"Money! Money! Money!" Pastor Jim's sermon, September 29, 2013, Christ United Presbyterian Church, Marshall, MN

CUPC

Sermon

September 29, 2013

1 Timothy 6:6–19; Luke 16:19–31

“Money! Money! Money!”

Scriptures still startle us when we take them seriously.  Take the lesson today from First Timothy.

What would your response be if I looked you in the eye and said, as a devout Christian God wants you to be rich.  As someone struggling with God’s work in a world gone mad with greed and pride, you will inherit the greatest riches imaginable.  You have been restored to a relationship with God so open and so loving that you may be yourself and still God’s love will continue.

What more could anyone want? Stop worrying about money. You have enough.  You pray for your daily bread, and that is what God will provide.  So don’t just avoid the lust for money.  Run as far away from it as you can get. Passionately run after a life filled with wonder and love and forgiveness and the recognition of the gifts that God has given you. Grab on and hold on to the eternal life that God has given us through Jesus Christ.  Hold on until Jesus has returned, here, among us. Yes, Jesus will be back.

Let me say that again:  Jesus will be back.

He is the only one whom death cannot touch. He will be back!

Tell your rich friends to stop their greedy pursuit of wealth and pride and learn to practice extravagant generosity.

Last week in the Gospel lesson Jesus talked about a crook who use pretty sharp street smarts to get himself out of a jam.  But the problem was caused by his own greed and dishonesty, and Jesus concluded by pointing out that we all have to make a decision:  pursue wealth for its own sake or pursue God.  You cannot do both wholeheartedly.  That lesson took us through verse 13 of this 16^th chapter of Luke. 

In verses 14 and 15, we read:  “When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch. So Jesus spoke to them: ‘You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what's behind the appearance. What society sees and calls monumental, God sees through and calls monstrous.’”

This week’s Gospel lesson is a continuation of that same conversation.  Jesus tells the crowd, but primarily the Pharisees, the story of the rich man and the beggar who sat at his gate.  He never invited the beggar in; he never brought out some food for the beggar, although Jesus tells us that he feasted lavishly every day.

The Pharisees would identify with the rich man. It wasn’t just that they had money.  They saw the fact that they had money as proof positive that they had been chosen by God.  Chosen “for what” is probably not a question that they asked often. They simply preferred to think that they were indeed chosen. 

This parable isn’t about money.  It’s about arrogance, complacency and spiritual blindness made easier by a view of money that said it was for us to keep and enjoy.  Jesus isn’t just trying to make a point about wealth in the abstract, he is trying to make a point about relationships, humility and true righteousness.

The Pharisees misinterpreted the law of Moses to their own benefit, looking for proofs that wealth was a reward from God for a righteous life. So they selected a verse here and a verse there and convinced themselves that they were pretty noble folks in God’s eyes because God had given them so much!

They accused Jesus of not understanding the law.  Jesus isn’t throwing out the law.  On the contrary, he is trying to show everyone that the Pharisees have misunderstood and misinterpreted the law to support their own point of view.  Time and again the law and the prophets return to the themes of justice and mercy and hospitality:  proper stewardship of the gifts given by God: 

Deuteronomy 15:7 (NRSV)
⁷ If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.

Isaiah 58:6-7 (NRSV)
⁶ Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? ⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

The Pharisees just didn’t understand. They didn’t understand what was important here in this life. They didn’t understand what was important in the Kingdom of God.  They had built their entire religion around affirming their own goodness and glory, and all the while they neglected the needs of those sitting just outside their doors. 

Their homes were gated enclaves. Places designed to insulate and isolate them from the poor, the sick, the confused, the broken.  All the material blessings that they received were squandered on their own comfort, their own amusement, their own security. 

Certainly there are some parallels between this Gospel story and Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”  Dickens let Scrooge return to his daily life so that he could change, be reborn.  When the rich man in the Gospel pleads for someone to be allowed to return from the dead and tell his brothers all that they have misunderstood, his request is denied.  Jesus says:  [Luke 16:31 (NRSV)] “He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

What will it take to convince you?  We too have the testimony of Moses and prophets, and we have something more as well.  We have the one who has returned from the dead.  We have the one who promises to usher us into God’s kingdom.

There is no joy like the knowledge that God finds you acceptable and more than just acceptable.  You, the person that you are, not the person that you might have been, or could be, or ought to be.  Through Christ, present on earth in the past, present in us through the Spirit today, we have been given God’s unending love.

We have been given God’s faithful and unending love so that we might be a witness to all the world. We have been given so much so that we have the resources, the tools, the equipment, needed to bring the message of God’s love to everyone.  

What will it take to convince you?  The one who has risen from the dead is standing before you today inviting you to rebirth, to new life here within the body of Christ, here within Christ United Presbyterian Church. 

Paul tells us: “But as for you, child of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness [11]; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called …. [12b]”

Who is sitting outside your gate in need of God’s mercy?  Who is waiting for you to ask them in?  To whom must this congregation bring God’s presence?  What will you bring to our ministry?  What can you bring to help us declare God’s presence and provide God’s mercy and hospitality? What are you waiting for?  What will it take to convince you?

Amen.