“What Holds You Captive?”
Mark 10:17-27
A few summers ago, David Timothy bought an old van with 265,000 miles on it, with the help of his wife and a friend.
They named it the Soup Mobile and started taking food to the homeless of Dallas, Texas.
Timothy had wanted to open a soup kitchen for a long time.
In the name of Christ, “Soup Man” provides over 3,000 meals each month.
Volunteers, donations from some restaurants and grocery stores, and his own willingness to devote 60 to 70 hours a week to the ministry sustain his work.
"He does things for us that other people would not do, like bring us food, clothes, water, juice, cakes, dog food, blankets," said a 36-year-old woman.
He manages to find toys for homeless children on their birthdays.
"He doesn’t have to come out here," commented one homeless man, "but he comes out here because he’s got God in him."
“He’s got God in him.”
Could there be any greater compliment?
He’s got God in him.
Sounds great doesn’t it?
But what does it mean in reality?
The Covid-19 Virus has turned everything upside down, which makes volunteering at the Red Bank Community Food Pantry kind of risky.
Also, because of the need to keep the number of people volunteering at 10 or less, we have been working with a skeleton crew.
But there are also a lot of faces that folks don’t see—the people who help unload the truck on the Tuesdays before the pantry.
The folks who take inventory.
The folks who make sure the pantry is organized.
People like Angie Turnure and Sonya Keller and so many others.
People like Sue Parks, who, sewed 30 homemade masks for volunteers to wear in order to stay safe.
The folks who pack the bags of food all day Wednesdays.
The people we can always count on being here, Devere Keller, Mike Wright, Raymond Beebe and the list goes on and on…
And we can’t forget those generous folks who support us financially.
This all takes a lot of time—it’s a big commitment.
And the Food Pantry has been running smoothly.
Hundreds of folks are getting a lot of food every time we are open.
Volunteers are taking a risk by interacting with so many people—although we are wearing masks, gloves and practicing good social distancing guidelines.
People need food; perhaps now more than ever.
And, throughout history, it has been the Christian Church which has been on the frontlines feeding, housing rebuilding and taking care of people during times of pandemics and crisis.
And our volunteers at the Food Pantry always come through.
One thing about the Food Pantry is that if you take time out of your day to volunteer, to help your neighbor, to seek to feed Christ when a person drives up to the church building, you will never go home and say, “I wish I hadn’t done that,” even if, because of it, you missed your favorite t-v show, a golf outing or a million other things you could have spent that time doing.
Following Jesus is rarely convenient, but there is nothing more fulfilling.
It’s interesting that the rich young man asks Jesus how he can “inherit eternal life,” and Jesus invites him into a way of life which involves the right here and right now.
“Come, follow me.”
The Kingdom of God is not so much a place as it is a life.
It’s not so much a destination as it is a journey.
It’s about transformation and character change.
It’s about being in relationship with Jesus and other people.
It’s about something that is already happening when we take the first steps in following Christ.
It’s about allowing God to live in us and love through us.
It’s about loving God and neighbor.
A few years ago, a husband and wife, who are members of East Ridge United Methodist Church—where I was pastor before coming to Red Bank, met and befriended a homeless man named William.
William, who was mentally challenged, had been living on the streets his entire life.
William was horribly abused by his parents as a child.
My friends at East Ridge United Methodist, couldn’t stand to think of him living alone, out in the elements and so they brought him into their own home—just a small apartment—nothing fancy, a place that didn’t have a lot of room.
It was a huge adjustment, but it was an amazing and beautiful thing at the same time.
William had a hard time sleeping and would be up most of the night making sandwiches in the kitchen, watching television and so forth.
Although William was a great guy, he had a lot of problems, and my friends adjusted their lives accordingly.
Personally, I have never seen a better example of Christian Discipleship up close and in action.
William was baptized and became a member of our church.
He became a part of our Tuesday afternoon feeding program, helping us take meals to the homeless and those living in extended stay hotels.
He also worked hard for the food pantry we had developed.
He came to Wednesday evening Bible study.
He became a fixture.
About a year after my friends took William in, William was diagnosed with stage-4 colon cancer.
My friends took care of William during his illness.
Church members visited William and prayed with him.
And in the end, William did not die alone, but died—instead--with dignity, with an entire Church family who loved him and mourned his passing.
And to this day, my friends in East Ridge will tell you that their lives were more blessed than they could ever imagine through that act of love and following Christ.
A man named F. Willis Johnson, in a book called “Holding Up Your Corner” says that “Loving God and Neighbor means you don’t want anyone to have any less than anyone else.”
With all the temptations and demands of our world bearing down on us, this might cause us to cry out with the disciples: “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus might answer us: “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle…”
But then He might add: “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
We can’t enter the Kingdom of God on our own.
We can’t save ourselves.
The only way to enter God’s Kingdom is to answer God’s invitation.
After all, God is the One Who makes possible the impossible.
We see this happen when Jesus heals the sick or brings dead people back to life.
We see this happen when a poor widow who is down to her last mite, gives all she has.
We see this happen when another woman anoints the soon-to-be crucified Jesus with expensive perfume.
We see this happen when Jesus, deep in prayer, makes the decision to give His life on the Cross for our salvation.
It is God Who saves.
It is God Who invites us into His salvation life.
In verse 21 of our Gospel lesson for this morning we get a hint at what Jesus is doing for the rich young man, and for everyone else who will ever read this story.
It says that “Jesus looked at [the rich young man] and loved him.”
And then Jesus said to him: “One thing you lack.
Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor…
…Then come, follow me.”
Jesus is not judging the man.
Jesus is not punishing the man.
Jesus is inviting the man into a love relationship with God and other people.
As an act of love Jesus tells the man the hard truth, that his wealth is in his way.
So, Jesus invites him to unload his burden, to free himself from that which has him bound—even though he has no idea that he is bound.
The man’s earthly possessions are the obstacles on his path to loving God and neighbor—or to put it another way—to entering and living life in the Kingdom of God.
How different God’s vantage point is from our own.
In order to truly live—this man must give up his own life.
In order to be saved, he and we must stop worrying about our own salvation and instead turn our attention to God and other people.
In doing this, we will find ourselves so filled with love for others that life will become truly rich.
Wouldn’t it be terribly sad if the chief end in life were to be materially rich while others are left starving on the streets, living in hotel rooms, scrounging through our garbage cans for food?
It’s been said that the rich young man has greater insight than many of us, for he “registers through his grief that he is aware of how much he is losing by not being able to let go of his accumulated wealth.”
This man lives in captivity to his possessions.
And it’s this captivity that keeps him from living into the full life of the Kingdom of God.
And so, in love, Jesus names the power that holds the man captive and invites him into the freedom which will allow him to begin to fully love—fully live and enter the Kingdom of God.
What holds you captive?
What is your stumbling block?
It doesn’t have to be wealth, possessions or whatever.
It could be what you spend your time doing.
It could be a sin you won’t give up.
It could be an addiction.
I once had a long conversation with a young man who had lost his job, his wife, his children, all his family to his meth. addiction.
He was so depressed; so unhappy.
When I asked him, “Is it worth it?” he looked at me and said, “I don’t mean to offend you, but I don’t think you have ever shot methaphetamines into your veins.”
He then, went on to describe the euphoric feeling it gives him—for only a few minutes, but euphoric just the same.
No matter how horrible the outcome of his Meth habit, that guy wasn’t willing to give up his addiction or take steps to give up his addiction—even though it had ruined everything that had ever been good in his life.
What do you trust in more than Christ?
Is there anything in your life that keeps you from entering the Kingdom of God?
Is there anything that is more important to you than following Christ?
What is getting in your way?
If there is anything keeping you out of God’s Kingdom, get rid of it, and then, come, follow Jesus!!!
