The Rev. Carol Wedell
October 11, 2009

This past Friday evening a small group of us went to see the musical Fiddler on the Roof.  This classic story was wonderfully performed, and brought to mind all of the songs I have known (and to my children's chagrin, sung) so often.  One of the most famous songs is sung at the beginning, by Tevye - "the papa."  A poor peasant, who earns just enough to keep his family fed, Tevye imagines what it would be like "If I Were a Rich Man."  He sings of the house he would build, the things he would buy for his wife, even the leisure he would have to pursue spiritual matters.  He concludes with a question for God, "would it spoil some vast eternal plan - if I were a wealthy man?"

And that, my friends, is the question for this morning. What is the relationship between wealth and faith?  Initially it appears that Tevye makes the same mistake we often make, a century later with vastly more money at our disposal.  While deep down we know better, we are still tempted to equate happiness with wealth. We have bought into our culture's consumer mindset that says success and happiness are defined by the size of my house, my bank account or a rise in the stock market.  Or maybe happiness will be found with a new iPod, or cell phone or car .... you get it.

I read this week of a church that was discussing using a portion of their building for day care.  One elder was vehemently opposed:  The comment of one committee person especially-that "everybody must work" just to put food on the table-set her off. "Let's be honest," she said, "What's becoming more difficult is to have the two cars, the VCR, the house at the lake....I just hate to see the church buying into the same corrupt value system as everyone else, telling these young couples that all that junk leads to happiness or makes them better parents. I think the church ought to have the courage to tell them-`that's a lie.' (William Willimon, in a sermon on this text).

I think she's on to something (which is not to say that there aren't families where both parents must work simply to make ends meet).  Jesus talks more about money than about anything else except the Kingdom of God. And he makes it clear that possessions and wealth are not the way to find the joy he offers.  If it seems like preachers (including me) preach about money all the time, that's because the gospels are full of Jesus' comments and stories regarding our relationship to wealth.  We are warned about how easy it is to let money become an idol - to which we give more allegiance than we ultimately give to God.  Please notice that I said "we" not "you" - for this is indeed the human predicament - including all preachers!

So here we are still on the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus and his disciples, and Jesus continues to teach about the cost of discipleship and what it means to follow him.  This morning's story is found in all three synoptic gospels:  Matthew, Mark and Luke, so following the lectionary, it comes around every year in some form.  We also know then, that it was an important story for the early church, as they struggled with their own issues relative to wealth and faith.

According to the gospel of Mark a man (we don't know he's rich yet) approaches Jesus, and kneels down in front of him.  That's important.  He's not testing Jesus.  He's not showing off.  Rather, he humbly kneels before Jesus and asks, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  I think it's important to believe that his question is sincere.  He has sought Jesus out, and genuinely wants an answer to the question that has been eating away at him. But he still thinks that eternal life, life in the Kingdom of God is something he can create, he can make happen, "What can I do?"

Jesus reminds the man of the commandments, to which the man replies "I've kept all those since my youth."  Again - I don't think this man is being arrogant.  Rather, he is simply saying who he is.  Someone not unlike many of us here this morning. Someone who has followed the rules, done what he was told, gone to synagogue, observed the Sabbath, and still - still feels a hunger deep within that he yearns to have addressed, a God-sized hole that nothing else will fill.

Notice what Mark tells us happens next.  "Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."   And the man went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Jesus looks at this man with love, and tells him the truth about what stands in his way from knowing what eternal life lived right this minute would be like.  But the truth is too hard.  And so the man, whom we now know is rich, leaves, head bent down with sorrow.

Friends, is there any real doubt that this story is also a story about us?  Even before Jesus' day there were tensions about the relationship between money and faith.  In Biblical times to have a lot of money was supposed to be a sign that you were blessed by God.  And if you were poor....well, you get the idea.  So the disciples are rightly confused when Jesus tells them that more often than not, riches are a barrier to faithful discipleship.

If you weren't uncomfortable when I read this passage, you probably are or should be by now. Because this story is about us -not someone else. Even the poorest of us here this morning are materially rich by world standards - very rich.  Even Americans of modest income are in the top ten percent of global wealth.  Some of us are far exceed that. And Jesus is challenging us to take a very different look at our understandings of success, of happiness, of priorities. As Jesus taught the disciples, he teaches us that money and wealth can become God-like, demanding our allegiance, our time, our energy, and most importantly: our soul.

Like the man in this story, most of us have done our best to live a law-abiding life.  We give to the church and to other charitable organizations. We've taught Sunday School or sung in the choir or served on Session. We may even have gone on a mission trip, or volunteered at North Church.  Many of us have watched our life savings grow sufficiently that we feel some sense of economic security - particularly now as the stock market has begun to rebound. Yet we, like the rich man, know there is more to life than that. We come, I believe, each Sunday, hoping - praying - for God's Spirit to rush in and fill that God-shaped hole within us.

In the past 30 years or so, the Church has discovered that the most challenging mission field is actually here at home!   In the industrialized West we find that most churches have meshed so closely with the values of their culture that they don't really understand what a challenge the gospel is to the world in which they live.  To be Christian today in America (as well as many other places) is to be counter-cultural.  We can't accept the worship of wealth as the norm for individuals or our society.

That is one of the reasons I have been reminding us that Olya is a missionary to us.  Coming from a country where the church was shunned and even persecuted by the government for many years, she has much to teach us about what the Christian faith looks like when serving God is truly the first priority in our lives.  Consider what her congregation has done in their community:  significant ministry and service to 18 orphanages, a prison ministry, a street ministry, a camp ministry - and the list goes on.  And this is a congregation not so much larger than ours, with Olya says, "no rich people."

Jacob Needleman is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University, and he has written a book entitled Money and the Meaning of Life.  He writes:  "We live...in...an `affluent society.' This means not only that we have much material wealth, but that we want this wealth more than we want everything else. But... it doesn't do for us what we want. It doesn't make us happy or free or immortal or even content." In fact, he proposes that our desire for money is a kind of self-imposed hell:  "Hell is the state in which we are barred from receiving what we truly need because of the value we give to what we merely want". Jacob Needleman, Money and the Meaning of Life (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 22.   And that God-shaped hole remains empty.

There are not neatly carved out answers on how Christians should respond to this teaching of Jesus.  Clearly this is not a one-size fits all issue. Yet theologian John Cobb suggests that there are some important questions we can ask of ourselves:  Do we care more about gaining wealth beyond our real needs or about whether the poor have their basic needs met?  How do we balance our giving to meet the needs of others and our acquisition of luxuries for ourselves and our families?  Do we take more pleasure in seeing the value of our assets grow or in contributing to the work of Christ in the world?

This familiar passage challenges us. Where do we find security? (for this passage is more about security than even consumerism).  In what do we find happiness?  Joy? What do you live for?  What possesses you?  What couldn't you live without?

Sixteen years ago, a 12 year old Canadian girl addressed the United Nations as they met in Brazil.  Her powerful words echo our gospel lesson today.  In part she said, "I am only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, we are all in this together."  She observes, "Even when we have more than enough we are afraid to share, we are afraid to let go of some of our wealth.  Why are we who have everything so greedy?"  Then she tells of her conversation with a young boy who lived on the streets of Rio.  He said, "I wish I was rich.  I would give all these street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and affection."  She concludes, "In kindergarten we were taught to share.  Why won't adults have their actions match their words?"

The question isn't really about what we do with the possessions we have - keep them all or give them all away. This story is not intended to be a new law, a new rule for "doing the right thing."  Jesus did not ask the man to do more, give more, be more.  Jesus asks the man to be open to this new world that God is creating, this new upside down way of living. The real question is "What road are you traveling?"  "Who are you following?  "What are you doing with your life?"

A minister was talking with a businessman who was a member of his congregation. The conversation was about money and the minister was challenging this parishioner to stretch and give more. The man replied, "But I have to live too!" The minister looked into the eyes of that man, with love and asked: "For what?" What do you live for, and does your relationship to money reflect that? What do you live for?

James McCord, who was president of Princeton Seminary while I was there, told the story of a Scots pastor who called on a member who rarely came to church.  The man said that he had been absent because when he attends church, all he hears is "give, give, give."  The thoughtful and reflective minister responded, "Well, I cannot think of a better definition of Christianity than that." (Lectionary Homiletics, Vol. XX, No.6, p. 20)

The invitation, once again is to faithful discipleship, to putting God first in our lives, and choosing to follow Jesus on the way to the cross.  We want short-cuts, but there aren't any.  We want it to be easy, but it's hard.  We want it to be safe and secure, and those aren't guarantees that we are given.  Instead we are offered a relationship, a hand to hold, a guide to follow, a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God could and should look like:  eternal life, not some time in the future, but here and now.  We are offered the joy and companionship of the journey.

A college class-mate writes, "Throughout Mark, Jesus teaches about the Kingdom of God and how surprising it is.  His invitation to come and participate in it requires us to let go of certain kinds of security and embrace new truths about faith and life.....Like the rich man, Jesus invites us to live the values of the Kingdom of God, values we cannot yet fully see or completely understand." (Kristin Saldine, Lectionary Homiletics, Vol. XX, No. 6, p. 21)

As the rich man goes away sad, I believe that Jesus shares his sadness.  For Jesus knows that this man's life will be less than it could have been. He knows the joy in which this man is not currently sharing.  But friends, remember this:  we are not told, "and he lived unhappily ever after."  We are told that what was impossible for this man on his own, is possible for God.  We don't know if this man eventually decided that what he stood to gain was far more than he would lose.  That's the point - we don't know the end of the story. 

What we do know - without question, is that if that man returns, Jesus will be there waiting.  For the final word is not something about what we do; we can't do something to earn the right to be included in the Kingdom world.  It comes to all of us as a gift of grace. The final word is about what God does:  opening closed hearts, releasing clenched fists, showing us a different kind of security and inviting each one of us to follow.

What will you live for?  May each one of us dare to live the values of God's Kingdom, no matter what the cost.