Proper 23

Ten years ago, luxury shoppers were people who owned lavish penthouse condos, had well-funded investment portfolios and spent their cash on Chanel handbags and Rolex watches.

But today luxury shoppers are a diverse group with wide-ranging tastes and a unique set of values. They want quality, craftsmanship and authenticity, instead of brand names. Luxury is about where it was made and how it was made, not a fancy logo.

Driving this change are the young adults called Millennials. They fall into a category of customers known as a HENRY — an acronym for “high-earner, not rich yet.” HENRYs are to the Millennial generation what YUPPIES were to the Gen X generation.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus meets a HENRY.

Mark tells us that a man runs up to Jesus and kneels before him, asking him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (v. 17). Although Mark does not reveal his age, Matthew says that he is a “young man” (19:20). We might call him a Millennial, a person today aged 25 to 40.

Jesus lays out the commandments for him, ranging from “You shall not murder” through ‘Honor your father and mother.” And the young man says, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth” (vv. 19-20).

Clearly, this Millennial has a set of values, and is trying to craft a life of quality and authenticity.

Jesus looks at him, loves him, and says, “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” (v. 21).

The young man is shocked and goes away grieving, because he has many possessions (v. 22). He is a HENRY — high-earner not rich yet — and is unwilling to abandon his lifestyle. We can assume that he had a lot of money, but not enough. He wasn’t ready to jettison what riches he had managed thus far in his young life to acquire.

Interestingly, if he were alive today, he might not actually own a house, but would rent a beautiful apartment. He might not buy a car, but would lease a BMW. His electronics would be Apples and his apples would come from Whole Foods. His bicycle would be a Shinola, hand-assembled in Detroit, with a price tag of $2,950.

This HENRY is all about craftsmanship and authenticity. He may not necessarily want to own things, but he has plenty of cash and craves a quality experience. More than anything, he wants a life of integrity.

Mark tells us that Jesus loves this young man — yes, Jesus loves his adherence to the commandments, his values and his desire for quality. But Jesus sees one thing getting in the way of a life of integrity: the man’s materialism. “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor,” says Jesus (v. 21). Jesus knows that if his earthly treasure is replaced with heavenly treasure, this HENRY will be ready to be a disciple.

Sadly, he cannot do it. The young man is simply too attached to his Shinola bike. So he walks away and Jesus says to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” In fact, 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” (vv. 23, 25).

The disciples are perplexed by this, because they assume that wealth is a sign of God’s favor, and that it is always better to be rich than to be poor.

But Jesus warns them about people who “store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21). He commends the poor widow who puts two small copper coins in the temple treasury, all that she has to live on (Mark 12:42, 44). According to the apostle Paul, Jesus says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) — although, strangely, these words of Jesus do not appear anywhere in the gospels.

In any case, Jesus knows that we need God’s help to let go of our possessions, to give generously and to follow him. Wherever we are on the socio-economic spectrum, we need assistance with exchanging our earthly possessions for heavenly treasures.

“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!” says Jesus (v. 24). Hard whether we are rich or poor, HENRYs, YUPPIES, Millennials or Boomers. That’s because most of us suffer an addiction affliction of some sort.

There are, of course, the traditional affliction addictions of wealth, money, sex, drugs, alcohol, family, politics, and career. Or perhaps you’re one of an estimated 6 million with a virtual addiction. Your relationships with your spouse, your employer, and your friends have broken down because your addictive personality has driven you into chat rooms and all manner of cyber-deviancy.

So what is the rich young ruler’s addiction? We’re likely to conclude that he’s hooked on wealth. He can’t let it go. It controls him. It is his master.

And if we say this, we are wrong.

The man’s a model citizen, a promise keeper and a truth seeker. He doesn’t use his wealth to oppress the poor. He doesn’t go on a phony TV show and pick a wife out of a lineup of gold-diggers. He doesn’t squander his money on worldly trinkets or immoral pursuits.

It’s hard to see how money is his addiction, because let’s face it: Addictions are usually destructive. On a certain level they are irrational, they make no sense, and there is no good reason to have them. But money, in and of itself, is not necessarily destructive, irrational or insane – in fact, a steady cash flow can help to irrigate good fruits throughout the world. In the first century, it was assumed that wealth actually made possible the performance of religious duties – that is why the disciples are “perplexed” at Jesus’ words (v. 24).

When we find ourselves powerless over drugs or alcohol, it is in our best interest to get rid of the addiction. When showing self-destructive behaviors and impulse-control problems, it is a rational course of action to seek out treatment and support. But for the rich man to sell everything he owns and give to the poor – that’s irrational. Totally irrational. And foolish.

How would you respond if called upon to give up your material possessions? You’d balk, as any of us would – and for good reason. After all, is it wrong to have money to feed and shelter our families, to put our children or grandchildren through college, to pay our tithes and offerings to the church? Don’t think so. Having resources doesn’t necessarily mean that our possessions are our masters or that we suffer from a consumerist addiction affliction.

So it’s hard to pinpoint money as a necessarily dangerous addictive substance. But if it isn’t money, what is it? Clearly, there’s something here that has the rich man hooked.

Jesus finds the hot button. The call is clear: Give up what defines your life, and follow me. In this case, it clearly was the man’s toys and playthings, the possessions he had managed to scrape together. Jesus challenges the man to make an exchange: drop what limits him in exchange for what frees him and opens him up to a wider and more meaningful life.

But the rich guy can’t do that. And that’s because the danger of an addiction is that it is so enjoyable. It’s a struggle to be rid of them.

Perhaps you’re addiction-free. You don’t struggle as a Christian with the hard-core addictions of alcohol, food, tobacco, sex, drugs, social media or the Internet. Yet, is it possible you cling to addictions less visible but just as insidious? Pride, ambition and work can be home-wreckers and life-destroyers, too. And they can all keep you from enjoying the plentitude of God’s blessing.

In any case, Jesus’ advice is the same: Break away from what defines and limits you outside of your relationship to me as my disciple. For only then will you be free.

If there is such a dependency, Jesus advises that we give it up and says, “Dump it, drop it, ditch it, and follow me.”