Sermon for March 27th (Stewardship of Money)

Let’s look at the gospel story from the gospel of Luke that was read earlier this morning. It is the story of the rich young ruler, “A certain ruler asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

In the gospel of Luke, this is the second time that someone has asked Jesus this question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The first time was back in the 10th chapter when an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. In that story, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.

How are these two passages similar and how are they different? The same question is asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life, but there is a difference between these two passages as well, namely, where Jesus ends up sending each person. With the teacher of the law, Jesus calls on him to be merciful. Why? Perhaps it is because, as a teacher of the law, this man would have been focused on justice and righteousness and easily would have lost track of love and mercy.

So when a lawyer comes to Jesus asking how to inherit eternal life, Jesus knows where this man’s treasure lies: in keeping the law, in fairness, in justice! So, of course, he calls on him to seek not simply justice but mercy, not only fairness, but love. Have you ever been angry after hearing the story of the Good Samaritan and said, “How unreasonable! To have to help out my neighbor even though they might not deserve it! That’s impossible!” I’ve never heard a reaction like that. We all understand that necessity of mercy, the importance of taking care of those less fortunate even if it’s difficult. So then, why is today’s story met with a different reaction?

In today’s story, the person asking the questions is not a lawyer, but a rich young ruler it says. He’s got youth, he’s got money and he’s got power. This time, Jesus does not call on him to be merciful. Is it because mercy is no longer important to Jesus? Well, no, that’s not why. For the rich young ruler, Jesus understands that his treasure lies in those very things that even our society today still looks at as beneficial: youth, money and power. If Jesus had sent this man to take care of his neighbors, like he did with the lawyer, I bet that it would have been simple to do. He would have had the energy, since he was young. He would have had the time to do it, since he had the power and he would have had the funds to give a lot away and still have some left over since he had so much money. So Jesus asked him to do that which would have been the hardest for him: “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Just a quick question before we move on: How would you feel about being asked to do that? To sell everything you have and give it to the poor in order to inherit eternal life? Doesn’t that seem utterly unreasonable?! Impossible? Doesn’t it seem inherently wrong to ask so hard a thing? I want you to ask yourself this question, “Who are you more like? The lawyer? Or the rich young ruler?

Back to the story. Isn’t interesting how Jesus starts his statement about selling everything to the poor by saying, “You still lack one thing.” LACK one thing. What could this guy lack? He’s got youth. He’s got power. He’s got money! What else could this guy need? Well, look in the mirror. What do YOU need? You’ve GOT everything. I know, I know. Not EVERYTHING. Not EVERYTHING you want. You have to work hard for your money. You need a new car. The kids need braces. You barely make ends meet. I understand that. But let’s be honest.

I looked up some statistics. Our average income in Adair county is a little under 43,000 a year (pretty low compared to the rest of Iowa which is around 48,000). Some of you are no doubt higher and some lower. The poverty level in America at this time, for a family of four, is a little over 22,000. That means that, making less than 22,000 a year, you would have trouble meeting your basic needs according to the federal government. What about compared to the rest of the world? Comparing the whole of humanity and trying to keep a similar basis of the dollar, it would be as if 80% of the world’s humanity was living on less than 10 dollars a day. That would be $3650 a year. I know, I know, we all could use a new car and gas prices are really tough right now but who are we like in the eyes of 80% of the world’s population? The rich young ruler. So, what do YOU lack in your life?

Still not sure? In another reading from today in proverbs 23 we hear this, “When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony”. What does that mean? Gluttony means to just eat without noticing the food or the consequences of eating that food. Think about a buffet, where you get to eat as much as you can eat just because it says you can (even though you weren’t that hungry in the first place). Gluttony doesn’t simply mean eating a lot, it’s a matter of not paying attention to the blessings God is feeding you with.

And this can happen with money too, “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness.” Sometimes, we believe that just because we CAN get money that we should do so and, in so doing, we find ourselves turning into people we do not like. For example, a good husband and father finds that he has a knack for working longer and harder than the rest of the people in his business and, thus, can make more money than all of them. By making more money, he can buy his wife the clothes she wants and his children the toys they want. On the down side, he is never home to enjoy his family which isn’t really want he wanted either. But, he never noticed what the consequences were, he just thought about it like an “all you can eat buffet”. If I can make more money, therefore, I should. He thought that he valued money more than time with his family. Possessions over experiences. Money over meaning. And despite everything he has, he still misses a lot.

God says, “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” What is this talking about? How about our most recent economic downturn? How quickly did your retirement accounts “fly off to the sky like an eagle?” or shall we say drop into the bottom of the sea like a 100 pounds of deadweight. Was it because you didn’t work as hard? Probably not. Was it because you invested poorly? Well, I guess if you did, so did everyone else in America, right? If the stock market crashed or you lost your job. If you lost your wealth and your money, would your good mood fly away too? Will your peace leave as soon as your money does? Like the rich young ruler in today’s story, maybe you have misplaced your treasure. What do you still lack?

Among all the treasures of this life, the rich young ruler lacks one singularly precious treasure—the treasure of heaven. Jesus tells the young ruler to get rid of those things that he thought were so important, his possessions and his money and, instead, become rich in meaning, become rich in experiences, become rich in faith. Do you notice that Jesus doesn’t just send the kid away and tell him to sell all he has and live like a hermit in a shack on the outskirts of town? No, he says, “Sell all you have and then come, follow me.” This is an opportunity like none other! We might have been talking about the 13th disciple here had the rich young ruler done what was asked of him. Instead, he became very sad because his possessions, his money, his youth and his power were more important to him than anything else. Even more than a once of a lifetime experience with Jesus. What would you have chosen?

We have choices in our lives. We can use money to buy safety and possession or we can use money to create meaning and purpose for our lives and for the lives of others. I had a choice today. I could have tried to convince all of you that you should just give a little more than what you have been giving. I could have explained to all of you that God has blessed you with abundance and you had extra to give. And if I had made that choice, it might have worked. You would have given more. You would have tried harder. You would have felt better.

But that isn’t what Jesus asked the rich young ruler in this story and it’s not what he would ask you or I were he standing here face to face with us. We are the rich young rulers in this world and, while that is a great blessing, we’ve taken and taken from the all you can eat buffet and haven’t realized how hungry we are for meaning, purpose, joy and faith in our lives. That’s why my friends from Ethiopia and Tanzania would say that Americans are rich in material things but poor spiritually. That’s why they felt they needed to send missionaries here to America to help us even though we thought we had everything we needed because they know, like Jesus, that we still lack one thing. Jesus doesn’t want your money, he wants your heart. He wants a full relationship with you.

Giving is a privilege. It’s not something that we are forced to do, it’s something that we have an opportunity to do. In 2nd Corinthians, chapter 8, the Macedonians are said to have urgently pleaded to have the privilege of giving. Nobody wants to be known as being bad at making money in America and yet so many of us accept mediocrity in giving. Giving is not a command, it is an opportunity. Don’t miss the opportunity to become rich in meaning, in purpose and in faith by giving. If you’ve ever given a gift that cannot be repaid, you know how rich it makes you feel.

When you look at money, what do you see? I pray that you see opportunities. Opportunities to use all of it—all of it!—for God’s sake in order to create a life full of meaning and purpose. You’ll still buy food for your family and go to baseball games with your kids (God still wants you to love and cherish your family) but you’ll also be aware that, instead of buying a bigger car, or a newer technological gadget, you’d probably be more happy by using that extra money to sponsor an impoverished child, buy groceries for another family in need, or maybe save up and buy a car for someone who doesn’t even have one. God doesn’t want you to be chained to wealth by your love of money—he wants you to be free to use it as creatively as your love can imagine.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” Jesus never asked for somebody else to die instead of him so that he could keep the riches of divinity. Jesus never asked if he could just give you 10% of eternal life—if that would be enough to make his Father happy. He gave all he had to make you rich. Maybe you’ve put your treasure in the wrong place up until now. Hear this: every dollar you have right now is a new opportunity to create a life full of meaning, faith and purpose. So that your life on this earth isn’t just blessed with the abundance of God’s blessings, but so that heaven is full of your treasure as well. Amen.