“Have you ever felt used? It’s a crummy feeling to be treated as a pawn or stepping stone in someone’s plan, as an unwilling object used for another’s benefit or pleasure. It’s dehumanizing and it’s painful,” begins Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, Senior Pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC. She continues, “There is another way to think about being used. God wants to use us, not in a dehumanizing way, but in a way that makes us partners…with God in the work of love and mercy, of justice and peace. That is life in the kingdom.” In today’s text from Mark 10:17-31, a wealthy man gets a direct invitation from Jesus to be used by God for good in God’s kingdom. He rejects this invitation because he cannot let go of his wealth. How will you respond to this invitation?
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