Let Go to Grab On
14 October 2018
Proper 23B
Homily preached at Trinity Episcopal Church
The Rev. Dr. Anthony Hutchinson
Ashland, Oregon
8:00 a.m. spoken, 10:00 a.m. Sung Mass with Holy Baptism
Every once in a while, you run into
a Bible passage that draws you up short, and makes you ask, “What’s wrong with
this picture?”
In today’s Gospel, a young man asks
Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Now if many evangelical preachers were asked
this, they might say, “Confess with your lips and believe in your heart that
Jesus is Lord. Accept Jesus as your
personal savior, and you shall be saved!”
Other mainstream ministers might say, “Repent of your sins, be baptized,
be active in the Church, and live according to God’s Word.” This time of year, they might add, “Be
abundant in your pledging and support the Church by generous giving and
tithing.” But Jesus says none of these
things. Again, what is wrong with this
picture?
Jesus replies by giving a short list
of the commandments, passing over the obvious first few that are about devotion
to God. He focuses on the ones about our
obligations to others: “Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not lie, honor
your parents and family obligations.”
The young man replies, “I’ve kept these commandments since I was
little.”
Again, what is wrong with this
picture? Is Jesus actually saying that
in order to go to heaven, you have to give all your possessions to the
poor?” Even Saint Francis, who took
this passage very literally in his own life, did not make the demand for
absolute poverty in the interest of others a rule for all people in all
circumstances.
When Jesus and his associates talk
about “eternal life,” they are not taking about life in heaven after death. Similarly, “the kingdom of heaven” is not for
them an image for a blessed afterlife.
Jesus is here not answering the question, “what must I do to go to
heaven?”
Rather, the idea here is a contrast
between the way the world is now, what they called ha-olam hazeh “this
world,” or “this age,” and how it will
be once God has set things right in the Great Day of the Lord promised by the
prophets. The Day of the Lord would
usher in God’s Reign of justice, peace, prosperity, and healing. This is ha-olam ha-ba, “the
age” or “the world” “to come.”
The young man is not asking Jesus
what he must do to go to heaven, but rather, what he must do to enjoy life in
the Age to Come.
Again, this was not a way of talking
about a heaven in the afterlife, divorced from this world. Jesus and his contemporaries hoped for no
such thing. They would have seen the
wisdom of early American labor activist Joe Hill’s parody of the belief in
spiritual salvation rather than social justice in the hymn “In the Sweet Bye
and Bye”:
“You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You’ll get pie in the sky when you
die.”
Paul refers to this idea in
Galatians 1:4, where he speaks of Jesus giving himself for our sins “to rescue
us from the present evil age.”
Jesus announced the inbreaking of
God’s Reign. “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand” is better translated: “Change
your way of thinking, for God’s Reign is already in your midst.” When the young man asks, “And what must I do
to enjoy the life of this Reign of God,” Jesus lists the commandments on how we
treat others. Building the reign of God
means practical real efforts at eliminating injustice and alleviating
suffering.
But note here that for this
questioner, Jesus in his list omits the commandment “thou shalt not covet,” or
desire the possessions or good fortune of others. Instead, in Mark he says, “do not
defraud.” In Matthew, he leaves it out
altogether. This tells us the real
meaning of Jesus’ next words: “One thing
only you lack: go, sell all you have,
and give it to the poor.”
The young man may have kept all the
other commandments, but he covets his own property. The one thing this rich young man needs to is
let go of his attachment to things; it is the one thing he is unable to
do. He was after all, in the words that
end the story, “very rich.”
This story gives an example of the
truth told in the parable of the different soils, what we usually call the
parable of the sower.” A farmer may
broadcast good seed into all sorts of different grounds, but the results depend
of the quality of the soil. “Rejoice for
God’s Reign is already here!” says
Jesus. “And how can I participate in it?”
says this covetous young man. “You need
to give up your attachment to your things.” says Jesus. But to another questioner Jesus may have
replied, “You need to give up your attachment to having your own way” or “to
lust,” or “to your own sense of self importance.” Attachment is rooted in fear. And giving up fear is key in seeing God at
work in the world about us, in seeing God’s Reign already in our midst.
What matters here most is not the
act of giving, though that is important, but the detachment that allows us to
see God’s Reign, the spiritual practice of detachment that makes the giving
possible. Buddhism also teaches the
central part that detachment, of letting go of our desire, plays in new life
and enlightenment. Our Christian
practice of detachment is not as stark as the Buddhist one that demands
annihilation of desire altogether: we let go so that we can grab on to things
more central, things that may ultimately allow us to enjoy what we have let
go: seek first the reign of God and its
justice, and everything else will be added back on, says Jesus.
Attachment
is the blindfold that keeps us from seeing God’s Reign. It is what holds us back from reaching out
and grabbing God’s hand. Attachment is
driven most of all by fear: fear of not having, or of losing what we
desire. Meister Eckhart, a Medieval
Dominican monk and Mystic, taught that the key to happiness is to lose oneself
and desire, and thus overcome fear: if we cannot actually get rid of
fear, then we at least can act as if we do not have it. He said, “Do exactly what you would do if you felt most
secure.” “If you would be serene and pure, you need but one thing:
detachment.” And “You may call God love, you may call God goodness.
But the best name for God is Compassion.”
God’s Reign, the Age to Come, is
here and now. But we are often blind to
it. That’s why it seems so strange when Jesus
says such things as “Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the
mourning. God is with them. They enjoy
God’s Reign if they but see it.” Gratitude
drives out fear, and with fear, attachment.
Seeing God’s Reign is not so much
about giving up our worldly possessions, or the renouncing of specific sins, as
it is about letting go of what alienates us from God and from each other, about
letting gratitude drive out fear. As we
talk about pledging and tithing in the coming month, remember that it is not
the sums at issue that matter: it is the disposition of a grateful heart, and
the spiritual practice of detachment, willingness to let go so we can grab
on.
We celebrated the sacrament of new
birth and life in God’s Reign today in little Esperanza’s baptism. It is an affirmation that the Reign of God is
in our midst, despite all the bad that may remain, despite the brokenness we
see in us and about us still. Baptism is
new life even as we die to what alienates us from God and from each other. The Age to Come is here, even as the Present
Age is in its death throes. In baptism
we express our hope and affirmation in God at work in our lives and the world
about us. Letting go so we can grab on
is what Jesus calls us to do.
In
the name of Christ, Amen.
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