A man died and found himself standing before St. Peter and the Pearly Gates, the Book of Life was open on Peter\u2019s desk.\u00a0 He looked up the new arrival\u2019s name and assured him that his name was indeed written in the Book.\u00a0 Peter tells him there\u2019s one more test, the man has to name all of his good works and score 100 points.\u00a0 The man begins to list his good deeds and Peter assigns them one or two points depending on the act \u2013 some even gave a negative score.\u00a0 When he was finished listing all of the good works he could remember his score stood at four points.\u00a0 He placed his head in his hands and on the point of despair said, \u201cThe only way I\u2019m going to get in here is by the grace of God.\u201d\u00a0 Without looking up Peter said, \u201c100 points\u201d and the gate swung open to welcome the newcomer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This morning our attention shifts back to the call to the life of discipleship, which is the life in grace, and the requirements that such a life necessitates. We are reminded, once again, that our discipleship, in fact the whole of our relationship with the Holy One is dependent upon God\u2019s grace. We hear it in the Collect for today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 234 \u2013 235)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole of our life in Christ is built upon the notion that we are entirely and utterly dependent upon God\u2019s gracious, unconditional love.\u00a0 It is God\u2019s love that created us, sustains us, heals and forgives us, and ultimately receives us back into his loving and welcoming embrace when our time here on earth is done.\u00a0 The challenge for us is that we all too often allow other things, which is the definition of idolatry, to come between us and God\u2019s love.\u00a0 Anything that we place between ourselves and God is an idol \u2013 anything can become an idol if we allow it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the main point in the first part of today\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 This story is found in all three Synoptic Gospels with minor variations.\u00a0 A wealthy man approaches Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life.\u00a0 Jesus gives the classic rabbinical response by telling him to keep the commandments \u2013 especially those commandments which impact the social order.\u00a0 When the wealthy man replies that he has kept these commandments since the days of his youth.\u00a0 Jesus looks at him, loves him (this is the only instance where Jesus\u2019 love for a potential disciple is articulated), and tells him he lacks one thing \u2013 Jesus instructs him to go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor and come follow me.\u00a0 Jesus adds that the man will have \u201ctreasure in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 Mark tells us that he went away grieving because he had great possessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus then launches into a lesson about the difficulty to enter the Kingdom, especially if we allow our possessions to get in the way.\u00a0 There is nothing inherently wrong with having possessions or being wealthy.\u00a0 The problem comes when we allow our wealth to become our governing principle and neglect the reason for our wealth \u2013 which is using it to care for the poor, the disadvantaged, and those who have no voice in our society.\u00a0 This is also a polemic against those who choose to believe that one\u2019s wealth is an outward and visible sign of their faithfulness and God\u2019s blessing \u2013 like many of the \u201cevangelists\u201d who proclaim a \u201cprosperity gospel\u201d that teaches that if we were to give (usually to the \u201cevangelist\u201d in question), then God will bless us with material wealth and comfort.\u00a0 No where is that promised in Scripture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus reminds us that everything we have is from God, and there is awaiting us even more that we can ask or imagine.\u00a0 Our task is to place our trust in Jesus\u2019 love and mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where this morning\u2019s Epistle fits in.\u00a0 The author of Hebrews tells us that our relationship with God is centered on our relationship with Jesus.\u00a0 The author goes on to explain that the reason we can place our trust in Jesus is because he has experienced human life.\u00a0 We need to remember that while Jesus is God in flesh, he is fully and completely human.\u00a0 Therefore, he knows and understands the way the complexity of human life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, on this Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are brought back to the center of our life in Christ which is our complete dependence upon God\u2019s love and grace to keep us and sustain us.\u00a0 This gives us the ability to follow faithfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s All About Grace A man died and found himself standing before St. Peter and the Pearly Gates, the Book of Life was open on Peter\u2019s desk.\u00a0 He looked up the new arrival\u2019s name and assured him that his name was indeed written in the Book.\u00a0 Peter tells him there\u2019s one more test, the man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homily","tag-sermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}