“Tethered and Tested” Vance L. Toivonen
READING Mark 10:17-31
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?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 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.'" He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." 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." When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. 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!"
READING Burton L. Mack, Who Wrote the New Testament?
The followers of Jesus were not interested in preserving accurate memories of the historical person. Jesus was important to them as the founder-teacher of a school of thought…Knowing Jesus was a teacher is all we need to get started, for the story to be told is not about Jesus and the influence of his unique personality, life, and achievements…The story to be told is about the ways in which his followers honored him as the founder of their movements. It is about…the investment his followers made in the social experiments that resulted from Jesus’ teachings.
SERMON
Last Sunday the choir sang the spiritual, “Give Me Jesus.” This Sunday the choir sang the spiritual, “Give Me Jesus.” Next Sunday the choir will sing the spiritual, “Give Me Jesus.” Now, I did not ask them to sing this song last week. And I was told by Mary that the choir was planning on singing this song next week. But I did ask Mary if the choir could sing it today; and they did. So, thank you choir.
I can tell you that one year ago, I would never have asked the choir to sing this song. Over the past three years I have been a bit squirmy about the Jesus thing, reluctant to sing Jesus songs, my heart heavy with the burden of my own religious past. Depending upon where you are on your spiritual journey, you too may feel some of this heaviness. But today when I sang this song my internal space was just a little bit warmer than it has been in awhile.
Perhaps this is because my evolution at Hope Church has moved me to a place where I hunger again for a center, a center beyond myself, an other-than center; and I think that center for me is still Jesus. As I suggested a few weeks ago, at this time in my life I am in need of a place where the “buck stops,” so to speak. Remember those old E.F. Hutton commercials on television? There would be a busy scene, lots of activity and noise, and then someone would ask a question of this financial advisor, E.F. Hutton. Immediately the room would fall silent, everyone in the room frozen with anticipation of the words that would emanate from E.F. Hutton’s mouth.
We may be living in an age where financial matters, more than anything else cause us to stop in our tracks, to take notice. The sheer volume of commercials on television today about financial advice, and fund management tells us that we value this as a culture. But have we begun to make such matters our center? Have we made our financial status and security primary?
Can we even begin to imagine the voice of Jesus having that kind of primacy and power in our lives, that we would drop everything and listen intently to his words? Which is exactly what he asks the young man in the first reading today. There is talk of being a good person, playing by all the rules, living life as a fine, upstanding citizen of society. But Jesus still finds the young man lacking. The financial advice of Jesus would not play well in a commercial during the football game this afternoon. He suggests that the young man sell everything he has, give the money to the poor, and follow him.
Burton Mack actually uses the word “investment” when he refers to the early followers of Jesus. In that second reading he concludes, “It is about…the investment his followers made in the social experiments that resulted from Jesus’ teachings.” The primacy of Jesus’ teachings constituted the portfolio for these early followers. They literally took stock in the teachings of Jesus and sought to transform themselves and society through the learning and spiritual growth acquired by their attention to these teachings. This process of listening to Jesus and then applying his teachings not only to their lives, but to the environment around them, was their center, the core of their existence. There was nothing more important for them than this.
Listen again to the lyric from the spiritual sung by the choir again this morning:
In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus give me Jesus
You can have all this world
But give me Jesus
And when I am alone
When I am alone
When I am alone
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus give me Jesus
You can have all this world
But give me Jesus
And when I come to die
When I come to die
When I come to die
Give me Jesus
You see, when I hear these words of Jesus spoken to the young man, it is as if Jesus is standing right here in this room, looking directly into my eyes. I feel his eyes piercing to the core of my being, shining like a beacon into my soul, examining my values, my priorities, and my investments in life. I cannot slough off these words, or merely chalk them up to some sort of metaphor. This is Jesus talking, and I have to tell you that through all of the upheaval in my spiritual life over the past years, years that go back even before coming to Hope Church, my desire to give this voice, this very person of Jesus, a primary place in my life has not entirely disappeared.
Recovery groups, the groups of various emphasis that refer to themselves as 12-step groups, are predicated upon the acknowledgement of a higher power. In order to recover, to be whole as a human being, the members of step groups admit that there is something, some power greater than themselves. Many, but not all, call this power God. In Christianity Jesus is understood as an expression of this higher power. I suppose it does not matter what that higher power is at the end of the day, but it does matter that we have one. You may want to ask yourself this morning what that higher power is for you. Does that higher power have primacy in your life? Is that higher power more important than anything else? If not, it may not be a higher power, but more of a lower blip on your personal radar screen.
There are many things that tether us, that keep us from making Jesus or God or Mohammed or Gandhi or the Buddha a primary center in our lives. The spiritual path is predicated on giving primacy to some source outside ourselves. For those of us who have grown up in the Christian faith this source probably has a good chance of being Jesus. It is this source that will test us, challenging us to grow beyond our comfort zones, to step away from the status quo, to confront our own complacency, and to then make an effort to confront society as well.
The 20th century mystic and Thomist priest Reginald Garrigou-LeGrange wrote,
If we demand too little of ourselves, this is because we do not count sufficiently on grace, because we do not sufficiently ask for it. If our spiritual life declines to a lower level and if we are satisfied with an entirely natural life, this is a consequence of our believing we are alone in acting, forgetting that God is in and with us. (Reginald Garrigou-LeGrange, Christian Perfection and Contemplation).
Jesus’ challenge to the young man resulted in shock, and deep sadness. I am no longer shocked by these words, but I do still grieve that my response to these words of Jesus is “no.” I am tethered, and therefore tested. Because these words emanate from a source who is given primacy in my life, the tension resulting from this challenge does not end at 11:30 this morning. It will not end by 11:30 tonight. I will live in this tension 24/7, because these words never stop confronting me. Until I am willing to sing with conviction that the direction and guidance of Jesus is more important than anything else, this tension will not subside.
My greatest sin as a leader of Hope Church is that I have wallowed in the confusion of my own spiritual journey for so long. I have not settled on my own center, and thus we have floundered as a community to find a center we can call our own. It is this lack of centering that causes our grief. Please forgive me.
It is my prayer that we will, in the days ahead both seek and discover that center, a power greater than ourselves, larger than our own egos to which we can attribute primacy in our lives both as individuals and as a community. That center cannot be you, and it cannot be me. For me it will likely be Jesus, and the God to which Jesus gives primacy. What will that center be for you?