Mark 10:17-31 - "It's the Economy, Stupid!"

         Once there was a young man with an excellent job.  He shaved every day and dressed well.  He vacationed in Hawaii for the snorkeling and Park City, Utah, for the skiing.  The cuffs of his pants were never frayed, and his socks were clean.  He only had one credit card, which he paid off in full every month without fail, and he had not defaulted on a single student loan.  He donated 2.5% of his household income to charity, which was exactly the median percentage for charitable contributions of people in his town.

         He went to church each Sunday  - even when the weather was inclement - and sat in the same pew about half way back.  He would be an asset to any congregation.  He could quote the Scriptures fairly extensively, and he attended Bible studies and book groups to learn more about theology and his faith.  He tried not to lie or cheat – and as far as the Ten Commandments went, well, he skyped his parents once a week, and he was honest, and since he was not married yet, the whole adultery thing really did not apply to him anyway.

         However, when he sat in church, much of the time his mind wandered – even when the choir was singing majestically and the preacher was preaching gloriously. 

It was that same niggling feeling that kept interrupting his thoughts, even when he did his best to shove it back down into his unconsciousness. 

         “Is this all there is?” he kept wondering.  “I have everything.  I have no worries.  Why do I feel empty?  Trapped?”

         And so one day, the young man went to his pastor.  He slouched down in the big comfy chair in the old man’s office and asked him.  “What’s missing in my life?”  And in response, the pastor told him a story that went like this.

         The devil was on the prowl one day and was out to get a Christian. When he saw an unsuspecting young follower of Jesus, he shot one of his fiery darts straight at him.  That dart struck the Christian right in the chest.  One might have thought that the Christian was dead meat – except for the fact that the young man had on the breastplate of righteousness, so he was not harmed.

         Not to be outdone, the devil next fired a shot at the Christian's head.  However, the helmet of salvation protected him, and so the fiery dart had no effect. 

         Then the devil figured that three’s the charm and aimed for the Christian’s Achilles heel.  After all, everyone has an Achilles' heel, so he shot at the Christian's feet but was foiled again.  You see, those feet were shod with the gospel of peace, so no damage was done.

         All the while, the young Christian smirked at the devil until he finally thumbed his Christian nose and turned around to walk away. The devil laughed too as he fired a final arrow into the Christian's wallet.  It killed him instantly.

         The young man in the pastor’s office was stunned at the story.  He silently rose from the comfy chair and walked out of the church building, a tear running down his cleanly shaven cheek.

         Oops!  Sorry!  That’s not what the Bible says.  That’s some newfangled modern story.  Listen up.  Here is the real story….Mark 10:17-31.

         Last week the Pew Research Center released a report on Americans’ religious affiliations.  It found that nearly one in five Americans claimed no religious affiliation, meaning that they did not identify themselves as members of a church, synagogue, or mosque.  That really should not surprise us here in Maine, which has traditionally been one of the nation’s least religious states. 

Maybe there is some truth to the old adage – “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”

         However, what I did find surprising – and more than a little disheartening – was one of the major reasons cited by those surveyed about their lack of an affiliation.  As one respondent said, “I definitely think that some religions are too engaged in the political sphere.”

         And yet, as Christians, as those who say we follow the way of Jesus, how can we not be engaged in the political sphere?  After all, Jesus certainly was.  Why do you think he ended up being executed?  What with all the overturning of the tables in the temple and the preaching about basic human rights for the impoverished – blessed are the poor – and that whole crazy expectation of daily bread and forgiveness of debts – Jesus was messing way too much with the politics of Rome and with the Roman domination system of haves and have nots. 

         Now former President Bill Clinton will be remembered for a lot of things, but one of them is likely to be his campaign slogan – “The economy, stupid.”  It is about the economy. 

And for us, as Christians, it is about the economy, and this passage - without a doubt - brings that message home – home to our hearts and home to our souls.  

         Now before you stifle a yawn at the word “economy” or your eyes roll back in your heads at the thought of the current disagreements and vice presidential sparring over spending, tax cuts, and the salvation of the middle class, let’s first just look at the root of the word “economy.”  It derives form two Greek works:  “oikos” meaning house and “nomos” meaning rule.  Economy then is how a household is organized and structured – the household rules, so to speak.

         That was what the young man was asking Jesus about in this passage we just heard.  His question, as Baptist pastor Jerrod Hugenot wrote, is this: “What is the measure of a person’s worth?   Who has the last word on economics?  Will the “house rules” be determined by the elite, the “powers that be” that work with Rome and the Temple…or (by) the Lord God whose kingdom Jesus is proclaiming?”

        And Jesus’ answer clearly is that, in the end, the Kingdom, which he proclaims, will determine the house rules –and those rules are not going to mirror the cultural rules currently in place.  And so Jesus tells the young man to relieve himself of his possessions – not by heaping them on a garbage dump or hiding them in a closet – but by giving them to the poor, to the have nots. 

         Not because wealth is bad, mind you, because our God is a God of abundance and that God wants you and me to have three square meals a day as much as the Holy One want the homeless man in Portland with his cardboard sign to be properly fed.  Not because wealth is bad but because, in the end, our material blessings are gifts from God and are meant to be shared. 

         And Jesus goes on to tell his disciples that it will be harder for a big old camel to fit through the teeny tiny hole at the end of a needle than it will be for people who put their trust in material possessions to enter the Kingdom.  Not because material possessions are bad, mind you, but because the opposite of rich is not poor, but rather it is free. 

         As Christian Church pastor Mickey Anders wrote, the young man in our story “was not free to take the hand of Jesus because his hand was too full of his things and his love of things.  He might as well have had a ball and chain around his leg.  He was not free to follow Jesus.”

         It is like the art of trapping monkeys.  One technique, you know, is to drill a hole in a coconut and place rice in the coconut.  A monkey will come along and stick a paw into the coconut, grab a fistful of rice, and then be unable to pull its paw back out of the coconut.  He is trapped by his greed.  All he would have to do is let go of the rice, freeing his hand, and he could draw it out.  The problem is that the monkey places greater value on the rice that he is holding than he does on his freedom.  (Mickey Anders)

         So where does this passage from the Gospel of Mark leave us this morning – just days before you will receive some information in the mail about money and this church?  Is this a secret stewardship sermon?  I suppose so, though I like to believe that we talk about stewardship throughout the year here in our church – that many of our Biblical passages highlight Jesus’ affirmation of, and our obligation to, the poor and the role that the church should play in all that – that we recognize that the way of Jesus which we say we are following is about the economy, stupid.

         However, let’s face it.  We do have a hard time talking about money here in church.  It is so much easier to compartmentalize our faith – some things being public and others being private affairs.   As Lutheran pastor David Lose comments, “we think about faith when it comes to making sure our kids (are)… saying…prayers at meal time but not when it comes to balancing our checkbook… or what political stances and candidates we support.”

         
However, this passage in Mark asserts that our faith should influence all aspects of our life.  As David Lose continues, “God, in fact, cares about what we do with our money for at least two reasons. First, how we spend our money has a great impact on the welfare of our neighbor… Indeed, the question we often hear during election-season – "Are you better off (now than you were) four years ago?" – suddenly seems glaringly at odds with the biblical mandate to care for each other. I mean, should (not) we rather be asking, "Is my neighbor better? Are we as a community and nation and world better? And, perhaps most importantly, what can I do about it?"

         Second, how we spend our money has a great impact on our own welfare as well…Jesus knows that there are few things more important for us to do than to share our abundance. From volunteering at a (soup kitchen) to giving money to ensure that fewer people go to bed hungry, each time we share what we have with others, we are blessed as much or more as the recipient of our care. Jesus does not command the young man in the story to give away what he has in order to cause him grief or to test him, but (he commands him) out of love.”

         And about that love business, the fact that Jesus answered the young man out of love.  Why did he love him?  I think Jesus loved him because the young man actually thought about these things.  He struggled with his affluence.  He was not content to just sit in church each Sunday, and deep down inside he knew there was something more than being content to give 2.5% of his income to charity. 

         The young man dared to ask the hard questions – and Jesus loved him for that.  Jesus regretted his answer, to be sure, and his decision not to follow, but he loved him for struggling with how to respond to the blessings he knew in his life.

         That is all I ask of you in the coming weeks with the stewardship campaign looming – just to struggle with how to respond to the blessings you know in your lives.  It’s the economy, stupid.  It is the house rules you choose to put into practice.  It is figuring out how much this church means to you and to what extent you will work through this church to both thank God for your material blessings and to ensure that your neighbor really is better off.   

         That is all I ask of you in the coming weeks – just to struggle with that public/private dichotomy and come to terms with your relationship to your money and your relationship to the way of Jesus and to the God of abundant blessing.

         That is all I ask of you in the coming weeks – just to answer in your heart of hearts these questions:  First, how has God blessed you in the past year - either through this church or in general?  And second, how do you feel God is calling you to respond to those blessings?