Treasures in Heaven

Mark 10:17-27

A sermon by Kathy Toivanen at EMUC, 10/22/2006

A couple of years ago, we were on our annual canoe trip - this time along one of the branches of the French River. We had decided to ‘line’ our canoes through a set of rapids. There are 3 basic ways that canoe trippers deal with rapids.

• you can portage around them
• you can paddle through them
• or you can line your canoe through them.

To line a canoe, you lighten the load by getting out of your canoe, but you leave your packs and other gear in the boat. You tie long lines (ropes) on the bow and stern of your canoe. The hope is that with the lightened load your canoe will not hit the rocks in the rapids and with the ropes you will successfully guide your canoe through the turbulent waters.

My brother was the first to line his canoe. All was going well until he reached a bend in the river. As his canoe made the turn, it leaned too far into the water and before we knew it, the canoe had dumped and all his gear was floating down the rapids. Those of us on shore started running along the rocky bank, chasing after the floating packs and paddles - even one lone sandal bobbing by. But of course the current was faster than we were and eventually we gave up the chase. However, after successfully getting the other canoes through the rapids, we were able to recover all of the gear in the calm waters at the bottom of the rapids. Thankfully it was a sunny warm day, no one was hurt, the gear dried out quickly and we all had a good laugh.

What sticks in my mind, however, is the picture of those of us who helplessly raced along the shore line trying to recover the gear that was floating away. How silly we must have looked, how impossible was our quest - and yet there we were scrambling along the rocks and through the brush, trying in vain to reclaim our stuff that kept bobbing just out of reach.

That image often comes to mind as I reflect on our daily lives. How much of our lives are spent chasing after things that are just out of reach? How much of our time is spent living at a frantic pace as we try to keep a hold on all the stuff we have accumulated over the course of our days?

Think of the stuff in your life - reflect on the possessions that you own - it could be anything from your car and other vehicles, your home, your entertainment & computer systems, your furniture, your clothes, your appliances, the stuff of your leisure time, the tools and equipment you use. What is your relationship with all this stuff? How important is it to your happiness and well-being? If it disappeared from your life, how would life be different for you?

Jesus is interrupted one day by a man who has lots of stuff - just like we do. He is not a bad or evil man. This is a man who is a faithful Jew. He goes to the synagogue regularly, prays faithfully, he does good deeds; he has kept the commandments from the time of his youth. And yet there is something missing in his life and he goes to Jesus hoping to get what he needs.

In sincerity he kneels before Jesus and asks, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" We might ask the question a bit differently today.
What must I do to gain what is really important in life?
What must I do to be truly happy?
What must I do to be fulfilled?
What must I do to be at peace in my life?
What must I do to be close to God?

The question comes from a man as it often does from those of us who are used to taking control of a situation, used to creating a list of objectives and then using our wisdom and wit, our money and our motivation to get things done. And so like the rich man, we often confuse life with an achievement, with a prize to win, with another consumable to be bought.

We may try to achieve it with hard work, with the resources of our bank account, with knees worn down by prayer, with good deeds to others, with other kinds of personal sacrifice - for surely with enough money or education or ability or goodness we can get what we want, we can secure our own lives and arrange our own future.

But Jesus reply challenges us and challenges the man. The eternal things of life, the treasures of heaven, all the gifts of God are not possessions that we can secure, acquire and arrange on our own terms. We cannot earn them, we cannot purchase them, we cannot work for them.

Jesus invites the rich man and us to live life on different terms. He wants us to look at the way our possessions, our bank accounts and all the other stuff we have achieved in life get in the way of our relationship with God. After all, the key for Jesus, that you and I live in a relationship of trust and love with the God who created us. When that is first and foremost, everything else will fall into place.

Jesus invites us to enter into another realm, another reality, into another way of being in which no amount of stuff or money, no amount of hard work can get us in. This realm, this kingdom, this life that embraces what is truly eternal is not something we can get into through our own achievements. We can no more achieve access to such a life as this than a camel can get through the eye of a needle. It is impossible for us to do.

But before we walk away in despair, listen to the final words of Jesus who says, ‘with God all things are possible’. God’s desire to reach out to us and to draw us into a life of the eternal is constant and unwavering. God isn’t there holding up a check list waiting for us to get everything correct before we can enter this realm of life. This offering of God is not dependent upon our getting it right.

But to receive such an offering, we have to empty our hands, our hearts and our lives of all the stuff and junk that is just taking up space - filling us up so that there is no place left to receive God’s offering. That was the message of Jesus to the wealthy man.
Let go of all those possessions that possess you, stop chasing after and clutching on to so much stuff, stop rushing in a panic after things that cannot truly satisfy. Just stop and rest a moment and let go, let all that stuff fall out of your hands, sweep out all of those nooks and crannies in your heart where you have stored up expectations, obligations and worries. And then open your hands and open your heart to receive what God has been offering to you all along.

And what God is offering to us is not something entirely mysterious or unknown to us. We all have experienced God’s offering in our lives at sometime or another- we all have had a glimpse of what is eternal; of those treasures of heaven.

I had such a glimpse a few weeks ago in a visit with my father. My dad has Alzheimer’s disease and we recently moved him to live on a secure floor in a nursing home. Whatever possessions Dad once had no longer matter to him. He can’t even remember which room in the nursing home is his, let alone what shirt or pair of pants belongs to him. He no longer possesses a mind that can solve complex problems or create an engineering plan for a mining company. He no longer has a body that once won gymnastic medals.

But on the day that I visited him, my Dad’s eyes shone with a delight that no money could buy. He reached out eagerly to give me a hug and to declare over and over that he was such a lucky man to have my mother and me there with him. As we shared a snack together, Dad drank some juice and savoured every sip saying with gusto, this is so good! You would have thought he had been offered a priceless glass of wine!

Don’t get me wrong. I would not wish Alzheimer’s disease on anyone. There is much pain and suffering for the entire family with the disease. But through this experience, I am discovering something of the treasures of heaven, something of God’s eternal gifts to us

-in the light in my father’s eyes, in his heart-felt and enthusiastic expressions of love, in his delight and gratitude in the simple things of this earth - a sip of juice, a colourful flower, the fresh air on his face.

It’s in those moments when you realize there’s nothing else to want, no place you’d rather be, you’re complete and loved, and all that’s asked for in response is what comes naturally anyways, simple gratitude. And you start wondering what the world would be like if our economies and our politics were based, not on wanting more and more and accumulating and chasing after stuff, but on simple gratitude.

The Kingdom of God begins with the awareness that we want to give our lives to that possibility, to God’s possibility.

Jesus Christ calls to each one of us and to this congregation to give our lives to God’s possibility. When we give of our time, when we give of our leadership, when we give of our money and material goods in the many ways that we do in this congregation, it is not to purchase acceptance from others or from God, it is not to earn a reward, it is not to prove to God that we are good and faithful, it is simply to give our lives to God’s possibility - to the creation of a world where we and all God’s people can experience the eternal things of life, the treasures of heaven.

Only God knows the possibilities that are open to each one of us and to this congregation. I am convinced that as individuals and as a congregation we are called by Christ to take our vital and unique place in the unfolding of God’s possibilities. I live with hope that in the company of Christ, God’s possibilities will become clearer to us. And I live with a prayer that we will be open to trust in the Christ who says to us, "Walk with me, and I’ll help you to let go of the stuff you cling to so desperately. I’ll help you to stop chasing after things that don’t really matter. Day by day, I’ll lovingly and tenderly unbind your heart and open up your hands so that you can receive what God has been waiting to give to you all along."

May it be so, Amen.