Grace, mercy and peace to you from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Alleluia, Amen!

There was a man who loved fishing. Some would even say that he was obsessed with it. It was his favorite sport or hobby. He had loved fishing since his grandfather had taken him fishing at the tender early age of three years old. This man had all of the most current equipment-rods, reels, tackle boxes, nets, waders and of course a big bass boat. The man had enough lures to decorate a 20 foot Christmas tree. He spent his waking hours surfing the net looking for information about whatever species of fish that he wanted to catch. He subscribed to all the fishing magazines and had a complete library of fishing books. He hung out at Bass Pro Shops so much people thought he was an employee. But even with all of his knowledge of fishing and the wealth that he had spent on equipment, he had a major problem. He could never catch fish. Why is that you ask! This man who knew everything about fishing and had every piece of equipment known to the world of fishing? The answer really is quite simple. He never went fishing. He never put a line in the water.

Isn’t that like the rich man in our gospel lesson today? This man was extremely wealthy. Most of the commentaries say that he had lots of land. The man approaches Jesus and asks, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Right off the bat, the man is concerned about what He can do.  Jesus firstly responds with why do you call me good? No one is good –except God alone. Jesus then says to him “ you know the commandments” and the response from the rich man is that he declares that has kept the commandments since he was a boy. A declaration! A formal statement! Despite Jesus saying that none is good but God, this young rich man insists that he is!

 I bet that he was probably feeling somewhat smug that in his heart he had kept the commandments and I bet he was even proud of that fact. It was an issue of pride. Look what I have done. I have done everything I am required to do according to the laws of God and Moses. This guy thinks he is home free and probably expects Jesus to say,” Well done good and faithful servant!”

Scripture says instead of that, Jesus looked at him and loved him and then said,” Go and sell everything and give to the poor and then you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me”.

BOOM!! The rich man’s whole world through his eyes just came crashing down. The rug was pulled out from under him. Go and do what?  He thinks he has kept the Law and now this rabbi is telling him he has to get rid of everything? He was doing what he had to do and what God told him to do, but he missed the point. He was trying to make his own salvation. He was trying to effect a change by working his way through the commandments. He never mentions a relationship with God. He wanted Jesus to say,” Oh you have done everything YOU can do, welcome to eternal life”. He wasn’t really looking for answers. He was looking for approval based on what he had done and although Jesus did not approve, He loved him anyway.

.. ..We read in verse 21 that Jesus looked at him and loved him. That is such a powerful verse. Jesus could have called him on the fact that he said he kept the commandments since he was a boy. Jesus could have sugar coated his response but out of love, he gave him some tough love and he spoke the truth to the man. Jesus speaks to this rich man and tells him to get rid of everything and follow Him. Our Lord knows that stuff gets in the way of following him. He knows that it is a stumbling block to our faith.  

 We can certainly identify with the rich man in the sense that we keep the commandments and do what God says to do. We are also good people (in our minds) who have kept the commandments since our youth and we are doing our best. After all, I have not committed adultery like a famous t.v. personality confessed to this week on television and I have not killed anybody. I have not deceived people of their pension funds and stolen millions of dollars. We have not lied before congressional hearings. The problem here is that like the rich man we become so involved with what we are doing that we lose sight of what God has done and keeps on doing. The man was overlooking his relationship with God. He is so busy trying to be holy that he doesn’t mention any relationship with God, just the fact that he has kept the commandments since he was a boy. We are so busy trying to keep the Law and figuring out what we can do it starts to become about us. Luther fell into the same trap.  We cannot see the forest for the trees. We lose sight of the prize.

 I am going to go back to fishing here for a minute. When you go fishing and you hook a fish, you must be able to land that fish. For me it is total concentration. I am worrying about the line breaking or if the fish will dive into weeds or if the fish will roll in the line. Big fish love to do that. I worry about how I hold my rod or if the drag is set too tight or not enough. I worry about how I will get it into the net. Basically at that moment of fighting the fish, everything ceases to exist except the relationship between the fish and I. a nuclear bomb could go off and I probably would not notice it.

That is the kind of focus and total concentration that Jesus is talking about. He says get rid of anything that gets in the way of following him. Since I was a young boy these verses have perplexed me. Why? Because I have a lot of stuff. Am I supposed to not have anything of earthly value? Am I supposed to live under a bridge somewhere and boil leather shoes for dinner? Perhaps if stuff gets in the way of following God?

These verses have always been taught as this absolute Law statement. Yet , it is not Law really but actually pure gospel. It is an invitation to share Jesus’ life. It is an invitation to walk through life with him. Jesus looks at us and loves us and wants to walk with us. He wants to be involved in everything that we do. Nothing is too small for Jesus. Jesus is excited to be in our lives all the time but because loves us, Jesus has to share some tough love with us. The reason for that is because he wants us to be walking with him now and forever. He wants us to store up treasures in heaven. Earthly treasures rot away and rust but heavenly treasure lasts forever. You can’t take it with you. Have you ever seen a hearse with a luggage rack? The only thing that you can take is your relationship with God.

Please forgive me but I am going to use one last fishing example. We talked about how the man had everything and was focused on aquireing all he needed to fish but never went fishing. He missed out. We talked about the focus and concentration it takes to land a fish. Think about this, what if we are the fish and Jesus is the fisherman? He looks at us with total concentration and determination. His focus is always on us. He is the master angler who will never give up. He catches us, cleans us and then he tags us. He marks us as His own. The difference is He never releases us back into the wild on our own to swim. You see once He catches you, He never lets go.

Jesus wants us to focus on him. We already have everything in our favor. After all, hasn’t God chosen us to be His? Isn’t the Holy Spirit with us all the time sanctifying us?  He looks at us and like the rich man in our lesson He loves us. In fact, He loves us so much that he hangs on a cross. He takes your sin and my sin and puts it on himself. He takes our punishment so that we are made righteous before our Father in heaven.

Our Lord not only shares the invitation of following Him, he shares the invitation of Holy Communion with us here this morning. Through the invite of attending this banquet that is set before us, we commune with all of heaven and all believers. Through this eating and drinking we are given forgiveness, salvation and eternal life are poured out upon us. He comes to us, and becomes part of our life.

And now may the master angler catch and keep you from now until eternity, alleluia, amen