Message for worship at West Richmond Friends Meeting, 13th of Tenth Month, 2024
Speaker: Nelson Bingham
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus 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 shall not steal; You shall 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, 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 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 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, but not 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 or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
I sometimes challenge my students with the question of what they would do if they won the huge Powerball lottery and received hundreds of millions of dollars. For the students, I pose the questions of whether they would choose to continue their education and whether they would continue to pursue a career. For myself, I believe I have already answered those questions in that I have opted for a retirement path that includes continuing to teach and learn. But how, I wonder, would I respond to Jesus’ advice to give all that I have to the poor?
The Scripture today has always caught my attention. On the one hand, it sounds so absolutistic with Jesus calling for an extreme action by the rich man who asks how he can attain eternal life in heaven. Is this what is expected of all of us – to divest ourselves of our worldly riches (however small or great those may be) in order to be worthy of salvation? This may not be the motivation for some wealthy individuals today, such as Mackenzie Scott (former wife of Amazon head, Jeff Bezos) and Bill and Melinda French Gates, who have committed to giving away a large proportion of their wealth. Yet, they do provide a model for others to follow.
Our relationship with money and wealth is complicated. It is often framed in terms of the idea of stewardship. This goes back to motivation. In the parable, the rich man says to Jesus that he has faithfully followed the rules (i.e. the commandments), suggesting that he did so to earn his place in heaven. But, Jesus’ response indicates that simply following a set of rules will not be sufficient. This implies that heaven is not just a reward for obeying rules that are not really woven into your spirit, but rather heaven will be a natural consequence of inherent goodness of one’s spirit.
So, let’s look more deeply at what Jesus was doing (and saying) in this situation. Was He setting forth yet another absolutistic rule which may be contrary to one’s inner spirit, but which can gain the reward of eternal life nonetheless? The rich man, of course, is unable to comply with this rule and goes away dismayed. But what was Jesus actually doing here? This invites some interpretation (as does so much of the Scripture). I’ve seen it said that Jesus was, in fact, engaging in something that had characterized his ministry with many others, namely offering a path toward healing for the man.
What was it that required such healing? Looking elsewhere in the Bible, 1 Timothy, 6:10 , we see it said that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” That passage should not be seen as condemning all possession of money nor all use of money, but rather as referring to the love of money as the source of an unhealthy spirit in need of healing. This may be seen as a form of addiction. The love of money, it may be inferred, may consume one’s life and spirit, controlling one’s actions (e.g. giving to charity, building huge structures with your name on them, corrupting your relationships with other people in your life). Even Jesus’ disciples did not necessarily give away all of their possessions. In fact, Jesus loved this rich man (as he loved all persons) and he prescribed exactly what was needed for this man to heal. Others may be addicted to power (notably political power) in ways that degrade their souls every bit as much as addiction to a drug. What might Jesus have said to such a person? He pointed toward the one thing that would bring the kind of healing that would enable him to attain a healthy inner spirit that would allow him to enter heaven.
Still others may be addicted to their work or to an unhealthy relationship and so on. Or, we may be under the weight of a particular way of thinking, for example, a rigid rationality that forces us to replace faith with skepticism, We may be living our life under the burden of past experiences, ranging from the pain of personal relationships to the destructive effects of oppressive systems. In short, our individual selfhood may be comprised of one or more elements that require change, indeed, healing, in order for us to find our way to the kind of peaceful, healthy existence that can lead us to heaven.
So, I do not believe that this parable was meant as a blanket condemnation of money or wealth. If that were the case, then why inflict that evil on the poor? Perhaps it might be more helpful to consider how one’s wealth may be used. There is a story at Earlham about Allen Jay, who was Earlham's chief fundraiser from the 1880s until his death in 1910. Supposedly when he was criticized for taking a donation from a saloonkeeper, he responded: "This money has worked for the devil long enough. Now it will work for the Lord." [Thanks to Tom Hamm for confirming this story.]
What, then, is this healing that Jesus was offering to the rich man? We might think of it as a shift in focus from what we have or what we do to what we want to be. This is not a matter of pursuing morality by acting according to a set of specific rules. Rather, it is a matter of being a good person. What kind of self do we want to be? What shall be the quality of our experience in this life such that there will be a continuity of who we are as we enter heaven? What is the one thing we need to change to make that path a reality in our life?
Many years ago, Stephanie Crumley-Effinger brought a message here that defined “sin” as “brokenness from God.” I still remember that and I recall thinking then that it was not God, who is, in fact, the embodiment of Love, who broke from the sinner. Rather, that brokenness of spirit was an inherent consequence of one’s own sinfulness. The state of sinfulness is simply incompatible with the kind of oneness and connection with a God who is pure Love.
I want to close by suggesting that this parable carries a larger lesson for us. Just as we should not expect to be good by following a specific set of rules, we should not expect the stories in the Scripture to serve as literal truth providing concrete actions we must do. Rather, Jesus should be our inspiration for living a life of love. He loved the rich man, but he could not make the choice for him. That man’s one thing was unique to him and, as we saw, he could not free himself from his love of money. It is for each of us to use the gifts God has given us to interpret that story in relation to our unique selfhood, to truly open our eyes. What, then, is our one thing?
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