This past Tuesday, I was sitting in my office just trying to stay on top of e-mail when Elliott popped their head in the door and asked if I had time to go to the bank with our treasurer, Kathy. Turns out that everything was lined up to finally pay off our mortgage and Kathy just needed to sign the paper work.

Huh, I probably should be there for that, I thought. Maybe even take a picture or two for posterity. But honestly, it wasn’t until we started walking over that the significance of the moment really started to hit me.

Kathy and I were both filled with nervous excitement as we walked, you know, the way you feel when things are going so well you’re afraid you might do something to jinx it. And yet, as we walked and talked about the abundance of blessing we are experiencing as a church thanks to the generosity of our anonymous donor and so many others, we increasingly felt like we were floating. I guess you could say we were a little high.

Of course the bank manager was all business when we walked in and dead serious as she double and then triple checked every detail of the wire transfer. But by the time Kathy pulled out her pen to sign the paper work, even the bank manager was a little giddy and she gave us the biggest smile as she congratulated First Churches on a job well done.

By this point, I was late for my previously scheduled lunch which just happened to be with Peter and Jenny Fleming-Ives, so I sent them a quick text explaining why and they were - of course - most understanding.  As Kathy and I left the bank for Woodstar, we could barely contain our joy. We ran into Gina Ayvazian on the corner and told her what we had just done and she broke into a smile and congratulated us as well.

And then, as we walked, Kathy turned to me and said, “Sarah, this is what you’re always talking about. This is what the kingdom of God feels like. This is what it is to experience heaven on earth right here, right now.” With that thought we burst through the doors of Woodstar into the arms of Peter and Jenny, and my friends, Kathy was right.

I don’t even have words to describe the combination of celebration, relief, love, and gratitude …the awe we felt as we hugged and hugged and hugged one another…except perhaps to describe it as a feeling of amazing grace. For we had done nothing to earn this joy. We had done nothing to be worthy of this gift. We were merely caught up in the flow of this act of love, collateral beneficiaries of this incredible blessing, humble witnesses to the power of generosity to redeem, restore, and reclaim a little bit of heaven for the sake of those on earth. It was remarkable.

And all it took …was money… a whole lot of money.

Actually, that’s not entirely true.

But you know what? It’s also not entirely false, either.

Which is one reason why today’s passage can be so hard for us to understand.

Friends, to say that we have a highly complicated, deeply conflicted relationship with money would be an understatement, right?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but on some level, don’t we all kind of have a love/hate relationship with money? I mean, we all want it and need it. We all give and receive it. But given its ubiquity we sure have a lot of anxiety around it and a very hard time talking about it. You might even be feeling a little anxious right now.

We take great pride in our ability to earn money but feel deep shame if we have too much or too little of it. We want people to know we have enough of it just not exactly how much of it we think is enough, so we hide it in some ways even as we display it in others.

And no where is this conflicted relationship more apparent then in the church where we gather in richly appointed houses of worship decked out in our Sunday best to proclaim God’s love for the poor and needy as we follow in the footsteps of a savior who had no place to lay his head.

How many of you have seen the meme: “If money is the root of all evil, why are churches always asking for it?” Yeah. That one always catches me up short.

But I think it’s a question worth pondering even if it is based on a misquoting of the Bible. Does anyone know what the Bible actually says?

“The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).

That right! It’s not money itself that is the problem but the love of money that gets us into trouble. If money was the problem then Jesus wouldn’t have told the rich man to give all he had  to the poor.  That would just be off loading the problem on to them. If money was the problem, Jesus should have just told the rich man to burn it. But he didn’t.

Jesus told the rich man to give his money to the poor because he knew money would help them not be poor and not being poor is a good thing.

Money can be a good thing. Such a good thing that it’s hard not to love it.

Money can do good things. Such good things that how could you not love it?

In fact, I think that is why the rich man in today’s story loved his money and was so reluctant to part with it and why Jesus loved him all the same.

I don’t know what you’ve heard about this guy in the past, but I think he’s actually a very sympathetic character. If we piece together what we know about him from the various gospels in which he appears, a picture emerges of a young man who would have made the 30 under 30 list in Jerusalem. This kid is hot stuff. But what I want you to notice is that in spite of his great wealth and reputation, he is also deeply respectful of Jesus.

I mean most men in his position, if they wanted to speak with an itinerant preacher, would have just sent for him. But notice that this guy ran out to meet Jesus.  And when he arrived, notice that he didn’t announce who he was and wait for Jesus to bow in his presence or be impressed.  No, no, it was the rich man in all his finery who knelt down in the dirt before Jesus and asked, with all due respect:

“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Unlike the Pharisees who were always asking Jesus questions to test him, this young man came to Jesus in earnest. He is humble, sincere, and devout. We learn that he has kept all the commandments since his youth. He has studied the scriptures. He’s done everything he’s ever been told to do. And yet something is still missing.  For all his effort - for all the time, energy, and money he has invested in his faith - he is still not sure that it is enough… that he is enough.

And so he comes to Jesus and asks, what am I missing here?  Why, in spite of all I have done, is there still so much doubt and fear deep in my soul? 

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

And in that moment, I think he broke Jesus’ heart a little.

Mark tells us that Jesus, “looking at him, loved him.” Just loved him. Loved him already. Loved him even before he knew how the young man would respond. And out of that great love, Jesus went for the one chink in this young man’s armor.

“You lack one thing,” said Jesus. “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

We already know that the young man walked away sad.  Mark tells us that he “went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” But what you might not know is that his grief probably had much less to do with the idea of parting with his rolex sundial or his summer house by the Dead Sea. 

I think the young man grieved at the idea of giving up his wealth precisely because it was his wealth that had enabled him to be so good in the first place. 

It was his wealth that had provided him with the wherewithal to study the law, make the appropriate sacrifices throughout the year,  keep kosher, and give to others.  In his mind, it was his wealth that had enabled him to live all those years as such a good, generous, and observant Jew.

And he wasn’t crazy. Everyone thought this way.  You see, back then, if you were poor you didn’t have the luxury of being holy. Mostly you were just trying to survive.  Wealth was seen as a blessing bestowed on good, observant, righteous people in large part because it was only the wealthy who could afford to be good, observant, righteous people.

This is why the disciples are absolutely shocked by Jesus’ words about wealth – if it’s that hard for the rich: “who than can be saved?” they ask.

“For mortals it is impossible,” says Jesus, “but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

What is Jesus saying here?  Well it may come as a bit of a shock to you, just as it did to them, but I think what Jesus is trying to say is that it is downright impossible for any of us to work our way into heaven. Eternal life is not something we can earn by keeping the commandments, observing the law, living a good and virtuous life, saying a particular prayer, or even giving away all we have to the poor. There is nothing we can do to inherit eternal life, because eternal life is God’s free gift to us already.

If it were otherwise than all any of us would have to do is give up all we have and we too could purchase a ticket for eternity, but that is not the moral of this story. When Jesus asks the rich man to give all he has to the poor, he is not putting a price on the kingdom of God, he is asking this young man to let go of the idea that the kingdom of God is for sale.

He is asking him to let go of the belief that he can make his way into heaven by being good and generous (“why do you call me good, no one is good but God alone”), by being rich or respectable (“go, give it all away, and come follow me”), by being or doing anything. 

The good news Jesus came to proclaim to us all is that we will be welcomed into the kingdom when we die because we are already welcome there now while we still live. The doors are already open. The pearl is already out there just lying the field.

All you need to do is make room in your heart to receive it. All you need to do is let go of the idea that you or anyone else needs to earn it. All you need to do is let go…let go of the striving, the anxiety, the fear… and simply live into it as if it’s true. Just let go…because that is the only way to let grace in.

Heaven, eternal life, the kingdom, but most importantly, God’s love, friends, these are all yours for the taking.  They are God’s free gift to you.  How you live into that awareness, how you live after receiving this gift, well, you could say that is your gift to God….but honestly, I think that is also God’s gift to you.

Because, you see, when we come to understand

just how loved we are… already,

forgiven we are …already,

blessed we are …already,

not because of of who we are or what we have done, but because of who God is and what God has done, we don’t need to try so hard.

These things just start to flow. Rather than trying to be good we become channels of goodness. We learn to love, not so that God will love us but because God already does. We learn to forgive not so that God will forgive us but because God already has. We learn to give not so that God will bless us but because in the giving we come to find just how richly we have been blessed.

We enter into the flow of amazing grace that Kathy and Peter and Jenny and I found ourselves dancing in this past Tuesday and it is glorious.

There is a proverb that reads: “The world of the generous grows larger and larger” ( based on Proverbs 11:25, The Message trans.). Those words came back to me this past Tuesday as I walked with Kathy.

And I hear those words in my head when I think of that rich young man who walked away sad. Jesus loved him even as he walked away still holding tightly to what he already had, so tightly that his encounter with Jesus didn’t change his world at all.

But if that young man had let go, he would have freed himself up to love Jesus and who knows where that love would have taken him, how that love would have changed him, or how he, in turn, might have changed the world?

Someone here let go in a mighty way and look how it has changed the world for us. Their world and ours has grown infinitely larger and though I could not be more grateful, I know the experience has been so positive for them that they couldn’t be more grateful either.

Friends, God wants us to give of what we have, not for God’s sake, but for our own. God wants us to give because God knows that giving (just like loving and forgiving) is good for the human heart. God wants us to give because God knows that as we give so shall we receive, whether we’re talking about love or grace or money which reminds me of an old folk tale I’d like to share with you before I close.

There was once a man out walking through the woods.  As he walked, he stubbed his toe and looked down to see a huge sparkling emerald gleaming on the forest floor.  Giving thanks to God, he picked up the jewel and continued walking, holding the emerald with care.

In a little while he heard a beggar by the side of the road, calling out for someone to help.  When he got closer he saw that the man was hungry and no doubt homeless. The beggar asked him for food or money.  Having neither, the man walked over and handed the beggar his emerald. The beggar was amazed and practically danced away with gratitude.

A little while later, though, the beggar came back and found the man on the path still walking.  “Here,” said the beggar. “Take this back. I want something from you that is even more valuable.”

“What else do I have?” asked the man whose pockets were empty and who was still a long way from home. “What I want from you,” said the beggar, “is whatever it is that allowed you to give that jewel away.”

Whatever that is… it is here amongst us…already.

What ever that is, it is here within us…already.

Just waiting for us to let it go…let it flow…Just waiting to be given so it can be received.

Amen