Dr. David D. Young
September 30, 2007
I Corinthians 16: 5-9, 13
Mark 10: 23-31
"Impossible Possibilities"
(The Beyond Look)

The scriptures warn us against devoting too much time to looking back. There is the example of Lot’s wife, who looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. One little boy who heard that story for the first time said, "That’s nothing. My dad looked back while driving and turned into a telephone pole."

Well, this morning, rather than looking back – we want to focus our vision to the beyond look. But before we do, let’s jump right in and grapple with the first portion of our text from Mark – which is perhaps one of the most challenging and least preferable passages in all of scripture. And you know it –

"How hard it is," said Jesus, "to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

Wow, that is really tough for most of us who are worshipping today – for by world standards – we are among the top of the wealthiest of the earth’s inhabitants. Now, before beads of perspiration begin to form on some of your foreheads – let me try to calm your nerves a bit.

The correct translation is "rope" not "camel" according to the Syrian Bible scholar, George Lamsa. The aramaic characters for camel and rope are practically identical. According to Lamsa, the Greek translators got it wrong.

"The passage," says Lamsa, "doesn’t mean it is impossible for a rich person to get into heaven. It means there will have to be some changes first. Just as you have to remove some strands of the rope before it will go through the needle’s eye, so rich people will have to strip away some of their material desires before they can get into heaven."

As intriguing as Lamsa’s rendering of “rope" for "camel" is in Jesus’ passage about the eye of the needle, some scholars still go with camel, saying it was an attempt at humor by Jesus. The disciples, according to one Bible scholar, would have slapped their knees in delight, contemplating "the image of a big, gangling, shaggy, awkward camel trying to poke his nose – to say nothing of his shoulders and mountainous hump – through the eye of a needle." But they would have got the point.

And the point of the needle story is this: that when our sight is so focused on the pursuit of wealth and material well-being and things – it will be hard to see through and beyond the eye of a needle – let alone to pass through it. We cannot see beyond that to which our eyes are affixed. Wealth and its pursuit are not the only obstacles we moderns struggle with in terms of looking beyond the limit of our lives. There are so many things which vie for our attention in the close at hand. The "me generation" showed us that many have gone in the way of self-pursuit.

"You’ve got to protect yourself and look out for number one!" "If it feels good - do it."

We can get mired down in so many things. Gratifying our desires and worrying about the costs and consequences later. Just making it through the day. Arguing with a friend, child, parent, or spouse because of our own little hurts – rather then looking beyond to the real goodness of the relationship.

My guess is that if Jesus were here today he could have picked any number of things that pre-occupy our attention – he just happened to pick the biggy of wealth. You see, to be human is to be near-sighted.

The 13th century Dominican teacher and mystic Meister Eckhart, knew this truth seven hundred years ago when he wrote,

"Where I left myself, I found God. Where I found myself, I lost God. Our eyes are not in focus for God’s reality, until they are out of focus for our own petty concerns."

To take the beyond look is to look through our present problems as a part of the familiar landscape – on to the impossible possibilities. After the pointed story about the camel, the disciples asked,

"’Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With human beings it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.’"

Or as the Poet, W.H. Auden, put it,

"Nothing can save us that is possible."

Impossible Possibilities!

When we move past the possible to the impossible – we move from the known to the unknown – and God is present at each turn in the road. To say that God is so much greater than us – to say that God is immeasurable, unfathomable, awesome and incredible beyond description – almost seems trite.

Yet, unless we know God as that – and therefore ourselves as very little in comparison – we do not know God - pride, ego-trips and control over others – keep us from knowing God.

I love the cartoon of the little boy who knelt at the side of his bed, closed his eyes and prayed, "God bless mom. God bless dad. God bless grandma." He said it the same way every time. But one night he added, “And please take care of yourself, God. ‘Cause if anything happens to you, we’re all sunk!"

I heard once about a man who saved string. When he died, his daughter came to sort out his personal belongings so that the house could be sold. She found several large balls of string which the old man had saved through the years. This did not surprise her; but then, while cleaning out a drawer, she found a little box. On it there was a label which read, "Pieces of string too short to save."

How do you react to such a story? Do you cry or do you laugh? What incongruity – even absurdity! He saved string that was too short to save! Yet, isn’t this the incongruity and absurdity of the good news Jesus came to proclaim? God saves that which is too short to save, that which should not be saved. This is not the result of our logical thinking, but of a loving God.

That’s the impossible possibility of God’s salvation!

The impossibility of God’s goodness and love was made possible in Jesus Christ our Lord. The beyondness of God has been brought closer to us through Christ.

In verse 30 of our text, Jesus promises to the ones who truly follow him, "…in the age to come – eternal life." It is through the beyond look that we ultimately gain a glimpse of what eternity is all about. Nine-year-old Judy, when asked to talk about heaven said, "Only the good people go to heaven. The other people go where it’s hot all the time – like in Florida."

Eternal life, heaven – really? Is such a condition – such a place possible? Have you ever tried telling an atheist or non-believer about eternal life? I wonder if a lot of people in our society see it as an impossibility?

When was the last time you really talked with someone about eternal life – other than around the time of a funeral – which is when we’re supposed to do that sort of thing? I think a lot of mainline churches – including the United Church of Christ – have for the most part given up. There are many fundamental churches – which move entirely into the beyond look, and therefore absolve themselves from any sense of social responsibility. This approach is typified by the bumper sticker I saw some years ago that read, "When Jesus comes again, somebody grab my steering wheel."

Friends, I do not believe it is an either/or option – that we can either deny the beyond look on the one hand or embrace it on the other and deny a commitment to social justice.

Recently, our church established a health insurance policy for all of our full time employees. It was the right thing to do. I want to make a brief comment about the current debate on health care for our children in our country. Not meaning to be political, but nonetheless needing to state from a social justice standpoint my own personal feeling, perhaps not yours but mine. That when we can justify spending an obscene amount of money on the war in Iraq, but cannot justify spending money for adequate health care for all of the children in this country, especially those who are disadvantaged and need it the most, then something with our vision and our values seems very, very much askew.

Now as people of faith, I believe it is possible to keep the beyond look in view and at the same time reach out to our brothers and sisters in need. We are called, as the Apostle Paul reminds us, not to look at the things we can see – the stuff of this world – but to the deeper, unseen realities of God. And at the same time – as Jesus encouraged us we are to see the least with the most. And that’s the sermon title Dan will be preaching on in two weeks.

"For when you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters," said Jesus, "you did it unto me."

Here is a big what if? What if heaven is one huge, eternal worship service lived in praise of God? What will be the plight of those persons who have always been intent on doing their own thing – those who in this life would always rather indulge their self-interest – than worship God on the Lord’s day? What of those who are so self-centered that they only want to know "what’s in it for them?"

If heaven is to be an eternity spent glorifying God – then won’t heaven be like hell for them? I am as sure of life beyond this life to be lived with God – as Columbus was sure of a new world that was out there to be discovered. It all has to do with taking the beyond look toward impossible possibilities!

Back when the known world centered around the Mediterranean, Spain took pride in being the westernmost outpost of civilization. It was believed that the world ended "out there" – somewhere in the Atlantic beyond Gibraltar. The royal motto said simply NE PLUS ULTRA, "there is no more beyond here."

That was before Columbus sailed out into the great beyond. When he returned, and disclosed that a whole new world lay out there, the ancient motto became meaningless, if not slightly embarrassing. A quick-thinking noble at court made a suggestion immediately accepted by the King and Queen. They just deleted the first word NE, so that the motto on the royal coat of Spain read PLUS ULTRA, "there is plenty more beyond."

I do not ask that I should see,
the path that lies ahead of me.
For this is all I need to know,
his love will guard me where I go.
When days are sad and nights are long,
I know his strength will make me strong.

I cannot prove by rule or sign
that God exists, that he is mine.
So much I cannot understand,
But this I know, he holds my hand!

The poet, William Blake caught this beyond dimension so well,

"If the doors of our perception were cleansed, everything would appear to us as it is, infinite."

Friends, by faith we know there is something beyond. In our Corinthians text, Paul writes,

“Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. For a wide door for effective work has opened to me."

I believe opportunities are opening up for us as a congregation as well – far beyond our imaginations. I am convinced that when we put on kingdom lenses – we will overcome the near-sightedness which keeps us from entering the eye of a needle – and thus we will be able to take the beyond look of faith – by seeking God’s kingdom first – and all these things shall be added unto us.

The future ministry of this church cannot be hindered by the impossible – but only by our near-sighted vision which would not risk God’s impossible possibilities.

"Who can be saved?" Jesus looked at his followers and said, "With human beings it is impossible – but not with God – for all things are possible with God."

John Ballie, writing on the nature of eternal life, tells of a dying patient who asked his doctor if he could tell him anything about what lay ahead. While the doctor was fumbling for a reply, he heard a scratching at the door, and it gave him his answer: "Do you hear that?" he asked. "That is my dog. I left him downstairs, but he grew impatient, has come up, and hears my voice. He has no notion what is inside the door, bur he knows I am here. Now, is it not the same with you? You do not know what lies beyond the door, but you know your Master is there."

Whether in this life or the life beyond – we are drawn to follow the voice of our Master, ever Jesus Christ our Lord!

Impossible Possibilities!

"And lo’, I am with you even unto the end of the age!"

Amen!