“I’m Basically Good”

Mark 10:17-22

October 9&12, 2003

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

I was thinking about a story that might be a good fit for our sermon when I remembered the one that came across my desk not long ago that a preacher tells on himself about an airplane ride that he was once on. He was on his way home from a conference in California to his home state of Texas when she started barreling down the aisle of the airplane on her way to the seat beside him. The preacher actually heard her before he saw her. The plane had been boarded for some time and as he glanced at a Newsweek Magazine, he had started to believe that he might have a row of seats to himself. That is when she raced down the aisle, dragging a couple of large duffle bags behind her. She shoved both of the bags in the compartment above their seats, plopped down beside him and confessed, “I hate to fly. I put off getting here just as long as I could.” The preacher looked up at his magazine, smiled, and said, “You almost waited too long.”

She smiled back. The preacher tells that her travel mate was young, tanned, and attractive. He guessed that she could not have been more than twenty-two or twenty-three years old. Her long blonde hair settled in the middle of her back. Her jeans were fashionably ripped at both of her knees so that you could see them. And the boots on her feet were complete with silver tips. Before it was time for the plane to take off, the preacher learned that she really did hate to fly and that the way she dealt with it was by talking. The announcements from the flight attendants about what to do in the case of a loss of cabin pressure had not even happened before the preacher knew that she was on her way home to see her dad, that he was surprised that his little girl could live on her own in a city like Los Angeles and that her apartment was minutes from the beach.

The preacher had been in this kind of a situation before and from experience he learned that the best thing for him to do, when a young and attractive woman sits beside him on an airplane, is to quickly rub his wedding ring, reveal his profession and mention that he is married.

That, for the most part, keeps him out of trouble. So when she came up for air, the preacher said, “Oh, my wife hates to fly, too. And since I am a minister, I know a passage of scripture that you might want to read while we’re taking off.” He reached down for his bag and pulled out his Bible. He opened it up to the Book of Psalms, turned to the twenty-third one, pointed to it, and handed it to his travel companion. For the first time since she sat down, she was quiet. She read David’s first line, “The Lord is my shepherd.” A broad smile appeared on her face. The preacher could tell that she was living again the memory of a time when she had read these words before. She looked up and said, “I remember these words. I read them a long time ago, I think maybe in a Sunday School Class.” The preacher smiled back at her as their plane began gaining speed and heading towards the heavens. She looked back down and read more of the Psalm and the next time she looked up, the preacher noticed that a tear was making its way down her cheek. She said, “You know, it’s been a really long time since I was in a church.” The preacher put up his magazine and looked over at her, to listen to her. She told him that her folks had taken her to church when she was five or six, but then they divorced and they moved and she hadn’t been to church since then. The preacher tells that they talked about faith and second chances. Then he said, “Do you mind if I ask you if you believe in heaven?” It was obvious that he had done this sort of thing before. She nodded her head and said, “Sure. I believe in heaven.” He took it a step further when he asked, “Do you think that you will go there one day?” She looked up for a minute, and then her eyes met the preacher’s once again and she confidently said, “Yes, I think that I will.” You know how preachers are. Preachers cannot just leave it at that and so he took it a step further when he asked, “How do you know?” She looked up again and then out the plane’s window at the clouds as they passed by. The preacher knew what she was doing. She was getting her list ready. After a minute she said, “Well, I’m basically good. I don’t smoke more than a pack of cigarettes a day. I am dependable at work. I pay my bills. I’m good to my folks and I pray a couple of times a month.” Ta-Da! By the way, I know what is happening right now. I know what is going through your minds. You are thinking about your list, aren’t you. After all, we all have a list. Maybe your list goes something like this, “I go to church. Check. I pray on a somewhat regular basis. Check. I do things at the church when I can. Check. I have not lost my temper in a couple of days now. Check. I am doing a pretty good job raising my kids. Check.

Yeah, I am doing pretty good. In fact, my list is a whole lot stronger than her list. I want you to see this, according to the woman in the story, on the plane, if we are pretty good about checking off the things on our earthly list, then we will have a place in heaven. Or so we hope.

Well, since we all have a list, then I know that you won’t be surprised to hear the one from the young man rushed to Jesus and knelt at his feet as Jesus was about to start out on a journey. Three out of the four gospels paint a composite portrait of this man to give us the idea that he is rich and young and a ruler. When we read that he is a ruler, what that means is that he owned property. The crowd would have known this man. In fact, they would have held him up as exemplary and a model of what a good person must be like. For you see, in the days of Jesus, and actually in the days way before Jesus, it was believed that if you followed all of the rules and the commandments and lived a righteous life, which really means that you are in a right relationship with God, then God will bless you and your life and everyone around you will be able to see it by the clothes that you wear and the house that you live in and the stuff that you have. It was also believed that if you did not follow the rules and keep the commandments, then God would not bless your life and you would live in poverty and all kinds of evil would come upon your life. I know, I know. This is not what we believe these days, but bear with me and you will see how radical this passage is.

So here comes the rich, young, ruler, falling at the feet of Jesus with a question that he must have answered. I have read the commentaries and what some people smarter than me have said about this guy. Some have said that he is coming to get a rubber stamp on his life and assurance. I do not know. For some reason, I just cannot buy that. I think that he comes because there is something that is been deep inside of him that for some reason has come to his heart. Listen again to his question, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” From the get go Jesus takes care of this whole notion of what goodness is all about and what it means to be blessed. I’m telling you, friends, this is radical stuff. Jesus turns the world upside down when he says things like this: “No one is good, but God alone.” Let’s go back to his question. Get past the good teacher part and you will see what is on this man’s heart. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” I think that he has his pencil between two of his fingers. I think that he has a piece of paper and his list ready to go. Jesus gives him the last five commandments, the ones that have to do with our relationships with other people. The first five have to do with our relationship with God. These are the second five. Jesus lists them for the young man, “You shall not murder. Check. You shall not commit adultery. Check. You shall not steal. Check. You shall not bear false witness. Check. You shall not defraud. Check. Honor your father and mother. Check.” I do not know if you noticed this or not friends, but Jesus slipped in another commandment when He said “You shall not defraud.” Land owners were prone to defraud those who farmed their land. But still, the young man, with his pencil in hand, silently said, “Check.”

Then he said, “Teacher, I have kept these since my youth.” I hate to admit this, but his list is a whole lot stronger than my list!

There is something fascinating here. Look at this detail. Mark tells us that Jesus looked at him and loved him. Did you know that in all of the words of the four gospels, this is the only place where it says that Jesus loved anyone? Oh, we suspect that he loved everyone. He must have loved Lazarus, because he wept when he heard of his death. But this is the only place where we hear that Jesus loved someone. And so we have to ask the question, don’t we, why here, why this man? Could it be that Jesus sensed his sincerity and his innocence and his honesty? Sure. Could it be that Jesus was impressed with the courage that it took to come to him with the confession, that his life, though loaded down with things, was empty?” Sure, just as Jesus loves all of us who come to him to admit that the life we are trying to live without him is empty. I think that Jesus loved him because he was a good man, living a good life, was honest about everything and was trying his very best to be the kind of person God wanted him to be. And yet something was missing and he had the courage to wonder, “For some reason it’s not working. What must I do to get what has been promised to me?” Jesus says to him, “You lack one thing sell all that you have, give the money to the poor, and come follow me.” To him, which means that it could be something completely different for us, but to him, Jesus says, you lack one thing, sell what you have, give the money to the poor, and follow me. I would like to tell you that he did that. I used to think that he might have done that, but now I don’t think that he did. I have heard preachers use this text to talk about money. I do not think that this is a passage about money. I think that it’s a passage about a man who could put God above just about everything, except his money. Friends, it is so easy to put the things that we have above the one who gave them to us in the first place.

Before we go, there is a question that has been begging to be asked. It is this one, “What is the one thing that we lack to follow Jesus completely?” I think that I just heard someone think, “Preacher, did you say one thing? I would be lucky if it is just one thing!” I have been listening to a song on a cd that a friend recommended to me. The song’s called Take My Life. It’s words go something like this, “How many times have I turned away. The number is the same as the sand on the shore. Every time you’ve taken me back and now I pray you’ll do it once more. Please take from me my life, when I don’t have the strength, to give it away to you. Please take from me my life, when I don’t have the strength, to give away to you, Jesus. We believe in a God of second chances. What are the things that keep us from Him? I hope that you will think about that this week. Let us pray.

(The opening story comes from Max Lucado. Max is a wonderful Christian author whose work I would recommend to any. The song, “Take My Life.” is performed by Third Day on their album, “Offerings II” The words of the song are written by Mac Powell).