Somewhere Over the Rainbow, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 7/8/2012

Somewhere Over the Rainbow
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 7/8/2012
Based on “Love Wins” by Rob Bell and Matthew 19:16-22

 In the opening scene of the “Wizard of Oz”, you have a young girl, Dorothy Gayle, who feels as if no one is interested in her life, of what she thinks or feels.  As she tries to share with her Auntie Em about her problem with the mean and nasty Miss Gulch, Dorothy is told to go and occupy her own time and try to stay out of trouble.  Dorothy begins to ponder as to whether there is a place that actually does exist, a place where there are no problems. 
While pondering about this place, Dorothy shares her thoughts by singing a song of promise and hope: Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, there's a land that I’ve heard of once in a lullaby.  Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true.  Someday I'll wish upon a star, and wake up where the clouds are far behind me.  Where troubles melt like lemon drops, a way above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me.
Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly.  Birds fly over the rainbow, why then, oh why can't I?  If happy little blue birds fly beyond the rainbow, why, oh why can't I?
The things that Dorothy is singing about sound very much like images that could be found in the place we call ‘Heaven”.  A place we go once we leave this present life filled with pressure, stress, and anxiety, a life that has pain and heartache.  A place where we no longer struggle to survive, where the streets are paved with gold, where there is no darkness.  Some even imagine this place as a place where we walk around dressed in white robes, strumming harps, and continuously sing.  Heaven has been said to be a place where little boys no longer have to take baths, or as a place where we can have a golf game at par!
However for Dorothy, once she gets over on to the other side of the rainbow, she discovers that she can find “trouble” just as easily.  Starting through the act of her arrival, with the house she was in falling on a witch and killing her, creating very bad blood between her and the dead witch’s sister.  All along her journey in Oz, she has struggles and life is anything but easy.  Dorothy discovers that life even on the other side of the rainbow is not without its challenges.
Our Gospel reading this morning has a similar issue to Dorothy’s story.  The rich young man was also thinking about life beyond the present.  He too was anxious about how he was living and wanting to make sure that he did all that he needed to do in order to achieve “eternal life.”  Over time our culture has changed the understanding of “eternal life” to mean something different than what the Hebrews who first listened to this story understood, “eternal life” to be.  We translate “eternal life” into an understanding of life without end, and that this life without end exists in one of two specific places: heaven or hell.  Our cultural concepts of heaven go somewhere on the line of the “Over the rainbow” song and translates in our understanding as “eternal life”, whereas, hell is eternal suffering or “eternal damnation”, in continual torment.
For many modern day followers of Jesus, the ultimate purpose in following Jesus, is so one might have “eternal life.”  If you were to go to our library and look around for information on how to share the “saving grace” of Christ, you will not find much on the topic.  On the other hand, if you were to go into a church that identifies itself specifically as an Evangelical church, you most likely will find all sorts of literature on how to not only receive – eternal life, but how to share that “good news” with others.
How many of you have been approached by someone while walking down the sidewalk and asked you, “If you were to die tonight, do you know that you would go to heaven?”  Or have a person pass you a “bible track” that explains the simple steps to salvation?  You can find classes that will teach you how to answer the rich young man’s question to Jesus, “what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”  Maybe you have even wondered if as a church we might be missing this important piece of evangelism because we do not have any classes on how to share the “gospel” with others so that they too might have “eternal life?”  Shouldn’t we as a church have this as one of our priorities?
After all, don’t we here at Mountain View take the Bible seriously and if we take the bible seriously, shouldn’t we be knowledgeable as to how to “share” the good news of “eternal life?”
 The rich man’s question, then, is the perfect opportunity for Jesus to give a clear, straightforward answer to the only question that ultimately matters for many.  First we can only assume, Jesus will correct the man’s flawed understanding of how salvation works.  He’ll show the man how eternal life isn’t something he has to earn or work for; it’s a free gift of grace.  Then, he’ll invite the man to confess, repent, trust, accept, and believe that Jesus has made a way for him to have a relationship with God. Pg27 Love Wins, by Rob Bell  
 Yet Jesus doesn’t do any of that.  What he says to the young man is, “If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”  Did Jesus miss the boat by not sharing the Bible track on salvation with this guy?  Has Jesus completely missed an opportunity of teaching about “eternal life” by telling this young man to follow the commandments so he might “enter life?” 
“Keep the commandments?  Which one of the 613 commandments am I suppose to keep, Jesus?”  Jesus then lists five: don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, and don’t steal, don’t give false testimony and honor your parents.  These aren’t even the commandments that deal with our relationship with God, but rather with other people, about things that go on in this life, not about things of heaven, like spirituality.
I think the confusion comes in not understanding what the question by the young man is truly about.  When the man asked about getting “eternal Life”, he isn’t asking about how to go to heaven when he dies.  This wasn’t a concern for the man or Jesus. Heaven, for Jesus, was deeply connected with what he called “this age” and “the age to come.” Pg 30 Love Wins, by Rob Bell.   
When Jesus speaks about “age” he is speaking about a period of time that has a beginning and an ending, much like “eras” or “periods of time”.  As an example, “My great-grandparents lived in an age of horse and buggy.  My grandparents lived in the eras of the automobile.  I live in an eras of space exploration.  Another way of saying “life in the age to come” in Jesus’ day was to say “eternal life.”  In Hebrew the phrase is olam habah.  “What must I do to inherit olam habah?”  “What must I do to inherit life in the age after this one. Pg 31 Love Wins, by Rob Bell 
If we can understand that “eternal life” in this gospel story is about “life in the age to come”, it is easier for us to understand Jesus’ response about what is needed to “enter life”, which is consist with the overall message that Jesus taught.  For Jesus, the concern about what takes place in this present eras is of far more important than looking for a destination after this life.  We often speak about this when we say, “it isn’t the destination that is the goal, but rather the goal is the journey.” 
For Jesus, the Kingdom of God, often what we want to call “heaven” is already here among us.  The commandments that Jesus quoted to this young man were behaviors that we are to strive for in order to build a stronger, more loving and peaceful existence with one another.  The one commandment that Jesus left out until pressed further by the young man was the commandment that deals with “you shall not covet”.  It’s not about whether we have great wealth, but rather, what do we covet that will keep us from “entering life.” 
Eugene Peterson best expresses this when he translates, “22That was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crest-fallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn't bear to let go.”  The ultimate reality is that for us to “enter life” to be able to engage in what is going on around us, we must become vulnerable to life.  We must relinquish those things that control us or that we possess that position us to be in control.
Once Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz had done everything that she could possibly do in order to get back home to Kansas, she discovers that none of those external things were able to help her.  Ultimately she realized that the way home, was something that she always possessed, it was inside of her and all she had to do was realize that what was most important to her were her relationships, that  love which was in her own back yard.  I think in our journey to find eternal life, we first have to “enter life.”  We have to first let go of those things that hold us back from living life right now in this age.  Amen