JESUS HAS ME! JESUS LOVES ME!
A Sermon on Mark 10:17-31

O God, you have given me allthat I have, and all that I am.
Give me only your love and your grace.
With this I am rich enough, and I have no more to ask. AMEN.

(from a prayer attributed to St. Ignatius of Loyola)

It’s Monday morning. I’m at Starbucks. I’m there for coffee, but I really have something else in mind. I’m looking for some new music, something to savor. At the check-out counter there’s a CD called “I and Love and You” by the Avett Brothers, a band from North Carolina. I’ve never heard of them, but I give it a try. Later, on their website, I see that their music has been compared to Buddy Holly and the Beatles. Others call it “folk-punk” or “grunge-grass.”

I buy it and pop it into the CD player of my car. Half-listening, caught up in the rhythms and some pretty catchy tunes, I think, OK, this is good! Then, I hear it – a single, simple lyric: “…everyday is worse than the one before…” Hmm, I think. That sounds a bit dark. I wonder what this song is about? Starting it over, I listen more carefully, and this is what I hear:

I am sick with wanting and it’s evil how it’s got me
And everyday is worse than the one before
The more I have the more I think I'm almost where I need to be
If only I could get a little more…

Something has me
Oh something has me
(I’m) acting like someone I don't want to be

Something has me
Oh something has me
(I’m) acting like someone I know isn't me
Ill with want and poisoned by this ugly greed

I don’t know about you, but I know people who feel that way. Actually, if I’m honest, I’ve felt that way. Sick with wanting. Poisoned by my ugly greed.

A few years ago, encouraged by a friend, I sat down and wrote out my money autobiography. I reflected on what, when, where, and how I learned about money. One of my earliest memories of me and money is of going to church with my family and my godparents. Every Sunday we picked up Aunt Laura and Uncle Charles on the way to church. When we took them home, I always held my breath. It didn’t happen every single Sunday. But most of the time, before they got out of the car, my godparents gave me a dollar. My three younger sisters all got coins. You see, I was Charles and Laura’s beloved godson. For them, I was different, and I loved being special in that way.

Another money memory comes from my teenage years. I remember going into my bedroom, closing the door and opening my weekly pledge envelope. I knew it was wrong to take the money I had saved to give to the church so I could sneak out and buy just one more comic book, but I couldn’t help myself. Something had me, and I was acting like someone I didn’t want to be. I’ll only do it one more time, I told myself, and then I’ll stop.

“The love of money is the root of all evil,” we hear in St. Paul’s first letter to Timothy (6:10, KJV). It’s not money itself but our love of it, our feeling special with it, our addiction to it, our illness with it, our worship of it – that’s the problem. It’s ugly greed that “has” us. That’s what I began to learn about as a child, and that’s what the rich man began to learn in our gospel story today.

The rich man had done everything right. Trying to be faithful, he had kept all the commandments. He tried his best to love God and his neighbor. But now, Jesus wanted him to step out further in faith. This rich man did not yet see how he must also surrender things he loved – to let go of what still “had” him – in order to follow Jesus, the One who held for him – and holds for us – the keys to the kingdom, the gift of eternal life.

When the rich man heard Jesus say that, in order to be a disciple, he needed to sell everything and give it to the poor, he suffered from shock and felt deep grief. Give up everything? No! Jesus can’t be serious! In that moment he discovered just how hard it is to follow Jesus. Not once in Mark’s version of this story but twice, Jesus says, “how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!” Jesus essentially says it’s impossible. But with God, Jesus goes on to say, all things are possible. With God, even eternal life is possible and available – here and now.

For me, the most important part of this story about the rich man is this: Jesus looked at this man who had tried so hard to be faithful, and Jesus loved him. The rich man had done the best he could, and Jesus loved him for that. But now, it was time for the impossible. Now it was time, as they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, to let God do for him what he could not do for himself. Now it was time to follow Jesus, time to receive the love Jesus had for him, time to trust Jesus. Now it was time for everlasting life – on earth as it is in heaven.

Last night the Rev. Kirk Kubicek came to spend some time with us at a potluck supper. All of us – children, youth and adults – sang songs and laughed a bit and had some real good, old-fashioned fun. But we also did some work, like the work Jesus wanted the rich man to do. Jesus wanted him to reflect on his life and consider what was really important. And that’s what we did last night. We thought about the most important thing of all: God’s unconditional love for us. Kirk gave out bookmarks with a quote about God’s love. The words on it are Bible words, words Jesus might have spoken to that rich man. Here are some of those words of love – words for the rich man, words for you and for me:

God says to us: I have called you by name…You are mine and I am yours. You are my beloved, on you my favor rests….I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child….You belong to me….Wherever you are I will be. Nothing will ever separate us. We are one. (Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved, p. 30ff.)

Jesus loved that rich man. He was God’s beloved. We’ll never know what the rich man did after the day he met Jesus. He may have had a change of heart and come to follow Jesus, after all. He may have come to receive eternal life by receiving God’s eternal love through Jesus. We will never know, and it doesn’t matter. What matters is what we are doing. What matters now is how we are living, how we are loving, how we are letting God in Christ Jesus love us.

Before the rich man met Jesus, his possessions “had” him. Now, Jesus “had” him. Now, Jesus loved him. Would he do the impossible? Would he let Jesus have him, completely? Would he receive the love of Jesus? Would he learn to share what he had with those in need, others who need love?

Does Jesus have you and me? Will we receive the everlasting love of Jesus? Will we share what we have with those who need our love, God’s love?

Maybe we could rewrite the song about “ugly greed.” It could be a song the rich man might sing:

Jesus has me! Oh, Jesus has me!
How I long to be the person I want to be!

Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me!
I don’t want to be someone I know isn't me;
Filled with love, I’ll learn to share with those in need.

- The Rev. Thomas A. Momberg
All Saints’ Episcopal Church
October 11, 2009

In this Gospel account, Jesus was interrupted.

For more on the interruptions of life, go to http://fathermom.wordpress.com