Identity

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

October 14, 2018

23 Proper B

          Tiny houses are a source of fascination for me.  I love the idea of a home that is 200 square feet or less and, at least in theory, includes everything one needs for abundant living.  200 square feet is not much space.  Our living room is that size!  Of course, to live in a tiny house, one’s belongings have to consist of the bare minimum of clothing, a few well selected cooking utensils, a couple of pieces of furniture, a cell phone and a laptop.  So, significant downsizing is required.  Hard choices have to be made about what to keep and what to get rid of.  However, tiny house enthusiasts all claim that having less stuff and a small space is actually liberating.  While I find the thought of that kind of radical downsizing completely overwhelming, several years ago I took on a Lenten discipline called 40 bags in 40 days.  The discipline was to fill a bag every day with things I no longer used and donate the bag to charity.  Forty bags did not put a dent in what I needed to get rid of, which was proven one thousand times over the next Lent when we were getting ready to move to Hudson.  But filling a bag a day with things I no longer needed was liberating as closets and drawers became less crowded and I made decisions about what I actually need and use.

          Today, Jesus seems to be calling the man in the gospel reading to a drastic downsizing. Jesus is not calling the man to simply cull his belongings so he can live in 200 square feet.  Jesus is calling the man to sell everything including the house and follow him.  Jesus did not require that much of Peter, James, and John!  All they had to do was walk away from their boats and their families and follow Jesus.  No interim step was required.  Why is Jesus so hard on the man this morning?

          Here is the hint that Jesus is not really talking about downsizing, even completely and totally, in order to follow him. 

          After the man approaches Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus says to him “You lack one thing.  Go, sell what you own, give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then, come and follow me.”  Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem at this point in the gospel.  By the time the man goes home, explains all this to his wife, lists all his belongings on the first century equivalent of eBay or Craigslist, sells them, ships them to the new owners, finds a realtor, sells the house, then figures out how to distribute the proceeds among the poor, Jesus will have been arrested, tried, crucified and resurrected.  So, total and complete downsizing is not going to solve this man’s problem.  I wonder if the man went away grieving, not because he was so attached to his possessions, but because of the absolutely overwhelming, impossible task Jesus had set before him. 

          Here is the real problem.  The man asked “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  The man thought he must do something to earn eternal life.  He has kept the commandments since he was a youth, but apparently did not think obedience to the law was enough.  What else must he do?

          The book of Job, from which we also hear this morning, was written to refute the belief that, as my Hebrew Bible professor used to say “Piety pays and perversity punishes.”  In other words, we earn God’s favor by being good, and we earn God’s wrath by our misdeeds.  If we are prospering, that is evidence that we are living faithfully.  If we are suffering, that is evidence that we are living sinfully.  Job, however, is suffering greatly and has not sinned.  He is so angry by the time we get to this morning’s reading that Job wants to put God on trial for the grave injustice of his plight. 

          I believe the man in the gospel lesson was completely overwhelmed by the impossibility of what Jesus requires of him.  I also believe Job is overwhelmed by his suffering and the injustice of his situation.  In the news this week, we saw countless people totally overwhelmed by natural disaster as hurricane Michael blew through and washed away everything but their very lives, and in all too many cases, lives were lost as well.  Clearly people are overwhelmed by the rancor and division in our country, and people we know and love are overwhelmed by the personal battles they fight every day.  How might these two stories help us when we are feeling utterly overwhelmed?

          The man asked Jesus “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  However, inheritance is not about doing something.  Inheritance is about identity.  We inherit because we are the beloved son or daughter or grandchild or church of someone who has died.  We are beloved children of God, and our inheritance, eternal life, is a result of that identity.  Perhaps this is what both the man and Job needed to learn.  Jesus gives the man an impossible task in order to show him that eternal life cannot be earned.  Job will learn that his blessings are a gift from God, nothing he has earned with good behavior or lost because of bad behavior. 

          Jesus looked at the man and loved him.  The importance of this story is underscored that the fact that this is the only time in Mark’s gospel when we are told that Jesus loves someone.   Jesus loves this man and he wants the man to know that God’s love for him is what gives him eternal life.  That’s all.  This is why Jesus says “How hard it will be for those with wealth to enter the Kingdom of God.”  Like the man, we want to earn what is ours.  We know that what we earn belongs to us.  Like the man, we can easily rely on what we earn to give us our identity and forget that our real identity is as a child of God and that identity is a gift.  When the disciples ask “Who, then, can be saved?”  Jesus’ reply is that, for God, all things are possible.  What Jesus is reminding the disciples, and us, is that our status as children of God and our inheritance of eternal life is all God’s action and is a gift because God loves us.

          When we are overwhelmed by whatever life throws at us, Jesus calls us to remember our true identity and the inheritance we have already received.  Jesus calls us to rest in the knowledge that we are beloved children of God, whose inheritance is eternal life.  Nothing, no matter how overwhelming, can change that fact.

                                                                   Amen.