Kin-dom standards

Kin-dom standards 101115                        Mark 10:17-27

(thanks to Pam Spiteri and Drama Kids for the use of her door frame as a prop for this sermon)

Today’s story is about a man who has it all and seems to have it all together.  He’s done well for himself—the storyteller says he’s rich—and he’s done all the right things, both by cultural standards and even by religious standards.

But he seems to want to be sure he’s all set, as if there is something missing.   it seems like a genuine question that resonates with us today.     Like this man, we too operate on our particular cultural standards, and unfortunately the church has adopted them as religious standards….. standards that say do more and you get more, work and you’re rewarded.  Try harder, you never can have enough, maybe  there’s no such thing as having it all but we’ll keep trying, I want my cake and eat it too standards.

What he wants to make sure about is our common understanding of  ‘eternal life’ -- usually life after death, getting into heaven.

And the rest of the story is about how Jesus responds to these cultural and religious assumptions.

There IS something missing, says Jesus.  You’re missing eternal life, all right, so  get rid of what prevents you from having Life – eternal and abundant life – and think about those who don’t have all your privileges, do something with your gifts instead of thinking about yourself all the time.   Eternal life isn’t about getting into heaven when you die.    Its about living in the present and coming kingdom of God—the reign of God, the household of Love, the family-life of God, what I most often call the kin-dom.  Where God reigns, and I don’t; where we are kin with one another and with God, and caring about kin we give our wealth so they may have what they need.

Clearly the standards of the kin-dom are different from the culture around us.

I love the camel and needle image!  Its so utterly silly! I can just see the laughter in Jesus’ eyes as he gives this exaggerated example of impossibility of us wealthy people entering the kin-dom. 

The key here is ‘entering’.   It’s not about getting in, as if something about the kingdom of God is preventing us…..it’s not the needles fault the camel can’t get through!   It’s the camel that’s too large.

You’re too big, says Jesus.   Drop some of that baggage and then there’s a chance.   Chris quoted the 13^th century mystic Meister Eckhart last week—that the spiritual life is gained more by subtraction than addition. in the realm of God we let go instead of hold on.  It is not about do-more-get-more.

 (Door)     we are invited into the kin-dom of God, to step in voluntarily and freely; the door is open and nobody is holding us back.   Except ourselves.  Because  we’re too big.  Rummage Sale clear example of how much we need to let go…Individually, as a church and community, as a nation, we suffer from TMS (too much stuff)

But there’s a lot more than physical stuff we need to be letting go before we can freely step through:

Let go our attachment to outcomes of all of our little and big life situations—my friend who has ALS, at first wanted to live long enough to see a nephew graduate, and she focused hard on that, until one day she realized she was missing his growing in the here and now by focusing that far ahead….

Let go anger at physical limitations

Let go habits and ways of relating that are unhealthy

Let go your workaholism or any other ism or addiction

Let go control and being in charge

Let go worry or anxiety about your income, your job, your family,

Take a moment and name, in the silence of your heart, what you need to let go, what’s stopping you from giving yourself fully to the Jesus way.

Perhaps the biggest thing we need to let go is our fear of being without all that stuff we carry; most of us don’t like the idea of loss of any kind…..but the great irony of this teaching of Jesus today is that in fact we GAIN when we move into this kin-dom, this new way of living and loving and giving.

We let go unhealthy relationships, and step into true friendships

We leave behind our reliance on wealth and status, and step into being valued for ourselves as beloved

We let go our habits that we use to satisfy our empty spaces, and step into wholeness and love

We let go control, and step into freedom.

Jesus asks us today, what’s stopping you?    Sure it seems impossible; the culture has such a strong hold on us – and for me it is impossible.  But with God, says Jesus, all things are possible.

There’s the other key….let go of it being all about you, and make it all about you and God.   That’s the message I hear from this text today:  what’s my, your, our primary energy source: our selves or God? Follow Jesus, or keep our stuff?

Today, individually and as a congregation…and we can see it too in our nation…we stand on a threshold that asks that question.  Can we see what’s making us too big?   And can we let go and answer Jesus, who invites, Come, follow me.

 an invitation to come forward and let go/step through follows during the last hymn