Things Jesus Clearly Says

Things Jesus Clearly Says--October 11, 2018

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." [Luke 12:32-34]

"The thing is, Jesus, I like my stuff."

That's the long and the short of it, really.  I like my stuff. I like my clothes. I like having a car. I like my collection of books. I like my computer. I like my favorite coffee mug, and I like having a bag of my favorite dark roast coffee handy to make more at the end of the day.  I like these things... and therefore, I will confess, I will do an awful lot to go out of my way to ignore, blunt, divert, or shrug off Jesus' words here.

It's funny (or maybe I mean, it's sad) how my attachment to my "stuff" leads me to willfully deflect Jesus' words or even to convince myself he isn't speaking to me.  It's like somehow I use my piles of belongings (and all the storage space they require, in closets, in the basement, in the garage, and so on...) to block Jesus' words from my field of vision like an eclipse, so I don't even know they are there.  I can't hear him speaking... because I have turned up the volume on my Amazon Echo smart speaker to drown out the sound of his voice.

I confess to you--I have heard many a sermon, read many a book, and been in plenty of Bible study discussion groups over the years in which the claim was made, "Jesus may have told that one rich young ruler to sell his possessions and give to the poor, but he never made that a universal statement.  It was just this one time, to that one guy... and not us now."  And for a while in my life of faith, that resolved the question.  Jesus doesn't talk about giving up possessions as a general practice for his followers, I had been taught, and therefore, any time I read him saying something that sounded like that, I should assume, "This must be a message for someone else." I had even convinced myself until recently rereading these words of Jesus in today's verses that all those sermons and books were correct--that Jesus had only once ever told one person to go sell his possessions, and that it was never a broad directive of Jesus for his followers.  

And then my eyes fell on Luke 12 again... and I realized that I had been missing these words staring me right in the face, but which I had been unwilling to see, or had chosen to forget.  

Because here it is, right in black and white on the page: Jesus is talking to a whole group of followers, (part of a block of teaching addressed to "his disciples" at the start of the passage, starting in 12:22), and these words are found on Jesus' lips: "Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven..." And now I have nowhere to run:  Jesus isn't just saying it to "one rich person on one random occasion," but he is saying it broadly, without asterisks, without fine print, and without qualifying it or putting conditions on it, as part of his way of life for "his disciples."  If I am going to make a fuss about how important it is to take Jesus seriously, or for people to read their Bibles more, I am going to have to come to grips with this directive of Jesus to get rid of stuff in my life, so that I am free to use my energy, time, and resources for what matters to God.

We church folk, we Respectable Religious Crowd, we are real stinkers when it comes to Jesus and his authority.  You'll hear lots of people saying (often they are shouting) or posting memes on Facebook and Twitter and elsewhere that cry out, "What our country really needs is more people reading the Bible!"  And believe me, I am all for reading the Bible.  But it is funny (again, I think I really mean sad here) to me  how curiously selective we can be when it comes to beating the "Read the Bible more!" drum.  It's funny to me how we can cherry pick this issue or that issue and insist with fiery indignation (whether it is righteous indignation or not I will not venture a guess) that "People just need to listen to what the Bible clearly says on this!" and be absolutely sure we know exactly what Jesus thought on our modern questions and issues, and yet when we find Jesus saying something simply, directly, and clearly like "Sell your possessions and give the proceeds to the poor," we all of a sudden become all thumbs and start hemming and hawing about how uncertain and unclear Jesus' teaching is, and whether it really applies to us or is "just for another time and another group of people."  We are stinkers, and that's the truth.  We already have a set agenda we want to get Jesus to endorse, and we will be happy to quote him in support when we can find a Bible verse we can shoehorn into supporting our preferences.   But when Jesus says something that threatens to get between me and my stuff... all of a sudden, he's being figurative, or he's using exaggeration, or he's talking to someone else, or he's "just saying not to worship your possessions," or something like that. 

We show our true colors pretty quickly, we Respectable Religious people: we don't really want to learn or to hear what "the Bible clearly says," in most cases--we want someone to confirm for us that that Bible says what we already want it to say, and when someone (say, even Jesus) says something counter to that preconceived picture, we fight it tooth and nail.  There's a powerful quote of Kierkegaard's along these lines, that goes (in part) like this:

“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything else except pledging yourself to act accordingly. ‘My God,’ you will say, ‘if I do that, my whole life will be ruined.’ Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament."

But here we are today, coming face to face with words from Jesus that we can't run from any longer.  Jesus really does dare his followers not to be possessed by their possessions.  Jesus really does say it would be better to sell our stuff and give the money away to those who have nothing--not so that they can have our discarded "stuff," but so that they can eat.  And on top of that, Jesus also doesn't seem to have any qualifications about the inherent "worthiness" of the people who receive your and my alms--the word "alms," after all, comes from the Greek word for "mercy," (and the same word that Christians in many traditions sing out week by week in the liturgy when they sing out, "Kyrie eleison--Lord, have mercy!" as our own prayer), and mercy is not dependent on worthiness or earning.  

Jesus seems to think that our possessions get a stranglehold on us, and that I would be freer myself if I wasn't tied down to keeping track of all my belongings... and buying a large enough home or storage shed or rental storage place to house it all... and paying for special extended warranties on it all... and getting all the accessories... and always having the latest upgrades... and then having to take regular time from my weekly routine to dust and vacuum and clean around all my stuff.  Possessions aren't inherently evil--they are take up a colossal chunk of my available time and resources, not just to buy, but to maintain, to insure, to polish, and to store.  And before I know it, I am drowning in piles of things and stacks of bills to go with the things, and calling it all the American Dream.  And maybe Jesus knows, too, that anything that commands such a large chunk of my life's attention, time, resources, that isn't a living thing... is an idol.  And idols are terribly possessive gods--they keep on taking more and more of what's around until they have it all.  So maybe being freed from some of my possessions might be easier on my knees, when I don't have to worship at their altar any longer, and maybe I'll be able to breathe easier, too, when I don't feel like I'm drowning in "stuff" that requires more and more and more space and time and money for their upkeep.

The underlying truth in all of what Jesus says here in today's verses is that he really does believe that the living God is trustworthy to provide for our needs, and that exorbitant hoarding beyond what we need is not good for us, but turns out to be stifling and suffocating.  Jesus knows--and challenges us to trust him on this--that more is not always better; sometimes it is just more.

So the question on this day is simply this: will we trust Jesus enough to take him up on his dare, and to part with... at least something?  Will we dare to look honestly at the piles we have each amassed, and to see where there are things that are not making us more fully alive, but which might actually be choking us out?  Nobody will check--I cannot go to your house and audit the contents of your closet.  But maybe might we, dare we, could we find things in our lives that are dead weight, get rid of them, and give the money (either what we make from selling, or just what we don't have to pay any more for managing and upkeep) to someone who has greater need that we do?  Could we dare it, and see what happens?

After all, Jesus says, all the treasures we hold onto in this world are bound for the trash can eventually.  Maybe we could start taking out some of the trash now.

Lord Jesus, we will admit that we sometimes do everything in our power to avoid listening to you.  But in this moment we dare to listen, and we ask your help to accept your challenge to let go of the possessions we have allowed to possess us.