, they walked away from their possessions, their families, their jobs. And I think, for some of them, for some of what they walked away from, it wasn’t a sacrifice so much as it was just stuff that was in the way. They didn’t give it up so much as drop it and keep going.
This may sound like a weird analogy, but there was a time when I would struggle twice a week to decide if I were going to go to the gym to do my strength training. Then sitting there in the parking lot on a Tuesday night, I just decided that I wasn’t going to decide any more. I was just going. I didn’t decide about brushing my teeth or eating breakfast or making my bed. I was going to stop deciding about the gym and just do it as a part of life. The quality of my life went through the roof once I left that dithering behind.
I think it was like that for some of the disciples for some things.
But I also know that when I got off the corporate track and went into ministry, my disposable income went down. I had to be more careful about throwing away possessions because it became harder to replace them. I think more about vegetable peelers because I don’t want to end up buying three of them to find one that works well and feels good in my hand. And I think more about what gave me pleasure. I adore audiobooks. And I am the queen of working the borrowing process from all sorts of libraries in all sorts of places.
The way this passage is used during a church stewardship campaign, we often hear, “See, don’t be like that guy. Don’t go away grieving and not follow Jesus just to keep your stuff. Sell your stuff and give it to the poor. The poor, old church. Fill out your pledge card today.” I’m not going to say that especially since I’m not about to sell all my stuff. I don’t think it’s believable. And I don’t think it’s faithful. Even though I really think Jesus truly meant that to be his disciple you need to do just that.
Here's what I would say. Most of us are not like Peter and the rest, willing to walk away from everything, possessions, family, jobs, community, reputations, power, connections. Maybe it’s something in our primate brains that if we did meet Jesus face to face, body to body, it would be easier or even possible. But until I came face to face with this passage, and had to admit to myself that, indeed, Jesus was telling me, personally, that my possessions were keeping me from truly following Jesus, I don’t think I appreciated how much I was playing the game of this world and not the kingdom of God.
I can have a well-researched vegetable peeler, and sure, maybe it can help with the potatoes for the Senior Luncheon. But even when I’m peeling my lone spud for supper, maybe I could use the peeling time to think about how better to love my neighbor whose alarm goes off through the paper thin wall at 4:00am every weekday. Instead of listening to the latest nonsense in the presidential race.
Maybe instead of using my possessions to protect me from the sharp edges of the world around me, I can invite them to connect me with the God I obey and whose disciple I would like to be. If that’s what they do, maybe I need fewer possessions and would have more resources to give to the church. Every year, when I fill out my pledge card, I increase the amount, aiming to increase it 10% each year. And there have been years when it hurt to write that number down on the paper. But I never seem to miss the possessions I don’t buy and I’m always pretty tickled about what the church can do to make a difference in people’s lives. Make it easier for them to come into loving relationship with God and with their neighbors.
Jesus calls us to live in the real world. And in the real world, in the end, we are going to let go of all our possessions. Maybe we’ll leave them behind in our house for our kids to get rid of, but in the end, those possessions are not coming with us. Maybe they can offer protection from the real world. Or maybe they can help us get to that place of deep discipleship. I don’t know. But I do know that pledge card is a place to stop and think for a bit about how you want to join Jesus on that journey that is headed to the cross and beyond. Our possessions are a part of that decision. We can decide what we want to do about them in next year’s leg of the journey. And how we want to come closer to being the disciples Jesus is calling us to be.
[1] Lamar Williamson, Jr., Mark, in Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1983), 183.
[2] Williamson, 183.
[3] Williamson, 187.
[4] Williamson, 187.
[5] Williamson, 187.
When this story in Mark was written, the Jesus followers knew people who had known Jesus before the crucifixion. They may have known people who had met him after the resurrection. There was a feeling that Jesus was going to return literally any day. The early church did try to share resources, to hold wealth in a common purse.[3] And humans being humans, that went about as well as you think it would.
Once it became clear that Jesus was not coming back during the lifetime of the people who knew him personally, the interpretation of this passage shifted. The people who were entering religious orders, they were the ones who were to sell everything they owned and embrace poverty.[4] And we still see that today, nuns and monks in most orders do take a vow of poverty. The only person I know myself who has taken that vow told me it was an incredibly hard decision to make because even if she decided to leave the order later in her life, she would be so far behind financially she would live in poverty regardless. It terrified her family, her parents and her siblings, even as they understood and supported her decision.
And then during the Protestant Revolution, we looked at this passage again. Yes sure, this particularrich man needed to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. But it was just that guy. He had trouble being seduced by what he owned. All of us have something we love more than we love God. Maybe it’s possessions. Maybe it’s fame or reputation or power or beauty. The point is not to allow anything to possess us more than our desire to inherit the kingdom of God. It’s not about wealth and possession, per se, but about what takes us away from God.[5]
I think it’s about wealth and possessions.
I do think that for Peter and the rest of the disciples, they walked away from their possessions, their families, their jobs. And I think, for some of them, for some of what they walked away from, it wasn’t a sacrifice so much as it was just stuff that was in the way. They didn’t give it up so much as drop it and keep going.
This may sound like a weird analogy, but there was a time when I would struggle twice a week to decide if I were going to go to the gym to do my strength training. Then sitting there in the parking lot on a Tuesday night, I just decided that I wasn’t going to decide any more. I was just going. I didn’t decide about brushing my teeth or eating breakfast or making my bed. I was going to stop deciding about the gym and just do it as a part of life. The quality of my life went through the roof once I left that dithering behind.
I think it was like that for some of the disciples for some things.
But I also know that when I got off the corporate track and went into ministry, my disposable income went down. I had to be more careful about throwing away possessions because it became harder to replace them. I think more about vegetable peelers because I don’t want to end up buying three of them to find one that works well and feels good in my hand. And I think more about what gave me pleasure. I adore audiobooks. And I am the queen of working the borrowing process from all sorts of libraries in all sorts of places.
The way this passage is used during a church stewardship campaign, we often hear, “See, don’t be like that guy. Don’t go away grieving and not follow Jesus just to keep your stuff. Sell your stuff and give it to the poor. The poor, old church. Fill out your pledge card today.” I’m not going to say that especially since I’m not about to sell all my stuff. I don’t think it’s believable. And I don’t think it’s faithful. Even though I really think Jesus truly meant that to be his disciple you need to do just that.
Here's what I would say. Most of us are not like Peter and the rest, willing to walk away from everything, possessions, family, jobs, community, reputations, power, connections. Maybe it’s something in our primate brains that if we did meet Jesus face to face, body to body, it would be easier or even possible. But until I came face to face with this passage, and had to admit to myself that, indeed, Jesus was telling me, personally, that my possessions were keeping me from truly following Jesus, I don’t think I appreciated how much I was playing the game of this world and not the kingdom of God.
I can have a well-researched vegetable peeler, and sure, maybe it can help with the potatoes for the Senior Luncheon. But even when I’m peeling my lone spud for supper, maybe I could use the peeling time to think about how better to love my neighbor whose alarm goes off through the paper thin wall at 4:00am every weekday. Instead of listening to the latest nonsense in the presidential race.
Maybe instead of using my possessions to protect me from the sharp edges of the world around me, I can invite them to connect me with the God I obey and whose disciple I would like to be. If that’s what they do, maybe I need fewer possessions and would have more resources to give to the church. Every year, when I fill out my pledge card, I increase the amount, aiming to increase it 10% each year. And there have been years when it hurt to write that number down on the paper. But I never seem to miss the possessions I don’t buy and I’m always pretty tickled about what the church can do to make a difference in people’s lives. Make it easier for them to come into loving relationship with God and with their neighbors.
Jesus calls us to live in the real world. And in the real world, in the end, we are going to let go of all our possessions. Maybe we’ll leave them behind in our house for our kids to get rid of, but in the end, those possessions are not coming with us. Maybe they can offer protection from the real world. Or maybe they can help us get to that place of deep discipleship. I don’t know. But I do know that pledge card is a place to stop and think for a bit about how you want to join Jesus on that journey that is headed to the cross and beyond. Our possessions are a part of that decision. We can decide what we want to do about them in next year’s leg of the journey. And how we want to come closer to being the disciples Jesus is calling us to be.
[1] Lamar Williamson, Jr., Mark, in Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1983), 183.
[2] Williamson, 183.
[3] Williamson, 187.
[4] Williamson, 187.
[5] Williamson, 187.