Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (03:46):
Good morning. Please join me in the call to worship.
The son of Man came not to be served, but
to serve and to give his life as a ransom
for many. Jesus said, you know how the world works.
Those who are called leaders, and those with great fortunes
(04:06):
lord their power over the people. But it is not
so among you. Instead, whoever wishes to become great among
you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be
the greatest of all must serve all without concern for themselves.
Can we be baptized with the baptism that Jesus received.
(04:28):
The Son of Man came not to be served, but
to serve, and to give his life as a ransom
for men.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
S to see, stop always towards SIS SIS.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
S S.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
S S.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
S S.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
S S.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
SHO S.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Father God, we gather here today under your care and protection.
Thank you for your loving kindness that never fails us.
We thank you for those with us, that you would
guide our thoughts and actions to bring you glory, strengthen us,
and fill us with your peace. Please pray with me,
(07:27):
our Father, who art in heaven hall. It would be
thy name, thy kingdom, Come, Thy will be done on earth.
As it is in Heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation,
(07:51):
but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom,
the power, and the glory forevermen.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
That's what lost.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Stop s.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Try come Sta last as call Songretion song, Chanson, the
(10:27):
song that last Old dill.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
S Stu.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Song.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
You please join me in a moment of prayer. Most
Holy God, Halload is your name. We seek to honor you,
and we believe that when we seek to please you,
indeed does please you. We bring to you our offerings
(11:28):
understanding that your blessing on our offerings multiplies in blessings
beyond our individual efforts and comprehension.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
We seek to serve you.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
And fully acknowledge your blessing on these monetary offerings, but
also includes your blessings on our individual actions that brought
forth these offerings. Help us to hear you, help us
to see you in a bel us to reflect you
(12:03):
and your own holy name.
Speaker 8 (12:05):
Amen, Sissy, let's let's.
Speaker 6 (14:50):
You may be seated. Will you join me in prayer?
Oh God, as we look at our country. Our society
has been impacted over hurricanes that have hit us the
past two weeks, from the devastation from Florida all the
(15:14):
way through the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, and
this past week through destruction through the middle of Florida.
We see these videos and news reports and read the stories,
and our hearts are broken. In the midst of watching this,
(15:39):
we ask, Oh God, that you would give us hearts
to look at the world the way you look at it.
We are quick to think of sympathy. What can we
you do for this moment? We are good to reach
out to a family who has lost something, a loved one,
(16:00):
a dwelling. We want to reach out with food or
cards or letters, and then time passes. Help us, Oh God,
to look at this world the way you look at it,
with a heartbroken love that is always working to repair
(16:22):
and transform this world. We confess, Oh Lord, that oftentimes
we're not interested in transformation. We want to do good.
Our hearts are in the right direction. We see the
(16:43):
brokenness of people's lives, of their worlds, and we want
to fix things to make them better. Already, people in
our church are talking about how can we help the
people in North Carolina. Our connection to Guy's sales and
others makes it a way to us. Already we're thinking
what can we do, what can we give? But forgive
(17:07):
us for being people who are just ambulance chasers that
spiritually we want to fix things up, but we're not
interested in transforming the systems that create the mess that happens.
Forgive us for not wanting to transform things because we
(17:29):
are comfortable with the way things are, and it's create
us shared earlier in the service. Many times we say
that's terrible, but my family's different. Forgive us, O, Lord,
(17:50):
for thinking the world happens just through our eyes. Help
us to see this world the way you see the world,
the way you love the world, the way you are
heartbroken about the world. Open us, O God, to your
spirit and how we can be a part your hands
(18:16):
and feet to make this world. You have created a
better place for the people you have created, and love
will God. We lift up those in our own congregation
who are going through difficulties. We ask that you would
(18:38):
be with them through whatever physical situation they face, marital problems,
they struggle with, issues with raising their children or taking
care of their aging parents, struggles and challenges they find
in the workplace. Guide us, O, Lord, how we can
(19:00):
be your spirit in the places in which we live.
Forgive us, love us, renew us in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 9 (19:13):
We pray, Amen, Oh Father, chalty.
Speaker 6 (19:59):
Mm hm ah, be.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
The the king dom cor theoy will be the basid
(20:42):
in ha keevoice this howyly bread and forgive sow thes
(21:20):
as we.
Speaker 10 (21:22):
Forgive our the bitis and the leadle snot into temptation,
and the leaves for army evil.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
For the.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Is the king norm, and the po.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And the glowy.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
For our scripture passage this morning comes from Mark's Gospel
(22:39):
the tenth chapter, a story of which many of us
are familiar with, but we would like to forget. As
Jesus was setting out on her journey, a man ran
up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher,
what must I do to an parent eternal life. Jesus
(23:04):
said to him, why do you call me good? No
one is good but God alone. You know the commandments.
You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, You
should not steal, you should not bear false witness. You
shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother he said
to him, teacher, I have kept all these since my youth. Jesus,
(23:29):
looking at him, loved him and said, 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. When he heard this, he was shocked
(23:51):
and went away, grieving, for he had many possessions. Then
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard
it will be for those who have wealth to enter
the Kingdom of God. And the disciples were perplexed at
these words. But Jesus said to them again, children, how
(24:11):
hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God. 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. They were greatly astounded and
said to one another, then, who can be saved. Jesus
looked at them and said, for mortals it is impossible.
(24:32):
But for God, for God, all things are possible. Peter
began to say to him, look, we have left everything
and followed you. Jesus said, truly, I tell you, there
is no one who has left house, or brothers of sisters,
or mother or father or children, or fields, or for
my sake and for the sake of the good news,
(24:54):
who will not received one hundredfold? Now in this age
houses brothers and sisters and children, in fields with persecutions,
and in the age to come eternal life. But many
who are first will be last, and the last shall
be first. Here ends the reading of God's Holy Word.
(25:18):
May God bless it for our hearing and understanding. There's
really only one problem with this passage. Jesus actually said it.
Let's just say that, right. There's just one problem. He
actually said it. This is not a parable. I don't
(25:40):
know about you, but I have seen very few people
lining up at Jesus's door ready to sell everything they
have before they jump in the water for baptism. We
don't usually tell children or teenagers before they're baptized this
is what God expects of them. Why I know that
even the most fundamentalist and errant literal word of God
(26:01):
preacher starts stuttering when it comes to this story. But
Jesus really told that rich band to sell everything he
had before joining Jesus's band of disciples. Peter and the
other disciples heard him say this. And we know this
because Peter ask about it. Peter, who always seemed to
(26:24):
be unsure of himself so impulsive in his desire to
follow Jesus, piped up and said, well, what about us,
We've left everything to follow you. Have we given up enough?
Diner Butler Bass, in her book of People's History, told
the story about Brad who was a missionary to a
(26:47):
poor community in Latin America. Early in his ministry. He
was teaching this passage, and all in his group completely
understood why Jesus told this rich man to sell his
possessions before he could be a follower of Jesus, because
(27:07):
they had been people who had been oppressed by people
with money. They had seen what money did to people
and what those people did the people like them. When
they ask him, how do Christians in America understand this passage,
(27:28):
he explained, well, that we take a less literal approach.
Rachel's Very Good Children sermon would be an example about
how we typically talk about that story. These group of
peasant workers in Latin America were not impressed, and they
(27:53):
ask him, how can we really trust you? Why should
we follow you when you and your people obviously don't
take the Bible seriously. They had a point. Oftentimes Christians
(28:18):
who read very literally passages in the Bible that deal
with other people's sins, or want to exclude people from
being in the Church because they don't fit our lifestyle,
or who might want to exclude people in same sex
relations because of certain passes into the Bible. When it
comes to this passage, all of a sudden, we want
(28:38):
to be interpretive about it. Can people trust us about
the Bible when we so conveniently become interpretive when faced
with passages that impact our wallet or ask us to
(28:59):
make real, sad sacrifices about our lives. What does how
we read this passage tell us about how seriously we
take the Bible. In her book Green with Envy, Shera
(29:23):
Boss explains that when talking about money and possessions is
very difficult because our self identity is intertwined with those things.
In fact, she found it so difficult to get people
to talk openly about finances and about their possessions that
she had to use pseudonyms in her book in her
(29:47):
interviews with people because no one would speak openly about
really how they felt about finances and their possessions. We
choose the clothes where the cars we drive, the houses
we live in out of some self projection to the
world about who we are. We do this as a church.
(30:10):
How we keep this sanctuary, how we do our order
of worship is part of our self projection about who
we are. Even if we choose to say money is
not important to me, fashion is not important to me,
keeping up with the Joneses is not important to me.
That decision is a part of our self projection to
the world about who we are, and what else would
(30:38):
we expect. God made us as material creatures, so it
is natural that material things become a part of our identity,
and there's nothing wrong with that. After all, it was
God's idea to a part of us in this material world,
(31:03):
as John's Gospel said, and the word became flesh and
dwelt among us. When people lose their jobs and incomes,
or lose a great portion of their savings and retirement
investments in the stock marker or from substantial health care costs,
their biggest concern is with maintaining their lifestyle. How do
(31:29):
I live the way I've lived without this money that
I've had that I've lost because of these reasons, it's
at such vulnerable times that so many Americans go deeply
in debt, exacerbating this problem. Debt enables them to maintain
(31:49):
their lifestyle, their self image, so all their friends and
neighbors and community and church don't know how hard life
really is. People tend to be concerned with their projection
of their self identity at such times, not because we
(32:10):
are superficial, but because we are human, and this is
a part of what it means to be human, to
be material. When Jesus asked the rich man to give
away his possessions to the poor, he was asking him
(32:31):
to sell his identity as he had had it and
to then follow Jesus forming a new identity in which
Jesus was the God. And this man, who was very rich,
was not ready to change his identity so fast. What
made him him was a part of it, possessions, and
(32:56):
he wasn't ready for a new him. He could not
imagine a future happiness without his possessions, because he could
not imagine a hymn without these things. But this passage
isn't just about possessions. Notice at the end of the story,
(33:21):
when Peter is looking for some validation, asking Jesus, well,
what about us, we have left everything for you? What
about us? Jesus tells the disciples. There is no one
who has left house possession, or wife, marriage, or brothers
or sisters, or parents or children, family for the sake
(33:43):
of the Kingdom of God who will not get back
more in this age and in the age to come
eternal life. When you read those last sentences in the
whole passage, you realize that to another person, Jesus might
have said, there is still one thing lacking. Leave your
(34:07):
family and you will have family in heaven. Then come
follow me. Oh my, And you thought talking about money
was uncomfortable. First Jesus talking about taking the money out
of your wallet. Now he's talking about taking away the
closest people to you. Here's an interesting thought, which one
(34:33):
would be more painful? Maybe you shouldn't say that out
loud right now, or do the person sit next to you.
That query, however, might get us a step closer to
understanding what makes you.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
You?
Speaker 6 (34:56):
And I think it's at this heart of this intersection
of faith than money is where we get at our
self identity, where we get at what does it mean
for us to follow Jesus? What makes you you? What
do possessions and money really mean to you. For years,
(35:24):
I've used that question with couples in premalal counseling, What
do money and possessions mean to you? For some thirty years,
I've been asking couples to talk about what money means
to them as they're preparing to make the commitment to
be husband and wife to each other. Began doing this
(35:46):
because we found out over time that money, money and
finances is one of the biggest reasons for divorce in
our country. I usually begin asking if they grew up
in a family of savers or spenders. If there's one
(36:07):
of each, it's always a very interesting conversation, and this
leads then to that question, what does money and possessions.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
Mean to you?
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Some people talk about money as security. I want some
savings so that I won't be afraid i'll lose my house.
Others talk about it as freedom. I want to have
enough money so that I can do the things that
I want to do without being held back by my
savings account. Others think of it as status. I want
(36:53):
to achieve a certain level of success in my life,
and I want others to know that I have made it,
so I can mark myself. I have made it.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Now.
Speaker 6 (37:05):
Most of our uses of money and possessions kind of
fall in one of those categories. Saving retirement, for instance,
is about security, so is spending money on life's necessities,
which is different than once. Saving for your kid's college
(37:26):
education actually could be one of the three, depending on
how you plan it, depending how you see it. Maybe
you think of saving for your kids college education is
like giving them the opportunity that you have, which is
really a security question. I want my kids to have
the chances I had. Or maybe you save a good
(37:49):
bit more because you want your children to have the
freedom to follow their dreams, to dream big, and to
go wherever they want to go, which may be expensive
compared to other options. Still, others may see it as
I want my kids to have an Ivy League education,
(38:13):
where it becomes status, and maybe it's more about you
than your children. Giving or donating money is usually a
freedom thing I want to give to the causes or
charities that are meaningful to me, or a status thing
I want to make big donations so my name is
on a building or a plaque. How you see money
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as security or freedom or status will help you understand
how money and possessions impact your personal identity and how
they impact your faith in following Jesus. Before Jesus would
welcome the rich man as a disciple, he was asking
him to give up one identity claim to take on another.
(39:14):
Notice that this whole episode began when this rich man
asked Jesus a question, what must I do to inherit
eternal life? It's the same question that another man, a scribe,
(39:41):
a teacher of the Mosaic law, asked Jesus in Luke
chapter ten, in which Jesus ultimately tells him and those
around him the parable of the good Samaritan. You might
want to compare these two stories. What must I do
to have eternal life? The man asked Jesus, who then
(40:03):
responds giving him a summary of the Ten Commandments, and
the man tells Jesus, I have kept these commandments since
I was a youth. And then Mark tells us something
something that has never said anywhere else in all the Gospels.
(40:27):
After the man tells Jesus that he had been good
since he was a boy, he had kept the ten
commandments followed them religiously, Mark tells us that Jesus looks
at him and loved him. Why does Jesus love him?
(40:53):
Does Jesus love him like Jesus loves everybody? Or was
this as special as it was unique in the gospels.
Does Jesus love him because he can tell he is
good in his heart? To Jesus love him because he
(41:14):
has so much potential seeking Jesus out. Or does he
sadly love him because he knows this man cannot give
up his riches. Maybe this is a grace statement Mark
includes for our benefit. Like the rich man, we have
(41:36):
goodness in our hearts, but it is hard to give
up our identity to follow him. Money and possessions are
a part of our self image, a part of what
makes you you. But so is your family, your vocation,
your education, your hobbies, this church, and other organizations in
(41:56):
which you pour your life into them. In what way
is Jesus asking us to give those things to him
so that his identity guides us with those things? Oh,
(42:17):
Jesus tells us, rich man, to sell all his possessions,
give it to the poor, and then come follow him
to zach Chius. Zachius only gives up part of his
fortune before Jesus declares, salvation has come to this place.
And to that scribe, that teacher of the law in
Luke who asks the same question Jesus says, be a
(42:39):
good Samaritan. I don't think there's only one way to
make Jesus your new identity, but one clue for how
we have to take this seriously. I think maybe in
a Christian fad that rows up a couple of decades ago,
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WWJD what would Jesus Do? Which was actually a century
old question. Charles Sheldon wrote a book in eighteen ninety
seven titled In His Steps What would Jesus Do? Sheldon
wrote that a way for Christians to follow Jesus today
is to do what he would do if he were
(43:23):
here in the flesh, because we the Church are now
Jesus's flesh in the world. I try to keep this
in mind when I think about how I'm using my possessions.
I do that imperfectly. One of the things I enjoy
(43:45):
is going to Carolina Panthers football games. Part of that
is from my own childhood, from walking to Fairfield Stadium
and watching Marshall football with my dad first and then
later with my brothers and parents as well. Has a
great warm spot in my heart, and so I wanted
this for my children. So for seventeen years, I've had
(44:06):
four tickets to the Panthers ballgames and raised my kids
having those moments, those father and son, father and child moments.
But I'm embarrassed about how much money I spend on
these tickets and had to wrestle with how can I,
(44:26):
how can I give all this money to this rich organization.
So the way I made peace with it was I
matched the money I paid for the tickets with how
much more money my wife and I are giving to homeless,
the poor, to ministries in Charlotte. But I have to
(44:49):
confess recently, earlier this year, when I was paying off
the bill for this year's tickets, I realized, as the
ticket prices that had gone up, I had conveniently not
been increasing the money I gave to the those charities.
So this year that end year checks will be a
lot bigger. One other way is my wife and I
have been fortunate. We were able fortunate to send our
(45:12):
children to great colleges, some of the best universities in
our country because we had the funds to want to
send them the places that most children cannot attend even
with scholarships. And one way, we made peace with that privilege,
giving our kids opportunities that other kids will not have
a chance. So we sent three kids from their high
(45:33):
school to college as well. Teachers and administrators picked the scholarships.
We didn't do that, but we didn't send those three
kids the same place as our kids went to. We
send them to our local university, North Carolina at Charlotte.
So even then, this wrestling with this story we live
(45:57):
out imperfectly. The idea of WWJD is to make Jesus
our identity and to use our money and our possessions
to relate to our families, how we do on the job,
how we live on our community, in ways that Jesus
would have interacted with people today, looking at the gospels
to see how he interacted with people in his day.
(46:20):
This is the Jesus who hung around the wrong crowd,
who accepted them, telling them that God loved them too,
The Jesus who resisted Rome's power, the Jesus who lived simply,
The Jesus that criticized religious folks for the way excluded
the poor and marginalized and the way they made faith legalistic.
(46:40):
The Jesus who mocked the rich for wanting everyone to
know how important and successful they were, while he praised
a poor widow who put her last two coins in
the offering plate. What makes you.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
You?
Speaker 6 (47:00):
And can you merge that identity with following Jesus, with
the way that Jesus lived. I don't know if we
were in a Latin American poor community if they'd accept
(47:20):
this sermon any better than what Brad did when he
was talking about that passage. But I know we have
to wrestle with this story if our faith is ever
going to be authentic and real. May we be open
to God's spirit? Amen, We end our worship service with him.
(47:49):
Of commitment is part of our Baptists way of doing
things as a congregational church. We would love for you
to be a part of this congregation, in this church.
We open our doors a fellowship and would love to
welcome you if you've never professed the faith in Jesus Christ,
but you would like to be baptized they become a
follower of Jesus. We won't check your checkbook, okay, because
(48:10):
we're all struggling with that. Or maybe you've been a
Christian for some time and you're looking for a church home.
I commend you this congregation. We are not a perfect church. Well,
we are a church where people try to love God
and try to love each other and this community, and
we would gladly welcome you whatever's decision you may have.
(48:33):
I'll be standing here before the communion table while we
all stand together and sing him five ninety eight where
he leads, I'll go, let's stand together and sing.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
STU sign.
Speaker 3 (49:13):
So song time. It's time.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Stud So.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
It's sort, it's so st school. It sounds sound, it's
(50:38):
speaks so.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Sound. So story.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
It's most to its song.
Speaker 6 (52:41):
Friends, as should go back out into the world, do
justice and love, kindness, and walk humbly with God. And
as you go, know that God, the creator of the universe,
is already preparing a past way for you to walk upon,
and Jesus the Christ is going to walk beside of
(53:03):
you every step of the way, and the Holy Spirit,
God's everlasting, unconditional love is surrounding you to protect you
and to guide you through all the challenges you will
face this week. So, friends, go now in peace. Amen.
(54:04):
A
Good morning. Please join me in the call to worship.
The son of Man came not to be served, but
to serve and to give his life as a ransom
for many. Jesus said, you know how the world works.
Those who are called leaders, and those with great fortunes
(04:06):
lord their power over the people. But it is not
so among you. Instead, whoever wishes to become great among
you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be
the greatest of all must serve all without concern for themselves.
Can we be baptized with the baptism that Jesus received.
(04:28):
The Son of Man came not to be served, but
to serve, and to give his life as a ransom
for men.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
S to see, stop always towards SIS SIS.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
S S.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
S S.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
S S.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
S S.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
SHO S.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Father God, we gather here today under your care and protection.
Thank you for your loving kindness that never fails us.
We thank you for those with us, that you would
guide our thoughts and actions to bring you glory, strengthen us,
and fill us with your peace. Please pray with me,
(07:27):
our Father, who art in heaven hall. It would be
thy name, thy kingdom, Come, Thy will be done on earth.
As it is in Heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation,
(07:51):
but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom,
the power, and the glory forevermen.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
That's what lost.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Stop s.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Try come Sta last as call Songretion song, Chanson, the
(10:27):
song that last Old dill.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
S Stu.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Song.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
You please join me in a moment of prayer. Most
Holy God, Halload is your name. We seek to honor you,
and we believe that when we seek to please you,
indeed does please you. We bring to you our offerings
(11:28):
understanding that your blessing on our offerings multiplies in blessings
beyond our individual efforts and comprehension.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
We seek to serve you.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
And fully acknowledge your blessing on these monetary offerings, but
also includes your blessings on our individual actions that brought
forth these offerings. Help us to hear you, help us
to see you in a bel us to reflect you
(12:03):
and your own holy name.
Speaker 8 (12:05):
Amen, Sissy, let's let's.
Speaker 6 (14:50):
You may be seated. Will you join me in prayer?
Oh God, as we look at our country. Our society
has been impacted over hurricanes that have hit us the
past two weeks, from the devastation from Florida all the
(15:14):
way through the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, and
this past week through destruction through the middle of Florida.
We see these videos and news reports and read the stories,
and our hearts are broken. In the midst of watching this,
(15:39):
we ask, Oh God, that you would give us hearts
to look at the world the way you look at it.
We are quick to think of sympathy. What can we
you do for this moment? We are good to reach
out to a family who has lost something, a loved one,
(16:00):
a dwelling. We want to reach out with food or
cards or letters, and then time passes. Help us, Oh God,
to look at this world the way you look at it,
with a heartbroken love that is always working to repair
(16:22):
and transform this world. We confess, Oh Lord, that oftentimes
we're not interested in transformation. We want to do good.
Our hearts are in the right direction. We see the
(16:43):
brokenness of people's lives, of their worlds, and we want
to fix things to make them better. Already, people in
our church are talking about how can we help the
people in North Carolina. Our connection to Guy's sales and
others makes it a way to us. Already we're thinking
what can we do, what can we give? But forgive
(17:07):
us for being people who are just ambulance chasers that
spiritually we want to fix things up, but we're not
interested in transforming the systems that create the mess that happens.
Forgive us for not wanting to transform things because we
(17:29):
are comfortable with the way things are, and it's create
us shared earlier in the service. Many times we say
that's terrible, but my family's different. Forgive us, O, Lord,
(17:50):
for thinking the world happens just through our eyes. Help
us to see this world the way you see the world,
the way you love the world, the way you are
heartbroken about the world. Open us, O God, to your
spirit and how we can be a part your hands
(18:16):
and feet to make this world. You have created a
better place for the people you have created, and love
will God. We lift up those in our own congregation
who are going through difficulties. We ask that you would
(18:38):
be with them through whatever physical situation they face, marital problems,
they struggle with, issues with raising their children or taking
care of their aging parents, struggles and challenges they find
in the workplace. Guide us, O, Lord, how we can
(19:00):
be your spirit in the places in which we live.
Forgive us, love us, renew us in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 9 (19:13):
We pray, Amen, Oh Father, chalty.
Speaker 6 (19:59):
Mm hm ah, be.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
The the king dom cor theoy will be the basid
(20:42):
in ha keevoice this howyly bread and forgive sow thes
(21:20):
as we.
Speaker 10 (21:22):
Forgive our the bitis and the leadle snot into temptation,
and the leaves for army evil.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
For the.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Is the king norm, and the po.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And the glowy.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
For our scripture passage this morning comes from Mark's Gospel
(22:39):
the tenth chapter, a story of which many of us
are familiar with, but we would like to forget. As
Jesus was setting out on her journey, a man ran
up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher,
what must I do to an parent eternal life. Jesus
(23:04):
said to him, why do you call me good? No
one is good but God alone. You know the commandments.
You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, You
should not steal, you should not bear false witness. You
shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother he said
to him, teacher, I have kept all these since my youth. Jesus,
(23:29):
looking at him, loved him and said, 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. When he heard this, he was shocked
(23:51):
and went away, grieving, for he had many possessions. Then
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard
it will be for those who have wealth to enter
the Kingdom of God. And the disciples were perplexed at
these words. But Jesus said to them again, children, how
(24:11):
hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God. 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. They were greatly astounded and
said to one another, then, who can be saved. Jesus
looked at them and said, for mortals it is impossible.
(24:32):
But for God, for God, all things are possible. Peter
began to say to him, look, we have left everything
and followed you. Jesus said, truly, I tell you, there
is no one who has left house, or brothers of sisters,
or mother or father or children, or fields, or for
my sake and for the sake of the good news,
(24:54):
who will not received one hundredfold? Now in this age
houses brothers and sisters and children, in fields with persecutions,
and in the age to come eternal life. But many
who are first will be last, and the last shall
be first. Here ends the reading of God's Holy Word.
(25:18):
May God bless it for our hearing and understanding. There's
really only one problem with this passage. Jesus actually said it.
Let's just say that, right. There's just one problem. He
actually said it. This is not a parable. I don't
(25:40):
know about you, but I have seen very few people
lining up at Jesus's door ready to sell everything they
have before they jump in the water for baptism. We
don't usually tell children or teenagers before they're baptized this
is what God expects of them. Why I know that
even the most fundamentalist and errant literal word of God
(26:01):
preacher starts stuttering when it comes to this story. But
Jesus really told that rich band to sell everything he
had before joining Jesus's band of disciples. Peter and the
other disciples heard him say this. And we know this
because Peter ask about it. Peter, who always seemed to
(26:24):
be unsure of himself so impulsive in his desire to
follow Jesus, piped up and said, well, what about us,
We've left everything to follow you. Have we given up enough?
Diner Butler Bass, in her book of People's History, told
the story about Brad who was a missionary to a
(26:47):
poor community in Latin America. Early in his ministry. He
was teaching this passage, and all in his group completely
understood why Jesus told this rich man to sell his
possessions before he could be a follower of Jesus, because
(27:07):
they had been people who had been oppressed by people
with money. They had seen what money did to people
and what those people did the people like them. When
they ask him, how do Christians in America understand this passage,
(27:28):
he explained, well, that we take a less literal approach.
Rachel's Very Good Children sermon would be an example about
how we typically talk about that story. These group of
peasant workers in Latin America were not impressed, and they
(27:53):
ask him, how can we really trust you? Why should
we follow you when you and your people obviously don't
take the Bible seriously. They had a point. Oftentimes Christians
(28:18):
who read very literally passages in the Bible that deal
with other people's sins, or want to exclude people from
being in the Church because they don't fit our lifestyle,
or who might want to exclude people in same sex
relations because of certain passes into the Bible. When it
comes to this passage, all of a sudden, we want
(28:38):
to be interpretive about it. Can people trust us about
the Bible when we so conveniently become interpretive when faced
with passages that impact our wallet or ask us to
(28:59):
make real, sad sacrifices about our lives. What does how
we read this passage tell us about how seriously we
take the Bible. In her book Green with Envy, Shera
(29:23):
Boss explains that when talking about money and possessions is
very difficult because our self identity is intertwined with those things.
In fact, she found it so difficult to get people
to talk openly about finances and about their possessions that
she had to use pseudonyms in her book in her
(29:47):
interviews with people because no one would speak openly about
really how they felt about finances and their possessions. We
choose the clothes where the cars we drive, the houses
we live in out of some self projection to the
world about who we are. We do this as a church.
(30:10):
How we keep this sanctuary, how we do our order
of worship is part of our self projection about who
we are. Even if we choose to say money is
not important to me, fashion is not important to me,
keeping up with the Joneses is not important to me.
That decision is a part of our self projection to
the world about who we are, and what else would
(30:38):
we expect. God made us as material creatures, so it
is natural that material things become a part of our identity,
and there's nothing wrong with that. After all, it was
God's idea to a part of us in this material world,
(31:03):
as John's Gospel said, and the word became flesh and
dwelt among us. When people lose their jobs and incomes,
or lose a great portion of their savings and retirement
investments in the stock marker or from substantial health care costs,
their biggest concern is with maintaining their lifestyle. How do
(31:29):
I live the way I've lived without this money that
I've had that I've lost because of these reasons, it's
at such vulnerable times that so many Americans go deeply
in debt, exacerbating this problem. Debt enables them to maintain
(31:49):
their lifestyle, their self image, so all their friends and
neighbors and community and church don't know how hard life
really is. People tend to be concerned with their projection
of their self identity at such times, not because we
(32:10):
are superficial, but because we are human, and this is
a part of what it means to be human, to
be material. When Jesus asked the rich man to give
away his possessions to the poor, he was asking him
(32:31):
to sell his identity as he had had it and
to then follow Jesus forming a new identity in which
Jesus was the God. And this man, who was very rich,
was not ready to change his identity so fast. What
made him him was a part of it, possessions, and
(32:56):
he wasn't ready for a new him. He could not
imagine a future happiness without his possessions, because he could
not imagine a hymn without these things. But this passage
isn't just about possessions. Notice at the end of the story,
(33:21):
when Peter is looking for some validation, asking Jesus, well,
what about us, we have left everything for you? What
about us? Jesus tells the disciples. There is no one
who has left house possession, or wife, marriage, or brothers
or sisters, or parents or children, family for the sake
(33:43):
of the Kingdom of God who will not get back
more in this age and in the age to come
eternal life. When you read those last sentences in the
whole passage, you realize that to another person, Jesus might
have said, there is still one thing lacking. Leave your
(34:07):
family and you will have family in heaven. Then come
follow me. Oh my, And you thought talking about money
was uncomfortable. First Jesus talking about taking the money out
of your wallet. Now he's talking about taking away the
closest people to you. Here's an interesting thought, which one
(34:33):
would be more painful? Maybe you shouldn't say that out
loud right now, or do the person sit next to you.
That query, however, might get us a step closer to
understanding what makes you.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
You?
Speaker 6 (34:56):
And I think it's at this heart of this intersection
of faith than money is where we get at our
self identity, where we get at what does it mean
for us to follow Jesus? What makes you you? What
do possessions and money really mean to you. For years,
(35:24):
I've used that question with couples in premalal counseling, What
do money and possessions mean to you? For some thirty years,
I've been asking couples to talk about what money means
to them as they're preparing to make the commitment to
be husband and wife to each other. Began doing this
(35:46):
because we found out over time that money, money and
finances is one of the biggest reasons for divorce in
our country. I usually begin asking if they grew up
in a family of savers or spenders. If there's one
(36:07):
of each, it's always a very interesting conversation, and this
leads then to that question, what does money and possessions.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
Mean to you?
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Some people talk about money as security. I want some
savings so that I won't be afraid i'll lose my house.
Others talk about it as freedom. I want to have
enough money so that I can do the things that
I want to do without being held back by my
savings account. Others think of it as status. I want
(36:53):
to achieve a certain level of success in my life,
and I want others to know that I have made it,
so I can mark myself. I have made it.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Now.
Speaker 6 (37:05):
Most of our uses of money and possessions kind of
fall in one of those categories. Saving retirement, for instance,
is about security, so is spending money on life's necessities,
which is different than once. Saving for your kid's college
(37:26):
education actually could be one of the three, depending on
how you plan it, depending how you see it. Maybe
you think of saving for your kids college education is
like giving them the opportunity that you have, which is
really a security question. I want my kids to have
the chances I had. Or maybe you save a good
(37:49):
bit more because you want your children to have the
freedom to follow their dreams, to dream big, and to
go wherever they want to go, which may be expensive
compared to other options. Still, others may see it as
I want my kids to have an Ivy League education,
(38:13):
where it becomes status, and maybe it's more about you
than your children. Giving or donating money is usually a
freedom thing I want to give to the causes or
charities that are meaningful to me, or a status thing
I want to make big donations so my name is
on a building or a plaque. How you see money
(38:41):
as security or freedom or status will help you understand
how money and possessions impact your personal identity and how
they impact your faith in following Jesus. Before Jesus would
welcome the rich man as a disciple, he was asking
him to give up one identity claim to take on another.
(39:14):
Notice that this whole episode began when this rich man
asked Jesus a question, what must I do to inherit
eternal life? It's the same question that another man, a scribe,
(39:41):
a teacher of the Mosaic law, asked Jesus in Luke
chapter ten, in which Jesus ultimately tells him and those
around him the parable of the good Samaritan. You might
want to compare these two stories. What must I do
to have eternal life? The man asked Jesus, who then
(40:03):
responds giving him a summary of the Ten Commandments, and
the man tells Jesus, I have kept these commandments since
I was a youth. And then Mark tells us something
something that has never said anywhere else in all the Gospels.
(40:27):
After the man tells Jesus that he had been good
since he was a boy, he had kept the ten
commandments followed them religiously, Mark tells us that Jesus looks
at him and loved him. Why does Jesus love him?
(40:53):
Does Jesus love him like Jesus loves everybody? Or was
this as special as it was unique in the gospels.
Does Jesus love him because he can tell he is
good in his heart? To Jesus love him because he
(41:14):
has so much potential seeking Jesus out. Or does he
sadly love him because he knows this man cannot give
up his riches. Maybe this is a grace statement Mark
includes for our benefit. Like the rich man, we have
(41:36):
goodness in our hearts, but it is hard to give
up our identity to follow him. Money and possessions are
a part of our self image, a part of what
makes you you. But so is your family, your vocation,
your education, your hobbies, this church, and other organizations in
(41:56):
which you pour your life into them. In what way
is Jesus asking us to give those things to him
so that his identity guides us with those things? Oh,
(42:17):
Jesus tells us, rich man, to sell all his possessions,
give it to the poor, and then come follow him
to zach Chius. Zachius only gives up part of his
fortune before Jesus declares, salvation has come to this place.
And to that scribe, that teacher of the law in
Luke who asks the same question Jesus says, be a
(42:39):
good Samaritan. I don't think there's only one way to
make Jesus your new identity, but one clue for how
we have to take this seriously. I think maybe in
a Christian fad that rows up a couple of decades ago,
(43:01):
WWJD what would Jesus Do? Which was actually a century
old question. Charles Sheldon wrote a book in eighteen ninety
seven titled In His Steps What would Jesus Do? Sheldon
wrote that a way for Christians to follow Jesus today
is to do what he would do if he were
(43:23):
here in the flesh, because we the Church are now
Jesus's flesh in the world. I try to keep this
in mind when I think about how I'm using my possessions.
I do that imperfectly. One of the things I enjoy
(43:45):
is going to Carolina Panthers football games. Part of that
is from my own childhood, from walking to Fairfield Stadium
and watching Marshall football with my dad first and then
later with my brothers and parents as well. Has a
great warm spot in my heart, and so I wanted
this for my children. So for seventeen years, I've had
(44:06):
four tickets to the Panthers ballgames and raised my kids
having those moments, those father and son, father and child moments.
But I'm embarrassed about how much money I spend on
these tickets and had to wrestle with how can I,
(44:26):
how can I give all this money to this rich organization.
So the way I made peace with it was I
matched the money I paid for the tickets with how
much more money my wife and I are giving to homeless,
the poor, to ministries in Charlotte. But I have to
(44:49):
confess recently, earlier this year, when I was paying off
the bill for this year's tickets, I realized, as the
ticket prices that had gone up, I had conveniently not
been increasing the money I gave to the those charities.
So this year that end year checks will be a
lot bigger. One other way is my wife and I
have been fortunate. We were able fortunate to send our
(45:12):
children to great colleges, some of the best universities in
our country because we had the funds to want to
send them the places that most children cannot attend even
with scholarships. And one way, we made peace with that privilege,
giving our kids opportunities that other kids will not have
a chance. So we sent three kids from their high
(45:33):
school to college as well. Teachers and administrators picked the scholarships.
We didn't do that, but we didn't send those three
kids the same place as our kids went to. We
send them to our local university, North Carolina at Charlotte.
So even then, this wrestling with this story we live
(45:57):
out imperfectly. The idea of WWJD is to make Jesus
our identity and to use our money and our possessions
to relate to our families, how we do on the job,
how we live on our community, in ways that Jesus
would have interacted with people today, looking at the gospels
to see how he interacted with people in his day.
(46:20):
This is the Jesus who hung around the wrong crowd,
who accepted them, telling them that God loved them too,
The Jesus who resisted Rome's power, the Jesus who lived simply,
The Jesus that criticized religious folks for the way excluded
the poor and marginalized and the way they made faith legalistic.
(46:40):
The Jesus who mocked the rich for wanting everyone to
know how important and successful they were, while he praised
a poor widow who put her last two coins in
the offering plate. What makes you.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
You?
Speaker 6 (47:00):
And can you merge that identity with following Jesus, with
the way that Jesus lived. I don't know if we
were in a Latin American poor community if they'd accept
(47:20):
this sermon any better than what Brad did when he
was talking about that passage. But I know we have
to wrestle with this story if our faith is ever
going to be authentic and real. May we be open
to God's spirit? Amen, We end our worship service with him.
(47:49):
Of commitment is part of our Baptists way of doing
things as a congregational church. We would love for you
to be a part of this congregation, in this church.
We open our doors a fellowship and would love to
welcome you if you've never professed the faith in Jesus Christ,
but you would like to be baptized they become a
follower of Jesus. We won't check your checkbook, okay, because
(48:10):
we're all struggling with that. Or maybe you've been a
Christian for some time and you're looking for a church home.
I commend you this congregation. We are not a perfect church. Well,
we are a church where people try to love God
and try to love each other and this community, and
we would gladly welcome you whatever's decision you may have.
(48:33):
I'll be standing here before the communion table while we
all stand together and sing him five ninety eight where
he leads, I'll go, let's stand together and sing.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
STU sign.
Speaker 3 (49:13):
So song time. It's time.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Stud So.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
It's sort, it's so st school. It sounds sound, it's
(50:38):
speaks so.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Sound. So story.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
It's most to its song.
Speaker 6 (52:41):
Friends, as should go back out into the world, do
justice and love, kindness, and walk humbly with God. And
as you go, know that God, the creator of the universe,
is already preparing a past way for you to walk upon,
and Jesus the Christ is going to walk beside of
(53:03):
you every step of the way, and the Holy Spirit,
God's everlasting, unconditional love is surrounding you to protect you
and to guide you through all the challenges you will
face this week. So, friends, go now in peace. Amen.
(54:04):
A
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