The Eye of The Needle

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; Honour your father and mother."  He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all of these since my youth."  Jesus looked 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 will it be for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!"  And the disciples were perplexed at these words.  But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God!  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.  They were greatly astounded  and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."

Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you."  Jesus said, "Truly I tell you there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age - houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, fields, with persecutions - and in the age to come eternal life.  But many who are first will be last and the last will be first."

Mark 10:17-31

A man I know well tells a story from a time of great distress in his spiritual life.  He was respected man in his community and in his church.  He cared deeply about his faith and the local church and served many years on church boards. People regarded him as wise and prudent and sought his opinion on many things.  He was successful in his professional life and I suspect his 'net worth' reflected this though he never paraded around in expensive cars or flaunted a wealthy lifestyle.  He was a disciplined man and this discipline extended into his spiritual life where he had a pattern of waking early to read scripture and to pray.  During a particularly difficult time of being unsettled and dissatisfied in his spiritual life he asked the Lord, 'what has this all been for?  I have served you faithfully, I have given to the church, I have been faithful to your commandments and yet I feel like the man knocking on the door and never entering fully into life with you... the life that I have been working for and the one that I long for.'  In the quiet of this particular morning he heard the Lord tell him very clearly that he needed to give away more of his wealth.  He began to ask the Lord about this and to be obedient to him.  As he told the story to his children years later, the tears fell from his face when he recalled the morning that a great change began.  It remained a living Word, one that guided him into his later years and lead him into greater intimacy, joy, freedom and life than he had ever known in his walk with God.

I thought of him as I read this text from Mark. I suspect the man I know was grieved when he heard from the Lord that he needed to give away more of his wealth. He had not regarded his wealth as a barrier, he would have regarded himself as generous.  But God saw the Rich Man in both of these stories "and he looked at the man and he loved him." He loved them both enough to say, 'sell what you own, give it away and come follow me.'  It is not an easy invitation.  It stops us in our tracks, it grieves us, perplexes us, as it did the disciples.  In Judaism (and in our time) wealth was understood to be a sign of God's favour; it was inconceivable to the disciples that the wealth would be a barrier to following Jesus. But Jesus flatly rejected the merit based system of salvation based on good works accomplished by the rich.  In God's economy there is no favour in material possession or a lack thereof.  And the particular and pressing concern of wealth is the false sense of security it creates and the very real temptation to trust in material resources and its' power rather than God.  To underscore this important teaching Jesus says to his disciples, "Children how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God, it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God."  Jesus intended this to be taken literally, it is an absurd image, the largest animal in the region and the smallest opening.  An utter impossibility.

But our salvation doesn't depend on our own ability to observe the commandments, to accomplish the impossible task of squeezing through the eye of the needle. Our salvation doesn't depend on who has given up the most or who won the race to the back of the line. Our salvation is a gift of God made possible through Christ.   And this gets back to the man's first question to Jesus: 'What can I do to inherit eternal life?'  Is inheritance earned? No, it is simply given because you are a part of the family. It is God who makes the impossible, possible; who, in Christ, gives us the great gift of being called his children and heirs to his kingdom.

Whenever I hear the words "with God all things are possible" I think back to Abraham and to Sarah who laughed at for years at the promise of God to them, "how can this be? I am past the age of having children?" Ah, but with God, all things are possible - life comes from barrenness, a dead girl is raised back to life, a destitute widow gives out of her poverty all she has to live on, a woman breaks an alabaster jar and anoints Jesus' head with priceless myrrh, Jesus receives, deep in prayer, strength to give his life for the sake of the world.  With God all things are possible.

There is another important and hard message for us in this story:  discipleship will cost us. Jesus lays claim to the whole person and following Jesus means the removal of any other support that impedes our obedience to him.  These losses for the gospel are costly and hard; the rich man walks away grieving. His satisfaction with the world had to be overcome with a greater desire for righteousness and life. 

This week I was laying beside Sophie in bed and after the usual bedtime chatter she said in a rather serious tone, "Mom, I have something to tell you."  "You can tell me anything, Soph," I responded.  Turning her face into the pillow she blurted out, "I love God more than you." I paused for a moment at her admonition "Oh Sophie, that is quite right.  I know you love me and I love you.  But to love God most is a good thing."  "But it feels weird to say, Mom."  "I understand that, Sophie but it doesn't mean you don't love me A LOT, God is teaching you something very important.  It is a good thing."  

The Spirit of God came upon the man in the distress of his soul and the quiet of the morning and the little girl at night who confessed that she loved God more than her mom and he began to teach them and transform them and lead them into life.

A Samaritan Leper Says Thank You!

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.  As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him.  Keeping their distance they called out saying, "Jesus, Master have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were made clean.  Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.  He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him.  And he was a Samaritan.  Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?  Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Luke 17:11-19

Is it possible that the beauty of a sunset could be the beginning of faith? A theology professor tells the story of a friend who, facing a cancer diagnoses and a long road of treatment, took a journey to the European Alps to fulfill a lifelong dream. In the Alps, surrounded by the beauty of creation, she felt an overwhelming gratitude welling up in her and a desire to say 'thank you.'  This desire puzzled and unsettled her.  Where was this coming from? Who would she say 'thank you' to?  This question remained with her as she returned home and it set her on a path to knowing Christ as the creator and redeemer of the whole world. Her faith began with a simple thank you. Gratitude that brings us to Jesus changes us.

In this story Luke indicates that thanksgiving gives way to faith which in turn becomes sozo: salvation, wholeness.  The Samaritan leper realizing that he has been healed, stops, turns around and praises God in a loud voice, falls down at Jesus' feet and thanks him.  For me it is as lavish as the woman who pours perfume on Jesus' feet and washes them with her hair.  This is an equally evocative expression of love and thanksgiving. The loud voice, the falling down, the thank you's uttered amidst tears and laughter - they belong to a man who sees Jesus and responds with unrestrained passion and thanksgiving. As for the others they are thankful I am sure, but they are racing to the priest, thinking about getting cleared for re-entry back into their families and the community.  And on their way they do not stop to say thank you.

Have you ever wondered what this Samaritan was doing amidst the other Jewish lepers?  Was it the leprosy that broke down the barriers so they could see their common humanity?  So that together with one voice they could say: "Jesus, Master, Have Mercy on Us" Have you ever wondered what happened to this Samaritan after they were are all healed?  Because the truth is this Samaritan is still an outsider. If he were to go to the priest would he even be received?  This Samaritan turns back to the Jewish man who just told him to go to the Priest, and in his turning, in his unrestrained thanksgiving, through his faith in Jesus he receives sozo - salvation: wholeness! It is the thanksgiving that he lays down; that he shouts out that prepares the way for his full restoration. This is Luke's second story about a Samaritan, I think he is being intentional and instructive in this; he is working on the assumptions of the hearers, he is breaking down barriers, he is telling them that the salvation of God is for all people.  And guess what? The outsiders they just might be the ones who see it, turn around and receive it while the insiders pass on by.

Thanksgiving is what this Samaritan outsider expresses that the others do not.  It is the reflexive, intuitive response muttered by the woman in the Alps, it is the broken perfume bottle by Jesus' feet.  It is a discipline that we practice by which we learn to see the mercy and grace of God all around us.  Through thanksgiving we grow in joy, we grow in faith.  It is what enables us to persist in the darkest times.  It is intimately connected with our salvation: "Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honour me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God" (Psalm 50:23).  They are the words of Jesus himself who "on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body that is for you..." He gave thanks ... Eucharisteo.  Communion.  His brokenness - his body and blood - has become our salvation.  The bread and the wine.  The eucharistic life - the life that we partake in and celebrate each week - is a life of thanksgiving.

Hear the beginning of the eucharistic prayer:

The Lord be with you
And also with you

Lift up your hearts
We lift them to the Lord

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
It is right to give our thanks and praise

It is indeed our right
It is our duty and our joy
at all times and in all places
to give you thanks and praise....

The children are usually upstairs for the eucharistic prayer and I think it would be wonderful if we could draw their attention this prayer today - to notice the words, the instruction to live lives of thanksgiving because it is our duty and our joy.  Sometimes thankfulness overtakes us, it is as easy as our very breath. And sometimes it is a great challenge to be thankful in the face of the suffering that surrounds us all.  Yet we learn with Christ, with Paul, with our brothers and sisters that turning to God and giving thanks even in the midst of suffering offers us a way through our pain - a way of seeing and experiencing the mercy of God.

This morning at Moms' Group we discussed this text from Luke. In our meandering conversation we discussed the miraculous way in which thanksgiving can give way to faith, we heard how some people practice the discipline of thanksgiving individually and with children.  We sat in silence as we considered how lament and grief co-exist with thanksgiving; some women shared how gratitude sustained them in the darkest times.  At the end of our time we prayed, we gave thanks for simple, beautiful things: for trees alive with colour, for sunlight through lead glass windows, for a hand to hold, the company of a friend, a cup of coffee; for the people we hold dear: those who are with us and those who have passed on.  We gave thanks for the love and faithfulness of God. For salvation. For joy. For the hope that we have in Christ who gives us the strength to endure: to make it through the hard days, the diagnoses, the losses. And as we offered our thanksgiving I felt the tears begin to roll down my face. Is not thanksgiving where we learn humility?  Who am I God to know these graces, these mercies?  May I too say thank you with a loud voice, fall down at your feet and worship you.

How We Live Before God and Others Matters.

The text we have for this week is difficult; whether you read it aloud in church, alone in your room or with children(!) it is simply not easy.  As I read this text I wondered whether or not we should skip over it - all of this talk of cutting off hands or feet, plucking eyes and eternal fire is a little dark, isn't it?  How does a child hear this?  But then I find myself wondering if we only focus on Jesus as loving, sacrificial and wise and leave too little room for holy, and just and other. I wonder if we soft-sell discipleship.  Following Jesus is not (always) straightforward and joyful - do we set children and youth up for confusion and disappointment when they discover it to be difficult and costly? I always try and emphasize with children that God's stories and our own stories are full of people/us encountering struggle. There is no way around suffering for the disciple, but we do know that God is faithful and he will provide us with a way through and lead us into LIFE.

So what do we do with the demanding teachings of the new testament? Do we tell them to the children - and if so, is there are correct age? It's true that not all stories are age appropriate. Some teachings are too nuanced; if they were taken literally their meaning would be missed. But, the threads of judgement and mercy, the realities of life, sin and the call of God on humans are all throughout the scripture. From the garden of Eden, to the tower of Babel, in the story of Noah, with Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah, Moses on the threshold of the promised land; in the life of David, and in the prophets.  As we encounter Jesus we meet God who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. (Psam 145:8)


I am going to write a few things about this Sunday. Take what is useful and helpful for your class this week.

The text for this week (Mark 9:38-50) from the Message reads:

John spoke up and said, "Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn't in our group."
Jesus wasn't pleased.  "Don't stop him.  No one can use my name to do something good and powerful and in the next breath cut me down.  If he's not an enemy, he's an ally.  Why anyone, by giving you a cup of water in my name, is on our side.  Count on it that God will notice.
On the other hand, if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you'll soon wish you hadn't.  You'd be better dropped in the lake with a millstone around your neck.
If your hand or your foot gets in the way, chop it off and throw it away.  You're better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owner of two hands and two feet,  godless in a furnace of eternal fire.  And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away.  You're better off one eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell.
Everyone's going through a refining fire sooner or later, but you'll be well-preserved, protected from eternal flames.  Be preservatives yourselves.  Preserve the peace.

From the epistle of James we read:

Are you hurting? Pray.  Do you feel great? Sing.  Are you sick? Call the church leaders to pray for you and anoint you with oil in the name of Jesus.  Believing prayers will heal you and Jesus will put you on your feet.  And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven - healed inside and out.
Make this your common practice: Confess you sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.  The prayer of a person living right with God is something to be reckoned with.  Elijah for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain and it didn't - not a drop for three and a half years.  Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did.  The showers came and everything started growing again.
My friend, if you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off.  Go after them.  Get them back so that they are rescued from wandering away from God.
James 5:13-20

Regarding the Gospel:

I think the first verse is apt for children.  I have often heard kids talk about their friends in other churches and wonder if they are Christians.  Children have a tendency (just like adults) to separate people into groups and to be suspicious of those who are in groups other than theirs.  In this text the disciples have taken note of a group of people who are healing in Jesus name but are not a part of their group. Jesus says, "Everyone who is not against me, if for me.  If people are doing good in my name, God will notice. You can count on it."  Perhaps you can highlight other churches in our community that are doing good.  Tell about what God is doing in the church in our city and be encouraged.  You can even bring in some pictures of other churches.  This Sunday is World Communion Sunday (one could argue, every Sunday is World Communion Sunday) nevertheless, it is good practice to draw attention to the fact that we gather with believers around the world. One body, sharing in one cup and one bread!

This reading also emphasizes the importance of us not causing other Christians to sin.   How do we encourage people to sin?  Maybe we draw people into gossip by whispering about others? Maybe we hurt another in the words that we say by telling others things that aren't true about who they are or who God is and they fall into wrong ways of thinking or acting. Jesus wants us to look out for each other and encourage faith in one another, when we are sinning against other people/causing others to sin, we break down community.  Perhaps they can recognize this in their families: "don't tell mom and dad what we are doing... go and get that $5 on the counter and bring it to me, mom won't care...." These are little examples but they show how we draw people into our web of sin. Jesus cares a lot about how his followers/the body of Christ/ the church treat one another.  After all, we are his body on earth! We are to show the world the love and forgiveness of Jesus. How can we do this if we don't treat each other well?

The verses about chopping off limbs and sin connect back to the lesson from last week which talks about sacrifice. These verses are not a demand for physical self-mutilation. They are, however, filled with very strong and attention-grabbing language in calling for Jesus' followers to get rid of whatever in life tempts us to be untrue to God.  I wonder what the children would identify as things which get in the way of following God and loving others.

We are to be the salt of the earth (Be preservatives yourselves! The Message, Mark 9:). We are the salt of the earth when we don't worry about rank or position but when recognize in one another a common commitment to Jesus, to the gospel and to the life of a servant.

Regarding James:

I like the passage alongside the gospel because it talks about the practices of Christian community:  "If you are hurting, pray.  If you are joyful, sing. Are you sick?  Call the church elders to pray for you to anoint you with oil... confess your sins to each other so that you can live together whole and healed."

This is a great opportunity for us to talk about these four forms of prayer throughout the week and on Sunday morning.  Do you pray when you are hurting? How do we do this on Sunday morning?  Do you ever sing when you are joyful? Do you have a favourite song that you like to sing? Does our church do prayers of anointing? What does it look like?  Perhaps you might ask someone from prayer ministry to come to your class, show you some anointing oil and introduce your class to prayers of anointing.

It is worth mentioning that not all prayers are answered the way we hope or can see at the time.  I am sure Elijah prayed for things in his life that were not answered how he had hoped.  When our prayers aren't answered in the way we prayed it doesn't mean God isn't real, isn't listening to you or doesn't love you or me.  Praying to God isn't like rubbing a genie. Praying to God is entering into the heart of love, it is listening to Jesus, it is bringing ourselves before God, it is confessing our sin, giving thanks, praying for others, it is mystery and revelation.

I picked up a great little book this summer entitled: Drawing Our Prayers by Sybil MacBeth.  It gives children and adults some tools for praying through drawing: confessing, praying for others, using symbols, listening.  I would recommend spending time in prayer this week including prayers of thanksgiving, listening, confession and praying for others.  If you would like me to scan you some ideas from the book just let me know!



 May God be with you and the children in your class!

I give thanks to God whenever I think of you!

- Sara