I am them

Mark 10:17-31
LukeW in Oz

Context: College chapel service, interacting with doubt/certainty of the Book of  Job.

My grand-parents complained that "the world was going to hell in a hand basket." Today it's closer to the truth to say that "the world is going to hell in a shopping trolley."

For more and more people, self-identity and life-purpose are summed up by the mantra "I shop, therefore I am." Raging consumerism has left Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" far behind. Consumer culture has never even heard of, much less considered, God's revelation to Moses, "I am who I am; therefore, you are."

Like the rich young man in the reading from Mark, we know ourselves, we identify ourselves, we define ourselves, by our possessions, our "stuff." The story starts by telling us that Jesus was just starting out. Mark’s codeword for discipleship. This young man comes running up, and in the exchange we see that he thinks he has finished the journey. ‘I’ve done it all, where is my reward?” Faced with the choice between his old secure, in-control life and the unknown possibilities of journeying as a disciple of Jesus, the rich man clung to his certainty of human illusions of power and control.

But, as the Western world continues to use up resources at the rate it is then we only have a short time that we will be able to cling onto our illusion of control. The average Australian [North American/Canadian etc] consumes five times more resources than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese person and 30 times more than a person in India. The richest quarter of the world's population use 86 percent of all forest products and 75 percent of the world’s energy. The poorest quarter of the world use only two percent of global resources.

Robert Louis Stevenson once said that “Sooner or later, we sit down to a banquet of consequences.” Part of the problem with over-consumption by the first world is that we can afford to miss out that banquet. Yesterday scientists announced that the Antarctica Ozone hole is bigger than ever. A direct result of our air-conditioned lifestyle, the hole now reaches some small towns in South America. And while global warming might mean the end of the snow season in Australia, it means that rising oceans will submerge countries like Bangladesh.

More than any of us seem to admit, the corporate world has enticed us, the people of faith into accepting the same aspirations and values of modern culture. In a fascinating book called Material World, Peter Menzel visited 30 countries across the world, and asked families to pose for a photo, surrounded by their entire earthly possessions, all moved into their front yard. The picture of the family from the USA is revealing; compared to all the other pictures their wealth is amazing. Three radios, three vehicles, one computer, two tv’s, five phones. This family is Christian, and so when they gather around in the front they stand around the family bible. I wonder did they ever think about what other messages the picture gives.

But I am them. Every week I receive in the mail these wonderful glossy advertisements to spend money at this or that Christian bookstore, and save my faith. Indeed, they promise that if I spend over $200 I will receive an extra discount! How nice of them.

I am that family from Texas. I am the rich man. I come to Jesus, starting out on the journey of discipleship as if I have already finished it, seeking congratulations. Wanting to hang onto my certainties, through the risk of sharing the faith of Jesus.

I am the disciples, amazed at Jesus’ teaching.

I am the one about whom Jesus says “nothing is impossible for God.” And also that “the first shall be last.”

The one Jesus looks at with love, and invites to come and follow in discipleship.