October 12, 2003 - What Possesses Us?

Maya Angelou tells a story of attending a Southern Baptist Church as a child with her grandmother. Her grandmother was schooling her in the ways of life and was a marvelous teacher. On this particular day, grandma was teaching her about church behavior, particularly giving. Grandma had given young Maya a couple of coins to put in the offertory plates. When the time came for the plates to be passed, Maya sat up straight and prepared to put all three of her coins in the plate. Grandma leaned over and whispered to Maya and said, "put only one in." Maya was surprised but obediently placed one of her three coins in the plate as it passed. Likewise, Grandma put a portion of her folded bills into the plate. The money was passed forward and counted right then and there in front of the congregation while the choir sang. For a moment, Maya begin to wonder if she were going to be able to keep the two coins that were still in her little fist and she imagined what small trinket or candy she would be able to purchase. But, when the counting was finished, the preacher went into a long and gentle exhortation about how it simply wasn't enough money for the work of the good Lord and that the congregation could do better than that. Dig deep, the preacher urged, and down came the ushers again, with their gloved hands, sending the offertory plates up and down each pew. Maya looked at her grandma for guidance and grandma again signaled for Maya to put half of the remaining money in the plate as it passed. Grandma did likewise. Again, the money was counted in front of the entire parish and again the preacher shook his head and said that it simply wasn't enough to do all the work that the Lord had called this church to do. The preacher got a little more cranked up on this second round, almost a little testy that he had to ask again, but sure enough, down came the plates and everybody shifted in their seats and dug a little deeper. As Maya placed her third and final coin in the plate, she looked up at her grandma who had a confident and contented look on her face. Grandma had given precisely what she intended to give in the first place, but she doled it out obediently in three separate increments as her preacher demanded, because no one in the church would want to be seen passing the plate in front of herself without putting something into it. You could say it was a game of sorts. The outcome was probably the same level of giving for most of the worshippers, but perhaps, occasionally an unsuspecting visitor left after three rounds of the plate, having given far more than he or she intended!!

It's a wonderful story that I have remembered many years since I first read it. I've never employed it in one of the churches I have served, but I often wonder what would happen if we did. But can't we relate to the dynamics inherent in the story? Whether we are in church, or in some other setting, we hear the call to give back. We consider our pocketbook, our time, our energy level and then we make a modest contribution - not too much, for there will be other opportunities to give and we don't want to blow it all with one big gift. Other requests come in and we give a little bit more, still holding back, "just in case." But what if we don't hold back? What if we decide to give extravagantly so that we feel the pinch? We can't get that massage or that new dress this month; we have to eat out at one less time in a nice restaurant in the coming week, we have to put off buying that new car for one more month. What do we get if we do give a little over the top, a little extravagantly? Do we earn a ticket to paradise? Do we get to experience more of God's favor?

I think the rich man in the story today from the Bible considered himself to be in that latter category of questioning. He had lived a good life - he was a religious man who took the time to seek out Jesus; he had kept the commandments that he had studied and learned from his youth; he had worked hard to achieve some success and wasn't plagued by any family or community scandal; maybe he was even a generous boss and gave his time to his local community, running the little league team and tutoring youth. Maybe he and his wife took in foster children and shared their big house and numerous resources. And yet, something was gnawing at him. He really wasn't absolutely, positively sure that he was in with God, especially in the life beyond this one. He just wanted to make sure that there wasn't anything else he could do to be sure.

Mark's Gospel reports that Jesus looked at him, loved him, and then threw down the gauntlet - "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." Can you imagine the look on this man's face? Clearly, this was the last thing he expected to hear. He wasn't at all prepared for this answer - serve more in the soup kitchen, offer animals to struggling farmers out of the abundance of his flock, open his home to Jesus and his disciples - all these things and many more he was prepared to do. Give up his possessions, his status and power. This was beyond the call of duty!!!!

"When we heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving for he had many possessions." How unfair of Jesus. He asked the impossible of this man. Or did he? The Bible doesn't say that he looked at this man with an evil twinkle in his eye. It states that Jesus looked at him, loved him, and then spoke to him. What kind of love is this that would ask someone to relinquish security, status and comfort? What kind of love would ask someone to do something that felt impossible, take a risk with no assurances?

In this powerful parable and teaching story, Jesus puts a stop to a couple of popular notions about religion. First, that keeping the commandments, the rules of your organization, will grant you entrance into the Kingdom of God. Through the years, different traditions have required different things - some have asked for confessions of faith in a public setting. Others have required monetary tithing as evidence of ones commitment; still others have required specific behavior so that others can see evidence of a transformed life: attendance at church, evidence of a prayer life, service on certain committees and boards around town, stable family life, and of course language and personal habits that befit a spiritual person. In more structured traditions, you are even schooled about what to eat, drink and wear. This is an emphasis on "doing." This is the school of thought that implies that it is all about our effort; it seems to indicate that we can earn our way into heaven and God's goodwill. There is something to be said about this, don't you think? It's a great way to check out a tradition before you join - find out what is expected and figure out if you can do that successfully; if not, why join? And what one gets is the assurance that they are succeeding in the area of religion.

Unfortunately, that is a far cry from what the United Church of Christ is all about. Oh sure, we may have informal expectations in local congregations, but in our tradition we have clear parameters and a broad outline, but the details aren't spelled out; they are worked out with the individual, the local community and with God. We don't have a spelled-out instruction book on how to be a good Christian. Good thing then, that faith in Jesus doesn't hinge on a checklist!! No, Jesus is far more subtle and veiled than that. God wants us to wrestle with our faith and to live in the tension of deciding and choosing. Because, first of all, you can't earn your way into heaven. It is a gift from God, this whole grace thing and furthermore, Jesus puts more of an emphasis on learning how to give and receive than he does on learning how to memorize or follow a marked path. Just as we are all individuals, so Jesus' teaching is unique to each of us. To this particular man, Jesus perceived that his impediment to God was his wealth!! Sure, Jesus came to disencumber us from all that weighs us down, but maybe wealth, things, aren't what hold us apart from God. Maybe it is insecurity, or addiction, or our loneliness. Perhaps it is our appearance, our rank at work, our anger, our intelligence. Maybe it is our commitment to something which makes us blind to any other needs. Jesus might not tell you or me to give up our paycheck, but he probably will ask us to consider an area of our life which is a stumbling block for our faith. St. Augustine was the first one that taught us that we cannot receive anything when our fists our clenched - we must open our hands to be receivers. It is both a posture and a reality. We are called then to examine what it is that we are clutching so tightly.

So, first of all, Jesus disabuses us of the notion that we can earn our way into God's favor - through the ages this has been referred to as works/righteousness. Instead, Jesus reconfirms that God's love and grace is offered to each of us as a gift. That might result in a transformed character and behavior, but that comes after the gift is given, not in the process of us earning the gift of grace.

The second thing that Jesus puts a stop to is the notion that personal wealth is a sign of God's favor. Now, before we jump to the conclusion that this is a modern-day, American notion, consider the biblical roots of this perspective. Think of Abraham and Sarah from the Hebrew Bible. God gave Abraham land and offspring. Abraham also was "very rich in livestock, in silver and gold?he had many things and was very blessed." Consider Job. Job was a blameless and upright man of God who was tested by bad luck and suffering in order to see if Job was truly righteous or whether he would curse God if things were taken away. After Job suffers much, losing everything, in the end, God restores Job's fortunes and "gave Job twice as much as he had before," - animals, children, grandchildren and longevity. It would be easy to assume that those blessed by God are those who have personal and monetary wealth. Nope, says Jesus. Nope, says the New Testament.

I'll never forget when I was in my early twenties. I was invited to a meeting which was advertised as an international sales company. I went with a friend to a house and heard the marketing pitch. Only later did I hear the words, "Amway," for initially the presentation was about living the life you had always dreamed of - boat in the dock at the beach, nice house, dream car, jewelry, clothing, vacations, all the toys that lure us. I remember them urging us to cut out pictures from magazines that we wanted to attain and to post them on our refrigerator doors to remind ourselves of what we wanted to have and letting that be a motivation for our work. At the break, I asked my host how this materialistic emphasis fit with religion. She assured me that it was consistent with religion, that God wanted me to have my heart's desire. Well, I was fresh out of seminary and had taken a Liberation Theology class my last year, and to me, this was just a joke when you compared this to the life and ministry of Jesus!!! Nowhere in my New Testament do I hear Jesus urging me to paste pictures of things to motivate me. Just the opposite. Jesus isn't impressed with our social climbing. Certainly he wants us to have food and clothing and other basic necessities. Jesus interacts with all kinds of people but he is particularly interested and compassionate to those who are marginalized and oppressed. He urges his disciples to live simply, give sacrificially and to reach out to those who are hurting. There are examples of successful people who followed Jesus and who were never asked to give up everything - Lydia, Phoebe, Priscilla and Aquilla all were successful business people and opened their homes for meetings of the early church. When Jesus had lunch with the wealthy tax collector, he didn't tell the man to give all his money away, he told the man to stop overcharging and cheating the people on their taxes and to compensate them for what he had taken from them. What Jesus wants for each of us not to be possessed by things other than God. When he states in the passage just prior to the one today, "Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it," what does he mean? I think he means that we must be like children when it comes to God - having no social standing or status that would make us qualified, but instead having an openness and willingness to trust and receive.

How hard is that? - well it is like a large animal going through the eye of a tiny needle!! Impossible you say, but, never impossible for our God. Jesus wants us to know that God loves us not because of our perfectly lived lives; God loves us because God created us and seeks to be in relationship with us. It is God's will to offer us undeserved grace.

Back to the rich man in the story. Last we heard, he walked away sad because he had many possessions. Is that the end of his story? What if he sat down with his spouse in the ensuing weeks and clarified their priorities? What if he considered seriously Jesus' words about his attachment to his possessions? What if he trusted in the words of Jesus and took baby steps toward relinquishing some of his control and self-sufficiency?

I don't believe that God only extends one invitation to us and then turns away. God nudges, reminds, challenges, asks, gives and persuades in a variety of ways. I don't know how the story ended for this man, but if he truly was as faithful and introspective as I think he was, then the story did not end with him walking away.

This story is a reminder that we are the ones who throw up the roadblocks to God. Jesus is reminding us to remove those road blocks and to trust that the rewards (the relationships, the healing, the peace, the wisdom) far outweigh any sacrifices that we will make. May God bless us in the hearing of this important text. Amen.