A Matter of Trust: Sermon Mark 10:17-31

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

Money, cash, bills, bones, clams, c-notes, benjamins, dollars, dough, bread, dead presidents, greenbacks, shellbacks, beans, peanuts, lettuce, moolah, bucks, mucho denerio, how ever you refer to it, our country is obsessed with money. There are songs about it, poems about it, movies about it; the American dream is to be rich right. I mean, how many opportunities are there each day to win money? There is Ed McMahon, Reader’s Digest, the Lottery in Tennessee in all its forms, we have many opportunities to get rich not to mentioned good old hard work and entrepreneurialship. Why? Why is money so important to us in our country? Professional athletes earned millions of dollars, CEOs are earning billions of dollars, and all the while most of us are scrimping and struggling towards retirement or trying to survive during retirement. We are taught from an early age both by our parents and by our culture that having a lot of money is a good thing. We need to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous. I mean what would be better than to hop in a private jet and fly to some far off place.

This is not a sermon against money. We need money to survive, it is a vital part of our capitalist economy, the exchange of money for goods and services, its as American as apple pie and baseball, both of which you can buy at Wal-Mart 24/7. People misquote the line from 1 Timothy by saying that money is the root of all evil, the line actually reads the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, and there is a big difference. The poet Oliver Wendell Holmes said to put your money in trust but never put your trust in money. That is the problem of the man in our story today.

Jesus is preparing to leave and travel on down the road when he is stopped by a man, Matthew calls him young, and Luke adds the title ruler to him, but he runs to Jesus and asks what must I do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds by saying that you have to keep the laws, do not murder, do not commit adultery, you know the Big Ten. The man replies by saying well I’ve done all this, isn’t there something else. Jesus responds by saying, ok, go and sell everything you own and give all the money to the poor and then come back and join my crew. The man walks away sad because he’s not willing to give up his wealth. Jesus is also sad and he says to the 12, look, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, in today’s language he would’ve said it is easier for a Mack truck to go through a keyhole than for a rich person to get into heaven.

Now this can be taken many ways. I can preach about the evils of money, but I already told you that I am not going to do that. I could preach about stewardship and making the collection plate a little heavier each Sunday, but I am not going to talk about that either. Instead I want to get at what I feel is that the heart of what Jesus was saying and that is a matter of trust. We can trust in God or we can trust in our money.

Remember the line in Matthew, you can’t serve two masters money and God. You have to pick one and go with it, and just the same you can’t pick to place your trust in both God and money you have to choose one. The issue of trust is also an issue of security. We want to be secure in our lives.

If you place your trust in money you are not alone. If you watch TV for any length of time you will see hundreds of commercials targeted at people who want to make more money. There are stock market traders, banks, investment experts, gold and diamond investment, 401ks, IRAs, and let’s not forget the lottery. Whatever and however we can get our hands on the cash, we will do it and we think the more money we have we more secure we will feel. How many times have you heard or said “If I could only win the lottery or go on a game show and deal or no deal it to the big time”? So what if you did win the lottery? One third of all lottery winners end up filing for bankruptcy. Many lottery winners report that they are actually worse off emotionally than before they won the money. They report increased depression and anxiety. Then there is Jack Whittaker. Jack won the biggest lottery payoff at the time, $314.9 million dollars. He had everything the thought he wanted. He quit his job, bought a big house, new cars and trucks, and even built a new church building for his congregation. However, the happiness soon ended, public knowledge of his winnings caused thieves to seek him out, things were stolen, and in 2004 his granddaughter was found murdered, all the money that he had was worth nothing to him. Here again I am not saying money is bad, but when we put our trust in money then bad things happen. Money doesn’t provide security.

When we put our trust in money we become so obsessed over money that it takes over our lives. Our relationships suffer; we worry more about the bottom line than even our own happiness and the happiness of our families. Those who put their trust in money will do anything in their power to get it. We see story after story on the news about CEOs who have ripped off worker’s pension and retirement and breeze away with millions. We see criminal after criminal trying to get rich quick but it never works out.

The man who approached Jesus had money. He felt that he was secure in this life and placed his trust in his wealth. He felt so secure in this life that he went to this new rabbi going around preaching about the kingdom of God and eternal life and asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus looked at the man and must have seen his nice clothes, his well manicured nails and hair, and his new shoes and said to him keep the laws. The man response, I’ve kept the laws since my youth, but in his mind he must be thinking, “there must be something more to it than that, it must be more complicated, it must be harder.” Mark says that Jesus looked at him and loved him, and then said “You lack one thing, take all this money and stuff you have and give it up, take all that you have placed your trust in and give it up, and then you will begin to gather up treasures in heaven. In other words, stop trusting yourself and your money and start trusting God.

Jesus talked about entering the kingdom of God, and he said that if you are rich, in other words if you place your trust in money, then it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God. Remember last week we talked about how the kingdom of God is not like and earthly kingdom with castles and lands, but it is about a reconnection. Some theologians call this instead of the kingdom of God the reign of God or the reign of God’s righteousness. The reign of God is not something we can earn or buy, but we receive it like a gift, so we have to be humble and place our trust with God.

Trust God not just for your eternal life and salvation, but start trusting God for your everyday existence. We pray the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday, and we know the give us this day our daily bread. That is a prayer of trust that God will provide bread not for a week, not for a month, but just for a day and God does it every day. Do you remember the story of the Israelites in the wilderness and the deliverance of manna from heaven? What happen to the manna if it was kept more than one day? It spoiled right. It molded and was uneatable so one couldn’t gather it up and horde it, placing their trust in their supply but instead they had to place their trust in God to provide what they needed everyday.

Now once again let me say that I am not preaching a sermon against money and I am not preaching against saving money for emergencies or for purchases, I have savings accounts, I am making plans for retirement also, but don’t place your trust in it. Because just as we have seen with Enron and many other companies, that retirement plan can go bye-bye in the blink of an eye and if you have placed your trust in that money then you will be lost. However, if you place your trust in God to provide and sustain you not just in the next life but in this life then your life becomes so much better.

God wants us to be in relationship or in communion with him. A relationship is based on trust. We trust our spouses, we trust our parents, we trust our family and friends and this trust provides us with a connection. Our connection with God is what the kingdom of God is all about, the reconciliation and reconnection between God and humanity is what the Cross is all about.

The rich do not receive the reign of God or the kingdom of God because they are rich, monetary worth has nothing to do with it. The rich do not get it because they do not trust God for it. They are not willing to give up what they placed their trust in.

Where is our trust this morning? Would we be willing to give up everything we have if Jesus asked? It’s a tough question. We have been taught to trust in ourselves and in the fruits of our labor, but who is the one that blesses us with those fruits? If we place our trust with God, God is faithful, just like he did for the Israelites he will provide daily what we need if we just trust him for it.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen