I love Jesus. That is a simple three word explanation for why I became a priest. From the time I first thought about the possibility that I might be called to be a priest, through the discernment process and seminary training and right up to this morning I have thought ahead. I have thought ahead to  What would be the first words I would say in my first sermon as rector?

It seemed to me then and now that the words would have significance. The words we choose to say in any important situation say a lot about us. It also seemed to me that I would be remembering for a long time those first words. So I chose to begin with the words I love Jesus because at the deepest level they are true. I think these words will stand the test of time.

Words at special occasions are like that. History recalls FDR’s words at the important occasion of the U.S. entering World War II, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” From the 60’s some of us can remember John F. Kennedy’s words at his Inauguration, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Martin Luther King’s words became memorable both because of what he said and because he said them just before he was assassinated, “I have a dream.”
There are memorable words in our personal lives too. We probably all have words that we remember. There’s a four word phrase that I have remembered for 43 years. When Susan’s grandfather Dreyfus died the last words he said to his wife who was by his side were, “I love you so.” I don’t think Woods Dreyfus’ words can be improved on but I don’t see any reason to wait so these words are for my wife…Susan…I love you so.
In our time together here at St. Mary’s, over what I hope will be many years, words are going to play an important role. Priests are called in the course of their ordinations to proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s words we priests say, following the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that by the power of the Holy Spirit turn simple bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus.  All this is by way of introduction to say that words are very important and I take the words I share with you very seriously. But what words will I share with you and why should you listen?
I don’t think I have the right to spend the time I have with you preaching or teaching anything other than the words of Holy Scripture. This is primarily because no other words can be as beneficial to you or to me as God’s words, and I believe Holy Scripture to be the word of God. So if you want to know what I think about the war in Iraq, or social justice or global warming or Millennium Development Goals, ask me after church because I don’t think my opinion on any of these is going to get any of us any closer to the Kingdom of God and that is my passion. How can I…how can we …live more and more in the Kingdom of God right here… right now as we prepare to live eternally with Jesus and all the saints. You see Jesus said the Kingdom of God is at hand. Is…not will be. So I think, and I hope you’ll agree, that we need to be focusing on that because I’m pretty sure if we can get Jesus to reign in all of our lives and around the world we probably won’t have to worry about war, or social justice, or Millenium Development Goals. When Jesus comes again I’m pretty sure He’ll have a handle on all of these.
So I’m going to spend my time when we’re not together reading the Bible and studying the Bible. I’m going to spend my time studying the Bible because the Bible is God’s owners manual for how to live in the Kingdom of God. St. Paul writes in Second Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” The words breathed out by God are the English translation of one word in the original Greek theo pneustos. Theo God and pneustos breathed. Before we go any farther let me say a quick word about breathed. Remember another place in Scripture where Jesus breathes? John 20:22 at Pentecost, Jesus breathed on the disciples and said Receive the Holy Spirit. Remember that ? When God breathes in scripture it’s an action that makes things happen. In the case of Scripture being God breathed it means he created this living word that itself gives life to us.
So I’m going to study the Bible and I’m also going to read what others who have devoted their lives to studying the Bible have to say. I hope you like C.S. Lewis, and John Stott, and A. W. Tozer and St. Augustine and Hans Urs von Balthasar because I do and I consult them and many others often. OK I threw in von Balthasar, and most of you probably never heard of him, but he has some really great things to say and was so important to the faith, that then Cardinal Ratzinger now Pope Benedict did his funeral.
C.S. Lewis said in a presentation to clergy and youth leaders in 1945, “The great difficulty is to get modern audiences to realize that you are preaching Christianity solely and simply because you happen to think it true; they always suppose you are preaching it because you like it or think it good for society or something of that sort. Now a clearly maintained distinction between what the Faith actually says and what you would like it to have said or what you understand or what you personally find helpful or think probable, forces your audience to realize that you are tied to your data just as the scientist is tied by the results of experiments; that you are not just saying what you like. This immediately helps them to realize that what is being discussed is a question about objective fact—not gas about ideals and points of view.”
 So here’s a second thing you should know about me. Remember the first thing I said is I love Jesus. The second thing is I preach and teach the Good News of Jesus Christ because it’s true. What I’m talking about is objective fact not my point of view. If what you hear from me is what you read in the Bible then take it to heart and do your best to act on it. If it’s not… if it’s just my opinion ignore it. In fact if something I say contradicts something in scripture or you think it does, please tell me and we’ll work it through and I’ll correct it if I’ve misread something.
 A third and final thing you should know is I love Jesus because Jesus changed my life and continues to change my life for the better. I don’t have an intellectual understanding of Christianity because I read something Jesus said and concluded he’s a good moral teacher. There are a lot of those from Buddha to Dr. Spock and none of them can transform your life now and give you eternal life in the future. The Christian faith is not about a new moral teaching as if we didn’t know right from wrong and had nowhere to look for the information. In fact it’s not even about this man Jesus offering advice about a new way that people can go to heaven when they die. Our faith is not about fresh teaching about God himself. The need which the Good News of Jesus Christ answers is not so much that we are ignorant and need better information, but that we are lost and dieing and we need someone to come and find us stuck in the mire of sinful lives and we need to be rescued and be brought back to life. That’s what Jesus did for me.
 I promised to spend my time with you on the scriptures and so far I’ve spent a lot of time on introduction so lets dig into today’s gospel. What a great gospel to preach. When I realized that today would be my first Sunday, I looked up the readings and saw that our gospel begins with a man running up to Jesus and asking him, “Good teacher, What must I do to inherit eternal life?” cutting to the chase, a few verses later Jesus says “Follow me.” There’s Theology 101. What does it take to be a Christian? What does it take to have eternal life? Follow Jesus.
 The question the rich young man asks I think is on many of our minds. What do I have to do to have eternal life? Is there eternal life? How can I be sure? What will it be like? Who gets in and who doesn’t? These are the questions we’re going to spend the rest of our earthly lives studying and learning about.
 Maybe you were surprised by Jesus’ answer…Why do you call me good? There’s a built in inconsistency in the man’s question from Jesus’ point of view. The man is asking the right question and is asking the right person but he calls Jesus good teacher or good master. So first Jesus wants to establish that only God is good. He wants him to understand him as God not just a good teacher. That’s an important understanding for us too.
 Now this man had several good things going for him. Combining all of the gospel accounts we know that he was a rich young ruler. Yet the passage begins with he ran up to Jesus, so he was humbling himself in that it was not becoming of a ruler to run. Rulers process with pomp and a whole retinue of attendants. They don’t run. Secondly, he came to Jesus rather than sending for him and he came to him while Jesus was traveling with a company of people. Remember Nicodemus who came by night for a private conference? Finally, he knelt before Jesus. He was definitely showing deference as he should even if he was a little shaky on Jesus’ divinity.
 The rich young ruler really asks a serious and weighty question. First of all he’s asking not about gain in this life but how to inherit eternal life. This suggests first of all that he believed in the idea of eternal life. This was really unusual for someone in his position. The religious leaders of the wealthy were either pagans who believed in a multitude of Gods, but not in eternal life or if they were Jews they were probably Sadducees who didn’t believe in eternal life. When a former parish of mine did walk through the Bible, the leader told people how to remember the difference between Pharisees and Sadducees…because they didn’t believe in life after death they were SAD YOU SEE (pull down corners of eyes). So here was a rich young ruler who contrary to his peers believed in eternal life. He was also asking, what must I do in this life to inherit eternal life? He had some understanding that he needed to DO something. Jesus recognized that this man’s intent was good. Jesus is always interested in our hearts more than our words. Compare this encounter with a different one that only Luke presents when an expert in Mosaic law comes to Jesus with a question. Luke 10:25 reads, “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Do you see the similarities and the differences? First the similarities. Again, it is a rich man, a lawyer, and he asks essentially the same question. How about the differences? There’s no mention of his running up, he stands up in front of Jesus, he doesn’t call him good and Luke adds the information that he was putting Jesus to the test.
 So the rich young ruler had many things going for him and Jesus begins as he often does by talking about what scripture says. Here’s something important for all of us. In response to the question what must I do to inherit eternal life Jesus first tells us eternal life comes from God and then moves immediately to saying do what the scriptures tell you.
 Now things begin to go badly for the rich young ruler. First he says he has followed these laws all his life. He actually thinks he’s telling the truth and his associates think so too. The fact is he hadn’t kept the law because no one could. You’ve heard the expression ignorance of the law is no excuse? This is what we’re dealing with here. Paul talks about it in Romans and in Corinthians.  In First Corinthians 4:4 Paul says, “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.” In other words just the fact that we don’t know we’re guilty doesn’t acquit us. But Jesus thinks the rich young ruler is making a good try and Mark 10: 21 says and Jesus looking at him loved him. My sense is he looked at him as he looks at us and he was pleased to see that he was trying to live a good life and particularly pleased that a rich young ruler for whom it was harder was asking what more he could do. So Jesus tells the man to give up all that he has and follow him. Now this doesn’t mean that we’re all called to give up all that we have. This is not really a polemic against wealth. Jesus could see in this particular case that there was still something which this man held more dear than Jesus and so that is what he asked the man to give up. For each of us, if there is anything in our lives that is more important than Jesus, Jesus is saying give that up, die to that, die to self so that you can live for me.
  In the rich young ruler’s case it was also practical advice. If he was going to join the community of Jesus’ followers, two things were likely. First, he would be asked by the community to sell everything he didn’t need to survive and contribute it to the community where the proceeds would be used to support those in need. Second, as a follower of Christ the authorities would very likely confiscate his wealth. It was just as well he figured this out now. Finally, Jesus was asking him a fundamental question of the faith. Are you able to give up reliance on yourself and in this case your accumulated wealth and trust Jesus with your future? Sadly the man could not make this commitment and he went away sorrowful we’re told because he had great possessions. This is the same principle as that which Matthew presents in Chapter 6 verse 24 when he says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon which is a Semitic word for money or possessions.
 Throughout his earthly ministry Jesus took situations he encountered and used them to teach his disciples. They are also there for us. As soon as the rich young man left, Jesus turned to his disciples and said how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God. The disciples are amazed and Jesus then went on addressing them now as children because of their lack of understanding. He says entering the Kingdom of God is difficult, as difficult as a camel going through the eye of a needle. There are several interpretations of this analogy. The simplest is just what it says. Another possibility is that he was referring to the fact that there was actually a gate called eye of the needle that was so low that loaded camels had to be unloaded to make it through. Still another interpretation is that the word for camel can also mean cable rope and putting a cable rope through the eye of a needle is impossible unless the rope is unraveled and the excess left behind. Mark and Matthew both take note that the disciples were amazed. They were amazed because the prevailing Jewish understanding was that God blessed people with wealth. Wealth was a measure of God’s favor toward a person. If the wealthy couldn’t enter, who could? I think we have to admit that our culture is inclined to say that wealth and possessions are measures of success regardless of where a person is in relation to God. Our Gospel’s message for us is that entering the Kingdom of God is difficult. It is not difficult because God makes it hard for us, it is difficult because our attachments to things make it hard for ourselves.
 The disciples say, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus replies that with God all things are possible, but man cannot do it on his own. Peter starts to jump in as he often does and says but we have left everything and followed you. Jesus cuts him off and presents a really difficult understanding but it has a silver lining. Jesus talks about leaving house and family and lands and says if you give these up for my sake and for the gospel then you will receive a hundredfold of everything you lost NOW…IN THIS TIME…albeit with some persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.
 At the very beginning of his ministry as reported by Matthew in Chapter 4 verse 17 Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” IS at hand not will be. The rich man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus looking at him loved him and said follow me. The mistaken understanding of many is very much like the rich young man. Many think that Christianity is about doing something now so we can go to heaven in the future. Our gospel today teaches that Jesus wants us to give up… to let go of what every we are holding on to that is more important to us than He is. Then we are to follow him. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand wherever Jesus is present. It is already here. Heaven and earth overlap. In the Lord’s prayer we pray Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do you believe that? Thy kingdom come on earth… here… now. In the mass in a few minutes I will say Lift up your hearts and you respond We lift them to the Lord. Where are we lifting our hearts. We’re lifting them up to heaven where we joing with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. Lift them as in now. We are to follow Jesus for a reason. We are to follow Jesus so that the Kingdom of God can break into our world now. Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life. Think of that another way I am the true way to life. Jesus wants life for us now and he wants us to be agents of his bringing life to the world.
I love Jesus because Jesus gave me life. Together we can bring the life that Jesus offers to a hurting world. Amen.