Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 10 October 2021, is the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIX), with the Liturgical Provisions for Proper 22.
The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland are:
Continuous Readings: Job 23: 1-9, 16-17; Psalm 22: 1-15; Hebrews 4: 12-16; Mark 10: 17-31.
Paired Readings: Amos 5: 6-7, 10-15; Psalm 90: 12-17; Hebrews 4: 12-16; Mark 10: 17-31.
There is a link to the readings HERE.
Introducing the Readings
I have a large collection of old banknotes. There is enough there to make me a millionaire or even a multimillionaire in Weimar Germany, war-time Greece and Ceausescu’s Romania. But in reality they are worth nothing today and would earn no interest apart from the interest they might have for collectors.
They were in circulation at times when inflation became rampant in all three countries at times of crisis in Europe. Had they been spent at the time were issued they might have bought something of value; had they been given away in their day, they might have helped the poor and the hungry.
But circumstances saw to it that those who became attached to their wealth on paper would lose all they had.
Our readings next Sunday challenge us to think again about our true values.
Do Job’s prosperity and his sense of value and well-being depend on finding God’s favour expressed in his wealth and his prosperity?
Does our search for God and our religious practice fail to find reflection in our values and lifestyle, in our commitment to justice, is the challenge posed by the Prophet Amos in the alternative first reading.
Does the faith of the recipients of the Letter to the Hebrews falter when it produces no discernible results in terms of our temporal blessings?
Does the faith of the man who falls down before Christ in the Gospel reading depend on his own wealth and money?
When our prosperity and wealth disappear, like the fast-fading value of those banknotes, are we in danger of feeling abandoned by God?
Like Job and the Psalmist in Sunday’s readings, can we find the presence of God in both prosperity and adversity?
Job 23: 1-9, 16-17:
Job is a faithful and wealthy man with many children. But perhaps his faith is founded on his belief that his prosperity and his many children are blessings from God. So, God tests Job, strips him of all he has, and ruins his health.
In his distress, Job’s comforters, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, come to ‘console and comfort him’ and remain with him for seven days and nights. Job has cursed the day he was born and has wished that he could escape from life.
Eliphaz has offered what he thinks is help: for Job to suffer as he does, he must have behaved badly towards other people. Yet this is impossible, for Job is of the greatest integrity.
Eliphaz offers a simple solution, and suggests Job should pay attention to God’s word, repent of his sins – then God will restore him to favour. Because God is impartial in his justice, he suggests, Job will be forgiven his misdeeds, will find joy, and his prayers would be answered.
Now, in next Sunday’s reading, instead of answering God. Job tries to find God to ‘lay my case before him,’ to argue his cause as in a courtroom. God would find some faults in his conduct, but he would listen. God is reasonable: he would acquit Job, ‘an upright person,’ of the charges that have caused his suffering. But Job cannot present his case to God, he cannot find God.
Of course, Eliphaz is wrong: Job has never deviated from God’s ways, and he has always obeyed God’s commands. But God is sovereign and does what he wills. He will fulfil whatever he intends for Job.
Job finds it terrifying to realise that God can seem so arbitrary in his actions. Even more frightening for him is God’s inaccessibility. Job feels deserted by God: ‘God has made my heart faint.’ The seeming absence of God is a horrible torment to one who loves him and who is used to experiencing him. Job wishes that he may simply cease to exist.
Amos 5: 6-7, 10-15:
The Book of Amos expresses open animosity towards the cult centre at Bethel, and presents the reader with several questions and challenges.
Chapter 5 takes the form of a lament or funeral dirge, yet contains calls for reform. If the destruction is inevitable (verse 2), why then ask for a change of behaviour?
This burial song also pivots to a creation hymn (verses 8-9), not included in this reading but providing a stark contrast between beginning and ending. Is the end coming or is there a chance for a new start?
The edited verses provide in this particular reading do not prescribe any answers to these dilemmas. But then, reading the entire chapter does not offer any greater insight. Yet, failing to engage with the challenges in this passage may result in the misapplication of these words – not only to an unsuitable context in the past but also to the present.
This reading opens with the immediate challenge, ‘Seek the Lord.’ The Hebrew word darash, translated here as ‘seek,’ evokes not simply a search for information about something but rather details about its nature.
In the prophetic literature, ‘seek the Lord’ is a call that points to the Lord God as the subject of inquiry. This was a popular call among the prophets in the context of crises (see 2 Kings 8: 7-15, Jeremiah 21: 1-10), and Amos uses this phrase at least four times in this chapter.
The prevalence of this single word in Amos 5 indicates a familiarity with the language of the cult at Bethel cult. ‘But,’ Amos also cries out, ‘do not seek Bethel.’ Bethel must no longer be a centre for theological, liturgical, and devotional activity. Instead, Amos calls for the Lord as the suitable object of theological desire.
This reading provides evidence of the failures of communal justice (verses 10-12): they include income inequality, judicial malpractice, mistreatment and neglect of the poor, opulent lifestyles.
Professor Steed Davidson of McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, suggests the book directs its audience to seek the Lord as the basis for communal justice. ‘This redirection does not suggest that the cult is no longer necessary or that communal justice is at a higher premium than any other action of devotion. In the context of a chapter that indicts the cult for its failure to lead to socially acceptable behaviour, readers should hear the divine pain over the failure of worship to support the production of this vision of community.’
He suggests this reading should bring us to ask whether worship prepares and enlivens us to be more engaged in achieving the divine vision of community? Where are the places of communal fracture and injustice that can be healed by the challenge to ‘seek good and not evil’ (verse 14)? The reading offers no details on how this can be done except the broad challenge to ‘establish justice in the gate’ (verse 15).
Psalm 22: 1-15:
In his dying moments on the cross, Christ quotes an Aramaic version of the opening words of this psalm: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Psalm 22: 1; see Matthew 27: 46; Mark 15: 34).
In his suffering, the psalmist feels deserted by God, despite his cries for help day and night. Even so, he is convinced that God is holy. His forebears trusted in God, as he does, and God helped them, so may God help him now.
Those who mock him aggravate his misery. They see his suffering as a sign of God’s ineffectiveness, and so they jeer him. But he is convinced that God has been with him since his infancy, and only God alone can help him now.
Psalm 90: 12-17:
Psalm 90 is a group lament and a prayer for delivery from adversity.
This psalm offers contrast between God’s eternity. In the first part (verses 1-6), the psalmist laments that human life is so short and brief and ends so simply.
In the middle section (verses 7-12), the people pray that they may learn wisdom from contemplating the brevity and sorrow of human existence.
This reading opens with the moral at the heart of this Psalm: ‘So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart’ (Psalm 90: 12).
Now, in this closing section, the supplications become more hopeful (see verses 13-17). God is asked to intervene in the plight of his people, and to show compassion.
The closing verse prays, ‘Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us …’ According to the Jewish Sages, this is the blessing Moses gave to the people when they finished constructing the Tabernacle.
After a night of suffering, God is asked to show loving kindness to us in the morning so we may rejoice and be glad all our days, that we may put adversity behind us, and that our work leads to prosperity.
Hebrews 4: 12-16:
The author of this epistle is concerned that his readers are now tempted to abandon their faith. He writes that Christ, the sympathetic and trustworthy high priest, took on being human in every way, and was tested in his suffering. Through his death, he is able to restore us to oneness with God, freeing us from the power of evil forces.
The writer tells his readers that the word of God (Λόγος, Logos) is living and is active. The Word of God tells the difference between the faithful and the errant, knows the intentions of the heart, and knows each of us.
Christ is the great high priest and the Son of God, and we must hold our confession, in other words our confession of faith, expressed at our baptism and made in the Credal declarations.
Twice in this passage Christ is referred to as a ‘high priest’ (verses 14, 15), an image found throughout this letter. He sympathises with our weaknesses, for we have been tried and tested. It is he who brings us before the ‘throne of grace,’ where we are forgiven, receive mercy and find we can face the future.
Mark 10: 17-31:
In the Gospel reading, Christ continues to teach what it means to follow him.
The man runs up to Jesus, and falls on his kneels as if in adoration, or like a servant before a master. It is an unusual act of piety, for people stood to pray at the time. But we came across a similar posture a few weeks ago when the Syro-Phoenician woman approached Jesus in Tyre (Mark 7: 24-37, Trinity XIV, 5 September 2021).
Christ’s response is cautious. Rabbis were not usually addressed as good, for only God is good.
When Christ puts some of the Ten Commandments to this man, the man insists that since his youth he has observed those commandments dealing with our relationships with others, those commandments that prohibit murder, adultery, theft, lying and fraud, and that call on us to honour parents, the elderly.
From calling Christ ‘Good Teacher,’ the man has moved quickly to asserting that he himself is good, and a good example.
The decalogue is often divided into the four ‘theological’ commandments, which are not a matter for debate or interpretation among right-thinking Jews at the time, and the six ‘ethical’ commandments (see Exodus 20), which become matters for interpretation. However, as Ched Myers points out in one of his commentary on Saint Mark’s Gospel (Say to this Mountain, St Paul’s), a closer look at the list of the second grouping of commandments shows that Jesus replaces the last commandment – ‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour’ (Exodus 20: 17) – with the words ‘You shall not defraud.’
This Levitical censure appears in a part of the Torah that is concerned with socio-economic behaviour: ‘You shall not defraud your neighbour; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a labourer until morning’ (Leviticus 19: 13).
With this fresh listing of the commandments, is Jesus (a) challenging the man to see whether he really knows the Ten Commandments; (b) showing he is more interested in understanding how this man has acquired his riches and wealth than in accepting his claims to piety at face value?
Why did the man slink away? Because he had much property (verse 22).
What acts as a ball and chain that holds us back in our lives today, leaving us not fully free to follow Jesus? I may not have much property. But is there something else that I need to shed, in my attitudes, values, habits, behaviour, priorities, use of time, commitment or lack of commitment?
In his compassion, Christ sees this man’s weakness. He has emphasised his relationship with others. But is this founded on his desire for personal salvation, some sort of personal version of the concept of ‘karma.’
What about his relationship with God?
Does he trust in God because God is God, rather than because of what God can do for him?
The man asks how he may inherit eternal life. Is eternal life something to be inherited, like wealth and social status or place in society? In that society, religion was inherited rather than a matter of personal choice – one was born a Jew, but few people ever became Jews. Is eternal life to be inherited, like religious identity and social class?
Are we in danger at times in thinking that we are entitled to our place in the Kingdom of God? And in our behaviour, as well as our prayers, do we let God know, and others know, this?
Christ comes to the quick when he points out that this young man puts his trust in his own piety and wealth, in his achievements, but wealth stands in the way of his relationship with God.
So, Christ tests the man. If he truly loves the poor, he will make a connection between loving God and loving others. The man is shocked and makes quick his departure.
Like Job or Job’s comforters, wealth and prosperity were seen as a blessing and signs of God’s favour, but without them how could this man truly trust in God?
Christ does not say that the rich and the wealthy cannot find salvation. He says that money and riches can hold us back and make it difficult to be true disciples, to enter the kingdom of God. It can be so difficult that, ‘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’ (verse 25).
We cannot save ourselves, but God can save us. However, Peter’s implied question (verse 28) points out again how easy it is to think that being a disciple or follower of Christ should be linked with the hope of rewards in the here and now. Indeed, we may suffer now, and find that the first become last and the last become first.
The King of Kings and Great High Priest … an icon from Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Reflecting on the Epistle reading:
We get it wrong when we judge our successes against the images others project on us rather than seeking to be shaped in the potential we have because we are made in the image and likeness of God.
Where do you turn to find the Living God? The opening chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews says Christ ‘is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word …’
Saint Paul puts it more succinctly when he says Christ is ‘the image of God’ (II Corinthians 4: 4; Colossians 1: 15); the Greek word he uses is εἰκών (eikón, icon).
I have a small collection of icons on the walls in the Rectory in Askeaton. One is an icon from Mount Athos of Christ, the King of Kings and the Great High Priest, who I hope sets my pattern in ordained ministry.
We are told in the epistle reading: ‘Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need’ (Hebrews 4: 14-16).
Christ comes into the world as the King of Kings and as the Great High Priest. But he comes not as the sort of king that we would expect a king to be, nor as a great high priest full of pomp and self-importance, not as a rich young man.
We get it wrong when we judge our successes against the images others project on us rather than seeking to be shaped in the potential we have because we are made in the image and likeness of God.
Reflecting on the Gospel reading:
A story is told about Charles Gore (1853-1932), one of the great – almost formidable – theologians at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. He was the editor of Lux Mundi (1881), an influential collection of essays; the founder of the Community of the Resurrection (1892); and the first Bishop of Birmingham (1905). He was also from a well-known Irish family; his brother was born in Dublin Castle and his father was born in the Vice-Regal Lodge, now Arás and Uachtarain, the president’s official residence in the Phoenix Park.
But formidable theologians are also allowed to play pranks on the unsuspecting. And it is told that Charles Gore loved to play a particular prank on friends and family members when he was a canon of Westminster Abbey.
He would enjoy showing visitors the tomb of one of his collateral ancestors, the 3rd Earl of Kerry, with an inscription that ends with the words, highlighted in black letters and in double quotation marks: ‘hang all the law and the prophets.’
On closer inspection, he would point out, the words are preceded by ‘… ever studious to fulfil those two great commandments on which he had been taught by his divine Master …’ ‘…hang all the law and the prophets.’
Francis Thomas FitzMaurice (1740-1818) was a rich young man, for he was a child of only seven when his father died and he inherited not only the family title as 3rd Earl of Kerry but also vast estates, including 20,000 acres in Lixnaw, Co Kerry, which he sold off when he was still in his 40s, mainly to the Hare family of Listowel.
A widowed and a sad man, he spent the rest of his days in London. When he died in 1818, he was buried in Saint Andrew’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, and his family’s immediate connections with Co Kerry, dating back to the 13th century, came to an end.
He had no sons, and his titles and any remaining estates were inherited by a cousin, the son of the Dublin-born British Prime Minister who gives his name to places in Dublin such as Lansdowne Road and Shelburne Road.
The FitzMaurice arms, recalling the Kerry and Lansdowne families, decorate the Lansdowne Strand Hotel in Calne, Wiltshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)The rich young man who comes to Christ at the beginning of the Gospel reading next Sunday may lack nothing, has perhaps inherited a vast amount in his youth, but now wants to inherit eternal life.
He wants eternal life, he says, but he fails to realise he has met the living God face-to-face, and he turns away.
The rich young man keeps all the commandments that are about loving my neighbour. When a similar episode occurs involving a scribe or a lawyer, the commandments are summarised in the two great commandments, about loving God and loving our neighbour referred to on that tomb of the Earl of Kerry in Westminster Abbey (see Matthew 22: 34-40; Mark 12: 28-34; Luke 10: 25-28).
However, when this young lawyer tests Christ, we get a very different set of references to the commandments. And when the real challenge is put to him, he may as well have answered: ‘Hang all the law and the prophets.’
Christ has set out on the journey, on the way to Jerusalem, and Saint Mark’s Gospel is a challenge to follow him on that way, the way to the Cross, the way of discipleship.
As the journey begins, this man runs up to Christ and bows down before him – kneels before him, almost like an act of adoration – and asks what he must do. But the man is not willing to follow Christ on that way.
This is a sad story of a ‘failed vocation,’ the only example we have of a potential disciple who comes to Christ on his own initiative and not at the call of Christ.
If you rush to Christ, knell down before him and ask what you should do, do not be shocked or dismayed by the answer you get or the demands he can make on you.
This man would follow Christ. This man would knell down before Christ. This man, when he hears a select listing of commandments from Christ, thinks he is doing it all. Perhaps, like James and John in the following Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mark 10: 35-45), he even thinks at the back of his mind: ‘I’m such a good catch, Jesus should be happy to have me as one of his disciples. After all, look at how generous I am: I don’t murder, I don’t commit adultery, I don’t steal, I don’t bear false witness, I don’t defraud, I honour my parents’ (see verses 19-20).
But it is an interesting selection from the Ten Commandments. Did you notice, in this Gospel reading, which ones are missing?
This list is the list traditionally placed on the second tablet, the six about our relationships with one another, the ones that depend on loving our neighbour.
But what about the ones on the first tablet, the four that concern loving God? The ones about the Sabbath Day, the Lord’s name, idols, and recognising God and no other gods?
He gets it right about those commandments that depend on – that hang on – the second great commandment, loving our neighbour. But he gets it wrong when it comes to those commandments that depend on – that hang on – the first great commandment, loving God.
He almost gets the point, he almost hits the mark. But missing the mark is missing the mark completely, is missing the mark, full stop.
He kneels before the Lord, but cannot work out his relationship with God. Christ is a ‘Good Teacher’ for him (verse 17), but he is just not good enough for him. No matter how he turns, where he turns, he does not realise he has come face-to-face with the living God, and he does not love him enough to follow him.
This is a story about priorities, and the young man who comes to Christ in this reading has chosen the priory of wealth, position and privilege, is not willing to pay the Cost of Discipleship.
There is nothing wrong with, power, privilege and position if we use them to serve our values. But we get it wrong when we put our values in second place to power, privilege and position. Christ gets to the heart of the matter, knowing immediately that the man does not know the difference.
The man’s claim is not proud. He shows an almost disarming keenness and even an endearing naivety (verse 20). He is shocked by the Cost of Discipleship and he turns away, shocked; he turns away from Christ. There is a choice to be made, and he chooses to turn away, and turning away is the very opposite to conversion (verse 22).
He finds, as it says in the epistle reading that goes with this Gospel reading, that God’s word is like a two-edged sword, cutting through to the heart of the matter, laying bare the real intentions of our hearts (Hebrews 4: 12-13; see Revelation 1: 16). And in his choice to turn away, he misses an opportunity to realise what it is to come face-to-face with the living God.
Christ comes into the world as the King of Kings and as the Great High Priest. But he comes not as the sort of king that we would expect a king to be, nor as a great high priest full of pomp and self-importance, not as a rich young man.
We get it wrong when we judge our successes against the images others project on us rather than seeking to be shaped in the potential we have because we are made in the image and likeness of God.
This story of the rich man carries three warnings:
1, As Christ points out, we should be aware of the gap between aspirations and reality as we work out our discipleship. In a very penetrating and discerning way, like a sharp, two-edged sword, Christ’s words show the man that he is not really as ‘Gospel hungry’ as his initial words and actions seem to show.
2, It is a warning against the hindrance of riches, which come in a variety of tempting ways, and not just the temptation of money.
3, It is a warning that our discipleship can get side-lined and can be betrayed by other priorities, not just the trappings of wealth, but also of power, promotion, privilege, and even the feeling that I am so good that everyone should want me.
We must model ourselves on Christ, and Christ then will not be hidden from us. When we go forward, he will be there, when we go backward, we will perceive him; we will find him on our left side and on our right (see Job 23: 8-9).
Mark 10: 17-31 (NRSVA):
17 As he 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?’ 18 Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 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; Honour your father and mother”.’ 20 He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ 21 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.’ 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 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!’ 24 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! 25 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.’ 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ 27 Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’
28 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ 29 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, 30 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. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: Green (Ordinary Time, Year B)
The Collect:
O God,
without you we are not able to please you;
Mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect of the Word:
Merciful God,
in your Son you call not the righteous
but sinners to repentance;
draw us away from the easy road
that leads to destruction,
and guide us into paths
that lead to life abundant,
that in seeking your truth,
and obeying your will,
we may know the joy of being a disciple
of Jesus our Saviour;
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Holy and blessed God,
you feed us with the body and blood of your Son
and fill us with your Holy Spirit.
May we honour you,
not only with our lips but in lives dedicated
to the service of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Suggested Hymns:
Job 23: 1-9, 16-17:
11, Can we by searching find out God
Psalm 22: 1-15:
671, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
361, Now thank we all our God
537, O God, our help in ages past
Amos 5: 6-7, 10-15:
509, Your kingdom come, O God
Psalm 90: 12-17:
695, God of mercy, God of grace
535, Judge eternal, throned in splendour
Hebrews 4: 12-16:
218, And can it be that I should gain
65, At evening when the sun had set
51, Awake, my soul, and with the sun
319, Father, of heaven, whose love profound
207, Forty days and forty nights
668, God is our fortress and our rock
652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
431, Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour
384, Lord, thy word abideth
657, O God of Bethel, by whose hand
439, Once, only once, and once for all
627, What a friend we have in Jesus
291, Where high the heavenly temple stands
Mark 10: 17-31:
643, Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
11, Can we by searching find out God
295, Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove
646, Glorious things of thee are spoken
553, Jesu, lover of my soul
584, Jesus calls us! O’er the tumult
637, O for a closer walk with God
363, O Lord of heaven and earth and sea
597, Take my life, and let it be
660, Thine for ever! God of love
662, Those who would valour see (He who would valiant be)
605, Will you come and follow me
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
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