The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Proper 10C
In today’s Gospel reading, the lawyer asks a question that has been influential throughout the centuries: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Ink has been spilled over that question, and tears have been poured out in existential anxiety over this question.
In some Christian traditions, this is the central question. In their theology, the default status of humankind is destined to a place of eternal torment after death, and thus our main concern spiritually is how do we get eternal life. Do we say a prayer to confirm our faith in Jesus, do we have to get baptized, do we have to believe every article of faith, do we have to do good works, do we have to follow a certain moral rule? What is it that we have to do to avoid being sent to “the bad place”?
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
In reading it a few times this week, I noticed how, for lack of a better word, selfish that question is. How do I get my ticket for heaven? How do I get my future happiness? How do I get that eternal bliss for myself? That question feels like it’s only worried about me. I don’t want to get sent to the bad place, I want to be sent to the good place, and therefore I need to figure out how to get the right afterlife.
Even though the lawyer gives the right answer to Jesus’ question, that we should love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves, there’s this lingering feeling for me. Do we love because we’re afraid that if we don’t, then we’re going to be sent to the “bad place”? For us Episcopalians, we don’t fixate a lot on the bad place, which is good, but do we still fall prey to the selfishness of that question about how to get our eternal life?
Do we focus on our own spiritual journey in a way that forgets what we say when we send out Eucharistic Visitors: “We who are many are one body, because we all share one bread, one cup.” In our communion it’s not just being fed as if we get our fill at the buffet. Communion is beautiful, holy, and mystical – and it’s also something that transcends the bread and wine.
When we gather for coffee hour and share time with new friends and old friends and make a place at the table for anyone, there is our communion, too. Or when we gather for coffee or Bible study or to make a meal for the hungry, all of those things are communion, too. It’s a communion life we live – and that communion life is a glimpse, a foretaste of our eternal life together.
Each of us is called to love God and love our neighbor, not to get a reward, but to live out that communion life, that eternal life now, not just on our own but together.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, did you notice what the Samaritan did? He cared for the wounded man, poured oil and wine on his wounds to protect them from infection, and took the man to an inn. The Samaritan took care of the man, and then asked the innkeeper to take care of the wounded man. The Samaritan gave the innkeeper money and said he’d repay anything else the innkeeper spent. The innkeeper doesn’t respond in the parable, but it sure sounds like it implies that the innkeeper is willing to do this big ask; he’s going to be out some money until the Samaritan returns, and it’s hard work caring for a wounded person. The innkeeper, too, goes from being a stranger to being a neighbor to the wounded man. By this act of compassion, the innkeeper, the Samaritan, and the wounded man become neighbors to each other. In this they are sharing in the eternal life, together.
So to rephrase the lawyer’s question, “What must we do to inherit eternal life?” What do we do as a church to inherit eternal life? What do we do as a congregation to inherit that eternal life and live out that communion of love?
But I think we can push that question even further. If we say, “What must we do to inherit eternal life”, we sound as if it’s a chore, an obligation. What’s the bare minimum that we must do to get that sweet eternal life? That’s also been a problem in Christianity. It’s not just that we get so focused on us individually getting our reward – but it’s that we end up focusing on the reward, too, that we end up sounding like a kid trying to do the bare minimum to not get grounded and to obtain that ice cream after dinner. Not a good look, if we’re trying to be mature Christians growing to be like Jesus Christ.
So perhaps our question is better phrased as this: “What will we do to inherit eternal life?” Is it something we’ll try hard to do, the hard work of caring for others, being in community, praying and learning? Is eternal life something we desire so much that we are willing to do the very thing that makes eternal life shine in our lives? Are we willing to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves – very challenging things to do, something we will fail at over and over, but something we can keep trying – and are we willing to see that those very same acts of love join our heart in communion with Christ, which is ultimately what eternal life is?
What will we do to inherit eternal life … and are we willing to do it?