Heaven is as easy as passing through the eye of a needle

“What Must I do to Inherit Eternal Life?”

It is a fair question for anyone who takes his or her faith seriously. What do I have to do here to make my way to heaven? The young man in question in today’s gospel actually knelt down at Jesus feet when he asked the question. 

Jesus is quite plain spoken. First he reminded the suppliant, don’t call me good. Only God is good. That is a startling statement for those of us who name Jesus the Anointed One of God. Still, notice how he insists on humbling himself. There is an axiom in divine spirituality that seems to play on the theme that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and conversely those who humble themselves will be exalted. It is a theme Jesus comes back to time and again. In today's Gospel, for instance, he says that many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first. There is something axiomatic about spirituality that turns things upside down.

Jesus goes on by saying: “You know the commandments”. You know the difference between right and wrong. Don’t murder people, don’t break your marriage vows, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t defraud or cheat. Honor your mother and father. That sort of thing. Just do that and you’ll be fine." 

“Jesus I’ve done these things all my life”

Jesus did an interesting thing then. He looked at him and loved him. Notice that verb “love”. What he was about to say would be difficult but essential to the soul’s health and well being.

“You lack one thing. Go sell all that you have, give it to the poor, you will have treasure in heaven, and then come follow me.”

Jesus comes from a long prophetic tradition where the care of the poor is paramount and central to a sign of the presence of the kingdom. In today's First Lesson, the prophet Amos warns the rich about greed; "Alas for you that turn justice into wormwood and trample on the poor!"

Note, if you will, the order in which Jesus arranges his prescription for treasure in heaven. It is in the giving of earthly treasure that the treasure of heaven is to be found.

Only then do we really find it possible to follow Jesus. In a life that is marked by a generous spirit.

Here we go again! Another one of Jesus’ impossible standards. Last week there was the absolute over marriage. But then we also considered Jesus’ other moral absolutes for the woman caught in the act of adultery; the moral absolutes of forgiveness and compassion.

So now with the Parable of the Rich Young Man. Upon hearing that he must give away all that he had, he went away shocked and grieving because he had many possessions. At which point Jesus looked around and said; “How hard it will be for those who have great wealth to enter the Kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." 

The disciples were also astounded and deeply perplexed! Who then can be saved?

Then Jesus said; “With mortals this is impossible, but no so with God, for with God all things shall be possible!”

Rabbinical thought has always sought to plumb the depths of the mind of God and of course always arrived at a dead end, for the mind of the mortal is always found wanting when looking into the mind of God.

In fact the aphorism; the “eye of the needle” is found in both the Babylonian Talmud and in the Midrash. The Talmud and the Midrash are  exhaustive commentaries and interpretative treatment of the holy writings and the rabbis studied them with great care in order that they, however humbly, could search the Mind of God.

Thus the metaphor appears specifically in the Midrash on the Song of Songs. It is used to speak of God’s willingness and ability beyond comparison to accomplish the salvation of a sinner; to quote the Midrash directly; “The Holy One said, ‘Open for me a door as big as a needle’s eye and I will open for you a door through which may enter tents and camels’”.

Isn’t it interesting that Rabbi Jesus knew how to use rabbinical thought and analytical metaphor.

Frankly, we are helpless without the help of God. Our marriages will fail without the help of God, and without the help of God we would not be able to begin again, when marriages fail. So will our business fail, in fact whole economies will fail without the help of God.

Without God there is only war, theft, lying, defrauding, cheating and greed. Is it any wonder that as a world takes to its own devices, so too it loses its moral compass.

It is not just that the world loses sight of God’s moral absolutes, it even loses sight of any moral reference point whatsoever.

Greed cannot be turned to generosity without the help of God. We cling to what we have for fear that God will not provide. We cling to and grasp our belongings so tightly that they fall through our hands like sand falls through a tightened fist. We fail again and again to see that it is only through the open hand of generosity that God gives to us out of the bounty of God's goodness.

Friday night, I was reading Steve Jobs biography. He was making money hand over fist of course with his work on the iPod and iTunes. He loved the music of Bob Dylan, the Beatles and U2 and so too many other classical rock and folk musicians but he also loved the music of Yo Yo Ma. He invited Mr Ma to play for his wedding but he was unable to attend. Some years later, he brought his 1733 Stradivarius cello to dinner and played Bach for Steve Jobs. Mr. Jobs teared up and said; “You playing Back on the cello is the best argument I’ve ever heard for the existence of God, because I don’t really believe a human being alone can do this.” When Steve Jobs was struck by cancer, he made Ma promise to play at his funeral. (page 596, iPad edition)

Imagine; Bach, Stradivarius, Yo Yo Ma, Steve Jobs, and God. Yes they are all there. God is always there within the gifted ness of human hearts minds and hands.

But I must say this and I know this will irritate Steve Jobs enormously and may even incur his famous wrath...it is Bill and Melinda Gates who have dedicated their later lives to philanthropy. The wealth of Steve Jobs? Remains largely private. Steve, I'm sorry but you got that one wrong. Still, God cannot help but love you!

It is said that the main gates to the Holy city Jerusalem are closed at night and the only way to get into the city is by way of the gate called the Eye of the Needle, called so because of its diminutive size. It was easier to defend that way. A man or woman can pass through and so could a camel, sort of. Everything a camel carries must be removed from the camel’s back and even then the animal’s efforts at squeezing through will leave bystanders convulsed in laughter. It is a persistent and delightful story even though most current scholars find no evidence for its reliability.

So too Jesus loved to make his hearer smile when he made a point. He loved using hyperbole, a literary device where outlandish exaggeration is used to make a point.

Yes our marriages, our loves, our families, our lives, our possessions, our businesses, our economies are not worth much unless we we open heaven’s gate within our own hearts.

“The Gospel is sharper than any two edged sword” we’re told in today’s Epistle. So then, it appears the Gospel cuts deeply within the human heart. There is where our treasure lies. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

No one here has as all that much wealth. If you do, you’re holding out! We are all doing the best we can to pay our bills, raise our families, and live, I’d say good honest and modest lives. Things have gotten tough for many around here too as jobs get sent overseas and manufacturing continues its demise in this part of the world.

But there is this, St. Gabriel’s is generous to its seniors, its children, its scouts, its recovery groups, and its poor. Organizing our congregation’s life around real human need is the ancient pattern for Christian and especially Celtic Spirituality. The conveyance to heaven rides on generosity not greed, and of that I am convinced.  The conveyance to heaven is within and the psalmist said as much;

So teach us to number our days

That we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

~Psalm 90:12

How shall I inherit the kingdom of heaven? Easy, pass through the eye of a needle!

Bless us one and all,

Fr. Paul

Living Up to Jesus' Moral Absolutes!

Living Up to Jesus' Moral Absolutes

How is it possible to live up to Jesus's standards, especially after reading today's Gospel?

It is fascinating to note that those who follow the founder of our faith often use passages such as this as yet another opportunity to judge others and not as an opportunity to proclaim forgiveness.

The Pharisees were just trying to catch Jesus up in his own words, as was their custom. And instead of asking about Jesus’ teaching on marriage they asked him about his teaching on divorce.

The ensuing dialogue sets the stage for Jesus’ proclamation of one of the Bible’s clearest ethical absolutes; “If you promise to love someone, then, by God, keep that promise. If you don’t, there’s no way around it, you commit adultery!”

Many have been hurt by this kind of ethical absolutism, but there it is in black and white. My mother was turned away from the church in 1956 some years before the canon on marriage was changed to allow for remarriage in the Episcopal Church.

Still, if we know the biblical record, we can press a little deeper. When we come to a parallel passage in Matthew (Chapter 19), we see there that the Pharisees are still pressing Jesus on the issue of divorce. Again he proclaims his ethical absolute, but leaves a little bit of wiggle room and creates an exception in the case of unchastity. So here then you can divorce a woman in case she commits adultery. No mention of equal treatment for men, mind you! Matthew was written about 20-30 years later than Mark, so some editor may have felt it expedient to ascribe some flexibility to Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce. We even hear Jesus tread into the very dangerous territory of gay marriage. in this chapter. It is no wonder he ended up crucified!

But consider this; Jesus’ ethic on marriage seems to be absolute, except in two rather outstanding cases.

The first and all time winner in the exception department is the story of the woman caught in the very act of adultery. (John 8:1-8) Here the elders of the Temple haul this poor woman right up to Jesus and cite the Law of Moses in the manner of Pharisees and Biblical literalists.

“The Law requires that such a woman is to be stoned to death.” Correct! That’s what the Law says. In fact, whether it is Mosaic Law in Judaism, Sharia Law in Islam, or The Biblical Law for fundamentalist Christians, all the literalists insist on a letter of the law approach when it comes to judging somebody else’s ethical behavior!

But Jesus was not so fast to judge, you may remember. Jesus knew a set up when he saw one. Here they were, bringing the woman before Jesus who had been caught in the very act of adultery. So if they brought her up to him, why hadn’t they brought the man? After all the Mosaic Law requires both to be stoned to death.

Then Jesus did an interesting thing. He wrote something in the sand. We have no way of knowing what it was he wrote. But given the situation, I wonder if he had written the name of the fellow who had done the deed with her. God knows he was Jesus, God knows the secrets of all human hearts and obviously knows what we’ve been up to behind closed doors, so I suspect he knew who it was.

So then he said; “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.” He continued to write in the sand, and one by one, beginning with the elders of the congregation, they went away.

Do you think that those who set up the whole scene may have been involved in that act of adultery? Given the nature of hypocrisy, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if any number of the Temple elders and authorities had been involved in the very activity.

The other exception involves the Samaritan woman at the well. (John 4) Jesus asks her to bring him a drink of water and then there follows a marvelous discourse on the “Living Water” that Jesus can provide to the sinner. It is the kind of water that wells up from within to bring abundant forgiveness and abundant love.

Then he asks her to bring her husband to meet him. And she allows as how she has no husband. To which Jesus replies that indeed she speaks the truth because she has had five husbands and the one she has now is not her husband. Immediately, she gets it. This fellow is a prophet because he knows all her secrets and still he offers her God’s forgiveness and God’s love.

When the disciples come back they are astonished to see that he is talking to such a woman as this. 

It is astonishing to meet Jesus in the Gospels. His ethical standards are absolute. But so is his compassion, his forgiveness, and his love; they too are all moral and ethical absolutes.

How wonderful is Jesus. 

How wonderful is God.

This is the Gospel. God’s absolutes!

On Thursday of this week we blessed the animals at the Villa. Seniors and children brought their cats, and dogs, and stuffed animals for a blessing. In honor of Blessed Francis of Assisi, he who taught us so much about the love of God's creation and God's animals. It made me think of the story of St. Francis and Brother Leo. After all, we are asking the question; "how it can be possible to live up to Jesus standards?"

Saint Francis and Brother Leo

One day Saint Francis and brother Leo were walking down the road. Noticing Leo was depressed, Francis turned and asked, “Leo, do you know what it means to be pure of heart?”

“Of course. It means to have no sins, faults or weaknesses to reproach myself for.”

“Ah,” said Francis, “now I understand why you're sad. We will always have something to reproach ourselves for.”

“Right,” said Leo. “That's why I despair of ever arriving at purity of heart.”

“Leo, listen carefully to me. Don't be so preoccupied with the purity of your heart. Turn and look at Jesus. Admire Him. Rejoice that He is what He is—your Brother, your Friend, your Lord and Savior. That, little brother, is what it means to be pure of heart. And once you've turned to Jesus, don't turn back and look at yourself. Don't wonder where you stand with Him.”

“The sadness of not being perfect, the discovery that you really are sinful, is a feeling much too human, even borders on idolatry. Focus your vision outside yourself, on the beauty, graciousness and compassion of Jesus Christ. The pure of heart praise Him from sunrise to sundown.”

“Even when they feel broken, feeble, distracted, insecure and uncertain, they are able to release it into His peace. A heart like that is stripped and of self and filled with the fullness of God. It is enough that Jesus is Lord.”

After a long pause, Leo said, “Still, Francis, the Lord demands our effort and fidelity.”

"No doubt about that,” replied Francis. “But holiness is not a personal achievement. It's an emptiness you discover in yourself. Instead of resenting it, you accept it and it becomes the free space where the Lord can create anew. To cry out, ‘You alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord,' that is what it means to be pure of heart. And it doesn't come by your Herculean efforts and threadbare resolutions.”

“Then how?” asked Leo.

“Simply hoard nothing of yourself; sweep the house clean. Sweep out even the attic, even the nagging, painful consciousness of your past. Accept being shipwrecked. Renounce everything that is heavy, even the weight of your sins. See only the compassion, the infinite patience and the tender love of Christ. Jesus is Lord. That suffices. Your guilt and reproach disappear into the nothingness of non-attention. You are no longer aware of yourself, like the sparrow aloft and free in the azure sky. Even the desire for holiness is transformed into a pure and simple desire for Jesus.”

Leo listened gravely as he walked along beside Francis. Step by step he felt his heart grow lighter as a profound peace flooded his soul (Brennan Manning, pages 209-211).

And this my friends is how we live up to Jesus standards!

May your heart grow lighter and may God's profound peace fill your soul!

Fr. Paul