AMOS 5:6-7,10-15

PSALM 90:1-8,12

HEBREWS 3:1-6

MARK 10:17-31

Sermon – 10/12/03

“’Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” Imagine being able to step up to Jesus in person and ask that question. Fast-forward through all the Sunday School or C.C.D. lessons you could ever experience, skip all the sermons, throw out all the spiritual “self-help” books and go right to The Lord and ask The Question. Eternal life: life of ultimate quality as well as unlimited quantity. Paradise. Bliss. Heaven. Entering the Kingdom of God. This is it.

It happened. Not to you or me, but a guy perhaps not that different from you or me, comes up and kneels before Jesus – so acknowledging his authority – and pops The Question. First, Jesus checks to see if the man passed “Freshman faith” – the 10 commandments – and the man vows that he has obeyed them since his youth.

“Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” How could this guy miss? There’s a roster spot waiting for him, practically a locker with his name on it in “the disciples’ locker room.” He was a good, devout righteous person, and Jesus loved him.

But there was something the man loved more than the prospect of literally, and in person following Jesus. There was something the man loved more even than the prospect of eternal life.

His money.

“Oh, ask me to do anything, Jesus, ask me to do 5,000 “Our Fathers”, memorize 600 Bible verses, even forgive my enemy, but walk away from my money? I’d rather die”, we can almost hear this man saying.

The Gospel says actually that the man was “shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” “Shocked”: perhaps he had been taught that being rich meant he was blessed by God – and giving away his possessions seemed to contradict that. “Shocked”: perhaps he thought he could “have it all now and later.” “Shocked”: perhaps he thought Jesus would never see wealth as a potential barrier to salvation. “Grieving”: perhaps because he realized he couldn’t “have it all” according to his rules, that he would have to choose between putting God first and putting wealth first, and perhaps because, having made his choice by walking away from Jesus, he realized that he was not quite as good or as righteous a person as he had thought.

Jesus could see into the heart of each person and gave this man a spiritual prescription, which the man refused to take. Then Jesus made a generalization – not that everyone should sell all they own and give to the poor, but “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.” Now it was the disciples’ turn to be stunned, for the common assumption was that rich people had a much better shot at salvation than poor or average people. Jesus concludes by emphasizing that salvation is by God’s act – “For God all things are possible” and therefore no one “has it made” or is “hopeless”, certainly not based on their economic or social standing.

Now, we could listen to this Gospel about how hard it is for the rich to be saved and walk out of church thinking, “O.K., the next time I see someone who’s rich, I’ll tell them.” But wait a minute.

How many people here have a home to live in – i.e., are not homeless or squatters? (Raise hands.) How many people have running water in their home? How many people have some form of central heating in their home? How many people own more than one pair of shoes? How many people have access to more than one form of transportation, private or public, besides your feet? How many people have at least 4 years of formal schooling? How many people have visited a doctor in the last 3 years?

Guess what: by worldwide standards, we’re rich. This Gospel story is for us.

And so the same question pursues us: Who – or what – do we put first in our lives: God – or money?

One way we can start the self-examination is by reviewing our own checkbooks: if we were accused of being Christians, would there be enough evidence in our checkbooks to convict us?

Do we give to Christian causes in committed ways, casually, or hardly at all? Do we show our devotion to God and our desire to serve others in God’s name by budgeting our giving to Christian causes, or do we show our priorities by glorifying God with haphazard giving or “leftovers”?

These questions are far, far easier and less confrontational than Jesus' approach in this Gospel. And today’s story was not an aberration: in fact, one third of all Jesus’ parables and one sixth of all his words in the New Testament had to do with people’s relationship to their possessions. Stewardship was a high priority spiritual issue to Jesus; he spent more time teaching stewardship than teaching about the sacraments, because he knew people needed to hear it.

Looking at how materialistic America is today, we still need to hear it. And Christians need to show that we don’t blend too much with the materialistic and self-indulgent culture we live in – that we are different, that we have different standards and priorities, and those differences show up in ways that are meaningful to materialists: in how we spend our money.

In three weeks, St. Barnabas will start distributing financial pledge cards. This is one way we show our faith: by putting our love for God and God’s people into our own budgets. In a culture which sees four-year car loans and 30-year mortgages as routine, a one-year voluntary pledge should also be routine. Pledging to your local church – which serves people well beyond our local area – is one way to show we’re serious about being joyful, and joyful about being Christians. There are other ways, of course, but this is one important way.

A few important notes. Pledges are not “membership dues”. We have no “expected contribution”, because those who worship here have a wonderfully wide range of incomes. Biblical giving is based on a percentage of a person’s income, not a flat amount. Let’s suppose Bill Gates gave $10,000 to this church, and a cashier at McDonald’s gave $500. Which contribution is bigger? Which contribution is more generous? (The cashier’s.) Now, you’re getting it. The materialists would not agree with you, but you’re right.

So in the mail you’ll be getting a worksheet with which to figure out for yourself what you will want to do in your giving for 2004. The tithe – that’s 10% of gross – is the standard biblical approach, and one the leaders of the Episcopal Church, USA, endorse and pledge to practice. It’s simple as it is challenging, but I can say the more years one does it, the more it just becomes part of normal life – a normal life in which giving thanks to God tangibly and sacrificially is a fundamental part of financial planning.

Those who have never pledged before may want to start much more modestly – say 1% of gross. Those who have pledged before may want to challenge themselves to step up to the national average for giving, which is about 2% of gross. Those who are already there may want to say “why settle for being average?” and take the next step to 3%, 4% or higher. People often experience a sense of liberation as their generosity grows, looking more into how much their giving benefits others and less worried about what they didn’t buy for themselves as a result.

An important note about percentage giving is that it is just that: if a person or a household’s incomes rises or falls, the amount of giving floats with the circumstances. The reality also is that pledges are just that: if you make a pledge and fall into financial hardship during the year, you can change it at any time by any degree by just writing a note to the treasurer. Try that with Master Card. And one of the beauties of pledging is that no one misses out on any ministry of the parish due to financial hardship. We never have fees for sacraments or pastoral care of any kind, and scholarships are available for the few events that come with a price tag. The sacraments, after all, are priceless; how dare anyone charge for them? And all the services of the Church throughout the world and salvation itself are made possible by Christ giving himself 100% for the sake of all the people of the world; how can we fail to give thanks, seriously and systematically, for his unlimited generosity towards us and all people?

Generosity is not something to be boastful about or to set legalistic requirements about. Generosity is simply the key to let ourselves out of the prison of materialism our culture has built for us. Once out of that prison we can experience the glorious freedom offered to us as children of God, praise God, lift up the poor, liberate the oppressed, enlighten all and let nothing – not even our possessions – get in the way of our following Jesus.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church