It’s about People, Not about Things

Mark 10:17-31

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: '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.'" He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is 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." They were greatly astounded and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."

Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age--houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."

This morning we read the gospel, acted it out with dolls and acted it out with dress-up costumes and we read the story of The Legend of the Bluebonnets.  We made trees filled with things that would be hard to give up if God asked.  We talked together that the message here was putting people and relationships over things. 

Here’s a story I “forgot’ to share this morning but meant to:

Last week I shared with you that I lost my laptop.  I was afraid  I put it on top of my Beetle and drove off to run an errand on Friday night.  When I came home, it was gone.  I felt so sad over the weekend, I was sick to my stomach. 

I shared with the kids at Kid’s Word that I felt badly, in part, because I had been careless with an important tool that I need.  They commiserated with me. 

Monday morning, I was preparing for this Sunday’s activity and I read the lines in Mark 10:27,  "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."

I felt at peace that no matter what had happened to my laptop, God was “bigger”, or there were more important things than a laptop, or that God could even bring miracles about laptops today. 

On Tuesday, I stopped at the La Quinta Police station, wishing, but not believing that someone turned it in.  To my surprise, someone had just dropped it off:  She found it in a parking lot at Walgreens on Washington Avenue and knew that turning it in was the “only right thing to do.”  I was able to meet her and say thank you as best I could:  I now have a new friend who lives just a block away from me!  It wasn’t about the laptop, though I was so grateful to have it back, as much as it was about the goodness of  my new friend, Pauline.

The most interesting thing to me was that when I asked the kids to write things it would be hard to give up, they kept wanting to name "people."  Maybe this is just one more example of the lessons we can learn from children!  

Here are some questions we discussed and questions you might find delightful to discuss at home: 

·      *  Jesus said he looked at the rich, young ruler and “loved him.”  How can we know Jesus loves us?

·      *  What kinds of things are hard to give up? 

·     *   Does  Jesus ask up to give up all our things?  Children sensed, “No, but we should take care not to demand more than we need and share others.”

·      *  In what ways have people treated you like you were more important than a thing? 

·     *   Why is it hard to give up things that you like? 

·     *  Why is it hard to only take what you need and not all that you want?

*  *  In what ways have we acted that shows we love people more than things? ? 

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