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Texts That Hurt

Just this past Sunday, many of our congregations heard an uncomfortable verse read as part of the “2nd Lesson” for the day. The verse read as follows:

“Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow.”

That’s a verse which might make us feel that if God’s word does this then we don’t want any part of it. But there’s an old expression which says, “sometimes you have to be hurt in order to be healed.” And that’s true of the word of God as well. Sometimes it has to “hurt” us a bit in order for it finally to bring us healing, restoration, and new life. And interestingly enough, our other two readings for last Sunday did just that … they “hurt” us a bit, but they also pointed the way toward healing, redemption and renewal.

Last Sunday’s first reading was from the book of the Old Testament prophet, Amos who prophesied during the reign of King Jeroboam II in the Northern Jewish Kingdom of the 8th century B.C.E. These were good times for the Northern Kingdom. Their territory had been expanded and their economy was booming as they traded with regional mercantile partners. “Happy days” were here again!

But there were huge problems lying beneath the surface. One of those problems was massive economic inequality. The rich were benefiting from this booming economy and most of the poor were not; and in fact, the lot of the poor was just getting worse. Not only that, there had become little concern among the leadership about social and economic injustice. I guess in modern terms maybe they thought prosperity would just “trickle down” to the masses. But that’s mostly a fantasy. And in the midst of all this, the prophet delivers God’s extremely sharp rebuke to the Northern Kingdom in that time which reads as follows:

“Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions … you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe and push aside the needy in the gate.”

This text from Amos “hurts” a bit because the situation Amos was addressing has many parallels to our time today. Perhaps it hits us a little “too close to home.”

But it was not the only difficult reading on last week’s schedule. The Gospel text (Mark chapter 10:17-31) was also a text that might’ve “hurt” us a bit.

In this text, a man comes to Jesus searching for “eternal life.” Now, “eternal life” here doesn’t just mean life after death, but fullness of life in God which begins now and continues in the life yet to come.

Jesus reminds this man that the way to fullness of life in God has already been laid down in the Torah, which the man, in turn, says he has followed since his youth. But then Jesus, looking at the man with love, tells him to do something astonishing. “You lack one thing,” says Jesus. “Go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” But this instruction from Jesus is just too much for the man, because he is quite materially wealthy. And so the man, in shock, goes away grieving.

This is a difficult text for most of us today because we live in a very materially wealthy society. So what do we make of such a difficult text? Well, we might say that the man in the story was possessed by his possessions. They owned and controlled him, not the other way around. And so he could not experience the liberation and joy of discipleship.

But isn’t the same true for us in many ways? We are living in a time in which we are continually told that we will find a better and more blessed life by consuming and acquiring. But what we find instead is that, like the man in the text, it is all too easy for us to become possessed by our possessions … or possessed by the need to possess. The irony is that by relying on our “stuff” and our own resources and abilities, we miss the main point of life – that the only way to redemption is through reliance upon the Grace of God which sends us unavoidably into relationships of love and justice with others.

But isn’t this impossible for us to do? (one might ask). Yes it is. But what is impossible for us is possible for God. For as our text also proclaimed last week: “For God, all things are possible.” This is our hope. This alone is the good news. Let us give thanks.

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