Possessed by the Demon of Our Possessions

Brad Sullivan

Proper 23, Year B

October 11, 2015

Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Hebrews 4:12-16

Mark 10:17-31

Possessed by the Demon of Our Possessions

The movie Fight Club came out when I was in my early twenties, and like most guys in their early twenties at the time, I loved that movie.  I still do, truth be told, and not because there were violent fight scenes.  I loved the movie because of its sharp social commentary and its insightful critique of what we value and what is truly important to us.

Early on in the movie, Brad Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, says, “The things you own end up owning you.”  This certainly seems to be the case for the man in our Gospel story this morning who wanted to inherit eternal life, but wasn’t willing to get rid of his things in order to do so.  We might think him foolish, but then the truth of the Fight Club quote comes in.  “The things you own end up owning you.” 

The more stuff we have, the more responsibility we feel to maintain and care for our stuff.  Sometimes we find great generosity from those who have very little.  They don’t have enough for their stuff to matter all that much.  They don’t have enough possessions for their possessions to provide them with security or help in time of need.  Rather, they rely on people, on friends and neighbors in times of need.  They are focused not on maintaining their stuff, but they are focused on the people around them.   

That’s what Jesus encouraged the man in our Gospel passage to do.  Get rid of your stuff, and actually notice the people around you.  All of your stuff is just man-made things.  The people around you, they are made by God, in God’s image.  You want to inherit eternal life?  You want to live with God’s life dwelling in you, guiding you?  You want to walk with God like Adam and Eve did?  “Here’s how,” Jesus said, “get rid of all your man-made possessions that have ended up possessing you, and focus your attention on the God-made people all around you.” 

After the man left, downcast because he was too possessed by his possessions, I believe Jesus pitied him.  How hard it will be for people who are possessed by their possessions to enter the Kingdom of God, to want to live with God’s life dwelling in them, guiding them, and to walk with God in this life like Adam and Eve did.  How hard it will be for people who rely on their possessions rather than rely on each other.  Jesus pitied the man who went away, remaining possessed by the demon of his possessions rather than following Jesus’ advice and asking Jesus’ help to cast out that demon.

So the, Jesus taught his disciples again about the first being last and the last being first in God’s kingdom.  The first time Jesus mentioned this was when the disciples were arguing about which of them was the greatest, and Jesus showed them a little child and told them, “whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” 

In the kingdom of God, don’t seek power, Jesus was telling them, but rather, like a child, seek to acknowledge and live out your dependence upon other people.  Of course as adults, we have a much higher level of independence than children, and yet we are still made to be interdependent with each other.  God made Eve to be the helper and support of Adam.  Realizing humans can’t live our lives all alone, realizing that we all need help and support, God gave humans other humans to be our help and support.  God gave us each other.  

God’s kingdom is not found in power and wealth and stuff.  God’s kingdom is found in the needs of people being filled by the love of other people.  Remember Matthew 25, verses 31-46 when Jesus told the righteous that they took care of him in his times of need?  “What, no, we never took care of you, Jesus.  We didn’t care for anyone near so important as you.  We just took care of some of the people down the road.” 

Jesus then told them, that when they took care of those people down the road, they took care of Jesus.  When they took care of regular old unimportant human beings, they lived out the Kingdom of God.  They lived God’s eternal life when they fulfilled the needs of others. 

That’s where Jesus was found, in the needs of those asking for help.  That’s where eternal life is found:  human need met by human love.  We are meant to depend upon each other.  We are meant to lower our defenses and actually ask others for help when we need it.  We are meant to be vulnerable, like little children.   

It is to ones such as children, Jesus said, that the kingdom of God belongs.  Ones like children inherit eternal life. 

Remember last week’s story, when Jesus was in a house, and the disciples were there, trying to keep a bunch of kids away from Jesus, and Jesus said, no, let the kids come, for the Kingdom of God belongs ones like these kids.  In fact, you need to receive the kingdom of God, like a little kid, Jesus taught. 

Now imagine if in that house where Jesus was, there were thousands of breakable or highly polished items that little fingers weren’t allowed to touch.  Imagine the homeowner saying, “um, Jesus, it’s great that you like kids and all, but I’ve got a lot of nice stuff here.  Those kids have got to go.”  The things we own end up owning us.

Jesus didn’t seem to have a whole lot of stuff.  He was so unencumbered that when a bunch of kids came up to him seeking his blessing, he didn’t think twice – sure, let the kids come, let me bless them.  The kingdom of God is not about power or status or wealth.  The kingdom of God is about loving people, about weakness, about needing one another, about not being self sufficient. 

We can end up possessed by our possessions every bit as much as the man from Gerasa from whom Jesus cast out a legion of demons was possessed by those demons.  I don’t know that we need to throw all of our possessions into a lake, like Jesus did with the demons who entered the herd of swine and rushed into the lake. 

We do need to break the grip that our possessions have on us.  We do need to seek wholeness and security in people, rather than in stuff.  We do need to be vulnerable enough allow our needs to be met by people, not by things.  When we expose our needs and allow our needs to be met, Jesus is there.  God’s kingdom is there.  Eternal life is there.  Amen.