Scripture that Can Change Your Life: The Needle's Eye

Why Church? Are we like a club that you can list on your resume when you run for political office? Is this a nice place to come to see your friends? Are we a center for the arts-- do we come to see beautiful things, hear beautiful music? There are many reasons that people come to church. My hope is that our inquiry might run a little deeper than that. Why Church? What is Church for? Transformation. Transformation of our lives, individually and communally, transformation of society. Our Mission Statement puts it like this: Excited and Enlivened by the Holy Spirit, We are Transformed. When I read Jesus’ teaching I see the possibility of life-changing/game changing/earth-shattering transformation. One way that we can unlock this transformation for ourselves comes through a wholly embodied encounter with scripture. May I suggest the following, Mark 17ff, the story of Jesus' encounter with the Rich Young Man. To read the whole story, pull out your Bible. I will be dealing with a few key elements of the story here.

As Jesus is travelling along a Rich Man comes up to him with deep questions about his life. He says to Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" On the face, this looks like a big question, perhaps abstract. But the man is not philosophizing, trying to stump anyone. In the story itself, he appears a bit desperate: he runs up, he throws himself on the ground. This is not a person looking for intellectual conversation. He is more like each one of us: What does my life mean? How do I live with the disappointment and disillusionment that seems like death to me? Or perhaps, my father just died, who am I without him? His question runs right to the heart of his life and he can't put it together anymore and come up with a coherent image of what he is about, so he asks, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" "How can I put it together?" Have you experienced times like this?

Mark records Jesus' response. Jesus looks at the man and "loves him." and then he says, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come, follow me." Right away our temptation is to “follow the money.” That’s the problem, we say, riches are what keep up apart from the nameless, imageless One we call God. Get rid of your riches, we think, and all will be well. This is not Jesus' point. Rather, Jesus is asking, what is keeping you from taking up eternity, the kingdom of God which lies in your very midst? What is this lack? A life unencumbered. And so, again, this story comes home to us. What do you hold onto for dear life? What do you hold onto that keeps you apart from the Holy? Does worry do it? What about your self-image, a n image that you will protect, defend and fight for no matter what? How about your anger? Do you hate anyone?

When we take a look at our lives it can be quite overwhelming. We might just give up any thought of life transformed.

Indeed, Jesus does say it is hard work, “It is harder for {one so encumbered} to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to get through the needle’s eye.” To which his disciples reply something like, “then who can be saved?” To which Jesus replies, “for human beings it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” There you have it, can’t be done or, at least, you can’t do it. And just think about it for a moment. Have you ever told yourself not to worry? What happens? You set yourself up against yourself and your worry, only to compound the worry or perhaps transmute it into anger at oneself for being so full of worry. It seems that we have all taken up that extra-Biblical injunction, “God only helps those who help themselves” and have willfully gone to war with ourselves, pursuing a self-image that only serves to encumber us the more. Transformation here? Impossible. There is an oft quoted line from Psalm 46 that is helpful here: “Be Still and Know that I am God.” The word, raphah, that is translated as “Be Still” is more frequently translated from the Hebrew as “let go,” as if one were letting one thing drop in order to pick up another. Be still… becomes, “Let go and know….” As we turn to pick up Jesus’ “kingdom of heaven,” taking up eternity, we lose things, letting them fall to the side. Emptying our hands, and taking up eternity, it is hard to discern who or what is holding whom. We notice the realm of God lightly holding us – just as it has all along. Herein lies transformation. No longer so self concerned, our life opens in our willingness for the brightness of eternity’s light to shine through us, unencumbered. This is following Jesus. How can this be? For God all things are possible. The camel has slipped through the needle’s eye.