Centering

Mark 10:17-31

Every person has some center—some core—on which they order their lives. We all do. If you want to discover what it is, simply look at what determines your schedule, where most of your resources go, and what would be that which you would try to save no matter what was happening all around you.

For some folks, that immediately becomes their children. For others, it is family. For some folks, it is work. For still others, it may well be a collection of prized possessions. For some folks, it is a belief system. 

And on it goes—human beings lead lives centered on some ultimate core. All else follows. 

We have turned the conversation between a wealthy man and Jesus into a stewardship message—albeit a really good one—ALL WE HAVE IS MEANT TO BE USED TO HELP OTHERS—but that is not really what this conversation revolves around. 

The man wants “eternal life.” We tend to think of this as something to do with heaven. In fact, we have turned most of the Christian religion into a process through which we get to heaven, making it all about some future when we die. But the man, being a good practicing Jew, had something else in mind—eternal life was KINGDOM life—a life lived in and through the presence of God—a life that transcends and transforms life as we know it. In short, it’s about living NOW, not in some future bliss. 

If we read closely the stories of Jesus’ ministry, we see that such a definition was one of his guiding principles. He focused on people’s immediate circumstances. He intervened to make the present moment holy, whole, and full.

So, the first lesson for us is to realize that this insight is for us—how do we experience God NOW? How do we experience God HERE? Isn’t that really the point of faith? To make life meaningful? To make life full?

Sadly, the man hasn’t answered any of those questions affirmatively, despite a very religious life. He has been observant of his faith practices since a child, but he still wakes up empty, longing for something other. He has practiced religion, but somehow lost God.

Wow.

That is one of the main critiques fired at the religious community right now by the Nones of recent religious surveys and studies—you practice all the rites and rituals, they say, you keep all the rules and follow all the commandments, but the world looks pretty much like it always has—people are just as greedy; leaders are just as corrupt; the poor continue to be poor; nothing much changes.

And in the middle of night, we know they’re right, even as we pray, hope, and pretend they aren’t. 

Note that Jesus has utter compassion for the man. Mark writes that Jesus “loved” him. That’s no small detail. That is vitally important. Jesus feels for us. Jesus wants us to know the power and promise of faith. Jesus wants us to know beyond knowing that he is right here with us.

So…

He does a quick assessment of the man—it wasn’t all that difficult—nice clothes, GREAT haircut, clean, smells of cologne—he’s well-to-do. In fact, Jesus would guess that maintaining that wealth and comfort probably takes most of the man’s time, investment of his resources, and pretty well determines every aspect of his life. And that could be why he still hasn’t felt the promise and possibility of the life of faith—that kingdom presence—he so desires. God is not the center—wealth is. Therefore, Jesus gives him a simple prescription—get rid of it all. Sell it. Give the profits away. 

In short, empty the center. 

It’s not helping anyway, so clean it out—empty it. 

But the man walks away, unable to contemplate such radical surgery. He can’t do it. 

Changing the core of our lives is never easy. It is always radical surgery. It hurts. It’s hard. For a while, there will be chaos because we will not as yet replaced it with anything. We might find so untenable that we, too, walk away.

But at what cost?

Look at our world. Look at how short we sell ourselves. Look at the refusal of those in power to concede it, use it gracefully, or serve the needs of the people. Look at the divisions, hatreds, and conflicts roaring between all the subgroups and sects of humanity. Partisanship, by its very essence, reveals the failure of our chosen centers to truly bring us life. Materialism always ends in self-serving acquisition and the subsequent defensiveness of ownership. Instead of meaning, purpose, and wholeness, we find paranoia, misdirection, and emptiness. 

But Jesus waits for us. He continues to poke us and prod us toward awakening. He is there when we attempt generosity, filling our hearts with that warm feeling of knowing we did something right. He is there when we risk speaking to someone different from ourselves, realizing we have little to fear, but share so much about simply trying to live. He is there when we see beyond ourselves to the needs of others, giving of ourselves to meet them. 

If we open to that presence, our hearts, minds, and spirits can be transformed. We can gain God as our center. Gaining God as our center leads us to affirm that all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.