The Opposite of Rich
0 Amens
THE OPPOSITE OF RICH[1]
For several weeks now, we have been exploring what it means to be the people of God – how we are in relationship with God and how that relationship affects our interactions with others, both in and outside of the family of God.
We have grieved and mourned the fact that there seems to be little difference in the ethical and moral behavior of Christians and non-Christians, and how that offends those whom we are trying to reach with the gospel.
We have observed the disproportionate amount of time, money and energy that we pour into our weekly worship “huddles,” when scripture is clear that we are to be leave the practice field of the sanctuary and become engaged in the game of good works both in our own community and around the world.
And last week we covered a lot of territory about what it looks like for God’s to people obey God’s word, how one of God’s main attributes is giving, and how God wants to transform us into his image by showing us how to become givers of ourselves, our money and our possessions.
We have also finished our first week of discussions of the little book called The Treasure Principle.
As we’ve made our in-depth examination of what life is supposed to look like in the Kingdom of God, we’ve found that we constantly have to deal with the paradox that our spiritual lives are completely enmeshed in our material lives – that although we are free in Christ we often remain in bondage to our bank accounts and bills; that although we are indwelt with the power of the Holy Spirit, our money and possessions have enormous power over us, and how we try to use the power of wealth to control and manipulate others. We’ve learned that even though everything we have comes from God, we try to hoard out of fear that we won’t have enough for ourselves. We know that salvation is ours through grace alone, and not of works; and that our response to the gift of grace is supposed to be good works. But our desire to do that work is most often not motivated by gratitude to God, but is instead motivated by fear that we are not good enough and should do more; or that if a little sacrifice is good, then more is better; and that if we give a little of our money, then God is somehow after the rest.
It is supposed to be simple, but we have made it very complicated – because if we make it complicated, then we think we don’t have to understand it, and if we don’t understand it, we can be excused for not doing it.
We American Christians have a lot in common with the Rich Young Man who came to Jesus asking what he should do to inherit eternal life. Compared with our Christian brothers and sisters in almost all parts of the world, even those of us who are poor in America are typically richer than the poor elsewhere. The man in our text is not concerned with feeding his family or making ends meet. His income is secure and he – and all of his neighbors of that day – believe that the reason he has wealth is because God has blessed him.
Freed from the daily grind of earning a living, he is able and willing to serve the Lord – sort of like some of the well-off folks we know who have retired early and find themselves without enough to do. He is looking for an assignment – maybe Jesus will want him to buy shoes for every man, woman and child in Palestine. He says has kept the commandments of God all of his life, so he knows that the law has bankrupted him spiritually. He has come to the end, both of himself and his wealth, and he knows that he can’t buy his way into heaven. He is a true seeker who has kept God’s word and translated his beliefs into a life of obedience, but he knows that there is more.
And there is more, and Jesus tells him what it is: “Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me.” Wow. Give everything away – all of it. How could anybody do that?
In the story of the life of St. Francis of Assisi, we have proof that what Jesus was asking the Rich Young Man to do can actually be done. Francis was born in the 12th century, as the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. He was raised in comfort and as a young man was more interested in having a good time in the bars than he was with religion or good works. But he did pray on occasion, and one day he heard a voice from the crucifix telling him to “Go, repair my house, which is falling into ruin.” So Francis sold his horse and some of his father’s cloth, and gave the money to the priest to repair the church, and to feed the local beggars.
Francis’ father was furious with him for wasting his money this way, and dragged him before the bishop to have some sense talked into him, and to force him to make restitution of the money he had given away. In the midst of the lecture, Francis calmly took off all of his clothes, folded them up and handed them over to his father. As he stood there naked, he said he was now recognizing only his Father in heaven, not his father on earth. From that time forward, Francis lived his life without money or family ties.
Both Francis and the Rich Young Man in our story were offered an invitation to become smaller and more agile by closing their accounts on earth and opening ones in heaven, so that their treasure would draw interest inside that narrow gate, instead of keeping them outside of it. Jesus dared the Rich Young Man to become a new creature in Christ, to trade in all the words that have described him until now – wealthy, cultured, responsible, educated, powerful, obedient – to trade them all in for one radically different word, which is free.[2]
Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor observes that Christians “mangle this story in at least two ways. First, by acting as if were not about money, and second, by acting as if it was only about money. It is about money. As far as Jesus is concerned, money is like nuclear power. It may be able to do a lot of good in the world, but only within strongly built and carefully regulated corridors…most of us get contaminated by its power…But it is not a story that is only about money, because if it were, then we could all buy our ways into heaven by cashing in our chips now and we know that this is not so…the kingdom of God is not for sale. The poor cannot buy it with their poverty any more than the rich can buy it with their riches…It is a gift to be given to whomever God pleases...The catch is, you have got to be free to receive the gift…You can’t be too tied up or tied down to respond…You can’t make room for it if your rooms are already full. You can’t follow if you aren’t free to go.”[3]
St. Francis is not the only one who took Jesus up his suggestion. Over the centuries many others, known and unknown have given everything they had to the poor. George Mueller was born in Prussia in the 19th century. After his conversion to Christianity as a young man, he promised himself that he would trust God for all he needed, he would never go into debt and never save money for later. He immigrated to England and established the Ashley-Downs Orphanage. During the 63 years that he ran the orphanage, Mueller never told anyone what they needed, but relied solely on God. Over that time God granted Mueller $7.5 million, which paid the staff, built and purchased the orphanage’s buildings and fed the children.
When he was 70 years old – 70 – Mueller left for the mission field. Remember that this was in about 1870, when such an old age was almost unheard of, when ordinary life was difficult and travel was harder than that. Nevertheless, he preached in England, America, China, India, Australia and Europe. At the time of his death in 1898, his estate amounted to less than $1,000. By then his original orphanage had 5 buildings; he had established 117 schools, trained 123,000 students and passed out a quarter of a million Bibles, all without ever making a public appeal for funds.
He said that for “69 years I have never been permitted to doubt that my sins were forgiven, that I am a child of God, that I am beloved of God, and that I shall be finally saved; because I am enabled, by the grace of God to exercise faith upon the word of God, and I believe what God says in those passages which settle these matters.” For Mueller, it was never about the money – it was about his faithful response to the grace of God in his salvation.
St. Francis and George Mueller knew what the Rich Young Man was just finding out – the opposite of rich is not just poor – the opposite of rich is free. Jesus was making the point that if you try to follow him into the Kingdom of God, while at the same time keeping all of your stuff, your load of stuff is going to hang you up on the doorframe when you try to follow him through the narrow gateway that leads to heaven. You’ll just be stuck in the opening until you lay it all down.
The disciples had all walked away from something – two of them had left their fishing nets behind; one of them left a boat, and his father too. Matthew the tax collector left a lucrative career. None of them left this stuff because it was a requirement for becoming a disciple. It was more of a consequence – Jesus called, they followed, and stuff got left behind, not because they had to, but because they wanted to. It’s no big, heroic thing – Jesus set them free.[4]
For the next three weeks, we will be hearing short testimonies from people in our congregation about how Jesus has set them free to follow him as they learned to see their money and possessions the way God sees them. I’ve heard that part of leadership means not asking people to do what you’re not willing to do yourself, so this week you get to hear from me.
You’ll remember I wasn’t raised in church. My earliest memory of money being connected with spiritual life is when my grandmother paid us a dime to say grace at Sunday dinner. I probably never heard the word, “stewardship” until I was about 28.
I began to get in debt when I was in college. I needed a $300 car repair, and I was determined to be independent, so instead of going to my parents I went to the bank for a loan. I was told they didn’t give loans that small, but they would give me a MasterCard. This began a 25-year debt spiral that only ended for me about seven years ago.
As a young wife I thought my main financial task was to earn money. When my husband left me and my son, I had two mortgages and no cash; one house was sold for less than the mortgage in order to avoid foreclosure, and my son and I moved into the 1,900 s.f. house that I would live in for the next 25 years. At first, I continued to live in the financial habits I understood: hard work, long hours and credit cards. I took out debt-consolidation loans, but because my habits never changed, I always ended up in the same situation in a year or two.
But God is good, so he sent me a husband who was a tax auditor for the Texas State Comptroller’s office. Actually, God is hilarious, isn’t He?! We joined a church and as I learned about stewardship and how God wanted me to view money as a tool for ministry and not as a substitute for security, I began to give small amounts each week, but did not pledge. Eventually I began to pledge a few hundred dollars a year, and worked up to a regular tithe – a tenth of my income – a few years ago.
Over the years, my watershed learning moments in giving and leaving things behind have been giving a 10th of my income for the first time and not falling behind in other bills; learning to give to God first, rather than last; when I moved into ministry, tithing on what the church paid me; giving a tithe from the income realized from taking the equity out of our home to finance my seminary tuition; continuing to tithe on what I received while I was an unemployed student; and giving up the home we loved to answer God’s call to Guymon. During the time I was in seminary my annual income went to zero from around $70,000, and we used up most of our savings on Jake’s college tuition and my seminary education, but never, ever, have we been unable to meet our expenses or any needs since we began giving. We continue to give back to God through our giving in this congregation, and now we are learning to give beyond the tithe to ministries like Voice of the Martyrs, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and the Colégio Presbiteriano in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Each increment in my understanding of giving has also involved thinking through a decision to trust God that much more. I am still not the giver God wants me to be – or that I want to be - I still have too many things, and covet too many more – some of you have heard me joke that Chris says if we ever win the lottery, he’ll be rich and I’ll be well dressed - but my relationship with God deepens when I am conscious week-to-week of God’s ongoing provision – and I am learning to be free.
[1] The development of this exposition is deeply indebted to The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, The Preaching Life, (Cambridge: Cowley Publications, 1993).
[2] Taylor 124.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
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