One more thing

 

Mark 10:17-31

The Rich Man

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 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; Honour your father and mother.’ ” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.” 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.”

Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, 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. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen

As he was setting out on a journey…

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is constantly on the move… journeying from one place to the next.

Ultimately it is one journey - the journey to the cross.

But all along the way, his journey is interrupted by encounters with women, with children, with the poor, the hungry, with the sick, with the perplexed and disillusioned.

Jesus ministry happens in the in between places and in the interruptions, with those who stop him in his tracks, asking questions, looking for food or healing or comfort or teaching  - or all of these at once.

And, in every encounter, people are changed.

Some are fed, some are healed, some are lifted up, some are angered and some are confused.

Jesus doesn’t simply give folk what they ask for.

His isn’t a transactional economy.

His encounters are relational.

He meets people along the way, sees them, knows them and minsters to them or receives from them, enjoying hospitality where he finds it.

And models, for us, a way of being in our world today.

A way of seeing those around us, of seeing the interruptions in our daily lives as moments of encounter in which God is revealed - in unlikely places and in unlikely people.

In all those in between spaces - where God is.

I’m a fan of in between spaces.

There is something freeing and creative about them.

I wonder if it has something to do with not having to be “sorted” in those spaces because we’re still on the way, neither here nor there, but somewhere in between. In a space where there is still potential to be realised, discoveries to be explored.

We, as individuals and, together, as church, are living in an in between space.

Working out who we are called to be in a world learning to live with pandemic.

Working out what we have learned and are still learning.

Working out who God calls us to be for this season.

In many ways that’s nothing new.

As Christ’s body, we are constantly tasked with questioning what God requires of us.

I wonder, though, as we begin to emerge tentatively from a season of curtailment, whether the question is more - Who is God calling us to be?

When we lay aside our traditions and our rituals and the things we have always done, who is God calling us to be - individually and together.

For the last few years, that’s been my calling - to ask folk in churches the length and breadth of Scotland - who are we being called to be today?

The man in our gospel who ran up to Jesus, knelt at his feet and asked: What must I do to inherit eternal life, sounds like he was on a  similar journey.

A journey of discernment.

Trying to work out who God was calling him to be.

And his response, when Jesus laid out the one thing he might do, mirrors the response of many churches wrestling with that question today.

There’s real disappointment that our traditions aren’t enough.

That our rituals won’t do.

That our history, be it long or short won’t buy us the free pass we seek today.

The one thing that God requires of us today is to set down the weight we carry, the things that hold us back and root us in the past, to join in the new thing that God does in every age and every time, for all people.

God calls us to be more relational in our encounters with the communities we are called to serve.

God frees us to be more prepared to be guests rather than hosts, partnering with those who are already making a difference, wherever they come from.

Today in a world scarred by the trauma of pandemic

In a country beginning to experience the reality of Brexit

In a community blighted by poverty - fuel poverty, food poverty, economic poverty

Who is God calling is to be?

And what is it we must lay down to take up that call?

As we wrestle with that question, let’s remember that Jesus looks at us and loves us.

As he did with the man in our gospel story.

Jesus looks at us and loves us.

And, if we are willing, Jesus journeys with us as we discern who we are called to be - for this season.

On a journey that neither ignores or scorns the past but, in the light of all that we have learned, sees every interruption as an encounter with Christ to whom we are invited to respond with love.

May we discover who God call us to be today in the light and love of Christ.

Amen.