Today s question comes to us from the Broadway musical Fidler on the roof.

Transcription

1 Today s question comes to us from the Broadway musical Fidler on the roof. Tevye sings If I were a Rich man. Telling the audience what he would do if he were a rich man. What would you do if your were a rich man? How hard do you strive to become a rich man? Today we will talk about Can you live in the kingdom if you accumulate wealth?? This past Wednesday evening on my way home I stopped at Speedway to get a gatorade for the trip they had a sign on the front door announcing that the Megamillions jackpot was $654 million dollars. I do know that if you choose a single payout instead of the annuity the amount is less but still that would make you a very very rich person. What does it take to make us rich people? Is it our checkbook balance, our savings balance or our 401k balance? I would submit that it is something else more important. I feel that I am incredibly rich. I have a wife that loves me dearly and has lead the raising of 4 responsible children. I have a nice home, I have been fortunate to have had two occupations that have allowed me to daily do 1 / 10

2 work that I enjoy and care for others. That is being rich. I do not mean to be self serving with this next comment. but for me: Nurse anesthesia had great compensation. My family was able to enjoy many great things. I was able to provide for my church, my scouts, and my family. Then what in the world was I thinking at the age of 65 that instead of continuing to work at this high paying job or to retire I chose to go to school to take up a career that pays about 1/4 the compensation? I can tell you with certainty God has an uncanny ability to get into our hearts, if we let him, and shift the focus of our lives. The simple answer for me has been following Jesus is doing what the master asks. Even if at the time it seems to not make sense. In Genesis God asked Abraham to pack up his whole family and move to a land he would show Abraham. NRS Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. (Gen. 12:1 NRS) Giving to others should be a focus for all of our lives. Giving not just our dollars but of ourself. Giving by being scout leaders, youth athletic coaches, Sunday school teachers, hospital volunteers, volunteering at food pantries and 2 / 10

3 clothing centers. Giving time to your family that you set a model of giving of yourself for them to see. This isn t easy. Your time is valuable and you have only so much. Your money won t buy more time. Giving of your time for the benefit of others is like selling what you have so you can better follow Jesus. Serving is giving away what you have. No other person can be you. No other person can give you. You have do do it yourself. Be willing to give up what you enjoy doing for yourself to serve the others that need you. When you give of yourself you are doing what Jesus asked. A big task as we raise our families and other youth we come in contact with is teaching them that they need to give of themselves. Giving of time and energy for someone else or a group who offer little hope of giving back. This kind of giving does not come naturally. It s part of our walk with Jesus. As we raise our children we lead by example showing them giving should be a part of their normal daily life. Help them to grow up in the kingdom. 3 / 10

4 On the one hand, this story clearly raises questions about our attitude and approach toward wealth, if we want to follow Jesus and inherit eternal life. On the other hand, it raises questions about our attitude and approach toward salvation itself. If we are not careful this giving away of our wealth can become works righteousness. This young man was wanting something for himself. Eternal Life. Will selling all we have and giving to the poor earn our salvation NO! Jesus answer to the rich man shocks and dismays the disciples, and it continues to perplex many readers today. In the ancient world (Greek, Roman, and Hebrew), material prosperity was widely seen as a reward or byproduct of spiritual virtue. Things go well for the good, for men and women of good character, and poorly for the bad, for those who lack good character and selfdiscipline. There are exceptions, of course. Things don t go so well for Job in the biblical account of his tribulations. We have seen in our world those who seem to be acquiring wealth with no consideration of an ethical or giving life style. Similar tales of good men and women who are defeated either by circumstances or by others less virtuous than they 4 / 10

5 are. The question of why the good suffer and the wicked prosper is not new. What then are the relationships between faith and reward, or virtue and wealth? Why must this man give up his riches in order to follow Jesus? What will he get in return? From the mans perspective What s in it for me? A standard answer is that there is nothing wrong with wealth itself. The problem is not wealth per se but our attitude toward it. As we accumulate riches, we tend to trust in our possessions and our ability to acquire them which is folly. We need to trust in God, for our ultimate security and comfort. Even honestly acquired and generously shared wealth can thus lead to pride and a focus on self instead of God. Look what I did. I succeeded. This is why it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. You can t hang on to your riches as you pass into the next world. It is hard to let go of the immediate basis of our security and comfort and the more we accumulate, the harder it gets. Linus give up your blanket. Jesus promise to the disciples is confusing. He promises that everyone who has sacrificed for his 5 / 10

6 sake will receive, now in this age, a hundred times more than he or she has given up, and will inherit eternal life, in the age to come. This promise doesn t seem right, first, because it seems to fit with our experience in the world. Second, if the reason for discipleship is the promise of its reward, then discipleship is no more virtuous than the blatant pursuit of material gain. If faith promises a hundredfold return on investment, then it is nothing more than enlightened selfinterest. If giving to the poor is for our benefit not necessarily the poor then even the most narrowminded, self-interested, and calculating person would be a fool not to abandon everything and follow Jesus if he was to literally get 100 times what he gave away. This is another example of not to take some stories in the Bible literally. To take Jesus promise literally pushes the notion of a reward for faith which is beyond his true intent. Faith is not simply an expedient route to friends and fortune. The reward for faith is of a different and higher order than what we sacrifice for it. It is only in this 6 / 10

7 metaphorical sense that we will receive a hundred times more than we have given up. It is not simply more of the same, a hundred fields and houses rather than one. We cannot attain our eternal salvation by striving for it. If our primary concern is our own salvation, through faith or works, then we have missed the point of both faith and works. Jesus questions not just greed but also wealth itself and the efforts that help us to acquire it. Certainly, those who pride themselves on their possessions or expect material prosperity to provide them with ultimate security are sadly mistaken. Jesus teaches that it will be impossible for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. This presents a problem for the disciples who lived in a time that accumulation of wealth was a sign of being divinely blessed! So if the blessed were not to enter the kingdom of God Then who can be saved? They and we today ask. Jesus replies, For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible (v. 27). Our salvation is a gift from God. Jesus here is giving us a preview of what is to come. The end result of his death on the cross and resurrection. We all are saved through no effort of 7 / 10

8 our own. Jesus gift of eternal life can not be earned. It is a gift. Honestly acquired and generously shared wealth can be dangerous to our salvation, because it prompts us to rely on ourselves and what we have or can do, rather than God. We can enjoy being saved only when we stop worrying about it and turn our attention to God and neighbor. What then are we to do about our money? Jesus does not leave us with any easy response. We are left at the mercy of God, but Jesus summons requires total transformation and commitment. For the rich man, Jesus call meant giving up all that he had for a life of discipleship. Can it mean any less for us? Our response will show whether we truly believe that we will be rewarded in this life and the next. Despite Jesus command to the rich man and his uncompromising challenge to the wealthy, We must not simplistically turn this into a new law that requires all wealthy people literally to sell everything, give to the poor, and thereby earn eternal life. Two reasons Number 1 You can t earn 8 / 10

9 eternal life. You can t buy eternal life. Number 2 Giving everything thing you have creates a situation of who in the future will have resources to aid the poor, to give to the poor? Rather than calling out some sin of the rich man, Jesus confronts him with his weakness, his captivity to possessions that prevents him from living into the full life of the kingdom. As we discussed two weeks ago about demons, this rich man had a demon named Accumulation. Jesus here names the demon that holds the man captive and invites the man away to step into freedom from the demon. This is pointed out in the text where it says Jesus loved him. Jesus loves all of us even though he gives us difficult tasks. We can call on Jesus to cast a demon out from us. Jesus take away the self-centering power of accumulation. Being wealthy doesn t need to result in our self focus. What we do with our wealth can be a gift of God to the people in our world if we maintain our focus on following Jesus. Most of whom have accumulated wealth are not intentionally evil, but simply captive to their wealth and complicit with powers larger than themselves. Jesus speaks his sharp words to the rich man out of 9 / 10

10 love, because he wants him to be free of the demon, though Jesus is clearly aware that the depth of the man s captivity makes such freedom difficult if not impossible. But even then, Jesus promises, All things are possible with God. Ask Jesus to cast out accumulation from your life. Look for ways to give yourself to those around you. Seek out those in need that you can help. Joel Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. (Joel 2:12-13 NRS) 10 / 10