12th Sunday of Matthew
Scripture: Matthew 19:16–26
In November of last year, The New York Times ran an article entitled, “Orthodox Church Pews Are Overflowing With Converts.” While I typically have no way of verifying news articles, I can say that, with this one, it’s true.
I’ve been a priest for almost 15 years, and these last few years have been unique. Earlier in my career, I might have two or three converts a year, outside of a family converting together. But now, we’re having at least two rounds of catechism classes a year just to keep up with the demand. This is a good thing.
But there’s also something very unique going on. Most of these converts are male; more specifically, young men. But why? The article says, “They are drawn to what they describe as a more demanding, even difficult, practice of Christianity.”
One person interviewed said, “The Orthodox Church is the only church that really coaches men hard, and says, ‘This is what you need to do.’” Responding to this, another young man said, “…it speaks to me in a way that nothing else ever did.”
It seems like they’re lost, and maybe they are. One young man observed, “Young men need purpose, whatever that is … Young men are struggling to find jobs, they’re struggling to get into schools, and they’re really being told by society, ‘We don’t really need you.’”
So, they find their home in the Orthodox Church.
This phenomenon makes today’s Gospel reading ironic. It’s about a young man who is lost and in need of some direction, but who ultimately decides to ignore Jesus.
It all starts when he asks Jesus, “What must I do to have eternal life?”
Just as the young men in The Times article had wanted, Jesus demands something from him. Our Lord asks him to keep the commandments, which, it seems, the young man has done since his birth.
But there’s one further demand. This man must sell all that he has, give it to the poor, and then follow Jesus.
This wasn’t an unreasonable demand. Jesus had 12 named male followers: his disciples. Though Peter may have been between the ages of 30 and 40, the rest of them were probably in their twenties, with John maybe even being as young as 15. So, here are living examples of young men who had left everything behind to follow Jesus.
And this isn’t unusual in our day. How many young men (and women) leave their homes behind to start a new life at college, in the military, or at a new job in a city far from home? It’s quite common. Even in the history of our own church, how many of our founders were young people who left their homeland to start anew here in Duluth?
And yet, this young man couldn’t do that. Matthew tells us that this is because he “had great possessions.” And I think this is key. It’s this aspect of the Gospel that those young men from the article are missing, and it’s this aspect that applies to all of us.
As we progress on our Christian journey, we want to do things. So, when we approach God, when we come to confession, we ask: “How do I get rid of my difficulty?” and “What do I need to know? What do I need to do?”
Both of these questions imply that we need to do something. If only we knew the precise skill set needed to address whatever it is we struggle with. What do I “do” to control my anger? What do I “do” to control my depression? What do I “do” to control my weight? What do I “do” to be physically attractive and desirable?
This is precisely what the young men in the article mean when they’re asking for a “…more demanding, even difficult, practice of Christianity.” They want to know what they can “do.”
And yet, that mindset ignores the second part of Jesus’s response to the young man. When he asks Jesus what more he must do, Jesus tells him to sell all that he possesses.
We typically think of this as just money or wealth, and we think of “selling as possessions” as something to “do.” But we possess a lot of things. We possess our identities. Our own understanding of the world. Our own morality. Our own sense that we’re free, that we’re individuals, that we exist apart from God.
But this isn’t true. We exist only with God as our foundation. He’s our strength, he’s our rock, and he’s our foundation. This is why Jesus also tells the man to “follow me.” Put another way, Jesus is telling the young man to give up trying to do it on his own—that is, simply to keep the commandments, and instead turn to him. Depend on God. Look toward Christ.
And this is the difference between our Western, modern minds and the phronema, or mindset, of the Orthodox Church. Whereas we look to see what we can “do” to fix our problems and find salvation, the Orthodox Church says simply to turn to God and ask him to help us.
Notice the single most important prayer of our Church: “Lord, have mercy.”
It’s not, “Lord, teach me what to do,” “Lord, show me how,” or “Lord, give me the know-how.” Not that those prayers don’t exist, but they aren’t the prayer we pray over and over and over again. Instead, it’s “Lord, have mercy” … a supplication for God to have mercy, for God to heal us, for God to help us.
The first prayer of the faithful in the Presanctified service helps us to understand. It says:
“[Lord, you] Set free all our senses from deadly passions … [You] Let our eyes abstain from evil sights; our hearing from idle talk; and our tongue cleansed from unsuitable speech. [You] Purify our lips that sing Your praises, O Lord. [You] Let our hands abstain from evil acts and produce only works that are pleasing to You, safeguarding by Your grace all our limbs and mind.”
It’s God who can save us. And this is the other reason we must sell all that we have, including our dependence on ourselves.
Our things, our ideas, our thoughts clothe us, and clothing covers us up. Clothing and possessions hide us from the world and from God. We present our ideas, our homes, our cars, our clothing, and our possessions to the world as if to show the world who we really are.
But when we sell all that we possess, we become naked. And only naked before God can we present ourselves as we truly are: God’s creation in need of God’s tender, loving care. Only when we have nothing left to hide behind can we truly depend on God and cry out as the Psalmist every Sunday at Matins:
“But You, O Lord, are my protector, my glory and the One who lifts up my head. … for the Lord will help me. … Arise, O Lord, and [You] save me, O my God, for You struck all those who were foolishly at enmity with me; You broke the teeth of sinners. Salvation is of the Lord, and Your blessing is upon Your people.”
So, the question before us today isn’t, “What can we do to be better Christians?” Rather, it is: What is it that we’re holding on to so tightly that it’s keeping us from God? What is it that we need to sell, to give away, so that we can instead be free to ask God to save us? What do we need to leave behind so that we can follow Christ, who saves us, rather than depending on our own strength?
Today is the day we leave whatever it is behind and begin to trust in Christ, who is the only One who can truly lead us.
Amen.