On Life Plans, altering them.

Today's sermon at ACL was on Luke 18:18-30. The rich young ruler asks Jesus what he must do to achieve Eternal Life. Here, I'll let you read it.

¹⁸ Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

   ¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is truly good. ²⁰ But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother.’”

   ²¹ The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”

   ²² When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

   ²³ But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was very rich.

   ²⁴ When Jesus saw this, he said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! ²⁵ In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

   ²⁶ Those who heard this said, “Then who in the world can be saved?”

   ²⁷ He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”

   ²⁸ Peter said, “We’ve left our homes to follow you.”

   ²⁹ “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, ³⁰ will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.”

So there you have it. Jesus says, and I quote, "Rich people suck. Poor people rule." The End.
Wait, no, He didn't say that. Not even close. But before I elaborate on that point, I'd like to first direct you to my favourite part of this story, which we see in Mark 10:21.

   ²¹ Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”


See what happened there? Jesus, upon hearing the young man say that he's kept all the commandments, loved him. Why? Maybe the young man honestly yearned for the Kingdom. Maybe the young man almost got it, and Jesus got excited by that idea. (Yeah, we can take the easy route and say, "Jesus loves everyone!", but this isn't Sunday School, so I'm not accepting that answer) It's interesting to me that Jesus shuts down so many lines of questioning from the Pharisees and the Jews, but this young man He takes the time to answer. 


Now, onto my point. Or rather, a couple points.
First, when I read this passage, I freak out. Jesus hates wealth?! Well crap! There go all my hopes and dreams of one day owning a nice house and a nice car and a nice dog and a nice picket fence and a nice.... blah blah blah.
Jesus doesn't hate money! Jesus just doesn't love it, and He doesn't want us to love it either. Jesus paid the temple tax (Matt 17:24-27), He gave to Caesar what was Caesar's, He's okay with money. But He never had any, which is interesting. Neither do I. Does that make me a little more Christ-like than those with cash? I highly doubt it. But that's not the point.


As was pointed out this morning, when Jesus asked this young man to sell all his stuff, what did He then want the man to do with it? Give it to the poor. He wanted this young man to take what he had and invest it into the Kingdom. And this is my point.


When Zacchaeus and Jesus had lunch, Zacch (as I'll refer to him henceforth) promised to pay back everyone he overcharged and to give half of his wealth to the poor. That was good enough for Jesus. But did you notice what Jesus didn't ask him to do? Give up being a tax collector. Jesus didn't ask him to just walk away from everything he knew, He simply asked him to do what he does unto the Lord. To invest in the Kingdom, with what he has.


Adam was a farmer by trade. He farmed in the Garden. So when he got kicked out, what did he do? He farmed some more! Moses was a shepherd, so when God called him to lead Isreal out of Egypt, what did he do? He shepherded! They invested into the Kingdom what they had!


I think the scariest thought I've had in a long time was that God would ask me to completely give up my musical talent and ambition to become a "normal person". I don't know how to be normal, and I don't know how to live without being a musician. So thankfully, the idea I get is that He would never call me to just lay it down and walk away, but instead to take it up from a different angle, a different perspective, for a different purpose. I don't think He wants me to deny such a huge part of my life. Instead, I think He wants to see more balance. That's still a scary thought for me, though.


I don't believe in a God who wastes anything. I believe He uses everything: experiences, materials, debts and surpluses, strengths and weaknesses, even bad ideas and mistakes. And He does this by asking us to invest into His Kingdom everything we have. Yes, He may ask some of us to give up a job every now and then, or to take a paycut, or give a lot away, but how many of us feel that what He's asking of us encompasses who we are just a little too much? How many felt that the job He led us away from was the epitome of who we are? Or that the amount we lost due to a paycut defined us as human beings? So I, being a bass player, know that with gigs lost and money lost, that He is still going to take care of me. He just wants me to invest a little more into His Kingdom.


For the record, the only thing God ever asks us to lay down and never touch again is our sin. And that's the part of me that's freaking out. But I know it'll be okay. It just won't look quite like what I had pictured in my head. 




Sidenote: I love Peter and his ability to state the obvious, almost in a such a way as to try and gain brownie points. He had foot-in-mouth disease, and therefore makes a great role model. Everytime you feel like an idiot for something you said or did in the name of God, think of Pete. If he doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.