October 11, 2009
Job 23: 1-9, 16-17
1 Then Job answered: 2 "Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning. 3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! 4 I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me. 6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me. 7 There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge. 8 "If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; 9 on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.
16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; 17 If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!
Psalm 22:1-16
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. 3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4 In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame. 6 But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads; 8 "Commit your cause to the LORD; let him deliver-- let him rescue the one in whom he delights!" 9 Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother's breast. 10 On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God. 11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. 12 Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me; 13 they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; 15 my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
Hebrews 4:12-16
12 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
14 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Mark 10:17-31
17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.'" 20 He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "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." 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. 23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?" 27 Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible." 28 Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you." 29 Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age--houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."
How Far?
How long is your journey to your greatness?
What do you think?
How long is our journey to eternal life? How long is our journey to being able to do great deeds of divine power? How long is our journey to becoming children of the light? How far is it between where we are now and the kingdom of God? Who will be the first to get there? Who will be the last?
Don’t ask me. I’m just a human being like you. My opinion doesn’t amount to much. So how do we get this question answered?
One way would be for me to express my opinion and find out how many people agree with me. If you have different opinion, you can express yours and see how many people agree with you. Then we can vote. Whoever gets the most votes wins. But somehow this doesn’t seem to work for such a question.
Some say that the distance is the length of your life, whatever that is. Homer Simpson had a conversation with God on one of the episodes of the Simpsons. It was about a whole lot of things but at the end of the conversation, Homer said, “By the way God, you know how long I’m going to live, don’t you?” And God said, “Sure.” And Homer said, “Well, can you tell me how long I’m going to live?” And God said, “You’ll find that out when you die.” And Homer said, “I can’t wait that long.” And God said, “You can’t wait two weeks?”
So some have the opinion that the kingdom of God is not here in the world, it’s inaccessible to the living. The only gate into the kingdom of God is death. So we don’t really know the distance, we just have to wait. And while we’re waiting, these folks believe, we keep our noses clean morality-wise, so that when we die and we ascend to heaven’s gate we can present our record. If that record passes muster, we get in. And that’s when we find our greatness at the throne of God. Then and only then will we finally meet Jesus and get all our questions answered.
Others think that the kingdom is here on earth, that while you are living, you can decide to receive it, to enter it, to become a part of it. You can turn away from the world you live in and you can leave it, and you can make a journey during your lifetime, and while you are still living in the world, you can receive the eternal life of God, become a citizen of his kingdom, his holy nation, his royal priesthood. You can become like Jesus himself, filled with the Holy Spirit, doing great deeds of power, healing, teaching, prophecying. You can become the living presence of God himself in the world. You can become great while you are in the world.
So, we can take a vote. We can schedule a time when we all get together and the person with the one opinion can go out and campaign and get a bunch of people that agree with him, and the person who has the different opinion can go out and campaign and get a bunch of people that agree with him, and then we’ll get back together and whoever has the most votes is right.
But we do have a great high priest who has ascended above the angels to sit at the right hand of God. If you’d like, we can go to see him, and we can ask him. Each one of us can go before his throne and ask him the question. How far, Jesus? How far do I have to go to inherit eternal life? How far do I have to go to my greatness?
How do we do this? Well, Jesus himself, while he was running around on the planet, told us how. He used the word “remembrance.” By getting together and remembering what Jesus did and said two thousand years ago, and by remembering the scriptures he used as his authority, we can come into his presence, come before his throne, ask him whatever we want. And because we have all already agreed that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God and the Savior of the world, we have already agreed that his way is the right way, we have already agreed that whatever his answer is, that’s the right answer.
So we can go to Jesus right now. We don’t have to listen to the preacher’s opinions. We don’t have to have a vote. We can go by remembering together a story of Jesus’ life and teaching. We can bypass human opinion, and we can go to our agreed-upon authority figure.
Would you like to do that? Okay, well, before we go before the throne of glory, I have a warning I want to give to all of us, including myself. The thing about Jesus that makes him worthy of sitting on that throne is that he loves everyone who comes to him just the way they are.
I’m going to say that again, Jesus, when you meet him, will love you just the way you are.
Do you still want to go? Are you a little nervous? Well, that’s okay, because we’re all going together.
17 As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up
and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit
eternal life?" 18 Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is
good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder;
You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false
witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.'" 20 He said
to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." 21 Jesus, looking
at him, loved him and said, "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." 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he
had many possessions.23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the
kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." 26 They
were greatly astounded and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?"
27 Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not
for God; for God all things are possible."
28 Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed
you." 29 Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house
or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake
and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold
now in this age--houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields,
with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are
first will be last, and the last will be first."
Jesus looked at him and loved him. You see, I told you, I warned you, didn’t I? I told you that Jesus would love you just the way you are. He alone of all authorities in heaven and earth knows you just the way you are, and loves you just the way you are.
He loved the rich man because it was obvious that the rich man loved God and wanted to enter the kingdom, and had indeed made a start by coming to Jesus to meet him, just as we are doing right now by remembering this story. And Jesus looked at him and loved him, just the way he was. He loved the rich man as a person longing to enter the kingdom of God who was also quite obviously selfish and greedy.
Did you hear Jesus’ grief as he watched the rich man staggering away in shock and grief? He saw in the greatness in the rich man, he saw his amazing potential, he saw what that rich man could be in the household of God. Jesus had a room already for him, and he could see that rich man living in that room, rejoicing in eternal life, full of the Spirit and the power of salvation. And Jesus knew exactly how far that rich man would have to travel to get there, and because Jesus loved him, he told him the truth.
And the rich man couldn’t accept it.
The word of God is living and active, a double-edged sword. Jesus loves me just the way I really am, behind my idea of myself, behind all my pretences, beyond all my rationalizations and self-justifications, with all the weakness I don’t think I have, with all the bad motives I deny are in me. He loves me where I am, far from his kingdom, and he loves me enough to tell me to my face just how far I have to go.
Jesus loves me just the way I really am, and meeting him means facing the way I really am.
We have come before Jesus, right before his throne, and we have asked him, “How far are we from the kingdom? How far are we from our greatness?” And he is looking at us, and he is loving us just the way we really are. Look into his eyes and ask him, “How far do I really have to go?” I can’t tell you. No one else in this church can tell you. But he can tell you. He is looking in your eyes and he can see the saint you are meant to be, and he is willing to tell you how far you must go to become that saint. Do you really want to know? Can you accept the truth?
The disciples standing around watching this exchange and observing Jesus’ frustration and grief seem to want to comfort him. “Well, Jesus, we’ve done what you asked the rich man to do, haven’t we?” And Jesus doesn’t dispute it. Of course, we need to remember that those men were all of them caught up in miserable and unhappy lives when Jesus met them. The world they were living in was for them a difficult and hopeless existence. They were like Job or the psalmist today, they were already crying out to God, desperate for his appearance, desperate for his return. The distance between where they started and the kingdom of God was therefore rather short. For this reason, Jesus says, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.”
How far to my greatness, Jesus? How far to my sainthood? We ask and Jesus looks at us and loves us just the way we really are. Listen. You can hear his answer.
Amen.
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