15th Oct 200618th Sunday after Trinity

Fr Julian Browning

Amos  5  :  6 – 7 &  10 – 15 ;  Hebrews  4  :  12 – 16  ; Mark  10  :  17 - 31

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.   Mark 10.24.

So near, and yet so far. So close to God he could touch him, yet he had to walk away.

Once heard, never forgotten, particularly the bit about the camel. Shock treatment.  People then thought, and many still do, that if you were wealthy then God had blessed you, and if you were consistently poor then God had good reason to overlook you. Christians, particularly rich Christians, have argued about this gospel for hundreds of years, because after all isn't everyone invited to the banquet, don't we all have a place in heaven, are not rich people, when they do good things with their money, advancing the kingdom of God.

So they've tried to change the text. It's a universal pastime, changing the meaning to suit yourself. You want rich people to go to heaven? The word for camel is very like the word for rope, so maybe if it's a very small rope it can just squeeze through the needle. Or maybe there's a gateway in Jerusalem called 'the eye of a needle' and a small camel can just get through. Blind guides, that strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. The human failing that Jesus spotted in the rich young man in the gospel, good fellow though he was, was that we
identify ourselves with what we own, the money and assets we have, and the power that gives us. We are what we have. This gets us into no end of trouble.

In many families money causes disaster, suspicion, jealousy, people not talking to each other for years. Not lack of money, far from it. Money has a life of its own, and needs to be
controlled, otherwise it will control us, leading us to trample on the poor, as Amos observed. The rich young man of the Gospel wants to do the right thing but his  possessions determine how he behaves. It's about having everything measured, decided, knowing where we stand. The camel and the needle riddle is insoluble, to show the folly of living by such measurements, but still we ask: What must I do to inherit eternal life? Just tell me, and I'll do it. After all, I'm doing my best, keeping the commandments 1 to 10, giving to charity, and so on. Why is heaven as far away as it ever was?

The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, as it says in today's epistle... We have heard what is to my mind one of the most beautiful, and tragic scenes in the whole gospel, and believe me you and I are right there in the middle of it. 'And Jesus looking upon him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.” At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.' And it is all the more tragic because he had started out by asking what all of us ask, what we are probably asking during this service, genuinely wanting to know the answer: What must I do to inherit eternal life? Just tell me, and I'll do it.

So near, and yet so far. So close to God he could touch him, yet he had to walk away. He could not see himself apart from his possessions. We can't stop adding it all up, adding ourselves up, wondering how others are doing, are they doing better than us? Jesus' challenge seems so harsh, and it seemed harsh to the disciples who say to each other, who can be saved? We have all been there, we know that our possessions, our greed, our need for more security and power, separate us from each other and from God.

Yet we can't give up everything just like that, and most moneymaking activities are entirely harmless and beneficial; camels will still be bought and sold. What's to be done? The Gospel answer is, as always, simple. God will not be bribed. In today's Gospel Jesus adds another commandment to the Ten Commandments: do not defraud, which is not just about money of course, but about how we live, how we talk to each other and how we talk to God. No measurable human achievement gets us into the Kingdom. Riches or no riches, our own resources, poor and rich alike, do not get us to heaven, however wisely we use them. God gives us the opportunity to inherit eternal life, and the good news of the gospel is that it is on offer to all, rich and poor.

What is asked of us is a total commitment of ourselves as we are, without the false selves which our possessions and our money and our respectable careers have created. God is committed to us, loves us, as Jesus loved the rich young man in the story. God knows the hold that our possessions have over us, because we can cheat others and ourselves, but we can't cheat God. Maybe God wants us to step out into the light, away from our piled up possessions, and there he will welcome us into his kingdom. It shows that we trust him and not our own resources. Come unto me all that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. That's when eternal life becomes real, when we live with God, reflecting his glory, not the glory of our possessions and achievements. It's never easy to stop fobbing off God with little bribes, not easy to give up and say 'Here am I'.

John Donne, Dean of St.Pauls, looking around at the corruption of Jacobean London, and it hasn't changed much, observed that 'For spirituall things, the things of the next world, we have no roome; for temporall things, the things of this world, we have no bounds.' There are no limits to our greed, and therefore no satisfaction either. Don't follow that camel; we won't get in. The first will be last, and the last first. Stand apart where God can see us, and we shall be offered treasure in heaven, and a share in God's glory.