The Rich Young Person

Last night @ the HUB I got a bit choked up.  This used to happen to me all the time when I first started working in youth ministry almost 10 years ago.  But it doesn't happen all that much anymore.  I don't know exactly why... but I do prefer NOT crying while speaking to a group of people.  Any way as I was reading Mark 10:17-31, getting ready for the HUB, I can't explain the way God spoke to me regarding the lives of the youth in my care.  Here's a bit of what I shared w/ them:

There are a number of stories in Scripture that I read and I think what in the world does this have to do w/ me?  How is this God speaking to me??  How might the Holy Spirit be able to use this to make me more like Christ???  And I just don't know what to do w/ them.

Like the story in 2Kings in which Elisha gets upset at the youth for making fun of his bald head and he calls down a curse and two bears come and kill 42 of the youth.  I don’t know what to do w/ that one. 

But this story is NOT one of those stories!  When I read this story I feel like it is so obviously about you and me.  When I read this story I am filled a wide range of emotion that cuts to the very core of who we are and why we are here together.

When I read this story, I am reminded of why I am in youth ministry.  

All through out the Gospels, Mark’s in particular, Jesus is on the move.  He’s never in one place for very long.  Go, go, go. This story begins by telling us that Jesus was about to set out on a journey.  You read the gospels and you think, who could keep up w/ Jesus?  But then remember that Jesus was a young man himself at this point, about my age -- 29.  And most of those who followed him were young adults and tradition tells us that John, one of the inner three of Peter, James and John, was a teenager.

There is just something about Jesus that makes him love calling young people!    

That’s part of what makes THIS story so hard for me.  Matthew tells this same story and when he tells it the rich man was, a rich YOUNG man.  And we read this story and we want to see this rich young man be able to leave behind his wealth and security and the plans that he's made or that his parents had for him – abandon it all for Jesus, we want to see him do this to give us the courage to do the same.

But it’s hard, in fact it’s impossible and yet there is just something about Jesus and the work of God that loves to do the impossible and to do it through young people.  He wants to disrupt your life, take you from where you are now, take the hopes and dreams that you and your parents have and trade them in for the hopes and dreams of God’s kingdom. 

God loves to do this.  He did it to ME when I was 17 years old!  He called me and gave me work to do and much to the amazement and confusion of my family I somehow followed Jesus and it has literally changed everything. 

And I am a youth director today precisely because of God’s work in my life and because I really do believe there is just something about Jesus that makes him love to take young people and take over their lives for the sake of God’s work in the world.  And w/ everything that we do here it is my hope and prayer that God will do just that.  That he will do the impossible, that you will hear God calling your name and that courage will well up inside you and you will leave everything behind, that you will care for the poor, and that you will follow Jesus. 

Don’t think you can do this later, that you can do this when you’re old.  I know that for many of us the plan that sits before us tells us that our teenage and young adult years are to go out and do whatever you and want and then when you grow up and get a job and start a family then you can come back to church and then you can follow Jesus... But by then you might be too rich, or too tired, or too OLD to keep up this Jesus who is ALWAYS on the move and ALWAYS calling young people give up all their stuff and other ambitions and to come and follow him!

Prayer:

Lord, we are so rich, there are so many things that we are holding, so many plans that we have for our lives, so many things we want to do.  May your Holy Spirit give us the courage to give away all that for the sake of following you and doing your work each day, right now.  Let us be your disciples in our schools, w/ our friends, in our families, in our youth group, in this city.  You love to use us, you have always loved to call young women and men to do your work in the world – let us hear your call, let us give all of our energy, passion, and excitement to your great work of making all things new.  In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.