Sermon for October 14, 2018 
Read Hebrews 4:12-16 and Mark 10:17-27 When reading this passage about the rich young man, it’s easy to think it’s not about us. After all, rich people are people like Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet. At the very least, rich describes chairmen of fortune 500 companies, and definitely not people like me. There are some people who actually like this passage, using it to prove the evils of the rich and greedy. Even if we sympathize with the plight of the rich young man, it doesn’t have anything to do with us, right?
Well, think about this. When we look at the world as a whole at least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day. $10 dollars a day. So since I’m living on more than $10 a day, I must be in the top 20%, right? I certainly don’t think of myself as rich, yet have more money than 80% of the world.
And it isn’t a slight difference, either. The wealthiest 20% of the world now account for 86% of total private consumption. That means that those of us who live on more than $10 are using most of the world’s resources. When we compare ourselves to people like Bill Gates, it would be hard to see us as rich, but when we begin to look at the rest of the world, we start to see we have far more than our share.
It’s easier to see ourselves in the role of the rich young man now, isn’t it? And he becomes a bit more sympathetic too. Sure, he has money, but he’s a decent fellow who has sought to obey all the "oughts". "You know the commandments," says Jesus, and lists them. "I’ve kept these since my youth" replies the man. And so have we, most of them, most of the time. We come to church and try to love one another, usually. We don’t lie very much. We don’t steal. For the most part we’re good people, just like he is.
We can identify outwardly with his striving to be a success, as the world calls success. We can identify with him inwardly, too. "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" That’s a heavy question. A value-loaded question.
And here is where I at least start to squirm. This passage makes me uncomfortable now that I’ve identified with that rich young man. I’m a lot like him. We’re all a lot like him. And he walks sadly away from Jesus because of his possessions. Jesus says about him (and therefore about us) that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for us to gain eternal life.
Now, people have tried to explain away the difficulties of this passage. They point out that the word for camel and the word for yarn have just one letter different so perhaps Jesus was really talking about a thick yarn going through a needle here. Hard, but not impossible.
There’s another theory that talks about the Eye of the needle really being this gate that was small and low to the ground that a camel could only get through if we took off all the bags he was carrying and he crawled. So if we’re humble, we can get through. Again, it’s not an easy journey, but not impossible.
But I think both these stories are suspect. If we allow that a letter was written wrong, in not just one but in three of the four gospels, turning the camel to yarn in all of them, how much can we trust that the other words are right? That puts us on dangerous ground I think.
And the gate that was supposedly called the Eye didn’t appear in any texts until the 9th century. It was likely made up to explain this very difficult passage and has become a sort of theological urban legend.
No, we are faced with a literal camel going through the literal needle’s eye. An impossible feat, we know, especially if we’ve ever met a camel. Yet it is easier for that camel to go through that needle than it is for us for us to inherit eternal life.
After all, how many of us are likely to go home today, give away everything to the poor and go live the life of a missionary? It’s not realistic, we say. It’s not that simple. There are other things to consider like family, responsibility and practicality. We can’t just sell everything and follow Christ.
More than that, we like our stuff. I spend more time than I care to admit on a computer – both for work and play. We love our cars, comfortable beds, and indoor plumbing. There’s a level of comfort we’d really rather not give up.
You can start to see why many people don’t like this passage. We switch roles and take up the disciple’s call. "Well, then who can be saved?"
And Jesus answers with a word of hope for all. "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."
Who can be saved? No one. Not if we’re trying to save ourselves.
Abundant resources almost inevitably lead to the assumption that whatever needs to be done, we can do it. Whatever we need, we can supply it. With enough money or education or ability or goodness we will be able to secure our own future. With larger barns or investments, we will be able to relax. We will be somebody.
The riches the young man gained made him feel like someone – and made him forget what was important. Self-sufficiency and self-produced security cut us off from grace. Life becomes an achievement earned or a commodity purchased rather than a gift gratefully received and shared. God becomes unnecessary, or becomes simply another commodity to be used for personal ends. Resources become intertwined with identity. We become what we own, know or produce. Riches become gods, and the foundation of our identity and security.
In the face of a profoundly disturbing question comes the all-embracing love of God. It is essentially impossible for any of us to attain salvation by our own efforts because we all at our deepest level crave the security we think comes from possessions and money.
We have to realize that it is impossible for us to do anything to save ourselves. It isn’t something we can do. Even with all our money and success, it is impossible.
But for God, all things are possible. Through God, we can be saved.
It is interesting the word the young man uses: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Why not "gain" or "get" or "acquire"? Why does he say "inherit"?
Because we don’t do anything to receive our inheritance except to be born into the right family. Inheritance is a gift we don’t earn, but receive through no action of our own. Inheritance is about family.
There is nothing we can do to inherit someone else’s birthright. Only in exceptional circumstances can we inherit something from someone who is not a family member. The same goes for those who are God’s children. We are by Christ’s sacrifice made members of God’s family. We all share in the wonderful inheritance of salvation, not because we deserve it, but because we have been born, created, made by a wonderful God who loves us unconditionally. There is nothing we need to do or can do to inherit something that is already ours, a freely given gift of God.
Does this mean that wealth is OK? We can accumulate as much wealth as possible, hoard it and keep for it ourselves. After all God loves us without conditions.
No. The warning of this passage is that, while there is nothing we can do to inherit something that already belongs to us because of Christ, there are many things that will make us turn away from our inheritance. While the gift is given to us, we are not required to accept it. We are given an inheritance but we are not obligated to keep it, if we choose instead to rely on our own merits. To rely on ourselves to have eternal life.
God does the impossible for us, passing the camel through the eye of the needle and giving us eternal life. We just have to accept that grace. Amen.
