Sermon Title: Does God Ask Too Much of Us?

Sermon Text: Mark 10:17-31

Sermon Date: October 15, 2006

Stacey Elizabeth Simpson, pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Edison, Georgia, was seven years old, reading Mark’s Gospel in bed. When she got to verse 25, she was so alarmed that she slammed the Bible shut, jumped out of bed, and went running down the hall. Stacey shook my mother out of a sound sleep. "Mom, Jesus says that rich people don’t go to heaven!"

"We are not rich. Go back to bed," came her mother’s response.

 Mark 10:17As he went out into the street, a man came running up, greeted him with great reverence, and asked, "Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?"

 18-19Jesus said, "Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God. You know the commandments: Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't cheat, honor your father and mother."

 20He said, "Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!"

 21Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said, "There's one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me."

 22The man's face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.

 23-25Looking at his disciples, Jesus said, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who 'have it all' to enter God's kingdom?" The disciples couldn't believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: "You can't imagine how difficult. I'd say it's easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for the rich to get into God's kingdom."

 26That set the disciples back on their heels. "Then who has any chance at all?" they asked.

 27Jesus was blunt: "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it."

 28Peter tried another angle: "We left everything and followed you."

 29-31Jesus said, "Mark my words, no one who sacrifices house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, land—whatever—because of me and the Message will lose out. They'll get it all back, but multiplied many times in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—but also in troubles. And then the bonus of eternal life! This is once again the Great Reversal: Many who are first will end up last, and the last first."

Winston Churchill said, “I love to learn but I hate being taught.” Can’t you relate to that? Many of us love to learn something new so we can mull it around in our heads and think about how this adds to our overall knowledge. Then someday someone will say something that connects that piece of information to the new information we just received. If I remember correctly from education courses in college this is called the schema theory which in essence means that when you get this new information your brain gets a little tiny hanger that floats around. Then when you learn something about that new information it has a place to hang its hat (as it were). Otherwise that new information is floating around with nowhere to land, connecting to nothing at all and it makes no sense.  But once the hanger is there, the pieces start to connect.

The man in our scripture today had no little hanger on which to put this new information that even though he had followed all the commandments to the letter of the law, it wasn’t enough.

Prayer: May the words I speak and the words that are heard be your words, loving God. Amen.

            He isn’t even given a name.  Did you notice that?  He has been known as a lot of things.  We have called him the rich young ruler but I don’t really know why.  He only says he has kept the commandments since he was young which implies he has some years behind him.

            He is called a ruler in Matthew, and wealthy in all three versions – Matthew, Mark and Luke.  But to be honest we don’t know what kind of ruler or where he gets his wealth.  What we really know about this man is that he has some means and that he went away sad.  Jesus had asked too much of him.  Way too much. In fact, he is the only person in the Gospel of Mark to walk away from the opportunity to be healed.

We can sympathize with him, can’t we? After all, Jesus didn’t even ask him to tithe, to give ten percent of his wealth to the poor. He didn’t ask him to pray about it and see what God would ask him to do. Jesus just plainly said, give it all away, sell it all and give it to the poor. Too much to ask of him, don’t you think. 

            If you were not able to be here last week you missed an extraordinary worship service.  Rev. Gary Reif led us through a time of holy contemplation asking us to ask God what we should be giving to God’s ministry for the coming year.  Over and over, Gary said that Consecration Sunday is more about what we need to give than what the church needs to receive.  And you gave.  You will hear more about the numbers in the annual meeting to follow but the numbers I heard say that over 50% of us increased our giving over last year.  That alone is reason to celebrate.  Without a budget in hand, we gave to God’s ministry.

            After all, we have been blessed, right?  God has blessed us again and again with things that many people do not have.  So it is good to thank God for those blessings by giving back a part of what we have been given.

            But asking us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor….well, that is asking way too much.  Come on, Jesus.  The man wanted to say, “You have to understand.  I’ve worked hard for this house, this car, this Italian suit.  Don’t ask me to give more than I’ve already given.  I can’t give up the life I’ve come to love.  No, don’t ask.  I cannot do it.” 

So here is a question for us today -- what could God ask of us that wouldn’t be too much?

Let’s break it down into categories. After all stewardship is a year round conversation, not just a particular Sunday of the year.

In Rob Bell’s latest “Nooma” video (we saw a few of them this summer in “Journey to Jerusalem”) he talks about seeing a bumper sticker that says, “God Bless America.” Rob points out that God already has blessed America.

America’s around six percent of the world’s population and we consume over 40 % of its resources.

The point isn’t how can God bless America more. The point is how can America bless others. When God blesses someone in the Bible, it is so that the person can bless others.

Do you drive a car? Only 8% of the people in the world drive cars. 92% of people in the world see us driving a car and think we are rich.

If you access to clean drinking water, you have more than one billion people worldwide do.

If you will eat today you have it better than 800 million people. 300 million of them are kids. And one billion people live on less than $1 a day.

So you see, Stacey’s mom was wrong. We are rich. We live in a rich country, the land of opportunity. We are rich.

It is obvious we can’t sell everything we have because we need shelter and food too, but in light of Rob’s information….what could we do? What could we change about our lives that would help someone else’s live to be better? Think about that. What could God ask of us that wouldn’t be too much?

Then there is a question of how we spend our time and use our gifts.

We are all busy. Right? But the world still needs our gifts, whether we are busy or not. The church still needs teachers for the children and people to hold babies in the nursery. People were here to hold and teach your children. Is it your turn to hold and teach the children of this current generation? Is it too much for God to ask of you?

People are hungry and trying to stretch their food dollars as far as they can. The Baked Good Distribution on Fridays could use your help. It only takes an hour or so and you put the baked goods from Food Finders out on the table for folks to take home. Is it too much for God to ask of you?

What could God ask of us that wouldn’t be too much?

Then there are those times when our plates are full dealing with problems and we wonder why God is asking so much of us?

I have a friend. She was part of the youth group I led when I was the associate pastor in Fountain Square, on the southeast side of Indianapolis. I’ve told you part of her story in other ways. One time when she was sleeping at a friend’s house, her two and three year old brothers set fire to the house. Her ten year old brother saved the three year old but couldn’t rescue the two year old. Mom had been drinking the night before and didn’t hear the kids wake up. The pain to this family was unbearable.

Eventually the mom found Jesus and a new life only to drop dead of an aneurysm in her 30s. My friend married and found a good job, then her husband got hooked on meth and she had to walk away from him even though she loves him. Then a few weeks ago he was driving while high on drugs and killed three people on motorcycles. I heard that 11 children were left without parents because among those killed were a widow and widower.

And we wonder why we have to endure so much in life. How could God ask so much of us?

Of course we realize that our choices often put us in difficult situations. We often make our own problems but stuff happens to us outside our ability to choose. Aneurysms and car accidents happen and we can’t control them. We lose jobs due to downsizing. Inflation goes up. Death comes to all of us even in quiet Amish country.

Does God ask too much of us?

 No. God doesn’t even when it seems like it. Life sometimes does but God doesn’t ask anything of us that we cannot do; doesn’t ask anything of us we cannot give, doesn’t give us more than we can handle, even though  Mother Teresa said, “I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.” 

And yet when it seems like too much, God offers help and hope to us. God offers us the strength of brothers and sisters in Christ to lean on. God offers people to hold our babies, to pray with us, to offer us bread, to give the coats of our backs, to help us find jobs and resources to deal with our problems.

We are here to serve God, to be sure, but we are also here to love each other. Remember that greatest commandment – to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And really that is what God is asking of us. To love and serve Jesus by loving others.

On Friday night some of the students from the Found came over to play Yahtzee and Josh told us of his favorite t-shirt. “Man uses duct tape to solve the world’s problems. God used nails.”

We are not in this thing called life alone. We are not asked to carry the burdens of this life alone even when it feels like it. And God will not ask more of us than we can handle but there is an absolute certainty that we can give more than we believe we can.

Let me close with this reminder from our scripture today. Verse 21 says “Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him!”

Always remember that. Jesus loves you and because he knows you so well he knows what you are capable of, what you can do. So he won’t ask what you cannot do. We will only be asked to do what we are capable of doing and giving.