“As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” What must I do to inherit eternal life? Now that’s a question you don’t ask every day. It is a great question to ask, it is an important question to ask, and how you answer it has life altering implications. But really; when was the last time you heard yourself asking this question? Family lives are so busy. We are running from here to there. Up early – get the kids dressed for school, can’t find the books: Mom, where’s my favorite jeans or blouse, what’s for breakfast? Hurry up or you will miss the bus, drive one kid to the bus stop, another to school, off to work. A few minutes to eat lunch and get the banking done, back to work, finish work, pick up one kid from school and get him to music practice, pick up the other and get him to LOGOS. Back to the music teacher, pick up junior and back to church for confirmation class, get to class and realize that junior doesn’t have his workbook for the class, and junior gets sent out of class. Strangle junior, dash home and get the workbook and back to church, drop off junior and his workbook, off to do the shopping for the week – dash home – fill the cupboards. Back to church pick up the young one from LOGOS. Get him home to start homework, make dinner for you and your spouse, eat dinner alone, your spouse had to work late, out the door, back to church. Pick up junior from EYC, drive home, get the kids into homework, make lunches, get clothes ready for tomorrow, crash into bed and wake up to repeat the same schedule the next day. You are not asking questions about eternal life, you are asking: what must I do to survive this day? And you retired folks are not much better. You are bad role models for us future retirees. Some of you are busier than I am, and you don’t get paid! What is with that? I look at your lives and I think I’ll just keep working! No, we usually don’t ask that question: what must I do to inherit eternal life? It’s just not on our radar screen. The only time it does pop up is when we are either in a situation that forces us to consider it – lying on a table in the emergency room, lying on the gurney in pre-op getting ready for surgery, something like that….or when we hang around Jesus, like the guy in the gospel lesson or us here today in church. Jesus tends to raise questions like this when you hang around him. So, what about that question today: what must you do to inherit eternal life? Do you have it? Have you certainty you have it? Why, or, why not? This young fellow in the gospel didn’t seem so sure he had it. He thought he almost had it and Jesus seems to affirm to him that he almost had it. He was already doing what Jesus recommended, he was a good boy – a great boy – living by the law; honest, truthful, trustworthy, evidentially no anger, or resentments, or forgiveness issues, respectful and loving to his parents. This is a good guy! And Jesus loved him for who he is but he told him you almost have it. Being good was just not enough. When I was in the army, we had an axiom: almost doesn’t count except in hand grenades and nukes. Almost having eternal life is like almost surviving the plane crash, almost having enough oxygen to breath, almost not getting shot. Almost is not enough. There are things we do that can cause us to almost have eternal life, those are the things that we choose to replace God, edge God out, things that we allow to be as God to us. What was it that kept this fellow to almost inherit eternal life? It was money. Not the objective reality of money; there is no moral value to money. It is actually a good thing. But he had a relationship to it, he loved it, he desired it, he found it hard to let go of it, he viewed it as his source of eternal life. It was his security, it gave him identity and status and place in his world. It was his life. He was a good boy who chose a bad God. Jesus told him, you are almost there. Just one other thing and you have it. Give away your money, break your bondage, your addiction to this source of power and security and identity and follow me. This good boy hung his head in sadness, and he walked away from Jesus. He walked away from eternal life himself because he could not, or would not, let go of his god. He decided to trust in his money rather than trust in Jesus. How very, very, sad. Now it is not that money is the only thing that can be a distraction, an obstacle, keeping us almost having eternal life. Jesus goes on later to talk about family and property – anything can become our savior if we let it but money is the most powerful. That’s why Jesus said it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And even the disciples recognized the universal inclination to vest wealth with salvific significance when they asked: who then can be saved?” Money, wealth, we are warned can be a very subtle and powerful obstacle to following Jesus. It can keep us from having eternal life. It doesn’t have to but it will if we vest it as our God. My wife came to faith in Jesus while we were stationed in Germany. It took two years before her prayers, and the prayers and witness of her Christian group, bore any fruit in my life. During this two year period we started going to church; she really went to church, I kind of tagged along. She then decided that we had to start tithing to the church, giving 10% of our income. It was a part of her conversion, part of her faith. It was important to her and I would argue against her. I thought that the Church belonged to God – let him take care of it. I had a responsibility for me and my wife and we were trying to have kids then so we had needs to prepare for. God didn’t need my money, we did. I just didn’t get it. We were on two different tracks. She was trusting God; her giving was an act of faith. But then so was my not giving an act of faith but I was trusting in me, and in my money. giving to the Lord tithing is not a money issue, it is a faith issue. It is about who or what you trust, about who or what is your savior. I didn’t get it then – well maybe I did – I trusted but, like the guy in the gospel, I just didn’t trust Jesus. Inheriting eternal life is trust in Jesus. We don’t earn it by being good. We receive it as a gift when we follow Jesus, when Jesus is our lord and nothing else. Remember the answers to the questions asked in baptism? We renounce the devil, the world, and our own sinful desires. We turn away, we abandon these things as having any influence in our lives. Then we turn to Jesus and accept him as our Savior, promise to follow and obey him as our lord, and put our whole trust in his love and grace. Appropriating these truths into our lives is living as a Christian. It is Christian life, it is eternal life. In the movie Indiana Jones and the last Crusade, the Grail knight warns the characters about choosing which cup to drink from. “Choose wisely, for while the true grail will bring you eternal life, the fake grail will take it from you.” When the bad guy drank from a fake grail and aged and died falling into dust in a few moments, the knight sagely responded: he chose poorly. Likewise, when the good boy in the gospel was confronted with the issue of who or what he would trust, he chose poorly. He was not willing to completely relinquish his faith in his wealth or himself, to have eternal life. Only after coming to faith in Jesus did I come to see tithing, giving 10% of our income to the church, as part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, as much as prayer, or bible reading, or worship on Sunday. I am just giving back to the Lord what is already his. That’s what i was taught as a young Christian. Tithing is an action of faith that says Jesus is our Lord – not money or anything else. We trust him alone. We keep him first in our lives. “As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” What must I do to inherit eternal life? Now that’s a question you don’t ask every day. It is a great question to ask, it is an important question to ask, and how you answer it has life altering implications. But really; when was the last time you heard yourself asking this question? Family lives are so busy. We are running from here to there. Up early – get the kids dressed for school, can’t find the books: Mom, where’s my favorite jeans or blouse, what’s for breakfast? Hurry up or you will miss the bus, drive one kid to the bus stop, another to school, off to work. A few minutes to eat lunch and get the banking done, back to work, finish work, pick up one kid from school and get him to music practice, pick up the other and get him to LOGOS. Back to the music teacher, pick up junior and back to church for confirmation class, get to class and realize that junior doesn’t have his workbook for the class, and junior gets sent out of class. Strangle junior, dash home and get the workbook and back to church, drop off junior and his workbook, off to do the shopping for the week – dash home – fill the cupboards. Back to church pick up the young one from LOGOS. Get him home to start homework, make dinner for you and your spouse, eat dinner alone, your spouse had to work late, out the door, back to church. Pick up junior from EYC, drive home, get the kids into homework, make lunches, get clothes ready for tomorrow, crash into bed and wake up to repeat the same schedule the next day. You are not asking questions about eternal life, you are asking: what must I do to survive this day? And you retired folks are not much better. You are bad role models for us future retirees. Some of you are busier than I am, and you don’t get paid! What is with that? I look at your lives and I think I’ll just keep working! No, we usually don’t ask that question: what must I do to inherit eternal life? It’s just not on our radar screen. The only time it does pop up is when we are either in a situation that forces us to consider it – lying on a table in the emergency room, lying on the gurney in pre-op getting ready for surgery, something like that….or when we hang around Jesus, like the guy in the gospel lesson or us here today in church. Jesus tends to raise questions like this when you hang around him. So, what about that question today: what must you do to inherit eternal life? Do you have it? Have you certainty you have it? Why, or, why not? This young fellow in the gospel didn’t seem so sure he had it. He thought he almost had it and Jesus seems to affirm to him that he almost had it. He was already doing what Jesus recommended, he was a good boy – a great boy – living by the law; honest, truthful, trustworthy, evidentially no anger, or resentments, or forgiveness issues, respectful and loving to his parents. This is a good guy! And Jesus loved him for who he is but he told him you almost have it. Being good was just not enough. When I was in the army, we had an axiom: almost doesn’t count except in hand grenades and nukes. Almost having eternal life is like almost surviving the plane crash, almost having enough oxygen to breath, almost not getting shot. Almost is not enough. There are things we do that can cause us to almost have eternal life, those are the things that we choose to replace God, edge God out, things that we allow to be as God to us. What was it that kept this fellow to almost inherit eternal life? It was money. Not the objective reality of money; there is no moral value to money. It is actually a good thing. But he had a relationship to it, he loved it, he desired it, he found it hard to let go of it, he viewed it as his source of eternal life. It was his security, it gave him identity and status and place in his world. It was his life. He was a good boy who chose a bad God. Jesus told him, you are almost there. Just one other thing and you have it. Give away your money, break your bondage, your addiction to this source of power and security and identity and follow me. This good boy hung his head in sadness, and he walked away from Jesus. He walked away from eternal life himself because he could not, or would not, let go of his god. He decided to trust in his money rather than trust in Jesus. How very, very, sad. Now it is not that money is the only thing that can be a distraction, an obstacle, keeping us almost having eternal life. Jesus goes on later to talk about family and property – anything can become our savior if we let it but money is the most powerful. That’s why Jesus said it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And even the disciples recognized the universal inclination to vest wealth with salvific significance when they asked: who then can be saved?” Money, wealth, we are warned can be a very subtle and powerful obstacle to following Jesus. It can keep us from having eternal life. It doesn’t have to but it will if we vest it as our God. My wife came to faith in Jesus while we were stationed in Germany. It took two years before her prayers, and the prayers and witness of her Christian group, bore any fruit in my life. During this two year period we started going to church; she really went to church, I kind of tagged along. She then decided that we had to start tithing to the church, giving 10% of our income. It was a part of her conversion, part of her faith. It was important to her and I would argue against her. I thought that the Church belonged to God – let him take care of it. I had a responsibility for me and my wife and we were trying to have kids then so we had needs to prepare for. God didn’t need my money, we did. I just didn’t get it. We were on two different tracks. She was trusting God; her giving was an act of faith. But then so was my not giving an act of faith but I was trusting in me, and in my money. giving to the Lord tithing is not a money issue, it is a faith issue. It is about who or what you trust, about who or what is your savior. I didn’t get it then – well maybe I did – I trusted but, like the guy in the gospel, I just didn’t trust Jesus. Inheriting eternal life is trust in Jesus. We don’t earn it by being good. We receive it as a gift when we follow Jesus, when Jesus is our lord and nothing else. Remember the answers to the questions asked in baptism? We renounce the devil, the world, and our own sinful desires. We turn away, we abandon these things as having any influence in our lives. Then we turn to Jesus and accept him as our Savior, promise to follow and obey him as our lord, and put our whole trust in his love and grace. Appropriating these truths into our lives is living as a Christian. It is Christian life, it is eternal life. In the movie Indiana Jones and the last Crusade, the Grail knight warns the characters about choosing which cup to drink from. “Choose wisely, for while the true grail will bring you eternal life, the fake grail will take it from you.” When the bad guy drank from a fake grail and aged and died falling into dust in a few moments, the knight sagely responded: he chose poorly. Likewise, when the good boy in the gospel was confronted with the issue of who or what he would trust, he chose poorly. He was not willing to completely relinquish his faith in his wealth or himself, to have eternal life. Only after coming to faith in Jesus did I come to see tithing, giving 10% of our income to the church, as part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, as much as prayer, or bible reading, or worship on Sunday. I am just giving back to the Lord what is already his. That’s what i was taught as a young Christian. Tithing is an action of faith that says Jesus is our Lord – not money or anything else. We trust him alone. We keep him first in our lives. We are about to begin an every member canvass in a couple of weeks. Part of its goal is to contact everyone in the parish, and get everyone to pledge, to take their place financially in the parish. But on a spiritual level, I think it’s really a time to consider what role money plays in our life. When we talk about putting our trust in Jesus, when we talk about inheriting eternal life there is no room for almost. Use this stewardship time to be a time for real soul-searching about who or what may keep us in the almost. If our issue is money, take the antidote God provides: tithe. Let us really follow Jesus as Lord and Savior and trust him alone. Let us be assured that we inherit eternal life. We are about to begin an every member canvass in a couple of weeks. Part of its goal is to contact everyone in the parish, and get everyone to pledge, to take their place financially in the parish. But on a spiritual level, I think it’s really a time to consider what role money plays in our life. When we talk about putting our trust in Jesus, when we talk about inheriting eternal life there is no room for almost. Use this stewardship time to be a time for real soul-searching about who or what may keep us in the almost. If our issue is money, take the antidote God provides: tithe. Let us really follow Jesus as Lord and Savior and trust him alone. Let us be assured that we inherit eternal life.
