The good road

 

Mark 10: 17-31
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
October 13, 2024

Photo of three vehicles driving away from the camera through flat, arid desert scrub. The sky is overcast with storm clouds that are grey and deep blue, shadowing the mountains on the horizon. To the right, there is a rift in the clouds allowing for a quarter of a rainbow to be visible.

Hear now this scripture in the First Nations Version, an Indigenous translation of the New Testament.



As Creator Sets Free (Jesus) set out walking from there, a man ran up to him and honored him.



“Good Wisdomkeeper,” the man asked, “what path will lead me to the life of the world to come that never fades away?”



“Why do you call me good?” he asked the man. “There is only one who is good—the Great Spirit. You must know the instructions from the lawgiver Drawn from the Water (Moses). ‘You are not to take the life of another, or be unfaithful in marriage, or take what is not yours. Never lie or cheat a fellow human being, and always give honor and respect to your father and mother.’”



“Wisdomkeeper,” the man answered, “from my youth I have followed all of these instructions.”



Creator Sets Free looked at the man with love and said, “Only one thing remains. Take all your possessions, invite the poor of your village to come and have a giveaway. Then in the spirit-world above you will have many possessions waiting for you. Then leave everything behind and come, walk the road with me.”



The man’s heart fell to the ground. He hung his head and walked away, for he had many possessions.



Creator Sets Free then looked around at the people and said to his followers, “Finding and walking the good road is a hard thing for the ones who have many possessions.”



His followers could not believe what they were hearing. (They thought having many possessions was a sign of blessing from the Great Spirit.)



Creator Sets Free spoke again to them. “Little children,” he said, “the ones who trust in their many possessions will have a hard time finding their way onto the good road. It would be easier for a moose to go through the eye of a needle.”



They shook their heads in wonder, looked at each other, and said, “How then can anyone walk the good road that sets all people free?”



He looked at them and said, “It is not possible for weak human beings, but with Creator’s help all things are possible.”



Stands on the Rock (Peter) spoke up, “We have left all our possessions, and our relatives, to walk the road with you! What will become of us?”



“I speak from my heart,” he answered, “no one who has given up homes and families to follow me and walk my good road will go without. In this present world they will become part of an even greater family, with many homes and lands. Even though they have been abused and mistreated, they will receive much more than they have lost. Then, in the world to come, they will have the life of beauty and harmony that never fades away.



“But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”



There once was a rich man who took this story to heart. He came from a modest upbringing in Alabama. By the age of 29 he was a self-made millionaire with a direct-mail and publishing business. He and his wife had a comfortable home, he drove a Lincoln Continental, they owned a lake cabin and speedboats. He and his business partner owned two thousand acres of land for their horses and herds of cattle. This rich man was the very picture of success. It certainly appeared that he was on the good road.



But he also spent long hours away from his wife and family, working to ensure his business was successful. Both he and his wife discovered that all these possessions did not bring meaning to their lives and rather than bring happiness, they were miserable together. They separated and his wife went to New York to think things over. Heartbroken, the rich man followed his wife there, and through a long process of reconciliation they committed themselves to finding the good road that sets all people free. In order to travel on this road, they decided to sell their share of the business and gave all the money away. They then packed up their family and headed toward Florida.



On the way they met up with some friends in Georgia who then introduced the man and his wife to Clarence Jordan of Koinonia Farms. After having lunch with Clarence, the man and his family stayed for a month working on the farm and talking with Clarence. The man and his family then sold the comfortable house, the Lincoln, the cabin and the speedboats and gave the money to the poor. Together with Clarence they started an organization with the purpose of eliminating poverty housing from the face of the earth. The man was Millard Fuller. The organization is Habitat for Humanity.



Here in this story from the gospel of Mark is where we do see conditions placed on entering the kin-dom of God. The kin-dom is not for wealthy landowners or a tax haven for tech billionaires or for the privileged to schmooze their way in. But the love is still there. Jesus acknowledges that the rich man in this story is a good person, following the commandments about how to live in community with people, and for such Jesus loves the rich man. And with that same love, Jesus calls him out for neglecting the biblical mandates regarding the poor, the widow, and the stranger. And the Greek word for possessions, ktéma, means landed property, like  a property developer.



Jesus isn’t interested in whether or not we’re good people but rather are we people who can’t stand to see others go without? We have not personally stolen anyone’s land but do we try to imagine what it would look like to return stolen land to its original stewards? We have not directly exploited anyone’s labor but how can we repair with our actions that this nation was made possible by those who were stolen from their homelands, by immigrants, and by trade labor?



The good road is one that sets all people free and that includes setting us free from all that gets in God’s way. Lately I have been thinking about the Church as the rich man. Most of the time the Church endeavors to follow the commandments, even some corners joining in solidarity with the poor, the widow, and the stranger, and yet the Church has that one great possession which is property, perhaps also an endowment, which we are only ready to give away, maybe, when a church closes, and even then many times the property is given to the Church. And boy does the Church walk away sad when that happens.



What if the Church was willing to sell all that it has, give it to the poor, and joyfully follow Jesus on that good road, that good road that sets all people free, including us? The good road that leads away from wealth and toward community care. The good road that leads away from property ownership and toward stewardship of the land and its creatures. The good road that leads away from scarcity, withholding, and insecurity toward abundance, sharing, and reciprocity.



In the coming year we will be thinking and talking about that good road, how we want to travel on it together as a church, and what is it in our life together that is getting in God’s way and what we want to do about that. We’ll be thinking and talking about what we want to do with one of our greatest resources, our property. There are those among us who indeed go without for whom we have a heart of care; how we can live into a deeper sense of community liberation?



In the United Church of Christ, every big change, every movement has started with the local church. It was a local UCC church that first ordained a gay man in 1972 and the first to ordain a lesbian woman in 1982, but the denomination didn’t become Open and Affirming until 1985. The New Ark United Church of Christ could literally become a new ark of affordable housing and help to spark a movement within the United Church of Christ. The good road is not easy. To put it in a more familiar context, it’s easier for a six-pointed white tail deer to go through chicken wire than it is for the rich to enter the kin-dom of God. But the good road does lead to getting out of God’s way, to liberation, and to great joy. Amen.

Benediction – enfleshed.com


Wide the gate,
expansive the Kin-dom,
determined our actions
towards our shared freedom.
Go with God. The Good Road awaits.