October 15, II

Mark 10:17-31

Here's another text that is so rich and full it's hard to get a hold on, and it is challenging to most of us.
The man addressing Jesus here starts off by showing his hand in the way he asks his question. "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" He doesn't say receive, but inherit. One inherits something that has been stocked up on or saved, often by someone else. We inherit commodities by virtue of our relationship to someone else; for Jesus, eternal life is something only God can give us, therefore his comeback to the man that God alone has power in these things.
But it seems something in this man catches Jesus, so he goes on with the conversation, telling the man to follow the old teachings, specifically the 10 commandments (though curiously he substitutes the words "don't defraud" for "don't covet," and I haven't read anyone who really explains that, but I think it's important to note in a society where defrauding has become such an art). The man says he's done his best to follow these his whole life.
Then, in the only instance in the Bible where any writer talks of Jesus in these words, Mark says Jesus "loved him." One can almost see a wistful smile cross Jesus' face as he senses the man really has done these things, but that there's just one thing keeping the man from complete faithfulness. So he tells the man to remove the block, which in this case is his wealth, and to follow Jesus. And in the only call story in the gospels where the one called refuses to come, the man goes away "shocked and grieving."
And one interpreter says that at that point the disciples were probably looking at Jesus with mouths agape, for what pastor would turn away a potential donor of large funds that way!

The rest of this reading talks more about how great wealth can get in the way of people being willing to serve God as God needs them to. Jesus isn't condeming wealth or lifting up the virtues of poverty here, he is simply stating what anyone with any possessions knows: having stuff makes you afraid to lose it and eager to have more, and those two motivations can keep even the best of us from risking discipleship fully. Jesus addresses those whose lives have been defined by wealth. The disciples are surprised because in their time, wealth was seen as a sign of God's favor; if you have property, it's because God is pleased with you and has "prospered the work of your hands." Jesus debunks this theology, still prevalent today in many circles, and says that only by the power of God can the wealthy overcome their fear and greed and move into full relationship with God.
Because this text has been so simplified or ignored over the years, we need to dwell with it and read it again. We also need to discern where we are in relationship to our things and how they may, or may not, be blocks to discipleship for us. shelly

October 15

Psalm 90, Amos 5:10-15, Mark 10:17-31

I am reading all these texts this week in the context of an event sponsored by the UCC and other denominations affiliated with an organization called "Let Justice Roll" which has been working for the past two years on issues of economic equality in our society, in particular a "living wage" and health care coverage for all people in our country. We always read scripture in a particular context, so this week my eyes are taking on this context. I don't try to read into scripture what is not there (I hope), but as I read, these issues are in the back of my mind.

The Amos reading, in this case, stands out strongly, though we'll get to the Mark (and the lovely plea to God that ends the Psalm, "O prosper the work of our hands"). Amos is a rural shepherd who is called to be a prophet in the midst of the most prosperous and secure time of Israel's existance to that date, the rule of Jeroboan II from 786-746 BCE. The religious leaders of Israel assured the people that their prosperity and security were signs of God's favor with them. So Amos has the job of preaching justice in a time of peace and prosperity, not an enviable task.

Yet in this time of peace and prosperity, when the leaders of the people were "at ease in Zion" (6:1), the wealthy people had gotten lazy about living the kind of caring, compassionate and giving life to which God had called them in the desert with Moses. Read chapter four for Amos' take on God's anger over how the poor and needy were being crushed, and here, in an unusual event in the prophetic literature, he's singling out the role of women in oppressing the poor and needy!
Chapter 5 is a lament for how things have gone awry in Israel and what will happen to them because they have lost their sense of justice. The first verse in our text this week proclaims the familiar fact that the people hate those who are telling the truth about their society (so what's new?). Verse 11 holds up the interesting observation that it has been the poor, from whom the rich have taken food, who have hewn the stone to build the fine houses and who have toiled in the hot sun in the vineyards and done the hard work of making wine. If the poor are not taken care of, none of those jobs will get done, so the rich will not have houses in which to live or wine to drink. God goes on to catalog the injustice of "pushing aside the needy in the gate." "The gate" of the city was the central place where both commerce and the courts of law were held. (If you go to Jerusalem today, you will find around the gates to the Old City dozens of small vendors of food and clothing, reminiscent of this picture). Both in commerce and in law, Amos observes, the poor are getting the shaft.
The curious verse 13 I stumbled over, until a commentator helped me to see that it is probably ironic. In other words, if you see this injustice and yet want to keep your lifestyle comfortable, you'll just keep silent and not rock the boat. Ouch! Another commentator suggested that perhaps this means something different and is intended to be translated like "an insightful person is speechless for it is an evil time." In other words, people who are insightful are constantly struck speechless by the level of injustice increasing in society. Another interesting and timely interpretation.

But Amos is not silent. He urges people that it is not too late to change these things, to bring justice in commerce and court, to hate evil and love good, not just in words, but in deeds.
The chapter ends with the famous assertion that God hates the religious rituals of the people because they are a sham and a show, and calls the people to let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

More tomorrow on Mark. Shelly