Father Christopher Zugger

Ephesians 6: 10-17 Luke 18:18-27

This happens right after Jesus has warned “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  That is when the rich man asks, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus looks at the ruler and tells him exactly what he must do if he wants to go to heaven – he has to sell everything, give all of the proceeds to the poor, and walk away from it, and follow Jesus. When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.  Not only is he sad, but the apostles are stunned, since they presumed that wealth and power are a sign that one is blessed by God now and in the life to come. Unlike in Mark’s gospel, the ruler does not walk away, but stays in front of the Lord.

As a result, he hears the  dialogue initiated by Peter, who basically says, Hey, what about us? Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰ will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and eternal life in the age to come.” But immediately after that, Christ withdraws with the Twelve and issues his prediction of what he is going to endure in Jerusalem: that the Son of Man will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; ³³ they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” That is what will happen to the preacher whom they loved with all their hearts – the Passion and Death must come before the joy of Easter  Sunday.

We have all been conditioned, like it or not, to think that financial success brings happiness. As Americans, we have also been touched by the Calvinist heresy of the prosperity gospel – have money in this life, and joy in the life to come. American Protestantism in general, a lot of Evangelicals, a lot of Reformed Christians, have been taught through John Calvin’s heresies that financial prosperity and good health is a sign of God’s blessing of the righteous. By the same logic, those who are poor and struggle with sickness must be sinners. When my physical symptoms first began to really interfere with my daily life in a more visible way to outsiders, I had a Catholic Sister actually tell me that “your whole problem is you don’t pray properly” and she saw my illness as a punishment from God. There are preachers around the world who take money from the poor, live lavish lifestyles, and tell their congregations that God will bless them if they keep on giving money to them. Those preachers have given Christianity a bad name in Africa, Asia, the Americas – everywhere. It is the work of Satan himself.

Throughout the Gospels, throughout the Old Testament, in the Epistles, God blesses the poor, the anawim, the people at the edge of society. On December 25^th, Jesus will be born in a cave and worshipped by shepherds, not the temple priests. In the epiphany, Jesus is adored by the pagan Magi, not King Herod. On February 2^nd he is praised by the two oldest and simplest people in the temple, Simeon and Anna, and Joseph will be bringing in two birds to offer as a sacrifice, a sign of his poverty. When Jesus says  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  he is not joking. It is a dire warning that he gives in the presence of the rich ruler, in the presence of the crowd, in the presence of the apostles. He warns in verse 17, right before this gospel reading, that it is only if we approach God with the peaceful simplicity of a small child, the poverty of a small child, the pure love of a small child, only then will we enter into the kingdom of God.

In the epistle, Saint Paul uses the imagery of armor so as to protect the soul and fight against the cosmic forces of darkness and evil, those fallen angels who seek to seize human souls and drag them away from the gates of the heavenly kingdom and into the fires of hell. What kind of armor does he tell us we have to wear now, here, today? Truth, righteousness, readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace, and the shield of faith. Only then, he says, will we be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Jesus comes into the world as a little child, as we will see on Christmas Day. He does not come as a king in a palace, he does not rip apart the heavens and descend surrounded by legions of angels, he does not reveal his divinity right away and scare people into submission. He comes as a baby, with arms outstretched, reaching to us, lying in a bed of wheat in a food trough. He comes as the eucharistic Lord, born in a town called House of Bread in Hebrew and House of Meat in Arabic. We must be people not caught up with power and money, but a people caught up with truth, righteousness, peace, faith and the power of the Holy Spirit in the word of God as found in the Bible. Know the Scriptures, and we will know Christ! Love God with a pure heart, and we will be on the path to the heavenly Jerusalem! Learn the Faith, and we will be able to defeat Satan and all his armies! In this season of Advent, Christ is living now in the womb of Our Blessed Lady, as she and Joseph begin their walk to Bethlehem, the house of bread and meat. As we walk down this aisle today to receive Him in Holy Communion, may we come with open hearts, on fire with that faith, caught up in the power of Jesus’ love, ready to be united to the Infant Child, that little boy who came to save the world and each one of us. Christ is among us – he is and always shall be.