Jesus’ Radical Spirituality: Attractive and Scary

Thanksgiving Sunday, October 11, 2009, Mark 10: 17-27

Rev.Dr. John Henry Weinlick

I think that most mainline Christian spirituality is pretty TEPID.  Tepid means to be lukewarm.  Not too hot and not too cold.  I routinely ask couples why they want to be married in a church with a minister, and the answers they give are  very revealing:

  “I was here for a concert and think this is a beautiful church.”

   “I walk by here on my way to work.”

   “My parents/grandparents got married here and so our family considers

          this our church,even though none of them ever attends.”

Those responses say, “We want our Christianity to be the North American Dream, where each generation will have more than the previous ones. On top of that piece of the North American dream we want to add a little bit of Jesus’ whipping cream. 

We have many parents and grandparents who want their children or grandchildren baptized—for them some kind of magic Godly whipped cream. They seldom return to follow up on the baptismal commitments verbalized but parents or grandparents can say to themselves they’ve completed their spiritual duty.

The gospel story about the rich young man hits to the heart of the tension between spiritual respectability and Jesus’ radical spirituality.  The rich young man, comes to Jesus, not calmly but rushing up to him with a very urgent question. Maybe he made his money in the stock market and got out before the crash, or maybe he got out of energy stocks before the price of oil fell by $100 a barrel. 

Jesus dialog with the rich young adult turns traditional Jewish values upside down. The guy asks, “What do I have to do to get into the realm of God, the Kingdom of Heaven you are talking about. I get all excited about the quality of life you talk about and I want to get in on this good thing.”

Jesus replies, “Have you followed the religious rules?”  The young man assures Jesus that he has followed the law, done everything required of him, and Jesus nods his approval, because the scripture tells us that Jesus felt a kinship with this young man.  So, Jesus tells him of what else he still needed to do, “Then, go and sell all you have and give it to the poor.”  Oops, not the answer he was hoping for. He hung his head and went away because he could not do that.

This is radical spirituality. Jesus is turning conventional Jewish standards and values upside down. For the Jews prosperity was a sign of God’s blessing. If you had wealth it was proof of the excellence of your character, and being in God’s favor. Lots of preachers today continue that message, “Have faith in God and you will be rewarded!”

However when Jesus asks the young man if he has followed the religious rules and the guy answers yes, life divides. Most of the Commandments are about not doing anything wrong, so the young man says, “Yes, I did not steal, I did not lie, I did not cheat, I didn’t kill anybody.”  That’s tepid spirituality.

It’s respectable, it’s politically correct, it’s a negative twist on the Golden Rule, “Don’t do bad things to others, so they won’t do bad things to you.”

Today, our awareness of the seductive power of wealth and possessions is more than ever in our awareness.  Just because a person has the skills to accumulate wealth and possessions does NOT make them a wise personm or a person of integrity and character. Bernie Madoff and others have pursued their own desire to accumulate more and more, just because they could and individuals’ own greed had them throw caution to the wind and get sucked into the vortex of Ponzi scams. 

Now, also be aware that not having wealth or being short of cash flow does NOT make you wise either.  Many, many people living beneath the poverty level think and talk and allow their desire for wealth and possessions to control their lives as much as an excess of wealth does. It’s not money, it is the love of money that seduces us.  Sometimes, our hunger and thirst for wealth is funny.

A newly married man asks his wife, “Darling, would you have married me if my father hadn’t left me a fortune?”  Sweetly, she replied, “Honey, I would have married you no matter who left you a fortune!”

When Jesus tells the young man to sell all he has, I think he is giving a radical metaphor about what the real cost of being part of the realm of God costs.  The disciples kind of got it, at least in this story. They say, “Look at us, we gave up our families,  our fishing business’ to come and follow you.”

Jesus call to sell everything and give it away speaks to us in many ways. Jesus talked more about money and possessions than almost any other life issue.  He said our possessions are an acid test of a person’s character. The hunger and thirst always for more is seductive and can lead us far away from the freedom and joy of being part of Jesus’ quality of life. Don’t let anything own you or control you, except the will of God for your life.

Second, Jesus in parables, stories and sermons told his listeners then and now that we are judged by two criteria: (1) How we get our possessions, and (2) how we use them. It’s called stewardship.

There’s a tragic story making the rounds on the internet of an old man in the United Kingdom.  This guy was seen around his community picking up cardboard boxes and bags full of rubbish. One day, when neighbors hadn’t seen this man for several days, they called police.  Officers broke in to find a house to find a house so full of trash that their only way in was through an elaborate series of tunnels running through the filth.

The stench was so bad police needed breathing apparatus. They found the man dead, deep within an unholy labyrinth. Police believe the guy became disoriented in the mountains of trash and died of dehydration.  He suffered from Compulsive Hoarding Syndrome, a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder that causes people to acquire and hold on to stuff that’s useless or of limited value—what most of us would call “junk.”

The Obsessive Compulsion Foundation in the US, believes that 1.4 million Americans suffer from this obsessive-compulsive disorder. I won’t ask you if you have too many things, in your closets, your basements, garages or storage sheds, Why? Because I don’t want to have to raise my hand.  We all have too much stuff that we most likely will never use and when we’re gone, someone else will need to clean up after us.

The challenge to us is to be spiritually pro-active. Give our accumulated stuff somewhere where it will can do some good, It’s Thanksgiving here in Canada  A time to give thanks. Another radical part of Jesus’ spirituality is calling us to give thanks in all things, no matter what happens. But lukewarm, respectable spirituality only invites us to give thanks for the good things. What does it mean to give thanks in all things?

A friend went through a very painful time when much of what he had spent more than 2 decades of his life building up, was eliminated by massive cuts made with a budgetary rationale. It was very traumatic and painful for him to leave. When he left the building for the last time, he looked back, raised his arms to the heavens and turned it over to Creator God. He shared with me an incredible sense of relief to be leaving behind the destructive politics and organizational evil that are not his core values.  A few days later, when another friend heard about his situation, the friend told him about a book that really helped him through a very difficult time. That book is titled, Severe Mercy. Sometimes in our toughest times, we really are open to compassion and mercy that comes unexpectedly.

A woman friend of mine had a terrible year.  There was too much death and tragedy.  The day I called to see how she was doing, she answered, “You won’t believe what happened to me today, I was in a car accident.” It was hopefully, a final straw to her annis horriblis to quote Canada’s correct “head of state.” I asked my friend how she was surviving. She told me, she had received lots of supportive cards, letters and e-mails express their support and love for her. Thanksgiving will not be as happy as previous years, but she will give thanks knowing how many people love her and care about her.

One spouse whose partner died unexpectedly of a heart attack gives thanks that her spouse was not left unable to move or speak after the stroke. Another person whose sibling died just a short time getting a terminal diagnosis, gives thanks that her brother had a few ,month to tell his family and friends all the appreciations and love he had to communicate.

Jesus is offering us the choice between respectable, lukewarm spiritual niceness, and a radical call to follow Him. Make Jesus the center-point of your life; make Jesus way of life your way. Don’t let anything hold you back. Begin this Thanksgiving weekend, by practicing to give thanks for everything and every one in your life. It will be the most exciting, challenging, grow-producing, and fulfilling experience of your life. Thanks be to God we have the opportunities to choose.  Amen