Wealth & Discipleship
Luke 18:18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.’” 21 He replied, “I have kept all these since my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, 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.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 He replied, “What is impossible for mortals is possible for God.”
This moment in the teaching of Jesus always unnerves me — I think because I have always had a rather uneasy relationship with wealth. On the one hand, I dream of wealth and covet the security and convenience, and sense of peace I imagine wealth might buy me. So, I pursue wealth like a lot of other people I know. On the other hand my family history is littered with the wreckage of lives lived in pursuit of wealth in a way that justified the worst kinds of human depravity.
For decades I have been engrossed in the hobby of preserving my family's history. Having deep roots in South Carolina and in Georgia, it will come as no surprise that I have found slave-owning plantations in the family history. Indeed, a few years ago I conducted a wedding just outside of Charleston, SC at the gorgeous Middleton Plantation. My father’s mother was a Middleton of the Charleston Middletons. I have read the slave registers of those whose lives and blood were poured out in labor on that plantation (and other plantations in my family history) and the thought of it sickens me.
But I need not go back to the 1850s and 1860s to find evidence of the cost of the pursuit of wealth. It is easy enough for me to find in my own life. Back when I was first feeling the Spirit of God prompting me to a new life — around my twenty-second year — I was already deeply committed to wealth-accumulation. A friend and I had started a business and were importing goods from Taiwan, and Malaysia, and Mexico, and selling them at an obscene profit. When I first felt God asking me to question my head-long chasing after the almighty-dollar, my response was to make a deal with God. I said to God, “If you will leave me alone from Monday to Friday so I can keep getting rich (without the guilt I am feeling about it), I’ll spend my Saturdays helping others who are less fortunate than myself, and I’ll worship on Sundays.” It seemed like a perfectly reasonable deal to me. It was only later that I came to know how perilous it is to try to wheel-and-deal with God — within a year of that “deal” I was attending seminary.
Today is the Monday of Holy Week. Jesus is heading to the hardest days of his life and he is wondering if any of the disciples will stick by him. It all boils down to this; what do they really want more than anything else? Like the rich young ruler who had wanted to live a God-glorifying life so long as it did not require him to relinquish his first-love, we too are asked as we make our way into Holy Week, “Are you willing to let go of the things you covet the most in order to be fully present to those in need and to fully follow the one who has entered Jerusalem?”
It will be hard for us to choose God’s kingdom over the enticements of this world. It always has been. We will each need to find a place of peace and balance between living as good stewards of the gifts God has entrusted to us, and on the other hand, allowing our accumulation of those gifts to enslave us. Years ago I was talking to a monk at Mepkin Abbey. I had sought Father Christian's counsel about life. I suppose I must have said a lot about money because he concluded our time together saying, "Your wealth will not make you happy, but it will keep you comfortably in your unhappiness.” I have wondered about what he said many times. I wonder about the ways I allow my wealth to keep me just comfortable enough that I never get sick enough of my lukewarm discipleship and get busy truly committing to the life that really is life.
This moment in the teaching of Jesus always unnerves me — I think because I have always had a rather uneasy relationship with wealth. On the one hand, I dream of wealth and covet the security and convenience, and sense of peace I imagine wealth might buy me. So, I pursue wealth like a lot of other people I know. On the other hand my family history is littered with the wreckage of lives lived in pursuit of wealth in a way that justified the worst kinds of human depravity.
For decades I have been engrossed in the hobby of preserving my family's history. Having deep roots in South Carolina and in Georgia, it will come as no surprise that I have found slave-owning plantations in the family history. Indeed, a few years ago I conducted a wedding just outside of Charleston, SC at the gorgeous Middleton Plantation. My father’s mother was a Middleton of the Charleston Middletons. I have read the slave registers of those whose lives and blood were poured out in labor on that plantation (and other plantations in my family history) and the thought of it sickens me.
But I need not go back to the 1850s and 1860s to find evidence of the cost of the pursuit of wealth. It is easy enough for me to find in my own life. Back when I was first feeling the Spirit of God prompting me to a new life — around my twenty-second year — I was already deeply committed to wealth-accumulation. A friend and I had started a business and were importing goods from Taiwan, and Malaysia, and Mexico, and selling them at an obscene profit. When I first felt God asking me to question my head-long chasing after the almighty-dollar, my response was to make a deal with God. I said to God, “If you will leave me alone from Monday to Friday so I can keep getting rich (without the guilt I am feeling about it), I’ll spend my Saturdays helping others who are less fortunate than myself, and I’ll worship on Sundays.” It seemed like a perfectly reasonable deal to me. It was only later that I came to know how perilous it is to try to wheel-and-deal with God — within a year of that “deal” I was attending seminary.
Today is the Monday of Holy Week. Jesus is heading to the hardest days of his life and he is wondering if any of the disciples will stick by him. It all boils down to this; what do they really want more than anything else? Like the rich young ruler who had wanted to live a God-glorifying life so long as it did not require him to relinquish his first-love, we too are asked as we make our way into Holy Week, “Are you willing to let go of the things you covet the most in order to be fully present to those in need and to fully follow the one who has entered Jerusalem?”
It will be hard for us to choose God’s kingdom over the enticements of this world. It always has been. We will each need to find a place of peace and balance between living as good stewards of the gifts God has entrusted to us, and on the other hand, allowing our accumulation of those gifts to enslave us. Years ago I was talking to a monk at Mepkin Abbey. I had sought Father Christian's counsel about life. I suppose I must have said a lot about money because he concluded our time together saying, "Your wealth will not make you happy, but it will keep you comfortably in your unhappiness.” I have wondered about what he said many times. I wonder about the ways I allow my wealth to keep me just comfortable enough that I never get sick enough of my lukewarm discipleship and get busy truly committing to the life that really is life.
Prayer —
Lord, we notice that you lived very simply. Indeed, you appeared to have had essentially no wealth. And yet, we confess that you lived among us full of grace and truth - and that your life has become the very definition of what it means to be “fully human.” So help us to sort out when enough is enough and when our many things have become a stumbling block to faithful following. We ask it in the name of the pauper-King, Amen.
Lord, we notice that you lived very simply. Indeed, you appeared to have had essentially no wealth. And yet, we confess that you lived among us full of grace and truth - and that your life has become the very definition of what it means to be “fully human.” So help us to sort out when enough is enough and when our many things have become a stumbling block to faithful following. We ask it in the name of the pauper-King, Amen.
Posted in Lent
Paul Lang
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