Proper 29, Monday

"A certain young ruler asked Jesus, 'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' .... Jesus said to him, 'There is one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the proceeds to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me'" (Luke 18:18-22 passim).

Here's the trouble with this passage from Luke's Gospel: We are all the young ruler. Every single one of us.

What is needful for us is the same now as it was for the young man who comes to Jesus to ask what to do. "I've followed all the commandments," he says. "What more should I do?"

At Jesus' answer he turned away sad, the Gospel says, "because he was very rich." It is the same for us.

No matter where we fall in the socioeconomic scale, no matter what the recession has done to us, each one of us is rich (by any standard of comparison to our neighbors around the world), and each one of us is just as tangled up in our possessions as the young ruler.

I'm a gearhead; ask any one of my colleagues. I love to have the newest BlackBerry -- I'm that guy at the AT&T store the day the new model is released. Others of my colleagues are car nuts, others have children drowning in toys. With our friends, Katrin and I go over the top decorating our houses and throwing parties.

Now, literally selling everything is one way to address the issue. Jesus is very good at cutting through the static and distilling the issue down to its heart. But his goal is not just the young ruler's wealth, it's the young ruler's freedom. Jesus wants him free to love and serve God with all his heart, and the young ruler can't do that while his possessions are dragging him down. None of us can.

As we enter the Christmas-industrial complex, which is already in full steam, ask yourself what preoccupation you can do without in order to be free to love God with all your heart. What can you let go of, what can you not even bring into the house, that will leave you lighter and freer?

This parable reminds me of another story, this one from the Desert Fathers of Egypt, who recount the time the young monk, Abba Lot, came to visit Abba Joseph. "Father," he said, "As far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace, and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?"

Abba Joseph held up his hands, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. "If you want," he replied, "why not become totally flame?"

Why not be free to love and serve God? Why not let go of some of that weight of possessions? Why not become totally flame?