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Then who can be saved?  This is the question that Jesus has been answering for us the last three Sundays and again today.  Indeed, Jesus has been teaching us the last three Sundays how to be an effective church.  We might have thought that we just need the right techniques and style for today.  The disciples thought along those lines when they asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast out the demon.  We might have thought that an effective disciple needs the right leader and to belong to the right team.  the disciples thought along those lines when they were arguing about which of them was the greatest and when they tried to stop a man casting out demons in the name of Jesus because he was not following them.  We might have thought the effective church would cater to the whims of the powerful and ignore those society considers disposable or unimportant like women and children were considered in Jesus’ day.  The disciples thought along those lines when they tried to stop the kids brought by their divorced parents.  Jesus wants to turn our expectations of what it would mean to be an effective church.  Then we meet the rich young man and the disciples are thinking here is someone who can fill our treasury and with his wealth and respectability come the status, position and power that we need to succeed.  But Jesus knows that the rich young man calls Jesus, “Good teacher” because he expects Jesus to call the rich young man a ”good” person.  So again we will discover that you must receive the kingdom of God from a position of powerlessness and prayerful dependence on God.

mark10.17-31-thenwhocanbesaved.mp3