Readings
Amos 5:6-7,10-15
Psalm 90:12-17
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31
In today’s Gospel Jesus is approached by a rich young man, who asks him, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds by quoting several of the ten commandments. The young man replies that he has done all of them since his birth, which by the way is unlikely … all of us sin, even this young man. Nonetheless, just as Jesus does, we can respect his earnestness and zeal. In fact, the scripture says that in the face of the young man’s assertion, Jesus loved him. In response to all of it, Jesus tells him that he need do only one other thing, sell all that he has, give the money to the poor, and come and follow Jesus. We hear at that point that the young man went away “grieving” because he had many possessions. Then Jesus says to his disciples “how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
So, what the heck is going on here? Is Jesus anti-money? Is he anti-possessions? Is he saying that people of means are not going to heaven?
Well, I don’t think so. I think that Jesus is getting at a basic problem we all have. Namely, that when our lives are filled with things, we can easily make them a substitute for God. We can put our whole trust in those objects rather than in our relationship to the Divine.
We talk about having faith in God, about relying on the grace of God for our wellbeing. But how often do we put our faith and reliance on other things? How often do we seek financial security as a means of wellbeing? Or how often do we try to address our desire for happiness by doing “therapeutic” shopping? How often do we worry about our security, safety, or health and seek things as the solution?
Now don’t get me wrong. God made everything, and because of that, money, possessions, or the intangibles we just talked about are not necessarily bad. In fact, in many ways they’re good. Money provides us with the ability to have a home, and food, and all the things necessary to survive. And many possessions enrich our lives, and some of them are actually necessary for the various tasks we find need doing, like work or household chores.
The issue is not the things themselves, but our attachment to them. The issue is us thinking that all of those things will in the end be sufficient to give us a durable sense of peace and wellbeing.
A few weeks ago we talked about the Buddhist concept of non-attachment. This theme is once again present in Jesus’ teaching. The reason why the rich young man went away grieving wasn’t just because he had many possessions, but because he was attached to them in a way that the loss of them would be a loss of who he was and not just what he had.
That’s the problem with attachment. When we become attached to anything we lose something of ourselves. We, in some ways, lose our ability to be who Jesus calls us to be. Namely to be a people who love those around us. And, as I’ve said before, not love as an emotion, but love as a choice … a choice to treat others with mutuality, respect, and dignity. It is a call to work for justice and peace. It is a call to not just be good or nice people, but to be Christ in the world today.
So how do we practice the non-attachment that Jesus is pointing to in today’s scripture? Well, it’s not easy, but it is simple. Let’s do an exercise. Think of an object that means a lot to you. Picture it in your mind. I mean really picture it. See every aspect of it. Now, let yourself become aware of all the feelings it raises in you. Ok, now for the hard part. Imagine that object being destroyed or irrecoverably stolen. What feelings does that evoke? Allow yourself to be immersed in those feelings.
I imagine that for most of us this exercise is an unpleasant one. Such musings leave us grieving, much as the rich young man grieved as he left Jesus. But non-attachment is the recognition that the object, even if it is lost, still has value in your life and you can be grateful for the time you had with it. It is a recognition that no one thing defines who you are or defines your wellbeing. It is a willingness to release it into the hands of God trusting that God will sustain you and bring you the joy and peace that may seem absent in its loss. That is the non-attachment to which Jesus points.
And, such non-attachment, while valuable in itself, has huge implications for us in other ways. When we can live in a place of gratitude that values all things without grasping them tightly, we can begin to live our life as an open hand rather than a clinched fist. We will find that we have an abundance we might never before have noticed, and that abundance gives us the ability to be generous and compassionate in outsized ways. It enables us to move through our lives and the world with graciousness. In short, we participate in the kingdom of God, in a big life of love.
Imagine what our lives would look like if we actively practiced this kind of spiritual living. Imagine what our relationships would look like. Imagine how our neighborhoods would be impacted. Imagine, if you will, how our larger community might be affected. It would be nothing less than the transformation that Jesus seeks. It would be nothing less than the kingdom of God.