Richard B. Hays - "Naked and Laid Bare" (October 15, 2000)

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-	This morning's gospel lesson	0:16
	comes from the Gospel of Mark, the 10th chapter.	0:19
	And while Jesus was going out into the way,	0:28
	a man came running up and knelt down before him,	0:32
	asking him good teacher, what must I do	0:38
	in order to inherit eternal life?	0:43
	But Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?	0:49
	No one is good except one, God.	0:57
	You know the commandments,	1:05
	do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal,	1:07
	do not bare false witness, do not defraud,	1:11
	honor your father and mother.	1:17
	The man said to him, teacher, all these things I have kept	1:22
	from my youth and Jesus, looking at him, loved him	1:28
	and said to him one thing you lack, go,	1:39
	whatever you have, sell it, and give to the poor	1:45
	and come follow me.	1:51
	But the man was stunned by this word	1:56
	and went away, grieving, for he had many possessions.	2:01
	And looking around, Jesus said to his disciples,	2:10
	how hard it will be for those who have riches	2:15
	to enter into the kingdom of God.	2:19
	And the disciples were amazed at his words	2:23
	and in response, Jesus said to them,	2:28
	children, how hard it is to enter into the kingdom of God,	2:31
	it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle	2:35
	than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.	2:41
	And they were exceedingly astonished,	2:46
	saying to one another, and who will be able to be saved?	2:50
	Looking at them, Jesus said, for human beings, impossible	2:58
	but not with God, for all things are possible with God.	3:07
	Peter began to say to him, look, we've left everything	3:14
	and followed you.	3:21
	Jesus said, truly I say to you, there is no one	3:23
	who has left house or brothers or sisters	3:27
	or mother or father or children or fields	3:30
	for my sake and for the sake of the gospel	3:34
	who will not receive a hundred fold now in this age.	3:37
	Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children	3:42
	and fields with persecutions and in the age to come	3:46
	eternal life but many who are first will be last	3:55
	and the last will be first.	4:01
	This is the word of the Lord.	4:06
	A cartoon in the New Yorker magazine	4:19
	shows some guys in a bar, watching the stock market report.	4:24
	Something I suppose like CNN's Moneyline.	4:30
	The TV reporter is saying jitters on Wall Street today	4:35
	over the rumor that Alan Greenspan was reported to have said	4:42
	it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle	4:46
	than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.	4:49
	The cartoon tickles our funny bone	4:59
	because it plays upon an ironic contrast.	5:02
	We hang with great suspense on every rumor	5:07
	about what Alan Greenspan might be thinking	5:12
	while ignoring what Jesus did in fact say	5:16
	on the subject of money.	5:21
	And so the joke exposes us.	5:26
	It shows where we, in fact, place our trust.	5:31
	But at the same time, this New Yorker cartoon	5:37
	also exposes something about our culture.	5:40
	Of course, Alan Greenspan never would question	5:45
	the value of wealth or speak publicly	5:49
	about what might be required to enter	5:52
	the kingdom of God.	5:54
	For the people who make decisions and shape the direction	5:58
	of policy, such questions appear irrelevant and unreal.	6:01
	So, the cartoon exposes the shallowness of the culture	6:08
	that absorbs us.	6:14
	But even more than the New Yorker cartoon,	6:19
	the story that's told in today's reading	6:22
	from the Gospel of Mark exposes us.	6:25
	The cartoon is funny only in the same way	6:29
	that this saying of Jesus is funny.	6:33
	Both call into question everything	6:37
	that we ordinarily count as prudence.	6:41
	We laugh because we find ourselves caught	6:47
	in the juxtaposition between two worlds,	6:51
	two incommensurate worlds.	6:58
	But there's one crucial difference between the cartoon	7:02
	and the gospel.	7:06
	The cartoon only seeks to make us chuckle	7:08
	before we turn the page	7:11
	but the gospel asks us to decide	7:14
	which of these two worlds is the true one.	7:19
	That is the question that confronts the earnest seeker	7:25
	in today's gospel text.	7:28
	The story is popularly known as the story	7:32
	of the rich young ruler but Mark doesn't call him that.	7:35
	In their parallel versions, Matthew calls him a young man	7:42
	and Luke calls him a ruler	7:48
	but Mark supplies neither detail.	7:52
	In Mark's telling of the story,	7:55
	he could be any age, he could be 20, 50, or 70.	7:57
	So, I'll just call him the seeker.	8:04
	The seeker says to Jesus, good teacher,	8:10
	what must I do to inherit eternal life?	8:13
	But rather than answering directly,	8:19
	Jesus enigmatically challenges the form of address.	8:20
	Why do you call me good?	8:25
	No one is good but God alone.	8:28
	There's a hint here for those with ears to hear.	8:33
	It is indeed appropriate to call Jesus good	8:39
	but only because he is Lord.	8:42
	The seeker has come face to face with the one human being	8:46
	who can rightly be addressed in this way.	8:51
	As we'll see, it's a disturbing encounter.	8:57
	By replying in this way, Jesus already hints	9:03
	at the futility of seeking to enter the kingdom of God	9:06
	by being good.	9:10
	If no one is good but God alone,	9:13
	where does that leave us seekers?	9:18
	Nonetheless, Jesus does offer the seeker an answer.	9:22
	You know the commandments and he lists a few of them.	9:27
	You've probably seen the results of the polls,	9:32
	even though most Americans think it's a good thing	9:36
	for the 10 commandments to be displayed publicly	9:39
	in our schools and courts,	9:42
	most of us can't name the 10 commandments.	9:45
	As it happens, though, the seeker has had the benefit	9:51
	of growing up in a culture in which the commandments	9:53
	of God are not excluded from public discourse.	9:56
	He was nurtured on the commandments from the cradle,	10:02
	so he declares yes, teacher, yes,	10:04
	I've kept all these things ever since my youth.	10:08
	It's a moment of dramatic tension.	10:16
	What will Jesus say to him?	10:19
	He might say, you hypocrite, you're lying.	10:25
	Nobody can keep all of the commandments.	10:30
	Or he might say, that's good.	10:34
	You've kept the 10 commandments, that's a good start	10:38
	but here's a checklist of some new and more stringent rules,	10:41
	you also need to give up high cholesterol foods	10:45
	and use inclusive language.	10:48
	Or he might say, okay, now all you have to do	10:54
	is believe that I'm the son of God	11:00
	and be baptized and join the church.	11:02
	What will Jesus say?	11:06
	And just at this point, Mark gives us one crucial detail	11:12
	that's lacking in the other gospels,	11:16
	Jesus pauses before answering	11:19
	and in that pause, in that moment,	11:22
	when the seeker's words hang suspended in the air	11:27
	and we hang in suspense to hear how Jesus will respond.	11:30
	Mark tells us something on which this whole tale hangs.	11:39
	Jesus, looking at him, loved him.	11:46
	Jesus loved him.	11:51
	Jesus sees into his heart and realizes	11:55
	that this man is authentically seeking	11:58
	the kingdom of God.	12:01
	That helps us understand the answer that Jesus gives.	12:05
	This is not a trick.	12:09
	Jesus is not trying to ferret out some hidden sin	12:11
	of pride or pretension.	12:14
	No, the answer that Jesus gives to the seeker	12:16
	is an answer born of love, it's a truthful answer	12:19
	given from the heart to a person who wants to know	12:24
	how to share in God's kingdom.	12:28
	One thing you lack, go, whatever you have, sell it,	12:32
	and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven	12:39
	and come, follow me.	12:45
	But alas, this answer cuts to the quick.	12:52
	He was stunned at this word,	12:57
	so he went away grieving for he had many possessions.	13:02
	What happened?	13:13
	The answer is given in today's Epistle reading from Hebrews.	13:16
	The word of God is living and active,	13:23
	sharper than any two-edged sword,	13:25
	piercing until it divides soul from spirit,	13:28
	joints from marrow, it judges the thoughts and intentions	13:32
	of the heart and before him, no creature is hidden	13:37
	but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one	13:44
	to whom we must render an account.	13:50
	Naked and laid bare.	13:57
	That's what happened to the seeker.	14:03
	He encountered the word of God	14:05
	and it stripped away his confident self-presentation.	14:10
	He came looking for instructions on how to enter	14:17
	the kingdom, thinking he was ready to do whatever Jesus	14:20
	would ask, but looking upon him, Jesus loved him,	14:25
	and therefore Jesus posed the one demand	14:34
	that laid bare the condition of his heart	14:36
	and so his possessions, which had been a source of joy,	14:40
	became grounds for his grief because he was stunned	14:45
	to discover that he couldn't give them up.	14:52
	He was searching for eternal life	14:57
	but he couldn't give up the life he already had.	15:00
	As Sondra Wheeler observes in her book	15:07
	Wealth as Peril and Obligation,	15:11
	"The man knows enough	15:16
	to sorrow for the life he is foregoing.	15:18
	He departs grieving, the first to mourn his own death."	15:23
	Because of his possessions, he laments with Job.	15:32
	God has made my heart faint.	15:37
	The almighty has terrified me.	15:41
	If only I could vanish in darkness	15:44
	and thick darkness would cover my face.	15:48
	What does the word of God say to us?	15:58
	It doesn't speak only about possessions, you know.	16:06
	One thing you lack, give up that extra marital affair,	16:10
	be reconciled to your spouse, and you will have treasure	16:16
	in heaven and come, follow me.	16:20
	One thing you lack, surrender your desperate need	16:26
	for popularity, spend your time with outcasts,	16:31
	and you'll have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.	16:37
	One thing you lack, surrender your anger,	16:43
	forgive those who've wronged you,	16:48
	and you'll have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.	16:51
	One thing you lack.	17:01
	No creature is hidden.	17:09
	We are laid bare by God's word.	17:13
	But today's gospel, with its call to relinquish	17:19
	possessions, particularly, I think, exposes us.	17:23
	In this land of astonishing material prosperity,	17:31
	we are in the grip of an addiction to things.	17:35
	In the most recent Smithsonian magazine,	17:42
	there's an article entitled You Are What You Buy.	17:45
	In it, Professor James Twitchell	17:51
	of the University of Florida comments, quote,	17:54
	ask 18 year olds what freedom means	17:58
	and they'll tell you it means being able to buy	18:02
	whatever I want.	18:05
	End quote.	18:08
	We may want to follow Jesus but we want to do it	18:11
	without jeopardizing our investments	18:15
	and our retirement accounts,	18:17
	without surrendering our comfortable homes	18:20
	and sleek cars.	18:23
	We know that John Wesley preached, earn all you can,	18:26
	save all you can, give all you can,	18:30
	and most of us have decided that	18:35
	two out of three ain't bad.	18:36
	And so, along with the seeker in this story,	18:44
	we find ourselves laid bare by this particular word	18:47
	of Jesus and once we're laid bare, we hear the most	18:53
	important imperative, come, follow me.	18:58
	Follow where?	19:04
	Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem.	19:07
	On the road to the cross.	19:12
	Our possessions weigh us down and hinder us	19:15
	from following Jesus.	19:18
	So, because he loves us, he calls us to let them go	19:20
	so that we'll be free to join his movement	19:25
	and follow him.	19:28
	Will we go away grieving because of our possessions	19:31
	or having been stripped and laid bare	19:36
	will we respond with gladness?	19:39
	Jesus' encounter with the seeker	19:44
	was just as astonishing to his disciples	19:45
	as it is to us.	19:49
	They ask the understandable question, our question,	19:51
	if we're all gonna be laid bare in this way,	19:55
	isn't it impossible?	19:58
	No camel will ever get through the eye of the needle,	20:02
	will it?	20:05
	But in verse 27, Mark repeats the same verb	20:08
	that he used when Jesus looked at the seeker.	20:13
	Jesus looked at them.	20:16
	That's the look of love again.	20:20
	His summons to them is no less exacting	20:24
	than the summons he gave to the seeker	20:28
	but he explains one more crucial truth,	20:30
	it all depends on God.	20:33
	What seems impossible to us, God will accomplish.	20:36
	In other words, God will set them free	20:41
	to let go of their possessions and follow.	20:45
	As the letter to the Hebrews puts it,	20:51
	we do not have a high priest who is unable	20:55
	to sympathize with our weaknesses.	20:58
	Let us, therefore, approach the throne of grace	21:02
	with boldness so that we may receive mercy	21:05
	and find grace to help in time of need.	21:11
	To find mercy before the throne of grace	21:16
	doesn't mean that we can then ignore	21:19
	the call to costly discipleship.	21:22
	Hebrews is quite clear about that.	21:25
	But it means that as we stand naked before the throne,	21:29
	we stand before the one who has laid us bare,	21:34
	the one who also loves us.	21:40
	And so his call to costly discipleship is not a punishment,	21:45
	it's not some sort of punitive tax imposed on those	21:49
	who live in luxury.	21:54
	Rather, it is a call to find what the seeker	21:57
	said he was looking for.	22:00
	Life.	22:04
	The grace that helps in time of need	22:07
	is a grace that enables us not to turn away sorrowing	22:11
	but to embrace the invitation that Jesus gives.	22:16
	Those who do embrace the invitation to give possessions	22:22
	to the poor and follow Jesus will discover,	22:25
	as Jesus promises in the remarkable closing section	22:29
	of this story, they will discover that contrary	22:33
	to all reasonable calculation,	22:36
	they will receive, even now in this present age,	22:39
	a hundred fold of houses and new family members.	22:43
	Surely, he is talking about the church,	22:49
	the worldwide fellowship in which we discover a new family,	22:55
	in which we do not say that our houses and lands	23:02
	are our own because we share them, freely,	23:05
	with our brothers and sisters.	23:11
	This blessing is accompanied to be sure by rejection	23:15
	at the hands of a world to whom all this makes no sense.	23:20
	Allen Greenspan and the Moneyline pundits	23:28
	will think we are fools	23:33
	but if Jesus is telling the truth,	23:38
	this is the true path to life.	23:41
	So, the question for us is,	23:45
	with whom are we going to place our investments?	23:48
	With the world that tells us to minimize risk	23:55
	and diversify our portfolios?	23:58
	Or with the one before whose eyes	24:03
	we are naked and laid bare,	24:07
	the one who calls us to risk everything and follow?	24:12

Item Info

Title:

Richard B. Hays - "Naked and Laid Bare" (October 15, 2000)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 4:19. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 24:20.
This sermon considers Jesus' demanding teachings about money as a case of the word of God acting in love to penetrate and reveal our hearts, so that we may be freed from our crutches to find real, eternal life in discipleship and in the Church; it calls those who hear to risk giving away their possessions and placing their trust wholly in Jesus. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r41z4270h

Date:

October 15, 2000

Speaker:

Hays, Richard B.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

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Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-1035
ref10227_oh5
uachapelsermaud
duke:320342
dcrau001679
ark:/87924/r41z4270h
68c80182-9c54-486f-b6b1-9c7029aca3f4

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings

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Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Educational Use Permitted

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