Does It Own Us?

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
October 15th 2006
Stewardship Season
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Does IT Own Us?”
Mark 10: 17-31

Today begins our annual fall focus on stewardship. This year’s theme is: “Give Thanks… Sing Praise… Declare God’s Steadfast Love!” It is a reminder of a very simple truth. That simple truth is this: All that we have and all that we are is a gift from God. So this year, during our stewardship season, we are giving thanks for the way God continues to provide for our lives. Immediately following worship we have our family dinner and continue our stewardship theme all the way through November 12th. In simple terms, it means that we are going to have five weeks of sermons focusing on stewardship and money.
In the early stages of planning this season I was a little worried that five weeks might be a little much. However, these concerns quickly dissipated after I came across information from a workshop done by Reverend Bill Gillis dealing with money and the bible. Let me share a couple of the things I found. The first one said that the bible has about 500 verses on prayer and 500 on faith. It was followed by the question: “How many passages in the bible deal with money or possessions?” The answer turns out to be around 5,000. The second one was that if I was to preach as many sermons on money and stewardship as Jesus told parables about money and possessions it would work out to about twenty-two sermons each year. I share all of this to say that our focusing on only five weeks will really only scratch the surface of the biblical material regarding stewardship, money and possessions. Do not worry though, I do not intend to cover all 5,000 passages today. There is enough material in this gospel passage to keep us busy, at least for the next few minutes.
In this morning readings, we see Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. Along the journey a man approaches Jesus and asks: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus first rejects the claim of goodness and begins a dialogue which upsets everyone’s expectations. This man, the disciples, and all of us who read this story closely are left stunned by the implications.
Jesus encounter with this man ends with a rejection of the call to follow. But before Jesus responds to this man with challenging words that leave him shocked, Jesus looks at him in love. This is the only time Jesus is said to look at someone in love. It is a clear message that this passage can never be used to demonize those with wealth nor can it be used to further class warfare.
Even though Jesus loves this man, he does not water down the message. You still lack one thing; go, sell everything, give it to the poor and then you can come and follow me. This call to discipleship is the only time in the bible where Jesus extends the call to discipleship and it is met by rejection. It is a powerful witness to the power that wealth and possessions can have in a person’s life. It is a rather sad scene where this man is so bound by his own stuff that he turns away from the way of Jesus.
When Jesus turns to the disciples he makes it clear that this encounter was larger than just this one man. He says: “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God… It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (By the way, the idea that the eye of a needle was a gate in Jerusalem where camels had a hard time entering but could with some work was merely a fantasy developed by the church of the middle ages.) So what began as a commentary on one rich man turns out to be a statement about wealth itself. It was a scandalous statement because the prevailing belief in the ancient world was that those with money had been specially blessed by God. And Jesus says that it is actually an impediment to discipleship.
Having said this, it is now important to clarify Jesus’ teaching about wealth. Jesus is not building a case for class warfare. We must remember that Jesus looks upon this man with love. It is also important to know that when Jesus deals with money and possessions he most often refers to it in a personified state. Money, for Jesus, is mammon which is actually a god. William Sloan Coffin does a good job of drawing our attention to this fact. He says: “Note that only money is put on par with God, not knowledge, not family nobility, not reputation, not talent: only money is elevated to divine status.” Jesus makes it clear, her and elsewhere, that the power of money can never be underestimated.
Conversely, Jesus’ ultimate concern is not money or the power of money –mammon. Jesus is most interested in the kingdom of God – or God’s alternative social reality. Anything which keeps people from its fulfillment is the stumbling block which must be removed. For the man in this gospel lesson, the greatest barrier to his faithfulness was his vast wealth.
The heart of this passage is these words: “Truly I tell you, (Jesus says) there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age--houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Unfortunately, this passage continues to be used to justify the modern day prosperity gospel heresy. While it is possible to create this fantasy from this passage, something more powerful is at work. In the early community this teaching represented the understanding that the community of Christians shared things in common. So, when you become part of the community of faith, you become rich in family – with all the followers of Jesus becoming your brothers and sisters. And, as the community pooled its resources all the members shared in the possessions. This is what Jesus meant when he talked about increasing property one hundred fold. Despite our attempts to make it say what we want, this teaching never intended to say that following Jesus would make us independently wealthy.
In this passage, Jesus calls this man to renounce the one remaining place in his life where he is bound. The man, in the gospel reading, simply could not renounce his vast possessions. For this man it was his possessions which stood in the way of his acceptance of Jesus invitation. Jesus’ ultimate concern is challenging anything which stands in the way of our faithful response to the invitation to be part of the new reality.
It is still true today that wealth-money-mammon is still a central issue for discipleship. The issue is not the possession of money but more importantly our relationship to it. It is my sincerest hope that we will take the challenge to evaluate the role that money plays in our life in light of Jesus call to discipleship. We will need to do this together. Money can no longer remain a private issue in a healthy community of faith. It is my sincerest hope and prayer that God will grant us the wisdom to see clearly the places of our bondage and the willingness to be set free of all that keeps us from embracing Jesus all encompassing call to discipleship. Amen.