With God all things are possible: even the changing of your heart to let go of all things and follow Christ in love for God and neighbor.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 28 B
Text: Mark 10:17-31

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Do you dare to ask God to change your heart?

That’s your question today. For weeks now in our Gospel readings we’ve walked between Jesus’ predictions of his suffering and death and we’ve heard Jesus call us to follow in drastic terms: Take up your cross. Lose your life. Be last, not first. Serve everyone else. Chop off whatever trips you up from following. Sell everything you have, give it away, and follow.

But hard as those actions are, drastic as they sound, impossible as they might seem, Jesus gives great hope today: Whatever seems impossible for us is possible for God.

So – do you dare to ask God to make the impossible possible?

If you hear “take up your cross, lose your life, let go of everything,” and don’t get nervous or anxious about what that would mean for your life, hoping for unchallenging ways to understand Jesus’ description of the path of Christ, you might emerge from these weeks of Gospel readings unscathed. But probably not faithful.

That’s our great challenge. We’ve learned to hear Jesus’ drastic calls and put them in a box called “Sayings of Jesus” that we occasionally open, but only to admire them, not be challenged by them. You could go through these thorny bushes of what Jesus says it means to follow him and avoid ever getting your clothes caught on the branches. You can hear Jesus and not be changed, or concerned about your life.

The rich man today didn’t take that option. He heard Jesus exactly as Jesus intended, and knew he was being asked to let go of everything he owned if he wanted to follow. No exaggeration. No metaphor. And he had enough integrity to say “I can’t follow you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.”

If you dare, things will change. This man knew that.

We make Jesus’ calls comfortable by imagining Jesus is talking about getting to heaven with God when we die, not about this life. We hear Jesus say today it’ll be hard for rich people to go to heaven, rather than hear him call you and me to let go of all we have to follow him.

Today Jesus is clearly talking about God’s reign now, in this age. The disciples left family and friends, their homes, their fields and work, for the sake of following Jesus. Jesus says they are receiving all that back in abundance right now, in the community of those who follow Christ alongside them. All the family, home, wealth, and work they need they have in each other.

But that’s why following Jesus is hard for people with wealth. Like us. The more you have to lose, the harder it is to let go.

When we shift Jesus’ clear words from this life to the next, we utterly change the intent of God coming among us.

If the Triune God’s only goal in Christ was to end the power of death and bring all whom God loves into life after death, God could have done that any way God wanted. God created the universe.

But if the Triune God’s goal in Christ is to draw all whom God loves into relationship with God and with each other, a relationship of love that transforms lives and the creation, then God had to finally become one of us, speak our language, show us a face and a voice we could hear and trust and learn from.

Even in today’s Gospel Jesus promises life with God after we die. It’s just a separate thing from his call to lose everything to follow him. It’s a question of who can do what. Only the crucified and risen Christ can give you and me life after we die. You and I can do nothing to make it happen. We can only trust Christ’s promise to do it.

But only you and I can live the life of Christ here, in our lives, today, and so change the world. Learn to love God and neighbor with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

So what do we do with today’s call?

The question might not be whether today you divest all of your retirement, or sell your house, or take your Social Security check, and give it all away. We could argue that if everyone sold everything and gave it away, who would grow the food, make the homes, if everyone has nothing? The question really is whether you listen to Jesus with enough seriousness that his call makes you squirm. Causes you discomfort. Makes you wonder if you are actually being faithful.

So, you could start to ask, every day, what you hold that keeps you from loving God and neighbor fully. It could be everything. But start somewhere. It might be wealth that holds you back, and you decide to give away a lot more than you have before. It might be habits that harm others, that you decide to change. It might be ways of thinking, prejudices, fears, you try to get rid of.

But you and I would do better to share the integrity of this man today and walk away if we’re not willing to consider what we need to lose, let go of, cut off, for the sake of God’s Good News reaching all.

But also remember: God makes what seems impossible possible.

You and I hear these calls and know it’s going to be really hard to know what to do. Even harder to have the courage to try. Hardest of all, to fail and have to start over again.

But, do you dare trust Jesus’ word and ask the Triune God to change your heart? To make possible in you what you think is impossible? Because God will. The Spirit is in you right now, pulling you as you hear Jesus’ words, waking you at night with calls to love and care for your neighbor. God’s ready and willing to change your heart and so change your life. If you don’t walk away in sadness but give God a chance, you will find all you need to follow Christ faithfully. Even with stumbles and sins along the way.

And remember this, too: Jesus loved this man, even as he called him to risk everything.

Even as he walked away. Jesus loved the disciples even when they struggled on this path.

And Jesus – God-with-us – loves you as you are. You are God’s beloved child, a precious gift in God’s eyes. The God who loves you says, “Follow me. Let go of what keeps you from it. Even if it’s hard. And let me make it possible for you to do it.” That’s the joy of this path.

And that’s what God’s reign is all about. God’s beloved children living in love with each other and God, learning to let go of all that prevents that love, to embrace losing everything for each other in order to find everything in each other. So the whole creation can be healed.

Do you dare to ask God to make you a part of this?

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

Because of Christ, we don’t claim to have it all together – we trust God has it all together and we are simply living in God’s love for all.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 26 B
Text: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Mark 9:38-50

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Joshua and John had a problem with God’s behavior, not other people’s.

Joshua claimed to be upset at Eldad and Medad for prophesying in the camp. They were the only two of the 70 chosen to receive God’s Spirit who didn’t go to the Tent of Meeting as instructed.

But God told Moses to gather 70 elders so they could be given a share of the Spirit that Moses had and so ease Moses’ burden. And God sent the Spirit on all 70. Joshua’s problem is with the God of Israel who poured the Spirit into those two.

John claimed to be concerned about this unknown person casting out demons in Jesus’ name. He was unauthorized and needed to be stopped.

But Scripture says God drives out demons, not human skill. John’s problem isn’t with this guy, it’s with the God who answered his cries for deliverance.

We’re learning Jesus’ servant path, the path of self-giving love, in these three chapters of Mark we’re focusing on most of these autumn weeks. Today’s lesson is, if your concerns are with God being overly generous with the Spirit to others, maybe don’t complain to God’s Son. Or to God’s Spirit-filled servant, Moses.

This is another thing Christians have struggled with forever.

We’re not alone. Lots of people of faith – whatever their faith – find it challenging to see God blessing people who aren’t part of the in-group. Humans seem to want to accept God’s love and gifts ourselves, but once we feel we have that, to roam the outer boundaries making sure others are kept out.

But if we’re to learn something today from God, notice that the Triune God doesn’t care one bit about Joshua’s or John’s concerns. God’s giving the Spirit to all 70 and that’s it. God’s driving out demons afflicting God’s children, and that’s it.

So maybe that’s the real lesson today: whatever control you think you have over God’s work in the world, you don’t. God will do whatever God wants to, whether you and I are on board or not.

But there’s more to this lesson as we seek to be shaped to Jesus’ path.

Moses and Jesus agree: you and I don’t get to tell God where to send the Spirit. But both turn on their trusted, beloved followers, and say: you’ve got a bigger problem than you know.

Moses tells Joshua not only is he not upset at Eldad and Medad, he wishes God would pour the Spirit on all God’s people. You’re worried about those two guys going off-book, Joshua? My dream is that everyone is Spirit-filled. How will you control that?

Jesus dismisses John’s concern that this is an unknown person, and says if they’re doing good in Jesus’ name, leave them alone. But then he turns to John and the others and says, “If any of you put a stumbling block in front any of these folks who trust in me, you’d be better off tying a millstone around your neck and jumping into the sea.”

Jesus’ fear is more that John might have done something to hurt the faith of this poor fellow, not that his credentials are murky.

Can you imagine our witness if we took Jesus and Moses to heart?

If we rejoiced when we saw God working in others – whoever they are – instead of worrying about their credentials? How much blood and anger and violence have been poured out by people of faith killing or hating or rejecting other people of faith because they believed different things?

God’s Word says if God is sending the Spirit into the world, you don’t control where that goes. So if you see the fruits of the Spirit Paul describes in your Jewish neighbor, or your Muslim colleague, that’s God’s issue. If God’s Spirit moves in Hindus and Buddhists, and even in atheists without their knowing, what say over that do you and I have?

Moses longs for all to be Spirit-filled and speak God’s prophetic word. Jesus believes that if people are doing good in God’s name, that’s a grace. What if we embraced that?

God’s not asking us to tolerate others who differ from us. Toleration is insipid, weak sauce. The Son of God and Moses speak of longing to experience God in whomever we see, even if they follow different rules or beliefs or if we don’t know them.

But if you can’t yet rejoice that God is in another, for God’s sake – literally – at least don’t harm their trust in God.

That’s Jesus’ deep concern. God-with-us has no interest in our theological purity, and rejects our need to classify some as in and others as out. But God-with-us absolutely forbids us hurting another’s faith.

What if we always made sure we weren’t putting any stumbling block in the way of others’ trust in God? That our highest concern wasn’t getting our theology right and making sure everyone else did, it was protecting and nurturing the faith of all those who trust in God, whatever their faith. And, in an age where those who claim no faith are more known to us than before, maybe we should make sure we don’t do anything harmful to those siblings, either, even if we think they don’t have faith we can trip up.

That’s the servant path Jesus calls you and me to walk. The Church hasn’t been good at these lessons in, well, forever. But Jesus is always hopeful some of us might learn and live them.

This doesn’t mean the Good News that we trust about what God is doing in Christ doesn’t matter or shouldn’t be shared with the world.

The Bible is clear that your life is to witness to God’s love in Christ, your love of God and neighbor, the fruits of the Spirit you bear, are meant to lead people to know God’s love for themselves.

You and I just can’t tell God whom to love or whom to fill with the Spirit. We can’t claim anyone is outside of God’s embrace. And you and I absolutely can’t cause others to stumble in their faith. God’s love in Christ as we trust and live it forbids that.

It is precisely because we follow the crucified and risen Christ and trust in God to bring life to the world that we leave all of that life in God’s hands. Because God’s unauthorized and overly-generous love is the only reason you and I have hope, too. Would that all God’s people knew this!

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

We live in the confusion and fear of the disciples who struggle to follow Jesus in Mark 8-10, but are called together and re-centered and enlightened by Christ who leads us on this path of servanthood.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 25 B
Text: Mark 9:30-37 (plus 38-40)

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

It was all going so well, this following Jesus.

Dozens of disciples followed this rabbi from Nazareth and experienced wonders. Teaching that brought God close to them. Miracles defying explanation. A sense that God was in Jesus, so you could even hope for a new world, a restored Israel. The prophets’ promise that God would one day spread a table for all, so none went without, seemed to be happening, as thousands were fed in one amazing evening.

Sure, there were unhappy people. Some of the leaders of the local synagogues, even some teachers from Jerusalem, seemed angered by their teacher and his way of interpreting God’s law, threatened by his popularity. But as they traveled, in every village more and more people flocked to him for healing and guidance. Minor opposition couldn’t stand against such acclaim.

That’s what the first half of Mark’s Gospel feels like. Then chapter 8 arrives. As we heard last week, Jesus casts a cloud over the sunny hopes and dreams of his followers. He says he’s heading to Jerusalem to be killed. He asks those who follow him to also lose their lives for his sake and for the sake of this Good News they’ve been so happy to hear and experience.

This cloud covers the rest of the Gospel until Jesus’ death, with the disciples trying to get their hearts and minds around this new thing that Jesus says is the central thing, the servant path.

Today we heard the second of three predictions Jesus makes about his death in Mark.

In chapter 8 and chapter 10, Jesus makes a single statement. But here in chapter 9 it’s an ongoing conversation. Mark says Jesus takes his large group of followers away from the crowds and repeatedly teaches them he’ll be betrayed, killed, and, three days later, rise.

In these three chapters are some of the hardest teachings of Jesus, many of which we’ll hear in the next few weeks. In these three chapters, the disciples swim in a sea of doubt and confusion, as Jesus keeps making it clear that his path leads to death and resurrection. That he is offering his life and they are asked to offer theirs. That he will be a servant to them, and that his followers are called to be servants of each other and of the world.

The disciples don’t do well with this shift. We heard Peter’s fall from grace last week, called “Satan,” literally, “the adversary,” for trying to stop Jesus’ talk. John hears the call to servanthood and, as we heard today, responds by bragging about shutting down some people who were casting out demons in Jesus’ name, because they weren’t part of the authorized group. We’ll hear the chapter 10 prediction in our Gospel in about a month, and after it, John and his brother James ask Jesus for the seats of honor in God’s coming reign.

Following Jesus made sense to the disciples when it looked like he was a winner. It was a lot more challenging for these women and men when he said he was walking a path that led to losing, to serving, to offering himself.

The Church basically lives in the struggle of these three chapters of Mark and always has.

Our conflict between wanting to follow a winner, when Jesus persistently won’t let us see him as that, is centuries old. Ever since Christianity got imperial protection as the state religion 1,700 years ago, the Church has been tempted by the lure of power and wealth and domination. From the Crusades to the Inquisition to the 30-years’ war in Europe to the deadly alliance of evangelism and colonialism, Christians often seem to like the first half of Mark’s Gospel better. Today it’s manifest in the modern American myth of an exclusively Christian nation where Christian teachings are protected by laws and a strong military, and those of other faiths are marginalized and demonized.

Never mind that for 2,000 years Jesus has insisted that his way, God’s way, is the way of servant love, of offering oneself for neighbors and even enemies, of sacrifice so the Good News of God’s love can reach everyone. The Church has always found ways to lift up Jesus the Winner and artfully ignore Jesus’ teaching, tweak interpretation, turn his clear words into ways to manipulate and oppress others.

You and I also struggle with this conflict. But our faith practice, our worship, fatally undermines our attempts to bypass Jesus’ clarity. Thank God for that!

See, we continue to read the Gospels – from beginning to end – in our worship, blissfully appointing a reading like today’s, forgetting the Word of God is alive and active and won’t let us go.

Today we come to worship and once more Jesus sneaks in under our denial and self-protection, our unwillingness to let go of privilege and status and wealth, and calls out to us as he did to those women and men 2,000 years ago.

If we really didn’t want to hear Jesus or follow his call to sacrificial love and servanthood, we shouldn’t have let the Gospels be read to us again and again.

But it’s life-saving Good News that we keep making that mistake. Taking up our cross, losing ourselves for others, will never be easy. But as long as we keep letting Jesus talk, so we keep hearing God’s voice of love and call speak in our worship, God will make cracks in our denial and avoidance. Keep planting seeds of a new life. Give us courage to be servants to each other and the world, and to let others be our servants in turn.

We’re always journeying through the difficult awakening in chapters 8 to 10, sometimes making wrong turns in our discipleship.

Just like these folks. And we’re already doing what they did, keeping on listening to Jesus, reading these Gospels at home and in worship. That’s what led them to faithfulness in the end.

But we can avoid their critical mistake in today’s Gospel. They were silent in their confusion and fear to the one person who could have helped. “They didn’t understand what Jesus was saying,” Mark says, “and were afraid to ask him.” They spread their confusion and fear amongst themselves without ever turning to Jesus and saying, “This is really hard. Can you help us?”

We don’t have to make that mistake.

We’re already listening to Jesus. Let’s learn to ask him things, too.

As we worship and hear from the Gospels week after week, from Paul and the New Testament writers, from the Hebrew Scriptures, we faithfully put ourselves in the way of God’s Word, letting God’s voice speak into our worship and lives. When you read your Bible at home you do it, too.

But learn to pray as you hear and as you read. When you struggle with something Jesus asks of you, when God’s Word makes you confused about your divided loyalties or embedded biases or about the right way to go in that moment, learn to ask Christ to help you. Learn to say, “Help me understand this. Help me not run from this. Help me do this.”

And learn to use your community, too. If the disciples hadn’t argued on the road by themselves but had asked Jesus to help them, they could have all learned together. So can we. If we help each other listen and ask.

This path Jesus leads us on is hard, no question. But it also gives us hope.

Hope, because we have each other on our journey, to learn servanthood, to encourage each other, to be honest and open together about our struggles, and so find grace as we go out as God’s servants into this world.

Hope, because Jesus always walks with us on the road through the Spirit, opening the Scriptures to us, encouraging and guiding us in our servanthood.

Hope, because this path of servanthood and self-giving love will end all the deep-rooted problems that plague our society and plague our hearts. Racism, classism, patriarchalism, oppression, systemic poverty, war and violence, have no chance of surviving a world full of servants of God who live God’s self-giving love.

Come, let’s journey together, learn from Christ together, and, with God’s help, take our place among God’s servants who are healing this world.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen