With all your blessings, Lord, we pray.

Enrich [our lives, marked with the sign of the cross.]

Preserve and sanctify them now,

  with every gift of love endow.

[But] shame our wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things and poor in soul.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, lest we miss your kingdom’s goal, lest

we miss your kingdom’s goal.

- from: Paraphrase of the OSLC Birthday Hymn and a stanza from the Entrance Hymn, God of Grace and God of Glory (#705)

            It’s absolutely clear what the prophet Amos, speaking on behalf of God, expects of us.  Not to be bribed, not to be seduced by riches made by taking levies from the poor who can’t afford it.  But to do justice and to speak out on behalf of justice [perhaps especially at all the “gates” where all the entrances to a “rich” life are closely guarded].  This bold expectation is also in the Letter of Call you gave us as your pastors.  [Hold it up for the congregation to see.]  While stated explicitly in the call that clergy receive, the call to do justice and speak out on its behalf is not just for clergy.  It’s also in the Affirmation of Baptism we repeat each time someone joins the congregation or is confirmed in their faith:  It’s really a baptismal expectation placed on us all.  Baptized in Christ Jesus the affirmation asserts we are all called “to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.” 

            It’s the call to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

            So, hear the demand, which is virtually a constant in scripture, in fact, a dominant chord.  Just don’t pretend that it’s not there.  You can say, “I’m not buying it,” or, “It’s too hard,” but don’t say you didn’t know or it doesn’t it doesn’t apply to me.  No one who reads the Bible or attends church is excused from knowing that justice has God’s heart.

            As Amos himself was called out from being a shepherd to discipleship as God’s prophet, we might look at the story in the Gospel of Mark about Jesus and the wealthy man who comes to him seeking eternal life as a story of being called as a disciple.  In the gospels, Jesus clearly establishes a pattern of calling people from the security of their way of life onto The Way, the way of Jesus.  The demand that this proprietor divest of his assets and follow him is not really so different than asking a fisherman to leave his nets–his economic security, as was the case with some of the first disciples, [CHED MYERS] of which Peter is kind enough to point out to Jesus.

            What is particular to this scene is Jesus’ command to “give [back] to the poor”.  And it’s this command that makes the wealthy man slip away, for Jesus has, in effect, not just seen him, but seen into and through him.  The Greek word translated as “possessions” here has a more narrow meaning of “land” or “estates”.  So “many possessions” probably means “many estates”.  Mark, I think, is suggesting that this man is not as blameless as he claims, but has become rich by defrauding the poor and must make restitution.  That’s why Jesus, in his listing of the commandments to this man, inserted one that is NOT literally among the ten originals.  Jesus adds “Do not defraud” to the list [as does Luther in one of his writings]. The man didn’t notice that addition at the time, or perhaps, if he did, thought Jesus had just misquoted the commandment “Do not covet”, because he earnestly tells Jesus he has kept all of these commandments from his youth; that is, let us imagine from the time he was confirmed.

            But Jesus pushes to the heart of the matter with this man, because he loves him and wants to heal him of his particular illness.  When Jesus looks at you and me, he sees us both very much as we are, and he loves us, again, as we are… and are invited to become.   

            So maybe this is also a healing story, as well as a call story.  That’s what New Testament scholar Barbara Rossing believes:  This is a story of Jesus seeking to heal a man who doesn’t even know he’s sick and who moreover doesn’t want to be healed.  His need to be healed, however, may be indicated in his “kneeling down,” a gesture that often accompanies a plea for healing in the gospels, as in Mark 1 where the leper comes to Jesus, kneels down and begs for healing.  But the rich man does this without even knowing that it is healing that he needs, not advice.

            And Jesus looks at this man with love and says, in effect, “What you have, my friend, is not yours.  You have achieved your wealth by defrauding the poor.  You must give it back.  Then you will be healed and able to follow me.”

            This is not cosmetic surgery we’re talking about.  Neither is it just a matter of slapping on a little paint with an exotic name and buying designer pillow-covers to make things look better.  This is an Extreme Makeover of the most dramatic kind.  This is getting down to the cracked foundation itself to do the essential repairs first, just as was needed at the Marshall family home in Lyme last week. 

            Jesus is telling this man, and by extension all of us, that even a life of apparent piety, if it has been built on injustice to the poor, is in need of an extreme makeover, not just metaphorically but in actual fact.  Restitution must be made. 

            To be fair, maybe the man really hadn’t understood how much his life of privilege was based on unjust practice — either his own direct practice or the usual ways and means of the economic system he was part of.  It was just his ordinary life.  But Jesus knows.  And he tells this man, “You’ve got to get to the bottom of the problem and repair it.” 

            This man, living a life of privilege at the expense of the poor, has to make restitution to the poor if he is serious about following Jesus.

            Why am I so strongly focused on this?  Because I have to hear it.  I want to ignore it, I will deny it’s implications for my life, I want to walk away from it, I don’t want to admit how sick I am with a similar affliction called “affluenza”, a term coined by John DeGraaf.  [Now as an aside let me say I have learned that affluenza in Portuguese does mean influenza; but I’m not talking about the common flu.]  I am talking about our over-consumption!  It is that insatiable desire for more, despite its ecological and societal costs.   I myself need to be healed.  I know that.  So I’m not giving a sermon directed only to you about doing this and this and this and not that.  This is a sermon I’m giving to myself.

            We need to be healed.  Even in these harder economic times so many of us have so much.  Even with the anxiety most of us feel about our economic well-being we need healing, just as the rich man did.

            What gives us hope in this gospel text is that Jesus gazes upon us with love.  He does ask a hard thing of us because he loves us, wants to heal us, and wants us to follow him.  What gives us hope is that Jesus assures us that with God all things are possible.  What could be more wonderful, more gracious, and a better invitation to let go of all our stuff?  And what also gives us hope is that we don’t know the end of the story.  The wealthy man leaves the presence of Jesus grieving, even convicted, but the healing may have already begun.  Our story, too, continues.  What we did yesterday need not be what we do today and tomorrow, just as when you leave worship this morning it is not the end of the story, but perhaps the beginning of our healing. 

            We’re called to be part of the movement that Jesus inaugurated out of love for the world.  We are all invited by Jesus to take part in that movement, an ongoing movement in time and history and place.   It’s an invitation to healing within the community of Jesus, within our own community at OSLC, by letting go of what we don’t need for the sake of the world.  So, if this an indirect stewardship sermon, it is only in the sense that it is not about giving more money for the church per se so that the church becomes wealthy, but being healed so that we might let go of what we don’t need for the sake of the poor and the earth.  In that sense it is indeed stewardship.  It is though a call to give generously to the church, that greatest of all “pass-through” institutions.  For what we give to the church is passed through to countless ministries for the sake of the world.

Remember after all, that the famous text in John 3:16 doesn’t say, “For God so loved the church that he gave his only begotten Son.”  It says, “For God so loved the world!”  And in that world we are called to manifest God’s love in both justice and mercy.  Which is to say we are invited to look at the world with the eyes of Jesus.  To love this world passionately and to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. 

            Amen.  May it be so for you and me.

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