Mark 10:17-31

Last week, Jesus spoke about divorce. This week, Jesus really gets

personal---moving from marriage to money. As Jesus comes closer to Jerusalem,

he "hits close to home" with some of the most discomforting and disheartening

judgments anyone could hear. His message is so startling and discouraging

that he frightens one potential convert away and strikes doubt and despair

into the hearts of his own disciples.

The Rich Man of our text from Mark is drawn to Jesus, knowing instinctively

that here is a unique individual. Here is a man who can take him beyond where

he has gotten so far. The Rich Man recognizes that more is needed for

fulfillment in life than what he already has or even in keeping the rules and

regulations of his religious faith---as satisfying as that may be.

"What can I do to inherit eternal life?" the Rich Man asks.  "Keep the

Commandments," Jesus answers. To which the Rich Man responds, "Teacher, I

have kept all these since my youth." That's all that was said.  Silence

followed, with the question still hanging out there. Still, it was a

beginning. The Rich Man's understanding that there was something else worth

having, something missing, endeared him to Jesus. Here, Jesus must have

thought, was a man who was willing to really search for fulfillment. Jesus

loved him for that.

When you love someone, you want the best for him or her.  You don't just

leave things hanging. So, to the rich man, whom Jesus had quickly grown to

love, he said:

    "One thing you lack. Go sell what you have; give the money to the poor

and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come back and follow me."

Mark ends his account of the encounter between Jesus and the Rich Man with:

    "When the man heard that, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he

had many possessions."

The man is a model citizen, a promise keeper and a truth seeker. He doesn't

use his wealth to oppress the poor. He doesn't squander his money on worldly

trinkets or immoral pursuits. It's hard to see how money is his addiction,

because addictions are usually destructive.

The truth is, of course, he did not simply have possessions, his possessions

had him! Rather than enriching him, they impoverished him. Simply put, he

lacked the ability to respond to Christ's invitation. Unwilling to pay the

price for the kind of fulfillment Jesus was talking about, the Rich Man

slowly walked away.

So it was, and so it is! In turning away from Christ, a poor-rich-man loses

everything. All too often, holding on to material wealth means we lose our

chance to grow and gain. The contrast between how the Rich Man first ran up

to Jesus and his slow sorrowful walking away is found again and again in

every time and place, generation to generation, as we walk away from

long-term fulfillment for the sake of some short-term gain.

Listen carefully to what Martin Luther said about riches:

    "Riches are the pettiest and least worthy gifts which God can give a man.

What are they compared to God's word, to bodily gifts, such as beauty and

health; or to the gifts of the mind, such as understanding, skill, wisdom!

Yet men toil for them day and night, and take no rest. Therefore God commonly

gives riches to foolish people to whom he gives nothing else."

Our world is full of obsessions and earthly attachments that afflict us,

addict us and keep us from fullness of life. And, there seems to be no

shortage of possibilities. New addictions are popping up every day, each with

its own weekly support group and "Anonymous" organization. What's gotten into

us? Is it the need for success? Is it the need for money? "Dump 'em," says

Jesus, "and follow me."

How would you respond if called upon to give up your material possessions?

You'd balk, as any of us would---and for good reason. After all, is it wrong

to have money to feed and shelter our families, to put our children or

grandchildren through college, to pay our tithes and offerings to the church?

Having resources doesn't necessarily mean that our possessions are our

masters.

It may be unfair to isolate money as dangerously addictive. But if it isn't

money, what is it? Clearly, there's something here that has the rich man

hooked. In this case, Jesus finds the "trigger."

"Give up what defines your life, and follow me."

"Drop what limits you in exchange for what frees you."

The rich man just can't do that!

Jesus' advice is always the same: Break away from what defines and limits you

outside of your relationship to me as my disciple. Only then will you be

free. If there is such a dependency in your life or in mine, Jesus advises

that we give it up---dump it, drop it---and then follow him. 

I'll tell you what helps a little in all of this.  If you are able to take

this single leap of faith, it helps a little.  Who do the things we say we

own, really belong to?  Do all of the things we say we own belong to us or to

God. Are they ours to keep, or are we only looking after them? You know the

answer, but it is a difficult teaching to learn and almost impossible to put

into practice.

It's even harder to accept that we must find a way to systematically give

ownership of everything we have back to God. From our possessions, to our

relationships, even our health. Obviously, we can't deny that we HAVE these

things, but we need to give up the belief that we have the "right of

ownership" to these things. We don't have the right of ownership to anything.

Even our next breath is a gift from God. When we choose to follow Jesus, we

give up our ownership rights.

Before co-founding Habitat for Humanity, Millard Fuller was a successful

businessman who followed his estranged wife Linda to New York to try to

convince her to come back to him. She was not easily convinced that he could

turn back from his headlong rush for material wealth.

Millard recalls: "We were in a taxi right after Linda and I had a very

tearful session. We'd gone to Radio City Music Hall and they showed the movie

"Never Too Late." It was about a woman getting pregnant after she thought it

was too late. The message was that it's never too late to change anything.

I had a sensation of light in that taxi. It was not anything spooky. All I

can say is it just came into my head: "Give your money away, make yourself

poor again and throw yourself on God's mercy."

I turned to Linda and said, "I believe that God just gave me the idea to give

all our money away; give everything away."  She said, "I agree. Let's do it."

"Friends, family, even pastors tried to talk us out of it," Fuller says, as

he tells his story. "I told them no, if I think about it I won't do it,

because it's not logical. But I believe that God is calling us to do this." 

(Michael G. Maudlin, "God's Contractor," Christianity Today, June 14, 1999,

46).

One thing I discovered, in my early 20's, while in Asia, was that I was rich.

There were many frustrating things about spending three almost four years in

India, Burma, Thailand and the Philippines, but what I hated most was the way

it made me feel about myself.  Whenever I left my ship, climbed in a jitney

cab, rode through the streets of Madras, Rangoon, Bangkok or Manila I felt

like a rich foreigner.

India, more than all other lands, doesn't let you forget that you're

different and that you're rich. This is evident in every little thing you do.

From walking down the street, to buying a train ticket. When you're shopping,

they hike the prices because they count either on your ignorance or your lack

of will power; ---after all, it's probably only a matter of a dollar or two.

You have to struggle and fight to be treated fairly. You can wear the clothes

of their country, you can and even learn speak their language, but they never

let you forget that you're different. The thing I hate most about all this is

the fact that they are right---We are different, and we are rich!

In the words to her beautiful Gospel hymn, Helen Lemmel tells it exactly as

it is or can be when we see our riches in the light of Christ's glory and

grace:

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

look full in his wonderful face,

and the things of earth will grow strangely dim

in the light of his glory and grace."

                                                                         AMEN.