Rev Alistair McLeod’s Reflection for Sunday 10th October 2021
It is a coincidence that the compilers of the Lectionary have chosen this week to include Mark Chapter 10 vv 17 – 31 as the Gospel lesson.
In this passage of scripture, we meet a very wealthy young man who is looking eventually to find his way into the Kingdom of Heaven. It has been a week where many very rich men have been exposed by the media as making very large sums of money by the process of ‘money laundering’; some are politicians, some wear the crown of their dynastic families whilst living where the people are often starving or are without the basic necessities of life – it makes shocking reading.
In the Gospel story, we are confronted by the reality of our dependence on the mercy of God for our salvation. It isn’t though meant to convey that the wealthy person can’t be saved. The story tells us about a wealthy man who is loved by Jesus; he is essentially a good and faithful man. But he has a problem. He is more attached to his business concerns and his ability to make money than he is to following Jesus.
Jesus doesn’t bring anyone down because they are wealthy; it isn’t the fact that this man has great possessions that is his stumbling block. Rather it’s his inability to share his wealth with those who are in need of help. – all these years since, there are still a great many who are hungry, cold and homeless, and also a great many rich young men who are unwilling to help. Speaking with volunteers who help the local ‘Food Bank’ I am told that the demand for help is currently so great and the donations so few, that the Food Bank may not survive until Christmas. You may not be as rich as the young man in this Gospel story, and I know that I am not either. However, as Christians we must strive to put ourselves in the place of the hungry child, the homeless parent, the out-of-work father, and imagine how that would make us feel, then, make sure that we try to help as well as we can by giving as much as we can.
A prayer for you:
Loving Father,
there is so much need around us,
in our neighbourhood, our town,
our country, our world – so many people are crying out for help.
Give me the means, the will, the commitment, and the love to reach out
in the name of Christ.