Mark 10:17-31
October 14, 2012
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
In the mail this past week, you received a letter from me on behalf of the Canvass Committee. Just like in past years, the stewardship materials on this year’s theme, E-F-G, Evangelism, Fellowship, and Go invite you to make a pledge to the work of the church in 2013. There’s a big question that we pose in the materials: “How much should I give?” It’s a rhetorical question that has no obvious answers.
I remember when we were younger and when we had a big question that needed an answer, we would close our eyes, open up the Bible and point our finger on a random verse as the likely answer to our question.
The Rich Man
In today’s Gospel, there was a man who asked Jesus a big question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Perhaps he expected Jesus to offer a number of definitions for the phrase “eternal life.” Notice that the man asked, “What must I do?” He assumed that eternal life comes from something he does, an achievement of his sincere striving. Jesus reminded the man about the commandments and the man said, “I have done all of these things since I was a youth.”
But Jesus, lovingly looking at him told him, “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 and follow me.” The man was shocked by that answer and went away sad because he had a lot of possessions. The rich man asked, “How much should I give?” And when Jesus answered him to give it all, he didn’t like the answer.
The man probably wanted a civil, detached, theological discussion about the meaning of eternal life. But Jesus reframed his question and invited him to let go of his securities and to become a disciple. Jesus must not have given the answer the man was expecting, or an answer that he wanted to hear. Sometimes that’s the way it is with Jesus’ answers to our questions.
Asking Questions
Some people think that to be a person of faith is to be a person who has overcome the tough questions. Sometimes, we say that we should accept something “on faith” to mean that we accept something without question.
We have people visiting our church and saying, “I’m full of so many questions right now, but when I mature in my faith, when I get more information about Christianity, I’ll have more answers and fewer questions. Then I can believe.”
Yet the Bible talks about people who are in love with God, despite their questions. In fact, their love for God is the very reason that they have some of the deepest, most difficult questions that we ever ask in life.
For instance, in the book of Job, there are no other deeper questions asked in scripture than those posed by the book of Job. Why do the righteous suffer? Why do the wicked prosper? If God is love and wants the best for us, why do we experience pain and suffering in life? Job’s questions have occupied some of the best human minds down through the ages and we still end up with no acceptable answers.
In fact, that’s the one reason why many love the book of Job. It is a part of the Bible that blesses the questions—deep, threatening questions.
People say that the Bible contains the answers to all of life’s most pressing questions and there’s truth in that. Yet it could also be said, with great justification, that the Bible contains the most daunting questions that challenge all of life’s most popular conventional answers.
Take the rich man who comes to Jesus with a deep religious question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus responds to the man’s question with an answer to “go, sell, give, follow.” It’s like our canvass theme for this year: Evangelize, Fellowship, and Go!”
As your pastor, some of you have asked me questions like: “Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?” Or, “How can I be sure that God answers prayer?” Or, “Which step does God want me to take next?” Or, “How can I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus?’ Or, Is it possible for a modern, scientific person like me to take the Bible seriously?” Or, “How much should I give?”
While I have tried to answer these questions for you, we know that there are many questions that do not have straightforward and simple answers.
When we are young, we tend to be full of huge questions like: “Who made me?” and “Why am I here?” and “Why is the sky blue?” As we grow up, our questions get smaller, like, “How much money do I need to make to be really happy? And “When will he ever get to the point of this sermon?”
The longer we live, the smaller our questions get. We are content with ourselves in asking just those questions for which there are simple and direct answers. At least we should give credit to the rich man; he came to Jesus with a big question that, in a sense, Jesus makes even larger.
It’s sad when our questions grow small and manageable. It is sad because, as Christians, we are trying to worship a living, large God who is not easily contained in simple answers. I think it is sad because life itself is large, confusing, and questionable. When we still have the simplistic answers of childhood, those answers will wilt when we are confronted with tough dilemmas of adulthood.
Maybe you will disagree with me, but I think that here at church, our problem is not that we don’t give people straightforward answers. Our problem, my problem, is that sometime we play into people’s desires for obvious, pat answers, answers that don’t demand conversion, answers that simply reassure them that they can understand Jesus without having to obey and follow him.
Why We Come to Church
I suspect that most of us come to church, not for more questions, but for answers. Answers are the way in which we stop a question. Most of us really don’t like open-ended, impossible-to-answer questions. We like answers.
With answers, we resolve the anxiety that comes upon us through tough questions like “Is my life, as I am living it, really worth living? Does God really know me and care about me? How can I live with confidence and hope in the future? What about eternity and my place in it?”
And as your pastor, it’s terribly tempting and easy for me to get confused into thinking that my role as a preacher is to come up with a bunch of answers. But there are some questions that simply don’t lend themselves to easy answers. And there are some teachers, perhaps the very best teachers, who teach in order to stimulate questions, rather than simply provide the answers. I think Jesus was a teacher like that.
When I was vacationing in Singapore, one of Joy’s cousins invited me to lead a Bible study on the Book of Revelations. I declined the offer believing that there are no easy answers to their questions about the apocalyptic writings. The real question is: “What difference does the answers to these questions make in your life?”
Lots of people in our world today want a faith that they can put on a bumper sticker or short enough to share in an elevator speech—three spiritual laws, six basic fundamentals, and the four Christian principles to live by.
There was a preacher who before he spoke had the ushers hand out small sheets of paper that had number one, two, three listed on the paper. When he began his sermon, he said, “How can I achieve happiness in life? I have three things that I want to say about achieving happiness in life and I want you to write down these three things on the slip of paper before you. Follow these principles, and you will find happiness.”
He then proceeded to preach a three-point sermon in which he made three points: something about hard work, a positive attitude, and daily prayer. I wonder if this sermon is fair in the grand sweep and scope of the Christian faith? Is it fair to life itself? I would bet there was someone at that church for whom life has been so much more demanding and complicated than this sermon. What about them? I bet that there is someone sitting here whose life is so much more demanding and complicated than this sermon that hearing such simplicity is a belittling to your reality. What about you?
God is so much more interesting than that. Jesus is so much larger than that, and life is so much more demanding than those three points.
Come and Follow
We might think that we come to church seeking answers to our questions. But maybe we ought to think about church as long-term training in asking the big, deep, not easily answered questions, the impossible questions, and then live with whatever “answers” Jesus gives you.
How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God? How is it easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God? Why when it’s impossible for mortals but when all things are possible with God? Why when someone gives up their house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of the good news will receive one hundredfold in return? And when faced with persecution, what is eternal life in the age to come? Why is the first will be last and the last will be first?
To be a Christian means to walk in faith, faith that even when Jesus does not come up with a straightforward, simple answers (or the answers you were hoping to hear!), at least Jesus poses for us the very deepest and most important questions.
In this season of stewardship and our decision to pledge to the life and ministry of FCBC, the question that is posed to you is “How much should I give?” It’s an important question that only you in prayer can answer. Jesus said, “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
Next Sunday, I’ll begin my fall Inquirers Class for those who are seeking the meaning of being a disciple of Christ. If you have questions about who is a Christian? What is church membership? Do I believe enough to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior? If you have these big questions, then you are a person who should be coming to my class next Sunday.
That is today’s Gospel. No question we ask, no resistance we put forth can ultimately defeat the determination of God in Christ to have us for his own, to give us not only answers that satisfy, but a life that’s worth living, a life that is lived on the basis of love of God and neighbor rather than simply on the basis of satisfying answers.
Our gospel ends with Jesus not giving the questioning man a straightforward answer but rather with an invitation, come, follow me. The man came with questions, big questions and Jesus offered him discipleship, which many of you here today can testify, is better than answers.
Will you do something for me? Will you promise that as I try to be your pastor, you will call my hand anytime I try to make Jesus, or life itself, simpler that they really are? Will you promise to keep raising big, impossible questions, for which our faith in Christ is the only answer?
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, stay in conversation with us. Use this time of worship to make a way toward us, to speak to us, and in the conversation, to change us. Give us the courage to be willing to be questioned by you, even as we think we have come with our questions for you. Give us more, we pray, than good answers; give us your presence, give us yourself. That presence, standing with us, reaching out to us, is better even than good answers. Amen.