“Trails Through Tellico:

A Healing Church”

Mark 10:1 – 31

Years ago, a woman’s husband died. He had $20,000 to his name. After everything was done at the funeral home and cemetery, the widow tells her closest friend that all the money is gone.

“How can that be?” the friend asks. “You told me he had $20,000 just a few days before he died. How could you be broke?”

The widow tearfully says, “Well, the funeral was $6,000. Then came the obligatory donation to the church, so that was another $2,000. The rest went for the memorial stone.”

The friend adds all that up in her head. Six thousand, plus two thousand – that’s only eight thousand. So she says, “That means you spent TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS for the memorial stone? My God! How big was it?”

The widow says, “Oh…about three carats!”

Jesus and the disciples are “on the way” to the great culminating moment of the Lord’s ministry. They are moving toward Jerusalem where Jesus will give up his life for the world. And “on the way” to that sacrifice, we’re meeting some interesting people, and experiencing some teachable moments, and hearing some fascinating conversation between Jesus and those around him. Most importantly, Jesus is teaching us about what it means to be a true disciple.

Today, we meet a man who is sort of like that woman with the memorial stone. Like her, he’s got some money, and the power that goes along with it. And – like the woman – this man manages to turn the tragedy of the human condition into something of a joke.

Jesus is “on the way” to lay down his life for the world, and yet this rich guy comes up and asks how he can save his own life! Do you get the joke? Jesus is walking “on the way” with an entourage of poor people, dispossessed people, beaten-up people, beggars, lepers, abused women, abandoned children who are living in their own hell on earth – and this man who has everything he needs and then some – has the nerve to run up to ask Jesus how he can get to heaven! Do you get it?

Well, its not one of those jokes you can really laugh at. It’s one of those jokes that makes you so sad, you just want to cry.

And so Jesus uses this tragically comic story to try to help us keep from making a joke out of our own lives, and to help us become true disciples.

I don’t know about you, but it makes me nervous what Jesus says here about wealthy people. And I know he’s talking about me. You know, my first job in the ministry offered to pay me $6,500 a year. But I was a tough negotiator. I talked them up to $6,600 a year! Even so, we were pretty poor back then, especially when the kids came along. But now, some thirty years later, things are different and we are in a better place economically. You pay me about – well, roughly - twice that amount (wink, wink)! But you know what I’m saying, don’t you? I’m a lot better off today than I was years ago. I’m a lot better off than about two-thirds of the world’s population. I’m a lot better off than many of our neighbors here in East Tennessee. So, compared with most of the world, when Jesus speaks about the wealthy, I’m included in that number. And maybe you are, too. But did you notice what he says about us?

Well, Jesus says it will be hard for people like us to enter the kingdom of God. How hard will it be? Well, let’s put it this way: it will be easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for wealthy people like Marty Singley to enter the kingdom of God.

Gee, I hate it when Jesus says stuff like that!

But Jesus is not rejecting us here. Jesus is trying to teach us something important about how we can use our lives for the glory of God. And it involves developing three skills.

First, Jesus wants us to develop the skill of seeing the world around us.

Did you notice what the wealthy man was concerned about?

Getting himself to heaven. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” His own salvation is all he can see.

But Jesus tries to redirect his attention. Don’t worry so much about getting yourself to heaven, Jesus teaches. Worry instead about getting the kingdom of God to others!

You know, many preachers misinterpret the passage where Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious about your life – what you shall eat, and drink, or wear…But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”

Jesus never said that people shouldn’t worry. But what he did say is that we should worry about things that really matter. If we’re going to worry about anything, worry about making the kingdom of God a reality in the world!

And understand that the Good News about the kingdom of God is not about a place you go to when you die, but a new way of doing things while you’re alive. The kingdom of God is a new way of living, a new way of relating to each other right here and now because we believe in Jesus. In the kingdom of God, we bring justice to the poor, and lift up the downtrodden, and heal broken lives, and meet the needs of the poor, and welcome the dispossessed, and befriend the friendless. And we are promised that, when history finally plays itself all the way out, our life in Christ will be eternally lived in that beautiful kingdom of God!

Do you want to see what the kingdom of God on earth looks like? Well, just look at Jesus and that rag-tag band of people who followed him. It is a new social order under Christ in which people practice unconditional inclusive love. And take care of each other. And serve each other rather than being served. And lay down their lives for one another. And practice the ministry of healing the world in Jesus’ name.

And we whom God has blessed with wealth and strength and talent and time can do so much with our lives to make that kingdom real in the world around us.

But how can we do that? Well, the first step is that we have to get our eyes off ourselves, and SEE broken humanity all around us.

The rich man came to Jesus with a question about how to save himself. Jesus answered by telling him to help the poor. And where were the poor the man could use his wealth to help? Why, they were all around him! But this man was so caught up in himself that he never saw the people.

Funny what we don’t see sometimes.

I was reading an article about Mother Theresa a while ago. Didn’t she live a beautiful life of the kingdom of God? Well, I was interested in finding out more about Calcutta where Mother Theresa worked with the Sisters of Charity. It is a city of 12-million, you know, and the poverty and human squalor are just unimaginable.

So I did a little internet search on Calcutta, and came across a web site that troubled me. This is what the web site said:

“My last trip to Calcutta was in February 1998. I've been there six times over the past ten years and I've seen considerable progress, for example, the Calcutta Metro subway system has been completed, as has the second bridge over the Hooghly River. It even seems that there might be fewer beggars. Perhaps there's less poverty….

Funny, what we DON’T see sometimes.

So Jesus wants us to open our eyes to the wounded and broken people all around us.

There are some right here today, you know – people who’ve lost their spouse after 40 or 50 years of marriage and now have to go it alone – people who can’t believe they’ve just celebrated their 80^th birthday because just yesterday they were only 18 – people who’ve heard the doctor say the word “cancer” – people who’ve pulled up roots to come and live here, and now experience a kind of loneliness and wonder if they’ve done the right thing – parents who are working desperately to raise healthy kids in a scary world – people who discover that they have entered the final period of their lives and wonder what the future holds.

There are human beings all around us in the sanctuary today, each one bearing the burdens and injuries of life.

“You need to see them!” Jesus says.

And not only the people in our immediate view. We need to see the 200 families a month who need the help of the Good Samaritan center just to get by; the 1200 abused children a year who are cared for through the Child Advocacy Center; the women trying to get a new start at the Domestic Violence safe house; the elderly around us who are lonely and have lost their independence; the people who suffer with mental illness and how they are stigmatized and discarded; and their families who bear the burden of love all alone; .and most especially, to see those who don’t know the love of God and the new life of Jesus Christ.

Now, I will grant you that when most of us open our eyes in the morning, we are quick to see the majestic Smokey Mountains, and our beautiful lake, and lovely landscaped homes, and all the glory of nature. And that is all very good.

But Jesus wants us to open our eyes to see more than that. Jesus calls us to see the people he loves.

And if we can see humanity around us, we can see something else:

That we have gifts that can bring the healing of the kingdom of God to people!

O. Henry wrote a wonderful short story about a leaf painted on a garden wall. Remember? There was a young woman who was desperately ill who watched the leaves fall silently from the tree outside her window. She was sure that she would die when the last leaf fell. Well, her wise neighbor, an elderly artist, watched her weaken daily, till one night he decided to do something about it. In the midst of a terrible rainstorm, he climbed up the garden wall and painted a picture of a leaf.

As the days passed the other leaves fell away, but the ill woman was transfixed by the one leaf that just would not drop. She watched it persist, and then she decided to live on.

You have a leaf to paint that can save another’s life. You have gifts to share that can bring healing to others.

So see humanity in all its brokenness. And see the gifts God has given you to help heal it.

And finally, see God’s grace.

You know the final question of the gospel story is this: “If wealthy ol’ Marty Singley can’t make it to heaven, then who can be saved?”

And Jesus says, “Oh, don’t give up on ol’ Marty yet. And don’t give up on the people all around you. What is impossible for people is possible with God!”

Today, we begin our Trails Through Tellico Stewardship campaign. As you prayerfully consider how you will support this ministry we share, I hope you’ll see more than just yourself, more than just going to heaven.

Look carefully and see the people all around us. And add your gifts to bring hope and healing to many.

May our church never be about ourselves.

May it more and more be about healing the world through the grace of Jesus Christ!