Plymouth Congregational Church of Fort Wayne, UCC
October 11, 2009
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Scripture Lesson:  Mark 10:28-31

 What Riches We Heed

"... Peter began to say to Jesus,
‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.'"  
 (Mark 10:28)

Prelude

This morning we continue addressing the theme

for our fall stewardship campaign: 

Plymouth in Action - Immerse Yourself!

This past week I got "caught up" in a moment of inspiration.

Actually, I found myself thinking that we ought to extend

the interplay of stewardship and immersion. 

The possibilities for framing conversations on faith,

with our vowed immersion in church ministry and mission,

are considerable.

I mentioned last week:

God trusts us.

God has made a costly investment on our behalf.

Life for life

was offered in Christ

that we be redeemed.

Jesus spent himself

that we be saved.

Jesus emptied himself

that we be full.

Jesus poured out his love

that love might fill and runneth over

within our company.

Jesus is, what he was,

enchanting hope, summoning Word,

that we might follow his lead

into a kingdom come, a will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

As a theme, "Immerse Yourself" urges resistance

to shallow, restricted dimensions of faith and life;

Taco Bell has it right:  life is delicious if you can think

outside the bun!

Life is not a checker board, with rules relegating

faith to some, but not all, squares into which we may jump;

faith is transportable soul security,

suited for whatever condition we may fall.

Immersion is invitation to deeper forms of discipleship,

with a broader understanding of stewardship.

As a little boy growing up in a little town,

there was one big swimming pool (at least so it seemed).

That pool had a shallow end and a deep end,

and nylon rope with bi-colored plastic floats

served as a line of separation

between the shallow and the deep,

the one and the other. 

As a beginning swimmer you spend time

on tip toes in the shallow end,

bobbing up and down,

occasionally but not often

dipping head into the water. 

At the opposite end, though, you could see and

hear the older more experienced swimmers diving, splashing,

plunging into the deep water. 

Everyone was aware:

there was danger in those depths,

but those depths were also attractive. 

And I remember thinking someday,

I'm going to get into the deep end. 

That is where I want to swim. 

I want to bounce on the that board, jump high,

dive deep, splash and swim in those waters.

Would that it were so for us in the Christian life of faith,

when we immerse ourselves

in the love of Jesus, the mind of Christ,

the prayer of Jesus, service and ministry with Jesus,

even the life God inspires

with the Christian revelation.

          *****                   *****                   *****

I have but three points this morning. 

We are invited to immerse ourselves into

(1) a faith family;

(2) a community committed to good news;

(3) this world.

This is distillation of the morning scripture lesson.

We heard the closing three verses (Mark 10:28-31)

from a much longer lesson that began with verse 17. 

It is important that we consider this whole.

We read:  Jesus was about to set off on a journey,

but he was interrupted by a man who rushed up to him,

who knelt before him, and who posed a most urgent

question: 

"Good Teacher, what must I do

to inherit eternal life?"

Let's pause here just for a moment. 

Often Jesus is engaged by people who approach

with questionable motives. 

They seek to test, to entrap, to discredit;

they look to see if Jesus will stumble or fumble.

But this question (I believe) comes without ulterior motive. 

It comes from one invested, might we say immersed in life,

and looking for assurance of continuation

beyond the looming shadow of death. 

There may be a subtextual fear of death,

but I sense it is a subtext, and secondary

to a love of life that is already much cherished.

Jesus does not like the flattery he receives.

He rejects the elevated status.

"Why do you call me good?"

God alone merits the attribute of good,

which itself is a remarkable article of faith.

Jesus proceeds to link the attainment of life

to commandment; Matthew's version of this

story makes clear that to which Mark alludes;

Matthew notes:  "you wish to enter life,

keep the commandments."   And there follow

recitation of commandments conducive to life.

Drum roll ...

From the top ten (David Letterman could have

been spared much with knowing the Ten!):

You shall not murder -  No. 6

You shall not commit adultery -  No. 7

You shall not steal -  No. 8

You shall not bear false witness -  No. 9

Honor your father and mother -  No. 5.

And then we have what I call a bonus commandment

(Leviticus 19:13), You shall not defraud (a commandment

that clearly advocates for a just wage, giving in payment

what one is due).

The man is not unfamiliar with this law.

"Teacher" (he has learned his lesson about "good"),

"I have kept all these since my youth."

Mark then informs:

"Jesus, looking at him, loved him ..."

We next hear Jesus advising:

sell your possessions; divest,

give your money to the poor;

you will have treasure in heaven;

and come, follow me."

The man was shocked, appalled.

The possessions validated his place;

they were a sign of his being blessed by God.

The call to renounce what blessing was visible

was too much.  And so he departed; he went away,

sad, because he had many possessions.

It is the only recorded instance

in which Jesus issues a call that does not

meet with a positive response. 

Let us understand: Jesus suggests

there is a curriculum for life to be found

in the commandments.  In the Christian life

in which we are immersed,

there are opportunities and obligations. 

We are defined by what we do and don't do

in accordance with the law of God. 

Yet there is more to this life than

conformity to commandment. 

There is more to life than moral obligation. 

In "the way" of Jesus, life is experienced

in a greater love.

Now this is what we know up to this point:

the man concerned about eternal life

is much invested in life.  He loves the life he leads,

and he was loved.  Yet when summoned to immerse

himself in a greater love, he could not sever,

he could not break the hold his possessions held.

His many possession served as weight,

keeping him in a life that denied him the

quality of life he desired.

Jesus then offers commentary on what transpired

to the disciples.  It is hard, downright impossible,

for people who are possessed by their possessions to

be fully possessed by God.  Easier for a camel

to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich

man to enter the kingdom.  The disciples do not cheer

this tidbit of information.  The possibility for anyone

being saved becomes compromised.  And Jesus doesn't

loosen the tension.  Really, with the likes of you - it

is impossible.  But with God, all things are possible.

We find ourselves on the verge of the lesson this

morning.  Peter finds no peace in this classroom lecture.

He is wondering if he missed reading some fine print

when he signed on with Jesus.  Look, he asserts,

"we have left everything to follow you."

Peter's exclamation is not a philosophical question.

It is profoundly existential.

In following Jesus, what do you get?

Jesus does not leave Peter wanting.

If immersed in the Jesus life, this what you get:

(1) a faith family;

(2) a community committed to good news;

(3) in this world.

Permit some development of these three thoughts.

MaryLou and Kim.  You have families. 

And family you are.  Yet the faith family is different.

Howard Clark Kee, biblical scholar and student of Mark's gospel,

reminds us the family circle to which Jesus was tied by nature

was redefined in the family Jesus constituted by spirit.

The new family is broader, more diverse,

it is loving, forgiving, caring, healing.

"All genetic, familial, and sex distinctions are

eradicated in this new concept of true family." 

(Kee, Community of the New Age, p. 109). 

Church family is not to supplant or deny nuclear family.

It is designed to protect what is best and prevent what is

worst and broaden what is limited by our families. 

Above all else, faith family functions as fermentation

to live within the will of God.  So avail yourself of this.

Invest yourself in this. Immerse yourself in this - for your good.

          *****                   *****                   *****

This faith family serves is a community committed to good news.

The commitment is to gospel.  In this gospel, life is magnified.

You get riches that cannot be taxed;

freedom that cannot be curbed;

joy that cannot doused;

mercy that is not restricted;

love that will not wilt,

forgiveness that does not wither;

hope that springs eternal.

In this good news,

there is justice, and though it may be deferred at times,

it is never to be denied.

There is also peace that is profuse and plentiful,

and community filled with opportunity and creative obligation.

The good news is that you have eternal value,

you are precious and loved in God's sight,

and you can attain a life in grace and love

that will bring joy and justice to the world.

This is our charge to keep, our

sacred trust from God.

          *****                   *****                   *****

Point three, this faith family, entrusted with gospel,

is fit for life in this world.  In this world, not some other.

The Christian gospel becomes deficient

through an indifference to this world. 

The Christian gospel mutates into something

it was never intended or designed to be,

when there is obsession about some world

assumed to follow or succeed this world.

Immersion in the leading of Jesus brings

life to fruition "in this age ... and in the age to come."

Jesus links life in the ages; this age and the age to come.

He never severs one at the expense of the other. 

In this age ... and in the age to come.

So ... beware indifference to this world.

Immerse yourself in obligation.

Immerse yourself in commitment.

Immerse yourself in a greater love than you measure by

your possessions, a love supremely defined for us by Jesus.

Would that we all could have

this as clear and joyful confession.

I am Christian.  I am in the UCC.

Faith immersion makes possible life

not otherwise possible in this world!

It is my delight in this age, and I delight

anticipating the age to come.

          *****                   *****                   *****

Conclusion

Well, this isn't easy is it? 

The rich man was stuck with competing obligations,

and left the company of Jesus sad and depressed.

Peter was clearly in a stew, immersed in anxiety that Jesus

sought to assuage (how successful he was, we don't know). 

Jesus left the disciples pondering his affirmation

of impossible (with humanity) possibility (with God).

This is where I find hope residing.

Hope embraces our hesitation,

hope reduces our reservations over attaining

the treasure that comes when following Jesus.

          *****                   *****                   *****

I need to close.  Do you recall the hymn, "Be Thou My Vision?"

Verse three speaks to the life to which we are summoned,

the immersion to which we are invited.

"Riches I heed not, nor life's empty praise,

you, my inheritance, now and always;

you and you only are first in my heart,

great God, my treasure, may we never part."

May God, the great and only treasure

worth our pursuits, grant us all the grace

of immersion in the Jesus life.  And in that                                                      

life, may we discover our peace ...      

in this age ... and in the age to come.

Amen.