Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31
The Reverend Paul D. Allick, St. George’s Episcopal Church, October 11, 2009

This past Monday I went to Byerly’s to buy supplies for the big game. I haven’t watched an NFL game in years but I was very excited for the epic battle about to take place. The great border battle between the Vikings and the Packers. The drama of the Packers’ former Messiah quarterback now playing for Minnesota. In Byerly’s everyone I talked to asked me, “Are you going to watch the game tonight?” In the store, on the streets, people everywhere were wearing jerseys with their football patron saints across the back shoulders. Anticipation was in the air.

I wondered, “What would it be like if we Episcopalians were this excited about being on our team? What would it be like if all Christians were so loyal to Jesus? Would it spread and attracted others?”

Then came Tuesday night. The epic Twins game. A tie breaker with Detroit. It turned out to be an amazing competition: 12 innings of back and forth, up and down. An article in the Star Tribune the next day was entitled, “Twins Fans Euphoric - and Pooped.” A young woman trailed out of the Dome with over 54,000 other fans, clutching her Homer Hanky like a religious ornament, saying, “Oh my God! Oh my God!” Yes indeed the god of baseball has its disciples. One man said that it was the best game ever and that he was going to miss the Dome. Yes, the old Church won’t be used anymore. We’re moving to a new one. Another man said, “It was emotionally, spiritually, and physically draining.” And another man, reflecting on the feeling among the 54,000 plus, said, “There was so much energy and lots of love.”
(Twins Fans Euphoric - and Pooped, by Mary Lynn Smith, Star Tribune 10/7/09)

It was draining, it was exhilarating! I watched it. But I kept thinking that it would be amazing to hear all of this about the Church. As I meditated on this I realized why we don’t hear such things about the Church very often: we don’t see our discipleship as anything as exciting as a great contest.

Mostly we think of our life with God in Christ as an insurance policy. You know, “if I do this just right my life will be smooth; I won’t have to struggle; I won’t have to compete for the soundness of my soul.” Too often we come to Christ’s Church to escape the ups and downs of life instead of embracing them as a test of our spiritual endurance and skill.

The young man who comes to Jesus this morning was trying to find the formula for a contented life. Jesus disappoints him. Following the religious rules are good. Those who can do it are in good shape. But then you need to challenge yourself to go deeper. Its hard for those of us who are comfortable to experience the Kingdom of God because it won’t be real to us until we have had to fight for it. We have to suffer to understand the glory. Jesus is asking us to leave everything for him: family, homes, fields, and everything we think we know about ourselves, our neighbors and our God. Let it all go and it will all come back an hundred fold.

We don’t understand God until we can’t find him. And we’d better be sure that we want to find him. To search for God is like going 12 innings when all of our religious training has told us that it should only take 9 innings, with no surprises.

Job desperately wants to find God and, yet, he is terrified to do so. He knows that when he does find God that God’s wisdom is going to make sense of all his suffering. Perhaps Job deep down doesn’t want to know that all that he is going through does indeed make sense. Job wants comfort not challenge.

In the Letter to the Hebrews we hear that the word (wisdom, logic) of God is a two-edged sword. It breaks us up inside. It judges our intentions and thoughts. It judges those things that we aren’t even conscious of. When we truly meet God we are laid bare and naked before the One who knows us better than we know ourselves. In following Christ we are challenged to transform our hearts and minds.

Discipleship is an exciting competition between what we want and what God has planned for us. Between who we think we are and who God made us to be.

St. Clement of Alexandria in the 3rd Century wrote some advice for the rich and comfortable who would be devastated by today’s Gospel. He tells us that all disciples are really in the same boat. We all have a lot of stuff, emotionally and physically, that we are holding onto. The stuff that is getting in the way of our relationship with God. St. Clement writes, “do not expect to grasp the crowns of immortality without struggle and effort, continuing untrained, and without contest.” He tells us how to train for the contest. Our food and drink is the New Covenant in Christ. Our exercise is following Christ’s Commandments: love God with everything you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself. Lastly, we adorn ourselves with elegance by putting on these ornaments: love, faith, hope, knowledge of the truth, gentleness, meekness, pity and gravity.

St. Clement calls on us to follow this regiment, “So that, when by the last trumpet the signal shall be given for the race and departure hence, as from the stadium of life, they (we) may with a good conscience present themselves (ourselves) before the Judge.”

Maybe someday our discipleship will be exhilarating enough to describe as emotionally, spiritually, and physically draining. Maybe someday we can wear our jerseys with the names of our favorite members of the heavenly team, St. George or St. Mary maybe. Maybe someday we will be as proud of, as vocal as, and as knowledgeable of  our faith in Christ as we are about our professional sports teams or any of the other things we hold most dearly.

(Reference: “Who is the Rich Man that Shall be Saved?” Clement of Alexandria,  Benedictine Daily Prayer, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 2005)