How would you like to be rich?

The Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol has offered a $10,000,000 Prize.

A recent email read, "Want a six-figure second income? Get rich now!"

A local financial institution was giving away copies of the international bestseller by David Bach: The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich. Many of these offers go straight to my recycling bin or get automatically trashed by my spam filter. But The Automatic Millionaire -- in spite of its rather over-blown title -- actually offered a lot of basic common sense advice. Surprisingly, it even included a chapter on giving. To his credit, author David Bach recognized that to be rich is about much more than dollars and cents -- to be rich means also to be rich in giving.

The man in our scripture reading today also seemed to realize that being rich was about more than money. His story appears here in the gospel of Mark and in two other gospel accounts. Each time he is described as a man with many possessions, a man who was wealthy. The gospel of Matthew adds the detail that he was a young man. The gospel of Luke calls him a ruler. But even with all his riches, with all his vigor and youth, with all his good standing as a leader in the community, this man wanted more. He wanted to be rich also in eternal life. He came to Jesus with his question: "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

It was a very awkward meeting -- Jesus was just starting out on another journey, when this stranger ran up, knelt down at his feet, and blurted out his question. There was no proper introduction. There was too much flattery that Jesus tried to dismiss: "Why did you call me good? No one is good but God alone." Besides, in the first century, for one devout Jew talking to another, the answer would have been obvious. If you're interested in eternal life, then you need to start with the commandments.

Jesus listed a few of them -- not all of the Ten Commandments, but a good half of them: "You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and mother." To this, the young man immediately responded, "Teacher, I have kept all of these."

It might sound arrogant to us, but maybe he was right. Maybe he really had kept all of the commandments. Jesus certainly didn't argue with him on that point. He didn't go on to list the rest of the commandments: You shall have no other gods, no idols, no misusing of God's name; keep the Sabbath holy; don't covet. I wonder if Jesus had listed these instead, whether the young man would have been so quick to say, "Teacher, I have kept all of these"?

But Jesus didn't go there. Instead, he looked at the young man, he loved him, and he said, "You lack one thing." The gospel of Mark adds this touching detail that doesn't appear in the other two versions of this story. Jesus loved this stranger -- who interrupted the start of his journey, who was rich and arrogant and more than a little self-righteous, and who was lacking just one thing.

That one thing came in two parts -- part 1: "Sell what you own, and give the money to the poor." The law spoke of tithing -- where one tenth of the grain, one tenth of the produce, one tenth of the livestock was to be given over to God. Maybe the rich young man was already keeping that part of the law too. But Jesus went beyond that. What he said was not about tithing. It was not about making a charitable donation to a good cause. It was not about giving in return for a tax write-off. Those can be very good, very practical things to do. They are wonderful ways to support the work of the church and to do good in our communities and in our world. But Jesus went beyond that: "Sell what you own, and give the money to the poor."

This is an extraordinary call of discipleship, a shocking upside-down call -- especially shocking in the ancient world that tended to equate being rich with being blessed by God, and shocking also in our own day where we're bombarded by advice on how to get rich, the more the better, the faster the better.

It's shocking even when compared to other calls of discipleship in scripture. In most cases, Jesus simply said "Follow me." He did not ask Peter and Andrew, James and John to sell their boats. Martha and Mary were homeowners. Wealthy women gave to support Jesus' ministry. Rich people like Lydia and Gaius hosted house churches.

But in this particular case, Jesus said, "Sell everything you have and give to the poor," and then part 2: "Come, follow me." When the man heard this, "He was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions."

This young man could have kept the commandments -- or at least he thought he could keep them. But Jesus' words shone like a spotlight on the one thing he couldn't do. He couldn't sell what he had and give the money to the poor. He was trapped by his attachment to the things he owned. In the end, the real problem was not that he owned a lot of things, but that his things owned him. He just couldn't walk away from all his riches; instead, he walked away from Jesus.

In response, Jesus said, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God... it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Camels are big animals. They can be easily seven feet tall and weigh up to 1,500 pounds. So Jesus' description of a camel fitting through the eye of a needle is laughable and impossible -- so impossible that some have tried to re-interpret his words. After all, the Greek word for a thick rope is very similar to the Greek word for camel. So maybe Jesus meant to say, it would be easier for a thick rope to get through the eye of a needle. But that would also be impossible!

Others say that the eye of a needle was actually a reference to a very low gate in a city wall where a camel would have to be unloaded and crawl through the opening to get through. That wouldn't be easy either -- unloading the camel would be like the rich man unloading all his wealth and giving it away.

However we understand it, the camel and the eye of the needle is exaggerated language to make a point. A camel can't fit through the eye of a needle. A thick rope can't fit through the eye of a needle. A camel can't get through a low city gate without getting rid of its load. That's how hard it is for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God.

"Then who can be saved?" asked Jesus' disciples. I wonder if they were getting nervous about their own entry into God's kingdom? If the rich person couldn't get in, if the respectable person and the one who had kept all the commandments couldn't get in, then what hope was there for any of them?

Jesus replied: humanly speaking, it's impossible. But "for God all things are possible."

I'm sorry that rich young man didn't stay long enough to get that part of Jesus' message. Maybe then he could have let go of his possessions. Maybe then he would have been free to follow Jesus. For this young man, the opposite of being rich was not being poor. The opposite of being rich was finally being free -- free from the hold his possessions had on him and free to follow Jesus. He was right in thinking that he couldn't do that on his own. But with God all things are possible.

We might wish that Jesus' call to us is more like his call to Mary and Martha, and not like his call to this young man. After all, Mary and Martha got to keep their house. Peter and Andrew, James and John got to keep their boats and their nets. Jesus didn't tell any of them to sell what they had and give the money to the poor.

Yet all who followed Jesus gave up something. James and John left their father Zebedee with the fishing business. Levi left his lucrative career in tax collecting. The rich women who supported Jesus and his followers out of their own funds no longer spent that money on luxuries for themselves. Even Mary and Martha didn't keep their home solely for their own use, for they very often hosted Jesus and his disciples and had a house full of people. All of them had left something behind in order to follow Jesus -- whether it was family or career or personal luxuries or privacy. Jesus called, they followed, and things got left behind. Not because what they had were necessarily bad things, but because they got in the way.

What does that mean for you and me today? Is there something that we're holding on to that gets in the way of following Jesus? Do the things we own end up owning us? That can be a problem for any of us even if we're not especially well off. Maybe you struggle to pay the bills, maybe you're in serious debt, maybe you haven't had a raise in years even though the cost of living keeps going up. Yet on a global scale, you and I still have a lot of possessions, and sometimes our attachment to those things -- or our longing for more -- can get in the way of following Jesus.

Our text today presents us with a challenging question: What do we need to let go of? What do we need to leave behind to follow the call of Jesus in our lives?

Are we to sell what we have and give the money to the poor? Is there an old grudge that you've been carrying far too long? Do you need to let go of an attitude of pride? Do you need to let go of trying to fit in with a certain group of friends that really aren't good for you anyway? Do you need to let go of certain things that keep you from prayer, that make you too busy for God? What is Jesus saying to you as he says, "Come and follow me"?

Whatever it is, you might think it impossible -- like a camel going through the eye of a needle. On your own strength and will power, maybe it is. Maybe you just can't do it. But by his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has already taken on the impossible for you and for me. By faith in him, God's grace, forgiveness, and power are available to each one of us. For God all things are possible.

Dear Jesus, help us to hear your word with honest self-reflection and an openness to your call in our lives. Make us rich in faith, rich in trusting God, and make the impossible possible, so we might follow you with joy. Amen.