I'mpossible

So this sermon had a lot of props and drawings which of course I'm too lazy to take pictures of and then upload into this blog, so instead you dear readers will have to use your imagination. The sermon is based on Mark 10:17-31 and later in the service we had a baptism (see previous post).

I enjoy needlepointing and sewing so I got out they biggest needle I had in my pin cushion. It is about an inch and a half long and the eye of that needle, the part that you stick the thread in is just an eighth of an inch long. And a camel? Well the average size of a camel is between 7 and 11 feet long, and 6 to 8 feet tall and they can weigh anywhere between 7 hundred to 15 hundred pounds. In other words picture this altar, with a legs and a head fitting through this 1/8 of an inch sliver in the eye of this needle. It is impossible!

Though I have to say that one of the most fascinating things to me while reading commentaries on today’s gospel was reading all the different ways people, theologians and lay alike, have tried to make sense, explain and figure out just how a camel could go through the eye of a needle.

There is this need to soften this text, to explain it in a way that so that we can manage to get to into the kingdom of God by our own perseverance, by our own might and by playing down just how rich we are.

Verse 24, which reads “How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!” was often tweaked in some translations to read “How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God”

And some theologians decided that for this man, his wealth was his “weak spot,” so that Jesus would not actually ask us to part with our possession and instead if Jesus was here today he would find our weak spots, the things we crave, the things we cannot live without, and only ask us to give up those things and not our possessions.

And others decided that Jesus’ statement to ask the man to sell his possessions was really just a test to see if he would be willing to do it and that Jesus did not want the man to really sell off his stuff.

But probably my favorite ways that people have tried to soften this text, have tried to explain how we can get into heaven is by explaining how and camel can get through the eye of a needle.

The most popular explanation actually has the least amount of truth behind it. Some have decided that there must have been a gate in Jerusalem or another nearby town that was called the “Needle’s Eye.” This gate was low and narrow which made it easy for protection but difficult for merchants, traders, and travelers to enter. In order for a camel to get through this gate the camel must be unloaded and stoop down in order to squeeze through and the packages that the camel carried must be then carried through by hand. Therefore a camel could get through the “Needle’s Eye” or the eye of that needle, but with much difficultly. This idea is so dominant that a picture of it even made it onto the front cover of your Celebrate. However no such gate ever existed. Jesus was not referring to a gate, he was referring to an actual needle.

The other popular way of explaining how a camel could go through the eye of a needle is that it must be a typo. That the Greek word for camel, kamelon, is a homophone with kamilon, which means rope. Like in English, “plane” and “plain” sound a like but when someone talks about seeing buffalo on the plain, most picture wide open spaces and not big furry animals jumping through a Boeing 747. Therefore Jesus was not talking about a half ton animal but a rope that with enough patience, and fraying and a large enough needle could be threaded through the eye of a needle. However, there is evidence that the world kamilon with an “I”, rope, was not used until a hundred years after Jesus and it was developed as a way to explain this passage.

And what is our explanation today? I’m sure somewhere down the road from the “World’s Largest Ball of Twine” there is the “World’s Largest Needle” and with some genetic modification one could create a miniature camel that could walk through the eye of that needle without any difficulties.

But why are we trying to explain the impossible? Are we trying to explain how a camel can walk through the eye of a needle or how the rich or any person for that matter can get into heaven by their own works? Are we trying to explain these things, these impossible feats because we feel that if we can explain them than we must be in charge? We, as humans, often feel like we can do anything. We feel like we are the ones in charge of our lives and that as long as we work hard and never give up that we can dream impossible dreams, that we can do anything. But we can’t. We cannot make a camel walk through the eye of a needle, we can’t do everything that we want, nor can we make it into heaven by ourselves. For with mortals it is impossible…..

But with God all things are possible. It is God’s grace that makes the impossible possible. It is God’s grace that is poured out upon us each and everyday that makes the impossible possible. It is God’s grace that turns ordinary water, that came from the tap a few minutes ago, into a life-giving, sin-washing, praise-inducing, water that will be pour upon Kailey as she is baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit becomes a child of God. It is that same grace from God that was and is pour out upon all of us, each and every one of us, at our own baptisms and it is poured out upon us each day because we are children of God. And it is God’s grace that turns ordinary bread and wine into food that feeds and nourishes not just our bodies, but also our souls.

This is God’s grace which makes the impossible possible. For it is God who is able to make a camel, a one thousand pound, 6 plus feet tall animal, walk through the eye of a needle, a small tiny eighth of an inch opening. And it is God’s grace that will allow us to enter into the kingdom of God, for it is nothing that we do that makes us, allows us, to enter into heaven. Think of God’s grace as an apostrophe. God is able to make the “impossible” into “i’mpossible” I’m possible. I’m possible. I’m possible because of God’s grace. God really does make the impossible possible!