Speaker 1: What is up everybody?
Speaker 1: My name is Ryan Braille.
Speaker 1: I'm the pastor at Central.
Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number eight of our Reflections podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm in here with with Mike Lauer.
Speaker 1: Hey, mike, hey, I'm gonna try something new today.
Speaker 1: I don't actually have any notes, so look out, all I've got is this idea and something I saw in Israel when we were over there this spring that just blown my mind ever since I want to share with you guys.
Speaker 1: So there's this passage in Mark where Jesus is talking and Jesus says this he says it's easier this is mark 10, 25 it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God, and I've always marveled that this passage and I'm like God, leave this.
Speaker 1: Jesus.
Speaker 1: Does he like have it out for rich people, or does he like not like rich folks, or what's the deal?
Speaker 1: But I was in Israel and you know, israel is an ancient city and there's all kinds of ancient ruins and cities all around it, of course, and so you're walking around and there's just these ancient, like thousands of year old buildings and structures and one of the things that you know I noticed and if you go over there you'll notice, or if you know anything about history there are often these cities would have walls around them.
Speaker 1: So you'd come up to a city and every city would have a wall around it as a defense, you know, to protect themselves against invading, you know, tribes or or militaries, and so all these cities would have a, would have a wall around them, and they'd have these gates, though, that you could kind of go in and out of, and a lot of times they'd have these really tiny little gates that just an individual would walk through.
Speaker 1: They're very small and very narrow, and they called these the water gate or other kinds of gates that you could use.
Speaker 1: But the thing was, if anybody that came to visit this city and wanted to go in through this water gate or these other really tiny little gates, they couldn't bring all their stuff in.
Speaker 1: So imagine a visitor coming on on the back of a camel or a donkey or with a whole bunch of people and carrying lots of stuff like baggage and luggage.
Speaker 1: They'd have to come to the gate and then kind of get off the camel, get off of their, their donkey and like unload themselves of all their stuff in order then enter the city and go through the gate and one other thing they call this gate besides the water gate is the nickname for it it's called the eye of the needle.
Speaker 1: And so I wonder and this was kind of we talked about it over in Israel if Jesus is saying, hey, look, if you want to enter into life, into eternal life, or life in the kingdom of God, or life everlasting, this beautiful, abundant life, you can't do it with all your stuff.
Speaker 1: In order to come through this eye of the needle, you have to let go of all your stuff, and rich people generally have lots of stuff which, look, you know, jesus is not hating on rich people, but he's just saying, like, all that stuff, you got to let it go if you want to come into this eternal life.
Speaker 1: I jokingly say all the time that I've never seen a U-Haul on the back of a hearse.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: Although I talked about this a while ago, mike, and somebody brought me a picture, or emailed me a picture, of an actual hearse with a U-Haul in the back.
Speaker 1: It was weird.
Speaker 1: But generally no one's taking their stuff with them when they die.
Speaker 1: In fact, also sometimes the things that we own can be quite a burden.
Speaker 1: So I think it's an invitation of Jesus like, hey, enter into life and let go of all the things that sort of weigh you down and that you go to that you think will give you life.
Speaker 1: That can't give you life, all your stuff.
Speaker 1: And also we have lots of stuff, baggage and junk, not just material stuff that burdens us but like lots of other things, like unforgiveness or resentment or old wounds, and so I think Jesus is inviting us and, hey, if you want to come through this eye of the needle, let go of all your stuff.
Speaker 1: Like, put it down.
Speaker 1: I love the quote by Augustine who said hey, god wants to give us so many good and perfect and wonderful gifts, but he can't, because our hands are too full of stuff already, like just junk that we hold on to or cling to past memories, nostalgia, wounds, hurts, habit, patterns or material goods that we think will give us life, that just bog us down.
Speaker 1: So to me there's an invitation hey, to enter the kingdom of heaven, this life abundant with God.
Speaker 1: Let go of all the things that way you've done.
Speaker 1: So there you go, all right, peace.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share with some friends, and don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at central in elk river at 8 30, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clclcreakriverorg peace.