"how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God"

Mark 10:17-31

Late one night there is a knock on the pearly gates. St. Peter looks out and a man is standing there. So, he goes to grab his clipboard and is about to begin the interview he conducts with all the new arrivals to heaven, but when he opens the door, all of a sudden the man disappears.

No sooner is St. Peter back in his chair when there is another knock at the door. He gets up, opens the door and sees the same man standing there. As he opens his mouth to speak, the man disappears once again.

Finally, at the third knock, St. Peter has had it. He throws the door open and shouts “Why, are you messing with me?!” As the man disappears once more, he shouts back: “I’m not! They keep trying to resuscitate me down here!”

“how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.” Like it or not, Jesus is right. It is hard to enter the kingdom of God.

I think the biggest reason it’s so hard, is because we are so much more accustomed to living in our own kingdoms. It’s hard to enter God’s kingdom, because if we’re honest with ourselves, we’d rather live in our own kingdoms.
The young man who comes to Jesus in our gospel for today learns this lesson-and when he does it shocks him and makes him walk away saddened. His kingdom is one that is full of lots of possessions. Jesus invites him to enter God’s kingdom, but tells him that all of those possessions can’t come with him. Just the prospect of leaving the kingdom of possessions behind shocks the man, and when he realizes he can’t do it-it saddens him.

“how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”

I thought a little bit this week about all the things that make us comfortable in our own kingdoms.

If we read the gospel stories of Jesus carefully, we will find that the Kingdom of God is vastly different than the kingdoms we build for ourselves to live in.

Our kingdom says that there are winners and losers, and we live in the kingdom trying our best to win as often as possible...but Jesus says: “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake...will save it.” God’s kingdom is for the losers.

When our kingdoms are built for winners- then “how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”

Our kingdom says that the best indication of blessing is in how much we have-money in the bank, food in the refrigerator, clothes in our closet, cars in the garage...Jesus says: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” God’s kingdom is for the poor.

When we measure our kingdoms in numbers of possessions-then “how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”

Our kingdom says that a good life is a life that is full of comfort, security, and safety...Jesus says: “If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” God’s kingdom doesn’t always call us to the safest, most secure places.

When our kingdoms are marked by comfort and safety-then “how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”

On top of the need to live in our kinds of kingdoms-rather than God’s, there is another problem that we share with the young man who comes to Jesus. I think, often, we too are asking the wrong questions. Listen again to what he asks: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Looking for something he can perform to get into the kingdom-the young man is crushed when Jesus suggests something he can’t bring himself to do.

Maybe this is another significant difference between God’s kingdom and our kingdom-in God’s kingdom everything is up to God.

You and I have a choice today, as we sit and listen once more to a story about the Kingdom of God. We can look around at the kingdom we live in and become shocked because it is so different than God’s kingdom. We, like the young man, can walk away saddened because we don’t want to give up life in our kingdom. Or, we can see the good news in what Jesus has to say about life in this new kingdom.

You can’t bring the possessions with you into God’s kingdom because God doesn’t want them, doesn’t need them, can’t use them. In fact, God gave you all of those things so that you would use them to make life on this side of the kingdom better for people who have less than you do. God wants you in the kingdom, not the possessions.
God doesn’t care if you’re a winner or a loser. God knows what you’re capable of, who you are, and what you mean to him. God doesn’t need to see a medal around your neck to know that you belong in the kingdom.

God’s kingdom-the eternal life-that the young man asked about will be a place of comfort, security, and safety. God knows that this world is not-but He put you here to live in it and to work for the comfort of others, the security of those who are insecure, and the safety of those who live in dangerous places. God wants you to live in complete safety and security, but not just yet.

“how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.” In fact, Jesus says- for us it is impossible. But not for God. For God, all things are possible.

Jesus didn’t measure the success of his mission based on how much he had-but instead chose to let God provide-in God’s kingdom 5 loaves and 2 fish can feed thousands of people. In God’s kingdom it’s possible for the Son of God to be born into an unsafe world, in an unsafe place. From the manger to the cross, Jesus chose to live among those for whom there was no safety or security, and little comfort. He walked with people who were living in the valley of the shadow of death-and reminded them that in God’s kingdom they would never walk alone. In the end, Jesus was willing to lose everything that God had given him-his reputation, his credibility, even his life-to bring God’s kingdom to this world. The end of Jesus’ life reveals the most striking difference between God’s kingdom and ours. In our kingdom-death gets the last word. In God’s kingdom-death is the gateway to a new beginning. After death comes resurrection-life in a kingdom that is greater than we ever could have dreamed.

“how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God” without the help of God. When we try to go it alone, when we try to build our own little kingdoms to live in, and when we try to resuscitate them over and over again as they fail to give us the life we want-we run the risk of becoming shocked and saddened time and time again. When we learn to trust God to provide, we begin to really live-maybe not the life we imagined, but the real life that God blesses.

In the end, God doesn’t want your awards, your possessions, or your little kingdom…God wants you! Until we reach that day, God wants us to use these things as witnesses to the new kingdom that God is building for us all to live in one day.
God gives us the words to pray when we, like the young man, struggle with leaving our kingdom for God’s: “Your kingdom come, your will be done.”

Receive the Kingdom of God

Mark 10:13-16

Meditate on these for awhile:
What’s the sound of one hand clapping?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

These are two common examples of what is, in Zen Buddhism, called a “koan”. A koan is a puzzling, often paradoxical statement or story, used as an aid to meditation and a means of gaining spiritual awakening. Ponder them for just a moment and you may find yourself stepping into a whole new reality.

A more contemporary koan is this one: “Why are there locks on the doors at 7-eleven?” Think about it, why does a store that is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year need to have locks on its doors? The path to enlightenment begins here.
While you’re thinking on that one, let me offer you another. Jesus offers us a sort of koan of his own in today’s lesson. “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

I think this is a sort of koan that Jesus offers because, at first glance it seems so easy to understand-children are open, loving, unbiased, creative, caring…the list goes on and on. So, if we recover some of that child-like openness and faith, then we too can expect to enter God’s kingdom. If we can’t recover it, then we may never find the life God intends for us. Easy enough, right?

But, apparently, it’s not that simple. This is the second time in less than a chapter of Mark’s gospel that Jesus has had to make this point to his disciples. First, when they argued about who among them was the greatest-Jesus essentially told them: “Do you want to see who God thinks is great?” and then he took a little child in his arms and said “This is who God thinks is really great.”

And now, as people stream to Jesus with these little children just like that one, the embodiment of greatness in God’s eyes, the disciples only instinct is to speak sternly to them, shoo them away, tell them to get lost. Apparently they haven’t meditated on the koan of the child long enough.

Maybe they should spend some time with the 7-eleven koan, too. Why are there locks on the doors of a store that’s open all the time? These disciples have seen how Jesus is open, to all kinds of people, all the time. And yet, they still feel the need to install locks on the gates of God’s kingdom. They’ve seen it with their own eyes-that Jesus is like a 7-eleven-open all day every day. Yet, today they seem to be telling all of these people, bringing their children that Jesus is closed for business. The doors are locked.

Do you and I need to spend some more time with these two bits of wisdom, too? Are you sometimes like Jesus’ disciples? Do you sometimes see the need to stand guard at the door, at the gate, at the entrance, ready to lock it all up tight if the wrong kind of person happens to come along at the wrong time? Have you ever felt the pressure of feeling like it was up to you to guard something, and you were afraid of what might happen if the gates were left wide open? Have you felt that kind of fear?

Or, are you like the people who bring their children? Do you find yourself wanting some kind of contact with someone who has wisdom to bring to the troubles of your life? Do you find yourself looking for someone who could listen to all the things that fill your heart and mind each day? Do you long for someone who could touch your life and remind you in a meaningful way that it is blessed by God?

The good news today, if you’ve ever felt this way, is that Jesus is here for you. There’s no need to be on guard when he’s around. Stop guarding, put away the keys, leave the door and live your life without fear. Jesus has it covered. There’s no need to carry those troubles alone. You don’t have to look far for that listening ear. Your life is blessed, look around, Jesus is here.

Jesus has a passion for teaching these lessons. They are important to him. Notice how he feels when the disciples stand guard and lock the doors to keep people out- “when Jesus saw this he was indignant.” Indignant literally means: angry, offended, annoyed, pained. Jesus seldom gets this way. In fact, this is the only place in the Bible where it happens.

It doesn’t happen when Jesus is accused of lying about being God’s Son. He doesn’t get angry this way when the accusations turn into a guilty verdict. He isn’t indignant when they lock him up like a criminal, when they dress him up in a purple cloth and a crown of thorn, when they make fun of him. No indignation at all when they lead him to the cross, nail him up on it, and then mock him as he dies. Through all of these things, Jesus expresses no anger at all.
But when he sees someone trying to close up shop on God’s kingdom, he’s indignant.
Indignant, he passes right by the doors that the disciples are trying to close and lock, and he takes the children up in his arms, lays his hands on them, and blesses them. Indignant at the idea that God’s kingdom could ever be closed, Jesus reaches out.

What we find, ultimately from this little koan is that the kingdom of God IS these little ones. It is these little ones and anyone else who is open enough to give and receive God’s love the way they do.

What happens that day is a metaphor for what happens at the end of the story. The disciples tried to lock the doors and close off access to Jesus. The cross and the grave were attempts to lock the doors and close off access to God. But Jesus passes through every locked door, every dark place, every gate that leads to death, and emerges to embrace us with new life on the other side. That day it was blessings for all who came. Today, it is the blessing of the resurrection for all who receive him the way those little ones did.

What’s the sound of one hand clapping? Does a tree that falls in the forest make a sound if no one is there to hear it? Why do they have locks on the doors at 7-eleven? I’m not sure. But, why isn’t Jesus concerned about offending his disciples? Why does he push past them without a second thought? Why does he bless the little children? I think he does it because they ARE the kingdom of God. You and I are as well when we become like them. Meditate on that for awhile and you will be enlightened.