Share Our Wealth and Follow Jesus

Homily for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost

1 Corinthians 15:1-11..........................Matthew 19:16-26

In today’s reading from his first letter to the people of Corinth, St Paul writes, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace towards me has not been in vain.”  And in today’s reading from the Gospel according to St Matthew, Jesus tells His disciples that it is impossible for human persons to achieve salvation on their own, “but for God all things are possible.”

These two statements help us to understand how God is guiding our lives, but not controlling us like puppets or robots or drones.  God creates us to be like Him, but also to be unique individuals, gifted with talents and temperament, different orientations and inclinations, but all created in the image of God, whose love brings us into being.  So we are what we are, by the grace of God, and God’s love towards us has not been in vain, as long as we are trying to live according to God’s will.

So, like St Paul, who violently persecuted Christians until he was converted to faith in Jesus and then became one of the greatest preachers and teachers, even if we make mistakes or deliberately turn away from God’s will, we can still turn our lives around with the help of God.  This doesn’t mean changing who we essentially are—it means discovering our true selves and then living in that faith, which comes from God.

But, like the rich young man who questions Jesus, asking what good things he must do to gain eternal life, we might ask exactly what we have to do in order to live according to our true God-created selves.  As Jesus tells the young man, it’s not enough just to follow the rules. 

Sadly, families and churches have taught far too many people that they are not worthy, not loved, even not lovable, leaving them to believe that they must earn God’s grace and love—and that they can accomplish this only by suppressing and denying the person created by the grace of God.  This leaves following rules as their only means of coming into relationship with God.

But a relationship based on fear and rigidity cannot bring grace and love.  It is ultimately selfish, focused only on how I can get what I want.  It disregards, even rejects, the great gift of our creation in God’s image, which means that we are created to be good and God-like—creative, loving, merciful, generous, just, and forgiving.  It doesn’t mean that we can do no wrong or that we don’t need to work to understand and follow God’s will.  We are born into and live in a world affected by sin after the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, so we have to strive against that.  We have to strive for the perfection for which God creates us.

If we want to be perfect, we have to stop living just for ourselves and start helping others.  The rich young man tells Jesus that he already keeps the commandments and asks what more he needs to do.  Jesus tells him that if he wishes to be perfect he has to go beyond just keeping the commandments; he has to sell everything and give the money to the poor, then “come follow Me.”  And apparently the young man cannot do that, because he goes away sad.  Each of us has some wealth that may be keeping us from following Christ.  For some, it’s money; for some, physical strength; for some, beauty; for others, intellectual ability—there are many kinds of wealth that can become so important to us that we forget God.  We need to eliminate those obstacles and share the wealth, and then follow Jesus.

By ourselves we cannot do this.  But God’s grace towards us is not in vain.  So if we strive to eliminate obstacles, share with others, and live as the grace of God creates us, then what is impossible for us will be accomplished by God, and we shall be saved to eternal life with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever and to ages of ages.  Amen.