Today’s scripture: Matthew 19:16-22 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Keith Phillips):
The only difference between the rich young man in this passage and us, according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship, is that Jesus stood right in front of him and did not allow him to reinterpret what he said in a more convenient manner. Bonhoeffer goes on and declares that the young man’s honesty in rejecting Jesus’ command was better than the disobedience that pretends to be obedience among church-folk.
The rich young man was definitely a fine, religious, decent citizen who knew the difference between right and wrong and obviously believed in God, and he probably was good looking, too. But, he realized that that was not enough. If only more 21st century church-folk knew that!
In the past, I saw a production of Henrick Ibsen’s Ghosts at the Buck Creek Playhouse. I had a neighbor, Jon, who played the role of a, sadly, too typical parson, who was more concerned with what the people around might think than he was with being the man of God he was called to be, leading God’s people in honesty and integrity. “Social convention” (his phrase) needed to be maintained. Jesus calls us higher than that!
Through Brian McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity and John Dominic Crossan’s God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now, I’m realizing anew that the Reign of God is now here, just like Jesus proclaimed two thousand years ago. God is at work, loving us unconditionally and doing marvelous things in our lives and throughout our world; and God invites us to collaborate in this new creation.
So why are we who are fine religious, decent citizens in the mess we’re in? To where have American church-folk led this country, this planet? Why do we look so to going to heaven where the “real” Kingdom of God will be? Could it be simply because we don’t accept the Reign of God here and now and, with it, God’s prerogative to determine our present and our future? Like the rich young man, our comfort and luxuries are obstacles to living into the Kingdom. We don’t want to sacrifice our privilege, status, and economic power for the good of the marginalized. We even, unbelievably, deny that we have privilege, status, and economic power, when face-to-face with the misery of the vast majority of our brothers and sisters in the human family. It is simply not right for us to have so much when so many have so little.
Jesus called the rich young man, and us, to follow him, becoming like him, a peculiar people and a reflection of the glory of God. It is time to take Jesus seriously!
Thought for the day: Lord Jesus, forgive me, forgive us who call ourselves by your name. May you not only reign in my heart today, but in my thoughts, my words, my decisions, my actions, my relationships, my everything. Amen.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.