What a Gospel we just heard! The story of the camel, the rich man, and the eye of the needle. It's a tough one, and we might find ourselves asking, is Jesus talking to me? Is Jesus really asking me to sell everything I have and give it all to those who are living in poverty? We might find ourselves thinking, that's too much, Jesus. I can't do that. It's not realistic. I have too many responsibilities. Just no. And we find ourselves trying to turn our ears down a little bit and wait for something a little more palatable to come out of Jesus's mouth. If we do that, we're going to miss out on some really important things that Jesus wants us to explore. So why don’t we take a little time today and try to unpack this Gospel passage together.
Let's start with the first question: is Jesus talking to me, or is Jesus talking to you? The answer is, maybe. It is a particular story to a particular person, and it is not a response that you see Jesus give to others. Take, for example, the story of Zacchaeus, the height-challenged man who had to climb a tree to see Jesus and Jesus invited himself over for a meal. When Jesus gets to his house, Zacchaeus says he is going to give half of everything he has to the poor. And Jesus says, today salvation has come to you. He says this in response to Zacchaeus giving half, not all, of what he owned. Jesus didn't say, but you still have to go and sell the rest of your stuff, too. No, he says today salvation has come to you. Half is sufficient in Zacchaeus's situation.
Look at the story we have today. The Disciples realize that what Jesus told the rich man to do doesn't include them. Why doesn't it include them? Didn't they give up everything to follow Jesus? Well, sort of. They left everything, it doesn't say they sold everything and gave it away to the poor. In fact, they left it where it was. Some of them had families that had to be taken care of, and we know that after Jesus's resurrection some of them went back to work. They still had their boats. They still had their nets, and so were able to go back to it. The Disciples were called but they were not called with this precise request, either.
This is not a universal injunction, but it is more than just this rich young man. There are many throughout the ages who have heard these words and heard Jesus speaking to them. The most famous example is St. Francis, who we celebrated last week with that beautiful pet blessing. Yet St. Francis is so much more than pet blessings. St. Francis heard these words and realized that he, too, was a rich young man who needed to sell everything he had. He came from a wealthy family and gave it all up, an act that made his father very angry. In the process of giving it all away and living the rest of his life in abject poverty, begging for his food as he went, he found utter joy. He found it to be a life-giving act and found his salvation in the process. So for St. Francis, the answer was yes.
There are many more, especially monastics who have taken a vow of poverty, who heard Jesus speak to them, and know that this is what they need to do. People who do this often say it is not for everyone. They know it is a unique call for some who were called to it.
What we see is not a universal injunction to do this one thing, but we do see Jesus regularly talking about money and the way our possessions reflect something about our lives and our salvation. Instead of seeing this as a singular requirement for us to do, it is better for us to see it as an invitation to look at our relationship with money and our possessions. Do we let our possessions control us, to possess us, or do we possess and control them? Do we use our possessions in a way that reflects our gratitude to God for the gifts that they are? Do we use our possessions in such a way that reflects our love of God and our love of neighbor as Jesus calls us to do? Those are the kinds of questions that for some require giving everything away; for some it is half; for others it is something else. But it does require us to see the way that our possessions are an extension of who we are and therefore have something to do with our faith and our life as we follow Jesus.
There is a second part to this Gospel that is really important, and that is the question about the camel and the eye of the needle. Here is the simple fact: a camel cannot go through the eye of a needle. A bigger needle doesn’t make it any easier. There have been all kinds of efforts to try to explain this away. Simply put, scholars say that none of those answers make a lot of sense, and it is not worth getting into. Any effort to try and explain this away and make it easier for the camel to go through the eye of the needle by redefining the camel or redefining the needle does not make sense in the context of the story, because, as the Disciples say, it is impossible. And Jesus says, yes, it is impossible for you to do. It is impossible for the camel to go through the eye of the needle, no matter how small the camel or how big the needle. It is impossible. That is the point of the story. It is impossible for us. It is only possible for God. We hear an echo of the Annunciation story when Mary says it's not possible and the angel says that all things are possible for God. It is possible only by God's grace, mercy, and love. It is not possible for any of us of our own volition, of our own action. It is God's grace coming into our lives that allows each one of us to enter in through that eye of the needle.
Does that mean we can sit back and not worry about any of this? No. We can't just rest on that grace completely. We need to respond to that grace. Jesus asks us to do that through our possessions. One of the ways that we respond is by making sure we control instead of being controlled by our possessions; by acting in gratitude, and by using our possessions to love, to love God and to love our neighbor.
As we mentioned earlier, we are kicking off our annual pledge drive and most of that pledge drive is talking about why St. Mary's is so wonderful and why we want you to support St. Mary's. But there is another element to this that I want you to seriously consider. And that is to use the pledge drive time not only to think about St. Mary's and St. Mary's ministries, but to take the time to do that reflection that Jesus is calling us to do in this Gospel. To take that time, as we look at our finances, and look to what we are able to do in terms of pledge, but to ask those deeper questions, what is our relationship to our money, who is controlling who, who is possessing who. Are we living a life full of gratitude? Does our money and the way we use it reflect that gratitude? Are we using our money in such a way that it embodies God's love, embodies our love for God, and embodies our love for our neighbor? I encourage you to take the time in these coming weeks to do that work, and to answer the question, what is God calling you to do with your life and your resources in light of the Gospel?
AMEN
