Finding
Our Way
As he went out
into the street, a man came running up, greeted him with great reverence, and
asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?” Jesus said, “Why are
you calling me good? No one is good, only God. You know the commandments: Don’t
murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, honor your
father and mother.”
He said,
“Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!” Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and
loved him! He said, “There’s one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give
it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow
me.” The man’s face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear,
and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of
things, and not about to let go.
Looking at his
disciples, Jesus said, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who
‘have it all’ to enter God’s kingdom?” The disciples couldn’t believe what they
were hearing, but Jesus kept on: “You can’t imagine how difficult. I’d say it’s
easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for the rich to get into
God’s kingdom.”
That set the
disciples back on their heels. “Then who has any chance at all?” they asked. Jesus
was blunt: “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself.
Every chance in the world if you let God do it.” Peter tried another angle: “We
left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Mark my words, no one who sacrifices
house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, land—whatever—because of me
and the Message will lose out. They’ll get it all back, but multiplied many
times in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—but also in
troubles. And then the bonus of eternal life! This is once again the Great
Reversal: Many who are first will end up last, and the last first.”
Mark 10:17–31
Let me start with question. A simple question. A dreadfully
hard question. What is the one thing that is at the core of who you are that holds
you back you from being the follower, the disciple, the believer, the witness
God wants and needs you to be?
The rich man
in our Gospel lesson for today faced that question. It’s as if Jesus asks,
“What’s the one thing that keeps you from following me as we walk along the
Way?” I can’t help but wonder, if Jesus looked lovingly at me and asked me the
same question, what would I say? My family? My livelihood? My house and car? Would
I sell my possessions and give the proceeds to the poor? These are the
middle-class nightmares of those like me who have more than enough to be
comfortable, but don’t have enough to make ends meet all at the same time. Is
that what Jesus wants? Because if it is, he is not going to have a lot of followers.
The one’s he gets either have nothing to lose, or they are insane.
Or, maybe
Jesus experiences something else going on with the rich man – something beyond
the money.
Have you ever
wondered how the rich man got rich in the first place? Being
a rich Jew in first century Palestine was rare. Most of the Jewish population
was reduced to poverty by oppressively high rents and excessive taxes set by
the Herods and the Romans. Many sold themselves or their children into debt
bondage or slavery. A select few participated in the system from the inside.
There were Jewish landlords, Jewish tax collectors, and Jewish governmental
officials who were part of Herod's court and Pilate’s executive offices. A
handful of Jews had been granted privilege.
A Jewish resident who accepted
insider privilege knowingly violated God’s Law. If a Jew was a landlord, he
knew that he was part of the problem. He could see the harm of the dominant
system on his fellow nationals. I’m sure Jewish landlords and tax collectors
did some good. They might have given to the poor. Government advisors may have
counseled against harsh new regulations and laws. They went to worship and put
money in the collection plate. But, they knew their gains from the system were
illegal under the Law of Moses. The problem was not that they were rich. The
problem was that riches were given to a few insiders by a government that
imposed suffering on their fellow occupied people.
One of these people of
privilege approaches Jesus. Respectfully. Sincerely. He wants to be saved.
Jesus diagnoses the problem right away. It’s not just about the money. The man
needs to be healed. The man approaches Jesus just like all the others who come
to him and want a miracle. A healing. An exorcism. They both know that whatever
his appearance looks like on the outside, whatever his pious life looks like,
he’s still missing something that’s a matter of life and death. Jesus perceives
here is someone who might be ready to renounce the privilege system at the root
of the people's plight. Better to renounce all its trappings than to
compromise. Better to let go than try to change it from the inside. God's Law
eliminated privilege. God's Law provided for everyone. It had in the past and it
would again – if only his people would remember it. Jesus offers the cure –
“Give up your privilege and follow me along the Way” – and this guy can’t accept it. Mark says the
man is “clouded up.” Jesus loves the man, but the man's love of privilege obscures
his soul sickness so much, he can’t embrace the love of God.
“What’s the
one thing that keeps you from following me as we walk along the Way?” I can’t
help but wonder, if Jesus looked at me and asked me the same question, what
would I say? Certainly not riches? My family? My livelihood? My house and car?
Do I sell my possessions and give the proceeds to the poor? What
if it’s not about the money, the clothes, the cars, and the trappings of wealth?
What if it’s about the privilege? What if Jesus were to look at us with deep
love and offers to heal us if we can find a way to deny privilege and follow
him along the Way.
Deny privilege. That’s where
it really starts to hurt. I like to think my happiness and success have to do
with the fact that I work hard and earn what I have. That’s the American Way,
right? My happiness can also be attributed to the fact that our culture affords
me privileges as a white, middle-class, educated, heterosexual male. Are people
like me in need of some healing because we benefit from unjust social
structures that treat us like insiders and reward us for arbitrary qualities
like the lightness of one’s skin, or male gender identity, or being a heterosexual
marriage? None of that is my fault. I did not choose any of these qualities.
So, what is my responsibility?
To be honest, when someone
tells me I have privilege, I don't always know what to do with that information.
In America, most of us want all the privileges we can get. Some might think,
“I'm going to take full advantage of my privileges!” It gets confusing in our
individualistic culture to decide that the privileges one has, whether through
effort or circumstance, is a negative thing.
We need
a different kind of discourse. We can tune ourselves to the voices of those for
whom our systems do not benefit. In the case of white male privilege, I can
walk around with a lot of shame and guilt. I can lament my own unintentional
participation in the ways white supremacy continues to leave racial relations
undone in the United States. But feeling sorry for myself doesn’t do much. What
transformation can take place when I begin to really listen to the pain and
anguish of my sisters and brothers who are hurting and suffering, and then do
something about it. I can divest from my advantages, beginning with ways that
whiteness and maleness has been used to name God and define the human
condition. What we need is a different method
-- a different relationship with the world that has borrowed the loving
eyes of the Divine; a different set of ears that hear God summoning us to
follow Christ along the Way. Those obstacles that seem like they will never
change, those boundaries that separate us from one another – they are not as
fixed as we think. You are I are living in a condition that God wants us to
change.
When it comes to our racial
justice work here at CCC, I believe white Christians must renounce any desires
to dominate and control everything. Christians from the dominant culture can no
longer follow the lead of mainstream and popular Christianity. Within the
Church, some of us need to do the truly hard work of demoting ourselves,
turning down decision-making opportunities, and refusing to accommodate the
dominant culture’s strongholds. We begin by getting rid of the idea of White
Jesus. We all know him. White Jesus is the domesticated diety who is made in
White America’s image. Sometimes he looks like a Swedish mystic with flowing
robes and a glowing halo. Sometimes he looks like Uncle Sam, a good citizen.
White Jesus doesn’t ask people to follow along the Way. White Jesus asks that
you maintain the status quo: Be a devoted American, eat your vegetables, say
your prayers, and don’t cause any trouble. The Americanized Jesus must be
rejected for the Jesus that brought good news to the poor and came to liberate
the oppressed. Following him puts us in solidarity with the oppressed. His Way
takes us to the most vulnerable in our society, including those that have been
historically oppressed by race, class, gender identity, or sexual orientation
in America. The Way of healing becomes clear when the oppressed are privileged
at the table of Christ, and where oppressors can turn around from their way of
life and join in Christ's vulnerability in a world that cannot recognize him.
The liberated community cannot
be achieved through our own productivity and hard work. Liberation comes by
yielding to the Spirit. It comes through risk. No longer conformed to the
racialized, male-dominant patterns of America, the Church can confront police
brutality, the school to prison pipeline and mass incarceration, patriarchy and
sexism, economically-deprived communities and the lack of access to livable
conditions and wages. I am calling for a
risky, Jesus-shaped vision that renounces the dominant culture’s inclination to
control and run things. I’m calling for a liberated community that embodies the
struggle for healing and peace. When we can work on these things, we will begin
to understand the true nature of God, always coming to us, always at work in
us, always inviting is to follow Christ along the Way.
In a moment of quiet, I invite
us to a contemplative exercise – a way to begin to become aware of how our
thoughts, prayers, and actions can intertwine … how we can live into the vision
of becoming a liberated community…
- Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I vow not to destroy the life or spirit of others.
- Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I vow not to take what is not given.
- Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I vow not to engage in abusive relationships.
- Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I vow not to speak falsely or deceptively.
- Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I vow not to harm self or others through poisonous thoughts or deeds.
- Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I vow not to dwell on past errors.
- Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I vow not to speak of self-separate from others.
- Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I vow not to possess any form of life selfishly.
- Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I vow not to harbor ill-will toward any human being.
https://acton.org/rich-young-man-law-versus-privilege
https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2014-09/beyond-white-privilege-modelnbsp
http://lectionarygreek.blogspot.com/2012/10/mark-1016-31.html
http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/mark10x17.htm
http://www.davidlose.net/2015/10/pentecost-20-b-curing-our-heartsickness/
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