Samantha Christopher

But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich.
 
Dear Friends in Christ,
 
Growing up Lutheran, the Small Catechism was a hallmark of my childhood. Written in question and answer format, the Small Catechism dissects the basic hallmarks of our faith—The Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer—clause by clause, asking of each one, “What does this mean?” Luther’s response to that question for the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods,” is strikingly simple: “We are to fear, love, and trust God above all things.”
 
The rich ruler in our reading from Luke this morning could have used that bit of wisdom from the Small Catechism. He certainly must have been feeling proud of himself when Jesus listed off the commandments he had followed his entire life as the way to eternal life, but ultimately, it was his reluctance and stubbornness to fully trust God that led to his downfall. He was bound in his idolatry to his wealth and was unable to give it up to help the less fortunate. 
 
We are surrounded by idolatry. Time and again, we open our newspapers or turn on the news to see stories of people unable to pay for insulin, because of insurance company greed. We see lines of cars at the food bank stretching for miles because our politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, are too busy worshipping at the altar of imperialism and war, spending trillions of dollars to bomb innocent people, than to help people make ends meet.
 
If we learned one thing from Christ the King Sunday yesterday, it should be that earthly rulers will always be bound to the ways of sin and death and will choose to worship Mammon as god. Declaring Christ as King means that we reject the false rulers of our earthly existence, and instead look to God. God, who does not abandon us in the midst of our sorrows, but who lifts us up and cares for us as a parent cares for their children. God, who put off his earthly splendor, to come and live among us, as a carpenter’s boy from a little town called Nazareth.
 
Your Sibling in Christ,
Sam Christopher