Spiritual Hiccups - Fully Alive

When I read and savor Scripture, not planning to write a sermon or teach a class, I frequently find myself drawn to something that I had not noticed before.  That happened today with the reading from Matthew.  A rich young man asks Jesus, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”  I already knew how Jesus would answer, but for some reason it had never occurred to me how this answer seems at odds with some basic Christian assumptions.  "If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”Nothing about believing in Jesus.  Nothing about faith.  Simply, "keep the commandments." 

Of course the story doesn't end there.  The young man says that he has kept the commandments, and considering that Jesus doesn't dispute this, I'm inclined to take it as a statement of fact.  (It is worth noting that keeping the commandments doesn't necessarily mean never making a mistake or slipping up.  It means being committed to keeping them, confessing when you fail, and continually striving to follow them.  It's likely this understanding that allows the Apostle Paul to say of himself, "as to the law, blameless.")

And so it seems this young man has kept the commandments Jesus says will let him "enter into life," but for some reason he feels this is insufficient.  "What do I still lack?"  Despite his initial question being about eternal life, he is unsatisfied with being told he is doing what is required.  For some reason, he feels there must be something more.

"If you wish to be perfect..."  I'm not sure the translators do us any favors with the word perfect.  The word conjures up notions of impossible flawlessness, complete purity without defect.  We all know that "No one is perfect."  But the Greek word translated perfect has to do with attaining an end or purpose.  The word could be translated complete, whole, or even mature.  In essence, Jesus seems to being saying to this fellow, "If you truly wish to be fully human, to become what you were created to be, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

A lot of us who are religious strike me as being a bit like this young man.  We meet our religious obligations and presume we are included on the heavenly guest list.  But quite often, we get the feeling that we are missing something.  We are not quite complete, fulfilled, and whole.  We are looking for something more, but like this rich young man, we struggle to trust that Jesus knows the way.  We simply cannot imagine that loving our enemy, losing our lives for the sake of the kingdom, or giving up very much of what we have will make us fully alive.  Our culture has done too good a job of teaching us that to be complete and fully alive, we need more, lots more.

Our world is full of spiritually hungry people who realize they are missing something.  But conditioned by our consumerist culture, they presume this longing they feel can only be satisfied with something more.  Thus they imagine religion to be just another consumer item.  And all too often, we in the Church present faith to them as such. 

On the week of Thanksgiving, when many of us will revel in an unbelievable abundance of food, then head for the malls in a consumerist frenzy, it is perhaps a counter-cultural act of faith to contemplate what we need to give up in order to be whole and complete.  Lord, what do I still lack?

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