Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost-The Rev Melanie Lemburg

 20^th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 23B

October 10, 2021

        Today’s homily will be in the form of a meditation on the gospel reading.  I invite you to close your eyes and use this time to prayerfully reflect.

        As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

        Do you long for the answer to certain questions that only Jesus can answer?  Take a moment and name them now before him.

        What feelings do the words “eternal life” evoke for you? 

        Jesus invites the man to consider the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’  Notice that Jesus lists the commandments that have to do with our relationships with others when pointing to ‘eternal life’.  In what ways might Jesus be inviting you to move deeper into eternal life by examining your relationships with other people?  Think about a specific relationship that needs examining.  Hold it in your heart alongside Jesus.

        Not content with this response, the young man answers Jesus impatiently that he has kept these commandments since his youth.  Jesus looks at him and loves him.  Jesus tells him that he lacks one thing.  And he tells the man to go, sell what he owns, give the money to the poor, and then come follow Jesus.  The young man is shocked and goes away grieving. 

        After Jesus lovingly sees the young man, he tells the young man that to inherit eternal life, he must give up that which is an impediment in his relationship with God and others. 

        Imagine that Jesus looks at you, loves you, and seeing the deepest, darkest and brightest corners of your heart, he names that which is your greatest impediment in your relationship with God and other people.  Jesus calls you by name.  Tells you that you lack one thing.  What does he tell you to give up or to take on?  What is your greatest impediment in following Jesus?  How is Jesus inviting you to be changed?

        “What is the thing you lack?/ What do you need to let go of?/What do you rely on for happiness,/security, worthiness?”[i]

        Stay with Jesus in your discomfort at what he invites you to.  Look him in the eyes and see love not judgement; see kindness and hope not condemnation.  Trust his belief in you that you can live more deeply into eternal life, here and now.  Remember that “Faith is the blessed leap/ from what we leave

to what we receive.[ii]

        Take a deep breath, now, and leap.

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[i] “Eye of the Needle” by Steve Garnass-Holmes; Oct 4; on unfoldinglight.net https://www.unfoldinglight.net/reflections/f7j9p3t9mjjb8ycte6kfyczxye7hws

 

[ii] “What we Receive” by Steve Garnaas-Holmes; Oct 7; on unfoldinglight.net

https://www.unfoldinglight.net/reflections/aewr5t3d6y8cwwnywt4r42ngftz52m