Mark 10:17-31 "Wealth and Generosity"

You are welcome to use parts of this sermon, but if you do, please attribute them properly!

        I heard a story about a preacher who got a Monday morning phone call from someone in his congregation.  It seems that the man was in a bit of a panic because his daughter had just decided to drop out of graduate school.  

         It was odd, her father thought.  She had come home for the weekend and had even been in church that Sunday.  Everyone in the family was shocked by her decision, and so he was asking the preacher to give the young woman a call and “talk some sense into her.”

         So the preacher did. He reminded her how hard she had worked to get into graduate school and how she should not just throw it all away.

         ”What inspired this decision anyway?” he asked.

         “Well, it was your sermon,” she replied.

         Then she told him how she had realized that she was only in graduate school to meet her own selfish needs and her parents’ expectations.  She told him that the sermon he had preached on how God is calling everyone to do something important in this life had shaken something loose in her.

         She told him how she had remembered feeling so enriched and worthwhile during the mission trip the youth group had gone on a couple of summers ago – how close she had felt to God then and how she intuitively knew that she was making a difference in the world.  She told him that she wanted to feel that way all the time and had concluded – right there in the middle of the sermon - that she would not find what she was looking for in graduate school or in the profession her degree would lead to.

         The preacher listened intently and then said to the young woman gently and most paternally, “I am flattered, my dear, that you took my words so seriously, but remember…it was just a sermon…”

         “Go and sell all of your things and give them to the poor,” Jesus had said.  Were those shocking words of Jesus “just a sermon” too?

         That would be convenient now, wouldn’t it?  Seriously though:  if we are honest with ourselves, we have got to admit that we are always tempted to monkey around with these verses, working overtime to convince ourselves that they do not really mean what they say. “Go and sell all of your things and give them to the poor”:  It is just a sermon, right?

         It is almost irresistible not to soften the demands that Jesus’ words place upon us, and that tendency has been around for a long, long time.  For instance, a ninth-century Biblical interpreter fabricated the idea of a low gate into Jerusalem called "the eye of the needle." It was so low, he conjectured, that camels could pass through it only if they stooped and were not laden down with baggage.  For that particular Biblical scholar, it was an easy segue into the presumption Jesus was criticizing only the proud rich (those too proud to stoop), or only the rich who were not motivated enough to enter the kingdom.  Interesting slant to the story!  Unfortunately, no archeological evidence for such a gate exists.

         Then there are the preachers who have told us that, as seminary professor Matt Skinner noted, Jesus did something akin to looking into a crystal ball and seeing that “wealth was this particular man's special ‘weak spot,’ zeroing in on it only to expose the man's distinctive shortcoming, thereby giving us permission to assume that Jesus would not ask us to part with our possessions, just those things that we really do not want to give up--only our aggressive driving or fried foods, for example.” 

Or there are the preachers who assert that Jesus’ is merely testing the man, preaching a guilt-inducing sermon, but just a sermon none-the-less.

         However, as Skinner goes on to say, “Jesus' explanation is rather clear: just as large animals simply do not fit through tiny openings, so the wealthy do not fit in the kingdom of God. Even a rich man who has successfully kept all the (commandments) governing social responsibilities, as this devout man has, cannot fit.” 

         In the end, it is not rocket science.  Even a camel could figure it out.  A preoccupation with financial resources and the Kingdom of which Jesus preached and sought to usher in – have nothing – nothing in common.

         What are we to do?  We who are poised at the corner of grateful and generous, what we are we to do?  We who are Americans with income levels – both collectively and individually – that surpass the rest of the world – and if you do not think that applies to you, check out www.globalrichlist.com and see where you stand – we who are Americans, what are we to do?

         Surely Jesus would know better than to set the bar that high.  Surely he would understand the ramifications of connecting the kingdom we all so desire with our willingness to part with our possessions.  That would not be very user-friendly of him and, besides, if he wanted us to take his words that seriously, why, he would need to realize that his church would be empty overnight.  It is just a sermon, right?

         And yet, and yet…. “Wealth and generosity; money and abundant sharing; riches and giving it away: The combination of these concepts lies at the very heart of Jesus’ teaching. (He tells us over and over again that) the richest person in the world is the person who gives it away. Jesus teaches us to give away love. To give away time. To give away (one’s) self. St. Francis, in the spirit of Jesus, said it well when he wrote: ‘for it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born again to Eternal Life.’   (Edward Markquart)

         Once upon a time, there was a young man.  His name was not Bill Gates of Microsoft or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook or Travis Kalinick of Uber.  He did not live in Silicon Valley.  He did not develop an ap and sell it to Google for a million dollars. 

         He was a teacher – or a plumber – or a data entry operator – or a med tech here in the USA.  He was religious too – in the sense that he went to church sometimes – but more than that he cared about the world.  He recycled, and he planned to have solar collectors on the roof of the home he someday hoped to own.  He had gone to Safe Passage once and worked with Guatemalan children living in the City dump.  He did not cheat on his taxes and would never have stooped so low as to leer at the blonde in the cubicle next to his – lovely though she was.

         One day, as our young man was jogging down the city streets where he lived with his dog, he met Jesus, certainly not someone he was expecting to meet, and even before he caught his breath, he found himself kneeling, kneeling like every other person in need of healing had once knelt before Jesus, kneeling like the lepers and the blind beggars and sick and the halt and the lame had once kneeled. 

      

         And kneeling, he asked a question that had long been on his mind.  He cut to the chase because his heart was so in need of healing.  He grabbed at the opportunity because, really, how often do you meet Jesus when you are out for your morning run? 

         “Yo, Jesus.  I am in a sort of holding pattern here.  I get up each day, go for my morning run, go to work, come home, enter the day’s expenditures in my new budget software, watch a movie on Netflix, and go to bed.  It is not that I am bored, but I am just wondering what comes next?  How do I move to the next level?  What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

         Though the question was thoughtful and heartfelt, Jesus responded with a disappointingly stock answer:  “Keep the commandments.  No murdering, stealing.  No adultery or cheating of any sort.  No false accusations – you know, pointing the finger and laying the blame on someone else.  And be respectful, especially of your Mom and Dad.”  And with that, Jesus started to step around our young man and headed toward the bagel shop on the next block. 

         However, like I said, how often do you meet Jesus on your morning run?  No wonder the rich man would not let him go that easily.  “Seriously, Jesus?  I have done all these things.  Are you saying that I am a cinch for heaven?”

         And Jesus stopped then in his tracks and turned to face the young man.  “You lack one thing,” he said. 

         “Lack?” he thought.  “What do I lack?  I have a flat screen TV.  I have money to pay my bills – most of the time.  I conscientiously budget.”

         What did our young man lack?  The capacity to appreciate his own abundance?  A consciousness of others’ scarcity?

         “You lack one thing, “Jesus said as he looked at him with love – because Jesus always looks with love at anyone who is trying so hard to follow in his way. 

         But alas! Love does not always point to the easy way.  Sometimes love is hard.  Sometimes love is tough.  Sometimes what is said in love is the most difficult medicine to swallow. 

         Go, sell, give, follow:  In a nutshell, that was both Jesus’ advice and his admonition. 

         “Seriously, Jesus?  This is just a sermon, right?”

         Go, sell, give, follow.  If it is a sermon, it is a sermon less about money and more about discipleship.  If it is a sermon, it is a sermon less about what we think we do not have and more about how grateful and generous we will choose to be with what we do have. If it is a sermon, it is a sermon about what needs to happen to us before we can really follow the Way Jesus sets out for us. 

If it is a sermon, it is a sermon about building up the human community through abundant sharing, about riches and giving them away, about gratefulness and generosity. 

         Go: Go from this place, from the safety of these four walls.  Go from this sanctuary, from this place of hiding or at least of safekeeping.  Go through those doors with your eyes wide open.  Go and look into the faces of those who panhandle on the street corners in Portland. They all have a story, you know.  Go and see what happens to the toilet paper and canned goods you leave in the Vestry for the food pantry.  Real people come in and shop for them, you know.  Go and seek out the world you do not want to see – the world where children hold out empty bowls, where refugees are crammed into leaking ferry boats, where young girls are married off while still in the single digits.  Go….

         Sell:  Get rid of everything that shuts off a living, breathing relationship with God.  Unencumber yourself from all that attaches you to the distorted views of your culture and detaches you from God.  Let go of that which blinds you to the way of Jesus, for you are surely at a fork in the road.  And, above all, do not say that you have nothing to sell – that everything you have is a necessity.  After all, you are an American.  Not that Jesus called you to a life of poverty, but he did call you to a live of discipleship, and how can you be a follower if you do not leave some of it behind you – if, for no other reason, than to know viscerally what it is like to not have everything you may want.  You have more than enough!  Really.  Sell….

         Give:  Jesus did not say to burn the stuff you do not need – or throw it away in the closest dumpster.  He said to give it away – to the poor.  And when you speak in those terms, it really does come down to money, so listen to what theologian Frederick Buechner had to say about it:  “MONEY - The more you think about it, the less you understand it.  The paper it's printed on isn't worth a red cent. There was a time you could take it to the bank and get gold or silver for it, but all you'd get now would be a blank stare.

         If the government declared that the leaves of the trees were money so there would be enough for everybody, money would be worthless. It has worth only if there is not enough for everybody. It has worth only because the government declares that it has worth and because people trust the government in that one particular although in every other particular they wouldn't trust it around the corner.

         The value of money (Buechner writes), like stocks and bonds, goes up and down for reasons not even the experts can explain and at moments nobody can predict, so you can be a millionaire one moment and a pauper the next without lifting a finger. Great fortunes can be made and lost completely on paper. There is more concrete reality in a baby's throwing its rattle out of the crib.

         There are people who use up their entire lives making money so they can enjoy the lives they have entirely used up.”  Give….

         Follow:  Only after you have done those things, only then can you follow, really follow – only when you have gone, when you have sold, and when you have given. 

         This is just a sermon, right?

         We all know how the story ends.  Our young man stands back up and shakes his head.  He cannot do it.  He is sorry, but he cannot do it.  After all, his name is not Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg or Travis Kalinick.  He does not live in Silicon Valley.  He never did develop an ap and sell it to Google for a million dollars.  He is a teacher – or a plumber – or a data entry operator – or a med tech.  What could he possibly sell – or give?  He needs it all.  So he tugs on the leash and he and his dog continue their run, and Jesus walks into the bagel shop. 

         Theology professor Paul Wadell once wrote an article on this Bible story.  In it, he observed that the young man knows in his heart that Jesus is right, and that knowledge is what makes him sad and grieving as he (goes) back to what he has not found satisfying all along.

         However, Wadell goes on to observe that "Love is a way of seeing, and those who love us best see us best," so "Jesus sees him as he truly is, but in a way that the young man is not yet capable of seeing himself."

         I like to think that in the days that followed, the man rethought his decision to return to his old way of existing and eventually chose instead to go, sell, give, and follow.  And when he did, he found that his life had far more meaning than he could ever have imagined. 

         As Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote, “Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power.  Those rewards create almost as many problems as they solve. 

Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through."

         Perhaps someday, we too will rethink our decision as well, we who stand at the corner of grateful and generous.  I hope so – because, in the end, going, selling, giving, and following is not just a sermon.  It is not just a way of life even.  It is the only way of life that will ensure that the world is transformed – as God intended it to be.

         In closing now - listen to this prayer by theologian Henri Nouwen:

         Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists! Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands? Please help me to gradually open my hands and to discover that I am not what I own, but what you want to give me. And what you want to give me is love, unconditional, everlasting love. Amen.

by Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond Village Community Church U.C.C., Raymond, Maine