Mark 10:17-25, Philippians 4:12-13 Wheres the Treasure?

Sermon preached March 23, 2014 Opening My previous ministry before coming to Chambersburg was to start a new church in Columbia, South Carolina. The Presbytery down there brought Susan and me down there with the mission to start a large, thriving church that reached unchurched and de-churched people. They had a great plan, and part of the plan was for a number of supporting churches to provide 100 people for the launch team - the core group that would form the nucleus of the new church. The idea was we would launch public worship with a strong group already in place, with strong ministries already in place. We would start big, and grow bigger. But when it came time for those churches to produce those people, it didnt happen. And we ended up with 14 people. We almost shut the whole project down, but after much prayer and discussion, decided to go forward with the small launch team we had. And when we launched public worship in December 2004, it was an anxious time. We had prayed and planned and invited people, done some great publicity - but in those early days, we would anxiously watch the parking lot of the school where we met, hoping, desperately hoping, that people would come visit us at worship. And we were so happy when new people came, and when people who were mature Christians, who had some resources showed up and we knew they would plunge in and help us build this new church, it was such a wonderful gift. The rich young man And one day, someone like that came up to Jesus. A spiritually seeking man, a man with tremendous resources. Now, this man makes an appearance in Matthew, Mark and Luke - he is one of the gospel writers greatest hits, so to speak - Matthew says he was young, Luke says he was a ruler, but all three agree that he was rich.

And the thing about this guy - hes rich in two ways, First, hes got material wealth - he probably had big tracts of land, which is how most wealth existed then - he probably had big sacks of gold coins stashed with the bankers, too. But he had another kind of wealth, too - he had moral wealth. Because when the man asks Jesus the way to eternal life, Jesus says, you know the commandments of God - the ten commandments - and the man says, Ive kept them all since I was in short pants. And theres nothing in any of the three gospel accounts of this man to suggest he wasnt telling the truth - if you put his family and friends and neighbors up on the witness stand, no doubt they would have said, Yep, here is a good and righteous man. And the thing was, back in that time everyone thought that moral goodness and material wealth went together. If you were good, God rewarded you with material wealth. So this guy - his material wealth and moral wealth both point to the fact that this is an extraordinary man. But it gets even better than that. This guy is so good, this guy has it so together that he comes to Jesus to admit that he doesnt have it all together. On the outside, he looks pretty perfect, but he is honest enough with himself to know that on the inside, something is missing. When he lays awake in the middle of the night, he sings with U2 - I still havent found what Im looking for. I mean, this is the kind of guy any religious leader would love to have. And I have to admit, if a guy like this showed up here - driving up in a new Jaguar, dropping a big check in the plate, yet at the same time a man who has tried his best his whole life to please God, and even better, he comes here because he is seeking a deeper relationship with God - why, Id want to be his new best friend. And this guy, with his material resources and political connections, could have given Jesus a big boost in respectability. Which is why Jesus response to this guy is so shocking. With what he asks the man to do - sell it all - Jesus sends him packing. And the man went away grieving. How shocking this is Now remember, this is the same Jesus who said, Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying burdens, and I will give you rest. 2

This is the man who welcomed the outcast and sinners, this is the man who told the parable of the Prodigal Son, where Gods great desire is to have everyone come to the party that is the Kingdom of God. This is the man who accused the Pharisees of shutting the door to heaven in the faces of those seeking God. And on top of it all, the text says Jesus loved the man. Nowhere else in Mark does it say that of Jesus. How could Jesus do this? Well, I think its like this. The man has gotten to the top - as far as he can make it on his own. He thinks he just needs that last step, that last thing, and hes arrived its like he is saying to Jesus, I just need one more step, and Im there - but Jesus tells him hes on the completely wrong road. And the man walks away. Why did he leave? Well, Jesus got personal. You ever go to the doctor, and youve got this unexplained pain, and the doctor pokes and prods and asks you, does this hurt, and she hits the spot, you yelp and practically jump off the table? Or, when you go to the dentist, and the doc starts poking around in your mouth with that curved pointy instrument of torture and they hit a cavity with that - I mean, I can levitate straight out of the chair. Jesus touches this guy in a place where it hurts. Now, the man comes to Jesus with an intellectual problem - hes thinking, what am I missing, what dont I understand that I need to grasp, what rule have I missed? The problem, he thinks, is up here, and can be fixed with a piece of information. But the mans problem is here, in the heart. And Jesus pierces right to the heart and he does this, Mark says, because Jesus loved the man - Jesus pierces right to the heart of the matter by asking him to get rid of his material treasure so he can have real treasure - treasure in heaven. And in that instant, the mans heart was laid bare - his problem isnt that he needs another rule to follow, his problem is that his heart is being strangled by his love of his money. His wealth has taken over his heart like kudzu, wrapping its shoots and 3

tendrils all around it and squeezing the spiritual life out of him. In short, the man was suffering from a deadly case of greed. Now, people read this passage and it makes them want to dismiss Jesus - or at least, gives them an excuse to - surely we cant take seriously someone who asks us to get rid of all our wealth - what are we going to live on? But this isnt a general, one-size-fits-all command of Jesus - he doesnt ask this of anyone else - so you can take your hands off your wallets now. Jesus deals with us as individuals, and he makes a personalized diagnosis for this man - that his heart, his dreams, his hopes, are wrapped around his wealth - and remove that wealth - and it all comes crashing down. And what Jesus shows, brilliantly, is that the man is captive to his wealth. Hes build this whole life, on a rotten foundation. And so Jesus says, give it all away so you can give your heart to God - and learn to trust him to provide for you. But the man walks away, because he cant do it. And he walks away because hed rather have the treasure in his bank account than the treasure in heaven Jesus promises. The power of greed Now, this morning were looking to this text to instruct us about the power and danger of greed. And greed, simply, is allowing wealth too big a place in your heart; allowing wealth to shape your hopes and dreams; its believing that my wellbeing is built on my possessions - and all of which leads to a strong desire to hold on to what you have, or to make more of it. Let me give you an example from Money magazine. A while back, they ran an article about a woman named Roxanne Logan. Ms. Logan says "I'm conscious of every dollar," and she's right about that. Ms. Logan makes $85,200 in her job as a sales director, but she has devoted her life to making money. She does it in small ways, clipping coupons and only shopping at the supermarket during double coupon days; she cuts her own hair, skips breakfast and packs lunch, and when she goes out to dinner on company business, she takes the leftovers home to make another meal 4

out of them; cutting her weekly food bill to $25. Each year she makes around $3,000 in what she calls "complaining income." If Logan is in any way dissatisfied with a product - like a staletasting chicken sandwich from McDonalds - she writes the corporation and demands a full refund, plus the cost of her postage. She spoke up when she found a hotel bathroom not cleaned to her liking, and got $50; she even got her dentist to cut his fee in half when she complained he hadn't anesthetized her properly. Now Logan has socked away over half a million dollars doing this. But as her boyfriend put it, this constant concern about money "puts unnecessary stress on every situation." 1 That to me sounds like a heart captive to greed. And it sure doesnt sound like a life of blessing. And heres a heart test for us - some diagnostic tests for greed: Look at what you daydream about. If your dreams are mostly about what you could be and do and have if you had more money, that suggests you may have a case of greed Look at the kind of people you gravitate towards - if you choose your friends not on the basis of character or shared values and interests but on the basis of what they have and what they make, that suggests you have a case of greed. Look at how much of your money you give away. If you cant bear to give it away - for whatever reason - were geniuses at rationalizing why we cant - if it hurts to crack open the wallet and share with someone - that suggests you have a case of greed. Look at what you base your security on. The psalmist says, I lie down and sleep, for the LORD sustains me (Ps. 3:5). But if you cant sleep well at night unless you have a nice fat bank account or your portfolio is doing well, then that suggests youve put your hope in your earthly treasure and that youre a big juicy target for greed.

You see, greed can be very subtle - its not just CEOs with their multi-million retirement packages; its not just congressmen who take bribes, its people like us, too. You can be rich already, and greedy; you can be poor, and greedy, you can be 5

outwardly greedy or quietly greedy. And the deadly part comes in because when you give your heart to earthly treasure, you cannot receive the treasure in heaven God wishes to give us. Someone once defined greed as holding on to what we merely want that prevents us from receiving what we really need. So whats the cure? Well, for that, were going to go turn to Philippians. In this passage, Paul writes of contentment; a contentment that did not depend on how much or how little he had. Indeed, the whole letter of Philippians is suffused with a remarkable sweetness and peace. Remarkable because of the situation Paul was in when he wrote it. Paul scratched out, or dictated this letter, while he was chained to the dank stone wall of a Roman jail cell. Dressed in rags, he sat on the cold hard floor, he slept amid the scurrying of rats through his cell. And from that very place Paul could say he had learned contentment. As Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message, Ive learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. Im just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. Ive found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. Paul learned a happiness that did not depend on the shifting circumstances of life, for whether going hungry or sitting down in front of a seven-course meal, whether sleeping in a feather bed or on a cold prison floor he knew a happiness that transcended his circumstances. Would you like to know what the secret of that happiness is? Paul uses a special word for secret - merimnao - meaning a secret one learns by initiation. Its a little like joining a fraternity - you go through an initiation, and get to learn the secrets of the organization. And to find the secret of happiness one also has to go through an initiation, of sorts. Paul got that initiation beginning on the Damascus Road, when he met the risen Jesus Christ who knocked him off his feet and then raised him back up to a new life. And knowing God through Christ became his treasure. 6

And as he journeyed on in the adventure of following Jesus and taking the gospel all over the Mediterranean world, Paul learned that Jesus Christ was his constant companion, his security, his comfort, his shelter. He discovered that through Jesus he belonged to God in life and in death, he discovered that nothing could ever separate him from the love of God in Christ - and all this, he says in Philippians, gave him a deep-seated contentment that sustained him no matter what. Remember now Paul's situation when he wrote this letter. He was in exactly the opposite situation of the man who ran up to Jesus. Paul wrote about this not while he was getting a suntan on a Mediterranean beach; not while he was at home looking over his nicely-growing portfolio; he wrote about the secret of contentment while he was sitting in a prison cell. Sitting on dirty straw strewn over a cold floor, chained to a stone wall. And Paul could say without irony, that I am content. Wheres your treasure? It comes from knowing that you are Gods treasure. Jesus told his disciples, rejoice that your names are written in heaven; in Isaiah God says to Israel - can a woman forget the child she nursed - she may forget but I will never forget you - see, I have engraved your names on the palms of my hands. You see, if you make Jesus Christ your treasure you become Gods treasure - he dotes on you, gazes on you with delight. Like Tony Campolo famously said, Gods like a grandfather with a wallet full of pictures, and when hes with the angels he always turns the conversation towards us, and he pulls out his wallet and shows us off our pictures. Do you see? Do you see? Would you rather have this? Or are your hopes and dreams come from your bank account or your job title? Conclusion Well...to conclude...there is a city mentioned in the book of Joshua called Eshtemoa. Some years ago, archaeologists who were excavating the site made an interesting discovery. They unearthed 62 pounds of silver, gems and jewelry that all together was worth about five million dollars. It was buried there 18 inches beneath the dirt floor of a house sometime in the 15th century. And the thing is, the house had been continuously occupied since the treasure was buried there - people had been living in that house for almost 600 years unaware that there was 5 million dollars of treasure buried right under their feet.2 You may have been coming to church most or all of your life. And not discovered 7

the treasure that is right in front of you. The treasure of being Gods child, Jesus friend. There is so much more, so much more to Christianity than being a good person, than doing ministry, than belonging to church. There is a treasure to be had. And you dont have to work for it or earn it. But you do have to let go of what you think your treasure is now. And its ok - because you already know it wont finally satisfy you. You can let it go. And open your hand to receive the treasure God wishes to give you. Amen. Endnotes 1. Money, January 1994, p. 106 ff. 2. www.homileticsonline.com