Proper
23 :: Amos 5: 6–7, 10–15; Psalm 90: 12–17;
Hebrews 4: 12–16; Mark 10: 17–31
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on
Sunday, October 14, 2018.
“IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIP”
(Homily texts: Amos 5: 5–6, 10–15 & Mark 10: 17–31)
It’s all about
relationship.
We live in a world of
relationships.
Consider, for example,
what goes into the making of a baked dish, or a good recipe….the various
ingredients must be in a good and complimentary relationship with one another, each
part of the recipe fulfilling a central and integrated role in the overall
result.
Or, think about the
engines in our cars (or any other piece of machinery, for that matter). The
various parts of the engine must relate well to the other parts. The various
types of metals involved, their machining and tolerances, all of these things
go into the designing and fabricating of an engine or piece of machinery that will
run well and will last a long time.
Or, how about railroad
track (one of my favorite things!). The two rails in the track must be in a
proper relationship with one another. If they are too close, or too far apart,
the track will be unusable. And the relationship, the distance, between the two
rails is dependent on their relationship to the crossties, the stone ballast, and
the spikes and other fasteners, that enable them to maintain the proper and
desired distance from one another.
We live in a world of
relationships.
That world that we inhabit
is composed of the various relationships we have with the “stuff” in our lives,
and it is composed of our relationships with others. (More on that in a
moment.)
Our Old Testament reading,
taken from the prophet Amos, and our Gospel text from Mark, chapter ten, are
connected by their focus on relationships.
Amos, who lived and worked
in the eighth century, B. C., went north from the Southern Kingdom of Judah to
the Northern Kingdom of Israel, There, he pronounces God’s judgment on the
wickedness of the ruling class in the kingdom. (I’m not sure I’d want to be
Amos, or to have the call he received from God to be the call I would have to
accept!). A foreigner by virtue of his having come from the Southern Kingdom
into the Northern, Amos tells the people that their relationship to their
wealth, and their relationship to the people they are taking advantage of, is
all out-of-whack. The wealthy exploit the poor, using false weights. They exact
heavy taxes in order to maintain their lavish lifestyle. Their relationship to
what they possess is healthy, but their relationship to others is nonexistent. God’s
judgment is coming, Amos says.
Our Gospel text is loosely
connected to the Amos passage.
The incident recorded for
us in Mark’s Gospel account, chapter ten, is also recorded in Matthew, chapter
nineteen, and in Luke, chapter eighteen.
A wealthy young man (Luke
calls him a “ruler) comes up to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit
eternal life. All well and good. The young man’s question is a question that
each of us must ask ourselves, and a question we must answer.
Jesus responds, citing
various commandments that are part of the Law of Moses.
In answer, the young man
says, in effect, “I’m good…I’ve kept all of those my entire life.”
Then Jesus, who, Mark
tells us, loved the young man, told him to sell all that he had and to give the
proceeds to the poor. Then, Jesus said, “come, follow me.”
Here, the young man’s
relationship to his possessions comes into view.
Mark tells us that he
turned away from the Lord, grieving, because of all that he had.
We would do well, at this
point, to recall some of the prevalent attitudes that were extant in the day of
our Lord’s earthly ministry. For, back then, if a person was healthy, wealthy
and had many children, the common belief was that all of these wonderful things
were so because God’s favor had shone upon that person. Surely, the common
thinking was back then, that person must be living a good and faithful life
before God. Peter confirms this common belief, exclaiming that the disciples
had left everything to follow the Lord.
We can also see this in
the young man’s response to the Lord: “All these (commandments) I have kept
from my youth.”
The root problem with the
young man is his relationship to his “stuff”. When Jesus tells him to give up
what he has, and to sell it, giving the proceeds to the poor, the cost is too
high for the young man to come to grips with. In essence, the young man is more
attached to his possessions than he is to following the Lord’s call to
discipleship.
It is a matter of
relationship.
At this point, we would do
well to affirm the fact that having “stuff”, even a lot of it, isn’t a bad
thing, in and of itself. It’s how we relate to what we have that makes a
difference.
As a test, what would be
our response if we were to – God forbid
– lose much or all of what we currently have to fire, flood or some other
disaster? How would we react to such a turn of events.
The answer might be
telling for us, shining God’s bright light on our deepest attitudes and
perspectives.
Not only are we immersed
in a world in which we relate to the “stuff” we have, but we are also immersed
in a world in which we are in relationship with God and with one another.
How we relate to God, as
our primary and formative relationship, will affect and color our relationship
to other Christians, to non-believers, and to the things we own.
May God enable and
enlighten our reflection on our relationships to Him, to others, and to the
“stuff” of our lives.
AMEN.
