Epworth United Methodist Church

Epworth United Methodist Church
Rev. David Weekley, Pastor
Oct. 11, 2009

Setting Out on a Journey

The opening verse of the gospel reading is a metaphor for the Christian faith, for spiritual life: our walk with Christ is a lifetime journey.

Like the man who runs up to Jesus in this passage, inquiring, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” we, too, ask this question again and again in our lifetime.

How can I live closer to God? How can I know Jesus loves me? How can I trust in the promise of eternal life?

At first Jesus answers the man’s question with traditional Jewish religious teaching: do your best to follow the commandments, but when this man assures Jesus he has tried to keep the commandments since he was just a young man, Jesus, loving him, tells him a deeper truth about spiritual life and principles saying, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor…then come, follow me.”

So what’s this man’s response? Well, the Scripture says, “When he heard this he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.”

Even the ‘regulars’ i.e. the disciples, were astounded by this exchange, and Jesus’ teaching about the spiritual poverty of those who are rich.

They ask Jesus, “Then who can be saved?”

Jesus assures them that although it is impossible for people to be spiritually perfect, God’s grace makes all things possible.

Jesus goes on to say that those who strive to follow him, even if it costs them relationships, or their work, or possessions- will be more than doubly blessed in this life, and will experience eternal life in the future.

He ends this particular teaching saying, “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

The deeper spiritual issue discussed in this passage is God’s prevenient grace towards us, [i.e. God’s love for us], which is illustrated by Jesus’ own action of ‘loving’ this man who is troubled about eternal life.

This one comment, “Jesus…loved him” echoes the great commandment discussion between Jesus and the scribe, where Jesus says the greatest commandments are wholehearted love of God and love of neighbor.

This is where the rich man falls short: the man’s wealth and love of possessions has shortchanged his ability to really love others.

He is unable to follow Jesus precisely because he cannot obey this great commandment to love God wholeheartedly and other people generously, even if he has obeyed the other commandments.

This man’s love of wealth and materialism prevents him from understanding the great commandment- love of God and love of neighbor- it causes him to prioritize his wealth over God’s kingdom, and therefore over following Jesus.

This is not a problem unique to this man of wealth, or to centuries ago.

Comedian Steven Wright once joked, “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?”

And years ago philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau remarked that, far from people owning possessions, from his observation, possessions often own people.

Years ago I had a parishioner who needed help getting back into her home following knee surgery. She told me the problem was figuring out how to move around her home using a walker, because she had a few things in the way.

I went with a group of volunteers to help clean her house of clutter; we were astounded by what met us as we entered her home.

Her home was so filled with broken items, magazines, papers, books and things she had collected over the years that there were only narrow paths leading from room to room.

As we tried to help sort through things we discovered she was unable to release anything to be thrown away, even if it was broken, moldy, or entirely useless.

This parishioner clearly had a form of Obsessive Compulsive disorder known as a Hoarding Disorder.

While people suffering from this syndrome represent extreme cases, we could argue that much of Western culture is also focused on the hoarding of stuff.

It may not be junk, or clutter our homes, but the constant drive to acquire homes, bigger homes, cars, luxury cars, televisions, HD plasma televisions, electronic gadgets and other high-end stuff may actually be symptomatic of a larger and more pervasive social disease- call it greed, avarice, or even “chronic wealth syndrome.”

Whatever name we give it, it has the potential to be just as debilitating and spiritually deadly as the hoarding disorder my former parishioner suffered from.

As Jesus teaches in the gospel, when the overwhelming desire to accumulate and hold on to material things begins to dominate a person’s life, it’s a serious problem.

Jesus wants us to learn that having it all becomes more of a spiritual and life-choking burden than a blessing.

When we come to believe that our worth is bound up in the things we achieve and accumulate, we become trapped in a material maze of our own making.

This is a serious twenty-first century spiritual issue for Western people.

Now we even have people you can hire to help manage your overflowing personal possessions; they are called, “personal organizers’ and, charging as much $100.00 an hour, they come into your home, interview you about your needs, and then help you figure out how to store all your stuff.

One personal organizer calls herself a, “clutter therapist” and says that the problem of clutter is not so much the stuff itself, as the mental state that makes it difficult to give or throw things away.

As our Finance Committee has worked on building a balanced budget and eliminating the nagging deficit our church faces every year, we realized there has not been much communication of our financial need, education about Christian giving as a spiritual practice, or any emphasis on Stewardship in recent years.

One result of this is that I plan to preach about Stewardship as a spiritual practice this November, in the traditional season of giving thanks for all we have received.

Our holy Scriptures are replete with examples and teachings that focus on possessions, giving, wealth, gifts, generosity, charity, sacrifice, and sharing with those in need.

Giving is a core Jewish and Christian spiritual practice because people of faith perceive God as being extravagantly generous to us, to others, and to the entire world.

The bottom line is that we give because we serve a generously giving God.

Paul speaks about the importance of putting God first and giving to the church community in 2 Corinthians, saying, “You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity.”

And this is so true.

Who here this morning has not felt really enriched, even happy when you have been able to give to something important, to help someone in need?

But our culture teaches us to live from the perspective of scarcity rather than the abundance of God’s grace.

Let me give you an example.

At another church Is served a few years ago, the Finance Committee met to face the challenge of paying for an unexpected furnace repair bill of $475.00.

There was no money in the budget for the repair, and all other accounts were pretty short of funds.

The committee members that gathered consisted of a retired salesman, a housewife, a banker, a teacher, and an insurance agent.

For more than half an hour they discussed options.

Should they borrow the money, postpone paying another bill, make an additional appeal for money on Sunday?

They considered fundraising options as well: maybe a bake sale, or a special dinner?

The thought occurred to them to go to the wealthiest member of the congregation, but this was a man who had not been around much, and did not have a reputation for generosity in any area of life.

As the meeting drug on, frustrations grew and good solutions seemed to elude them.

Finally, the teacher in the group just shook her head, and smiling, she suggested they simply stop talking so much and take some moments for silent prayer to see if God had any ideas to share, to provide another way to solve this problem.

After a few moments of silent prayer, the teacher looked around the room at her fellow church members and said, “We all realize that any one of us could write a check for the full $475.00 and it would not make any major difference in our lifestyle, comfort or financial security.”

And after saying that, she pulled out her checkbook from her purse and wrote a check for $475.00.

Then she said, “anyone who wants to join me can add their check, too, and we will earmark the surplus for refurbishing our nursery that needs new cribs, chairs and toys.

Well, three other people also wrote checks for $475.00, two wrote a check for $200.00 and $100.00 respectively.

What was the result of her generosity and leadership in giving?

The furnace repair bill was paid, and the nursery had an unexpected remodeling budget of $1695.00 to make that space welcoming and safe for babies and toddlers.

As Bishop Robert Schnase of Missouri said, “There’s no end to what the church can accomplish for the purposes of Christ when the sharp awareness of the assets, resources, and talents that God entrusts to us supersedes the fear of scarcity and the obsessive focus on needs, problems, and shortages. Extravagant generosity means graciously and responsibly placing ourselves and our resources in service to God.

What Jesus is teaching to the rich man who walked away, the disciples who remained, to us who try to follow Christ on our life’s journey today, is that love of God and neighbor is lived out through generosity.

Generosity is the opposite of selfishness, self-centeredness, and self-absorption.

Generosity is a fruit of the spirit that changes both the giver and the church.

I invite you to think about how you understand giving to the church, and what place generosity plays in your spiritual journey as I close with one final true story.

A long-time member and proud grandfather stood at the baptismal font with his family for the baptism of his first grand-daughter. Another infant from another family was also being baptized that same day.

Following the service, the two families intermingled up front while friends took pictures.

At one point, the mother from the new family in church needed to get something from her bag, and this grandfather offered to hold her baby.

Other church member and friends were mixing and visiting and several commented on the grandfather with his baby, and he found himself saying several times, “Oh, this one isn’t mine; I’m just holding him for a minute.”

Monday morning this grandfather called the pastor of the church and said he needed to see him right away.

The pastor assumed the worst, thinking that somehow this longstanding member of the church was upset about something from the service the day before.

When the grandfather arrived at the church what he told the pastor was that he wanted to change his will to include the church in it, and he wanted to know how to do this through his attorney.

The pastor was stunned, and asked what had happened to bring this man to this decision.

The grandfather’s eyes moistened as he said, “Yesterday I realized something while I was holding that other baby. I kept telling people that wasn’t my grandchild, but later it dawned on me that this baby was/is part of my church family, and that I have a responsibility. I’ve been a member of this church for more than forty years, and in God’s eyes, I’m a grandfather to more than just my own. So I want to change my will to leave a part to the church, so the church can continue caring for all my children, all of God’s children.”

What this man understood is that our joy and responsibility is to make new disciples of Jusus Christ for generations to come, sharing with them the joy of God’s love.

So, a few questions to take with you today:

1. How do you feel about how our church talks about money?

2. How do you feel about how faithful Epworth is with money?

3. How has someon else’s generosity touched you and made a difference in your life?

4. What is the most fun you have ever had giving money?

5. How do you feel about giving to our ministry today?