Who Can Be Saved?

Gospel: Mark 10: 20-27

A wealthy young man asks Jesus: what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus quotes him the commandments, specifically those relating to our neighbor.  We are to avoid doing harm to others in all our actions, thoughts, and words.  The rich man states that he has kept all these - what more must I do?  Jesus gives him an answer he cannot accept: sell what you have, give to the poor, and follow Jesus along the way.  Several reasons exist for the young man's rejection of this invitation.

The young man was right in sensing that it is not enough to merely avoid harming others.  What he failed to realize was that in hoarding wealth he was in fact harming other people.  He was stealing from them and killing them.  When Jesus tells him to sell these riches and give to the poor, Jesus is merely having the man keep the commandments noted above.  The young man is asked to perform an act of simple justice, not extraordinary virtue.  

In every time and place the rich cannot accept this message.  So instead modern Christianity adapts itself to become a cult of the rich and powerful, a place where no burden or correction is placed upon the rich.  The commandments Jesus noted are thus riddled with loopholes like the tax code out of which the rich escape.  But some heroic souls will hear the call of Jesus - Francis of Assisi, Ignatius Loyola, Vincent de Paul - and give up their wealth to care for the poor, to fulfill justice, and be instruments of mercy and love as Jesus was.

A Full Restoration

Gospel: John 20: 19-23

Easter to Pentecost represents the entire renewal of the world and the undoing of the archetypal sins of Genesis.  The sin of Adam and Eve represent sin as an offense against God.  The sin of Cain reflects the fact that sin harms other people.  The sin of Babel represents structural sin, while the story of Noah notes the cosmic dimensions that harm all of creation.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus and in the coming of the Spirit all these aspects of sin are overcome.

We saw earlier Jesus' crucifixion and burial scene in John: a tree, two streams, a man, a woman, and a garden.  The original innocence of Eden has been restored and made possible to us.  The sin of Adam is overcome.  At Pentecost we are restored to one another, we can understand one another again, and all of creation is made new by the wind of the Spirit that came across the earth that day, just as it had after the flood, just as it had at creation itself.  

But all of this is not magic.  It represents the fact that in and through the person of Jesus it is possible for us to live in such a way that we overcome and avoid these four aspects of sin.  By imitating the way of Jesus, by being open to the Spirit in our lives we can be renewed, as can all of creation.  The risen Jesus and the Spirit overcome our fears, break through our locked doors, and inspire us to be the mercy and love of God on earth as the Lord Jesus had been, proclaiming peace as he did.

Minding One's Business

Gospel: John 21: 20-25

It is perhaps both fitting and ironic that the very last scene in the Gospels is Jesus rebuking Peter and instructing us all in minding our business.  Peter has just been told by the Lord to feed his sheep, to provide the same care and concern for others as Jesus did.  But Peter has to know about the business of this other disciple - what about him? Jesus tells Peter - and us - that our task is to follow him, not to be prying into what others are about.  

The irony of the rebuke is not lost on us.  How much of religion has been about prying into the business of others, and how little of it has been about following the Lord!  We are so often about the examination of other people's consciences and lives, and so little about examining our own! That scripture passage, that sermon is about that person over there, not about me.  The indictment and conviction of others are easy for us to achieve, as are our own dismissal and acquittal.  

Imagine if we were encouraged in church life to focus our attention on following the Lord - in healing, liberating, nourishing, and caring for others as Jesus did.  Imagine if we were discouraged from being in the business of others and judging them.  The life of religion would be much more healthy, and perhaps the life of religion would once again grow as it would be far more attractive than what is presently provided.