What Must I Do?

11 October 2009
Carolyn L Roberts
Mark 10.17-31

For the past year–at least...it seems like ten–road crews have been rebuilding bridges, and adding breakdown lanes and Jersey walls to the Frederick County portion of 270. There are times I’m willing to swear that congestion rivals the best Los Angeles can offer. Not that they don’t warn you. The roadwork is always preceded by signs we all know and dread: Lane change ahead. And then the portion of the road on which we drive shifts. Sometimes it wriggles a bit to the left, sometimes a bit to the right. But regardless of the particulars, the roads available to us determines our route.[1] As fixed as it appears to be, even highway 270 isn’t unchangeable. It adapts to the curves of the hills, it goes up and down, and when the roadworkers change the lane, we commuters slow down and file along the way. Jewish law and Christian teachings function in a similar way, guiding the community, providing a path in the way it moves forward.[1] The Hebrew term for this Jewish legal system is Halacha–which literally means The Way.

Clearly, the rich man in today’s story has followed the way well. Let’s call him Charlie. When Charlie approaches Jesus, he asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. We think of eternal life as puffy white clouds, angels, St. Peter and pearly gates...as something that comes after this earthly life. But in the gospel according to Mark, eternal life always carries a double meaning. In Mark, eternal life refers to life after this life, and it also refers to our present life, transformed and lived in the presence of God through relationship with Christ.

So when Charlie asks Jesus what he can do to inherit eternal life, Jesus refers to the way: Jesus lists some of the commandments, some of the law–adding one against fraud. Charlie assures Jesus he has followed these commandments from his youth. And Jesus loves him. Maybe it’s Jesus’ recognition that he and the rich man are on the same way, on similar paths. After all, it’s clear that God has an important place in the rich man’s life. But important and central, important and absolutely foundational, important and essential? Like a laser, that is where Jesus probes. Jesus asks the essential question in the form of another commandment: sell what you own, give the money to the poor, then join the disciples and become a Jesus follower. Just a reminder, folks–today is the beginning of our stewardship focus. A tithe, ten percent of your annual income, is encouraged. It’s biblical. And compared to what Jesus asks of Charlie, the rich man, it’s a piece of cake. Afer all, Jesus asks Charlie for the other 90% too; he asks Charlie for everything he owns.

When I was in high school, our pastor’s wife, Harriet, shared with us that as a young woman she had been obsessed with dancing. It was what she thought of, dreamed of, practiced. It filled her life–to the point that it was cutting out her relationships with God and with her friends and family. So she quit. Cold turkey. Harriet then went on to tell us that it was after she quit dancing that she met our pastor, that her life was richer and more interesting and more fulfilling than it had been when she was dancing. In chapter nine of Mark, Jesus says, “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell.”

Does Jesus want us all wandering around poor, with one eye, without dance or color or song? The answer is an emphatic “No!” He relished life and its gifts. But Jesus does want us to be absolutely clear that The Way we follow is more than adhering to a certain set of laws, more than a means to an assured inheritance. He reminds us that our core commitment, our primary relationship, is with God. And when other things–dance, possessions, education, whatever good things life gives us–come between us and our relationship with God, Jesus challenges us with the hard question of discipleship: what in our life keeps us from God? That’s the heart of this story of Charlie, the rich man.

In a few short minutes, we will baptize Eleanor Grace Gensemer, soon to be two years old. Her parents Amy and Stephen, and her sponsor Justin will pledge themselves to be Ella’s model, following in the way of our Savior. Amy and Stephen and Justin will pledge themselves to live into the question, “What must I do?” by staying centered on God’s transforming presence in their lives. And like every commuter on 270, they won’t be doing it alone. We in this faith community pledge ourselves to be models too, as we covenant with Ella’s parents and with Justin and with Ella herself to ask the hard questions of discipleship, and to be followers on The Way.

***