Narrow Holes and Wide Gates

Juggling 101

I knew a guy out in Pasadena who could juggle while riding a unicycle! It was amazing. Shoot, I have always been intrigued and impressed by juggling. I suppose we all are. Juggling is good entertainment, whether it is a ten-year old girl picking up the trick or a master tossing chainsaws high in the air.

And being the reflective person I am – and because I can’t juggle – I got to thinking about how juggling works. This seemed safer than trying to juggle. I’ve decided there are three basic rules to juggling:

Rule #1: always be ready to receive anything
Rule #2: it’s okay to possess so long as you can release
Rule #3: you have to give something away to receive something else

That’s it. Three simple premises: receiving-possessing-giving, receiving-possessing-giving, receiving-possessing-giving. That’s juggling. Well, not really.

Juggling and the Human Person

Juggling represents a very basic fact about the human being, for we are jugglers. At first, we are born only capable of receiving. We come into this world naked and entirely dependent – seeking food and shelter and clothing. Eventually, though, as babies we begin to grasp cups, hold forks, and possess knowledge. We develop past merely receiving. And over time we also learn how to release and give possessions away. Consequently, adulthood can be characterized by the ability to be a “receiving-possessing-giving” person. To be truly human is to be capable of juggling possessions and knowledge – taking it in, giving it out.

This may explain why juggling is as old as our earliest understanding of the human person. The “juggler” has been around since hyroglyphics - playing out with skill and concentration what we all hope to master with our many demands – the ability to deftly and gracefully receive all that comes at us.

Sadly, though, many of us end up juggling life about as well as we juggle bean-bags. We can’t seem to quite keep things in order. Receiving-possessing-giving seems too unmanageable. It seems much easier to just focus on one thing.

The Rich Man: Focused on Possessing

In our Gospel lesson today, we see a perfect illustration of someone who has no idea how to juggle. So, he sticks to what he is good at: possessing.

By all worldly standards, he appears to be a well-developed and stable person. He appears sincere and eager, and he seems to be a prime candidate for earning God’s applause. He has kept God’s commandments since his youth. He has been faithful to the nth degree. He is doing wonderfully.

He comes to Jesus apparently willing to learn and receive, but the course of his conversation with Jesus proves otherwise. The rich man is hoping to gain – gain affirmation, greater knowledge, gain further means to possess God and God’s blessings. He is great at keeping; he is great at possessing. Our primary proof of this man’s ability to possess comes from a simple fact: he is wealthy.

Wealth is supremely about possessing. Ignoring luck and chance and inheritance, wealth is pretty easy to secure: keep more than you lose. This man is great at this. Unfortunately, though, this possession obsession is arresting the rich man’s development.

Possession Obsession: The most popular and destructive type of arrested development

It is never a good thing to become arrested in our development. It is not natural for us as human beings to simply receive and never give. It is tragic when children are unable to take responsibility for things given to them.

However, our modern culture does not worry too much about persons whose personalities become absorbed and fixated on possessing. We rarely consider a person to be arrested developmentally if all they can do is acquire and secure. We subconsciously and publicly envy those who possess nicer cars or bigger salaries or more friends. We even obsess about possessing more Christian faith than our neighbor.

Perhaps this is because we live in the age of the consumer. We track the health of our economy based on whether people are getting more stuff. We consistently praise or hold up possession obsession as a positive in our society. In reality, though, it is a type of arrested development. It keeps us from true maturity.

Possession obsession reminds me of old cartoons or comedians who find more and more dishes or pots or pans being thrown at them; they catch, store quickly, catch another article and stash it too. For a while, it seems quite impressive, but in the end it all comes crashing down upon them.

Jesus’ Unwillingness to be Possessed and His command to Receive

Back to the rich man and Jesus. In the rich man’s mind, life is full of potential gains that will help this man move onward and upward. Essentially, he is looking for a vehicle – a means – to get on his way.

No way. No way, Jesus says. Jesus is not going to be a stepping-stone. Neither is God’s Kingdom going to be a possession.

The Kingdom of God: Received as a Child, not Possessed as an Adult

The Kingdom of God must be received in faith, not possessed. This is impossibly hard for the rich man. It’s hard for us, especially the more we grow up and the more we see ourselves acquiring. Wealth binds itself to us; we bind ourselves to it and our possessions. But it is precisely because it is our natural tendency to settle into possessing Jesus challenges the rich man. Stop keeping. Stop gaining. Stop guarding. Start receiving.

Be willing to follow the rules of juggling:

#1: always be ready to receive anything
#2: it’s okay to possess so long as you can release
#3: you have to give something away to receive something else

A Closing Tale of Two Persons

As I contemplated the rich man and Jesus, I kept seeing two different scenes. In one scene, I see a young man who has heard great things about a glorious kingdom. His parents and friends, mentors and religious leaders assure him there is such a kingdom. Consequently, he is seeking to find this kingdom and secure entry.

Along the way, he begins accumulating gifts and possessions he assumes will make entrance into the kingdom easier. He buys books all about the kingdom in case there is a quiz. He picks up a plaque for all the good work he does to prove he will be a good addition to the kingdom. He acquires money in case there is a fee. He learns of the practices of the king and mimics those behaviors. He picks up any number of things – anything he assumes the king will enjoy or approve of: books, tapes, conferences, conversations, journals. You name it he’s got it. So, by the time he arrives at the kingdom, he has many sacks hanging over his shoulders and objects in his pockets. His head is full of knowledge. But, upon arriving, he is astounded. His many possessions, instead of helping him, are hindering him – the entrance is much too small, too narrow. In fact, you might say he looks like a camel about to walk through the eye of a needle. It’s never going to happen.

Conversely, in another scene, I see a young woman hoping to find a kingdom. Well, perhaps it is better to say she doesn’t really know what she is hoping to find. She is thankful for today. She is also seeking direction and wholeness and forgiveness. She doesn’t have much to offer, but she yearns for more. Come to think of it, she is seeking a new life, a chance to start over.

Her journeys take her all over. One day, though, she encounters a man who claims to be the son of a great king. She finds it hard to believe any son of a great king would be out roaming the countryside, but she also sees in the son a great deal of love and she also hears his words to be true. And when the son of the great king invites her to join him on his way home to the kingdom, she figures she’s got more to gain than to lose. So she sets out with the son of the king, and he assures her that the road before them will not always be easy or clear. But, he also assures her the gates will be open. He says he will make sure to open the gates. It is his mission.

So she travels with him from place to place – juggling life as it comes, receiving just enough to hold onto and giving away what is not needed. And then one day the son of the great king tells her to give it all away: they are at the gate of the kingdom. And sure enough she looks up only to see the son has held his promise. The gates are open. They have been open the whole time … maybe not wide enough to carry the whole world in with you, but wide enough to be received as you are.

Narrow Holes and Wide Gates

Narrow holes and wide gates. It all depends on how you approach the kingdom of heaven. For those who come seeking to possess and keep, the kingdom is impossibly hard to enter. For those who come willing to lose their life and receive a new life, the gate is already open; the Son already walks among us.

So what about you? Are you willing to follow the simple rules of juggling? #1: be willing to receive anything; #2 you can only possess if you’re willing to release; and #3 you have to give away to get more?