Saturday, September 28, 2013

I guess

that we tend to think of Jesus' encounter with the rich young ruler, as recounted, as the beginning and end of the story / he had his big moment / and he blew it ...

but we know that other people who were associated with Jesus / managed still to own a house (Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, for example) / they couldn't have sold everything / surely it would have been unfair of Jesus to lay down a condition for one person (which that person found difficult), and not expect the same of everyone ...

let's look on the bright side (of life) / let's imagine that the rich young ruler didn't just give up / what could he have done? could he have been one of the early Christians, who did sell everything ...

very few people nowadays give up everything to follow Jesus / even missionaries have a career / arrangements are made for their children to be educated / Church of Scotland ministers don't get to own the house which they live in while they work / but they can save (actually, I don't think that it's right that Church of Scotland ministers are put in this complicated and anomalous position / and, anyway, it doesn't help to make sense of the original question / it implies that some Christians are expected to follow the path of not owning stuff / while others aren't) up / or the church makes arrangements so that when they retire they have somewhere to live (what's the difference between a minister relying on his or her employer to take care of what happens when he or she retires, and me paying into a workplace pension scheme) ...

Saturday, September 21, 2013

the rich young ruler

sell everything (give the proceeds to the poor), and follow me ...

or not, in which case you are not a true Christian, and will spend eternity suffering in hell ...