Squeezing Camels Through The Eye Of A Needle
Sermon
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Can The Rich Be Righteous; Can The Righteous Be Rich?
America is awash in money - big money. The fabled kings of wealth of the past - Midas, Croeseus, and Solomon - pale in significance to ERPs - the Extremely Rich People of America - many of whom have turned tiny investments into mountains of money. Thanks to a technology--information boom, an expanding global economy, and a soaring bull market, America, at this writing, is awash in oceans of money.
For example, since 1995, the market has produced about $4 trillion - that's trillion with a t - in new paper wealth. That would be equal to about a half year's worth of output of goods and services for the entire United States. Thanks to the Dow Jones' unprecedented rise, millions of Americans have been led into the stock market through 401K plans, mutual funds, and stock options with various companies. As a consequence, people like Dan Hoffman of Sunnyvale, California, and his wife Amy are now worth about $1.5 million because, as a quality control inspector at Microsoft, he bought 2,400 shares of Microsoft Stock options at $99 each.
Even without stock options, if we had bought 100 shares of Microsoft in 1986, for $2,100 when it first went public, that $2,100 would now be worth about a half--million dollars at this writing. Microsoft is of course the leader of the California Silicon Valley Twentieth Century Gold Rush, as my youngest daughter calls it from her own Silicon Valley office. And at the top of the heap is Microsoft's founder and head, Bill Gates, now worth untold billions, to be America's richest man. In fact, any time Microsoft's stock moves up $4, his net worth increases about $1.1 billion.
America is awash in money with billionaires galore and millionaires a dime a dozen. And in our post--industrial, technology--information age, computer related businesses lead the way. Indeed, consider Forbes Magazine's recent issue with its annual list of the "Forbes 400," the 400 wealthiest people in America. In the top six we have Bill Gates, worth $38 to $40 billion; Warren Buffett, investment wizard, worth $21 billion; Paul Allen, Bill Gates' onetime Microsoft partner, worth $17 billion; Lawrence Ellison of Oracle, worth $9.2 billion; Gordon Moore of Intel Corporation, worth $8.8 billion. Note that of the first six richest people, five are computer related, and four are Microsoft fortunes.
When Forbes first published its "400" list in 1982, there were thirteen American billionaires. In 1997, there were over 170. In 1982, you had to be worth about $100 million to get on the very bottom of this list. But in 1997, you had to be worth $475 million to be admitted to this most exclusive of all clubs. The average net worth of the "Forbes 400" member is $1.6 billion. Of the list, about one--fourth inherited wealth, about one--half are "self--made." In 1982, New York and Texas had the biggest concentration of wealthy people of the "Forbes 400." In 1997, they lost out to California to share second place with Florida. Not only did New York move to second place, I was further dismayed to discover that not a single member of my church was on the list!
If America is awash in billionaires, so, too, in millionaires. In 1997, we had thousands of people worth at least $1 million. If a million is within reach of many of us, a billion dollars seems almost incomprehensible and, well, almost uncountable. One financial writer says that if we spent all day counting fast, it would take us ninety years to reach 1 billion.
Well now, fellow Americans and fellow Christians, how on earth is Jesus going to get people like us into heaven? After all, in this famous text which has haunted wealthy believers for centuries, Jesus said it was easier to squeeze a stubborn, gangly camel through the eye of a needle than to squeeze a rich man through the gates of heaven.
So as followers of Jesus, I suppose we must ask ourselves which we prefer - heaven or our millions or hundreds of thousands? Americans now 55 or older control about $10 trillion in assets. And I suspect some readers are over 55 and have some claim on that $10 trillion which would take almost an eternity in heaven to count if it takes ninety years to count $1 billion! But we have to ask ourselves which list we want to be on - "Forbes 400" or Heaven's "Book of Life." The choice is yours and mine.
I.
Some people avoid the question by saying religion and money, like religion and politics, don't mix. It is an oil and water thing.
It's amazing how Christians continue to delude themselves with that kind of thinking. They misquote the Bible and call money "filthy lucre," and say, "Money is the root of all evil," when the Bible clearly says it is the "love of money which is the root of all evil."
Others think money has nothing to do with spirituality, and that the investment portfolio and the Bible should never be seen together. Just as many claim true religion has little to do with sensuality, that spirituality should never go lower than the head, or at least the heart, never to the belly or genitals; so do these same people often believe that pure religion, undefiled, never touches the pocketbook. Indeed, one church member thought it sacrilegious to present our offering of money on the altar. Somehow it was thought the holiness of the altar would be desecrated by money.
Others, especially in Protestantism, and especially in Congregationalism, have psychologically and institutionally separated the spiritual from the material, the religious from money, the holy from mere matter. Characteristically, Congregationalists have a Board of Deacons to handle spiritual affairs, and a Board of Trustees to handle material affairs. It's a dualism as old as the Gnostic heresy which denies that the Creator God made all the material world to worship him, and ignores Jesus' plain and blunt teaching about the use of the body - including stomach and genitals - and the use of money and material things in our worship of God.
So, my dear Christian friends, if you think the Lord God of the universe isn't interested in your bank account, real estate holdings, and investment portfolio, you are wrong, dead wrong. And if you think our Lord Jesus whom, we confess as the Christ, the Son of God, is not interested in all our financial and material activities as well as our sensual activities, you are wrong, dead wrong. Remember, it was the Son of God himself who said you cannot serve two masters, God and money, because you will love one and hate the other.
That was the terrible, devastating, self--shattering truth that descended upon the rich, young ruler of our text. Unlike the many self--made entrepreneurs of the "Forbes 400" list, this young man's wealth - a mere pittance by today's standards - was inherited wealth. And he thought he was entitled to it. And in keeping with the theology of the time, he thought it was a sign he was righteous and favored by God and was on God's inside track. Depicted by Rembrandt as smooth of face and soft of hands, with no harsh life experiences disturbing his comfort, this rich, young man was shocked beyond belief by the demands of Jesus.
And so are we. If you think Jesus isn't concerned about you and your money, you are sadly mistaken. He has a closer scrutiny on our assets than the Internal Revenue Service. So, dear friends, we might as well come clean. Which list do we most long to be on - "Forbes 400" or Heaven's "Book of Life"?
II.
One way to gain a place in the heavenly list is to give to charity. Maybe if we give part of it away, we can get on both lists. After all, Jesus did ask the rich, young ruler to give to the poor.
Perhaps that was what was on the mind of that maverick billionaire, Ted Turner, who recently announced he was giving $1 billion to United Nations Charities, the largest, single charitable donation ever!
He was flying to New York to receive an award from the United Nations Association for his longtime support of U.N. charitable causes. He had just been measured for Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum and mused that as you grow older, "You get more conservative in life," since he is about to turn sixty. And he admitted, "You're not as colorful as you were when you were younger."
So flying on his plane reading his financial statements, Turner discovered his net worth had grown from $2.2 billion in 1996, to $3.2 billion in the first eight months of 1997. So, encouraged by his celebrity wife of several years, Jane Fonda, and brushing aside his gulping and gasping attorneys, he made the typically startling Turner announcement at the U.N. dinner. And said Turner, "I'm putting every rich person in the world on notice. They're going to be hearing from me about giving money away. If you want to lead, you got to get out in front and lead...." And talking to reporters the next day he said, "There is no greater joy in life than giving to a worthy cause."
As a matter of fact, many Americans are very charitable. And many church members are very generous and charitable. We'd rather do it ourselves than have government do it. So we Americans gave over $150 billion to charity last year. About eighty percent of the giving came from individuals and about 46 percent of the money given went to religion, with education being second in line with thirteen percent of the gifts.
And some of America's richest are giving. Bill Gates finally gave $200 million for computers in libraries; Coca Cola's Roberto Goizueta (who died recently at age 65) gave $38 million to an Atlanta foundation; Raymond Nasher gave $32 million for a downtown Dallas sculpture garden; and Southern Methodist University received $31.5 million from Robert and Nancy Dedman. On and on the list goes to a total of over $150 billion in giving by individuals, corporations, and foundations.
All that is well and good for the ERPs, the Extremely Rich People, and the Super--rich, you might say. But what about us poor common folk worth only a half--million or a million or two? What about us? Well, in 1987, 71.1 percent of American households gave an average of $790 per household to charity. In 1995, the percentage of household giving had dropped to about 68.5 percent with an average annual contribution of about $1,017. (How much did you give to charity? What percent of your income was it?)
Well, that's more like it, more like us, down out of the extraterrestrial financial worlds of the super--rich. And besides, just who are the rich? Surely not us, we say. But if you go to the inner city where I used to work, and ask who are the rich, they would point in our direction toward the suburbs. The average annual household income for our area is around $130,000, somewhat higher than the average household income in East Harlem or the South Bronx!
But wealth and riches are all relative. The people of Tijuana, Mexico, or Calcutta, India, look to the average resident of Harlem as being very well--to--do. But by world standards, we - most all of us - are well--to--do, with incomes and standards of living higher than at least ninety percent of the people of the world. And since Jesus, the Son of God, always takes the global view, he probably looks at all of us as rich, like the rich, young ruler of our text. And I suppose the question is: Can he squeeze Joe Camels like us through heaven's gate, let alone the eye of a needle?
The truth is, he may not ask us to sell everything we have to give to the poor as he required of the rich, young ruler. After all, Jesus had numerous devoted followers who were well--to--do - Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, Matthew - not to mention the wealthy women who traveled with him and helped support his work financially.
But you can be 100 percent sure if you love your money more than you love him, the Son of God is going to ask you to part with it. It's the first commandment - "You shall have no other gods before me," and "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength" - not your money. And, dear friends, if you and I find these words offensive, point your finger at the Son of God and accuse him, not me.
But once we've settled the question of our first love, then we are to make as much as we can honestly and then share as much as we can - especially with the Church. After all, in the New Testament, we are asked again and again to give generously to support the work of the Church.
Since by world standards most of us in this country are the rich people Jesus is speaking about - the rich people harder to squeeze into heaven than camels through the eye of a needle - since most of us are in that category, the Son of God asks us to examine the object of our heart's affections. And he asks us to give to charity - especially to the Church. Remember yesteryear's multibillionaire philanthropist Andrew Carnegie who said, "The man who dies rich dies disgraced."
Turner, who once thought of becoming a minister, went through his closets and found fifteen perfectly good suits to give to charity. And we can do the same, giving clothing, toys, and books for the needy through churches and charities. A suit here, a billion dollars there! "You know," said Turner, "it's not easy to give up your hard--earned money. But once you do, you feel really wonderful. I just hope this giving thing is contagious."
So do I. And then Turner added, "According to Jesus Christ, money is worthless. It won't buy you anything in heaven, if there is one. It might not even get you in." And then the Newsweek writer adds, "Ted Turner seems to have concluded he might as well travel light" - about a billion dollars lighter.
And what is that? What is that I see over there? Why it's Ted Turner being squeezed through the eye of a needle. Thank God, with God all things are possible!
(I am indebted to the following special sources: Newsweek, September 29, 1997; Forbes Magazine, 1997 Forbes 400 edition; Newsweek, August 4, 1997; Time, September 1, 1997.)
Prayer
Almighty God, ruler of the universe, whose creative activity is seen from the unimaginable explosion of the big bang down to the quiet energy of the tiniest cell, and whose prolific providence for our well--being ranges from rain forests to amber fields of waving grain, we praise and adore you for creating the world, and not leaving us, but standing by, causing the faithfulness of the seasons and the miracles of seedtime and harvest.
Forgive us, O God, if in our frenetic pace of life, we forget to be thankful. Having much, we seem always to want more. Filled with good things, we seem never satisfied even when sated. Accustomed to plenty, we feel entitled to unprecedented abundance. Teach us truly to be grateful and thankful.
Loving Father of the generous hand and compassionate heart, we ask you to help us open our hearts and hands to those in need. May the pain of the suffering and the pangs of the hungry and the desolation of the homeless and the hopelessness of the oppressed touch us in such ways as will cause us to be generous in outreach with time and money and influence. How earnestly we pray for a more equitable world.
And for the needs of our church, we pray. Place before us the vision of children and youth spiritually grounded and ethically mature. Cause us to see families centered in you, and adults sophisticated and alert, well--educated in your truths and resolved to influence the Church and world for your kingdom's cause. And help us all to pledge generously, to give lovingly, that the goals you have for this church might be achieved. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
For example, since 1995, the market has produced about $4 trillion - that's trillion with a t - in new paper wealth. That would be equal to about a half year's worth of output of goods and services for the entire United States. Thanks to the Dow Jones' unprecedented rise, millions of Americans have been led into the stock market through 401K plans, mutual funds, and stock options with various companies. As a consequence, people like Dan Hoffman of Sunnyvale, California, and his wife Amy are now worth about $1.5 million because, as a quality control inspector at Microsoft, he bought 2,400 shares of Microsoft Stock options at $99 each.
Even without stock options, if we had bought 100 shares of Microsoft in 1986, for $2,100 when it first went public, that $2,100 would now be worth about a half--million dollars at this writing. Microsoft is of course the leader of the California Silicon Valley Twentieth Century Gold Rush, as my youngest daughter calls it from her own Silicon Valley office. And at the top of the heap is Microsoft's founder and head, Bill Gates, now worth untold billions, to be America's richest man. In fact, any time Microsoft's stock moves up $4, his net worth increases about $1.1 billion.
America is awash in money with billionaires galore and millionaires a dime a dozen. And in our post--industrial, technology--information age, computer related businesses lead the way. Indeed, consider Forbes Magazine's recent issue with its annual list of the "Forbes 400," the 400 wealthiest people in America. In the top six we have Bill Gates, worth $38 to $40 billion; Warren Buffett, investment wizard, worth $21 billion; Paul Allen, Bill Gates' onetime Microsoft partner, worth $17 billion; Lawrence Ellison of Oracle, worth $9.2 billion; Gordon Moore of Intel Corporation, worth $8.8 billion. Note that of the first six richest people, five are computer related, and four are Microsoft fortunes.
When Forbes first published its "400" list in 1982, there were thirteen American billionaires. In 1997, there were over 170. In 1982, you had to be worth about $100 million to get on the very bottom of this list. But in 1997, you had to be worth $475 million to be admitted to this most exclusive of all clubs. The average net worth of the "Forbes 400" member is $1.6 billion. Of the list, about one--fourth inherited wealth, about one--half are "self--made." In 1982, New York and Texas had the biggest concentration of wealthy people of the "Forbes 400." In 1997, they lost out to California to share second place with Florida. Not only did New York move to second place, I was further dismayed to discover that not a single member of my church was on the list!
If America is awash in billionaires, so, too, in millionaires. In 1997, we had thousands of people worth at least $1 million. If a million is within reach of many of us, a billion dollars seems almost incomprehensible and, well, almost uncountable. One financial writer says that if we spent all day counting fast, it would take us ninety years to reach 1 billion.
Well now, fellow Americans and fellow Christians, how on earth is Jesus going to get people like us into heaven? After all, in this famous text which has haunted wealthy believers for centuries, Jesus said it was easier to squeeze a stubborn, gangly camel through the eye of a needle than to squeeze a rich man through the gates of heaven.
So as followers of Jesus, I suppose we must ask ourselves which we prefer - heaven or our millions or hundreds of thousands? Americans now 55 or older control about $10 trillion in assets. And I suspect some readers are over 55 and have some claim on that $10 trillion which would take almost an eternity in heaven to count if it takes ninety years to count $1 billion! But we have to ask ourselves which list we want to be on - "Forbes 400" or Heaven's "Book of Life." The choice is yours and mine.
I.
Some people avoid the question by saying religion and money, like religion and politics, don't mix. It is an oil and water thing.
It's amazing how Christians continue to delude themselves with that kind of thinking. They misquote the Bible and call money "filthy lucre," and say, "Money is the root of all evil," when the Bible clearly says it is the "love of money which is the root of all evil."
Others think money has nothing to do with spirituality, and that the investment portfolio and the Bible should never be seen together. Just as many claim true religion has little to do with sensuality, that spirituality should never go lower than the head, or at least the heart, never to the belly or genitals; so do these same people often believe that pure religion, undefiled, never touches the pocketbook. Indeed, one church member thought it sacrilegious to present our offering of money on the altar. Somehow it was thought the holiness of the altar would be desecrated by money.
Others, especially in Protestantism, and especially in Congregationalism, have psychologically and institutionally separated the spiritual from the material, the religious from money, the holy from mere matter. Characteristically, Congregationalists have a Board of Deacons to handle spiritual affairs, and a Board of Trustees to handle material affairs. It's a dualism as old as the Gnostic heresy which denies that the Creator God made all the material world to worship him, and ignores Jesus' plain and blunt teaching about the use of the body - including stomach and genitals - and the use of money and material things in our worship of God.
So, my dear Christian friends, if you think the Lord God of the universe isn't interested in your bank account, real estate holdings, and investment portfolio, you are wrong, dead wrong. And if you think our Lord Jesus whom, we confess as the Christ, the Son of God, is not interested in all our financial and material activities as well as our sensual activities, you are wrong, dead wrong. Remember, it was the Son of God himself who said you cannot serve two masters, God and money, because you will love one and hate the other.
That was the terrible, devastating, self--shattering truth that descended upon the rich, young ruler of our text. Unlike the many self--made entrepreneurs of the "Forbes 400" list, this young man's wealth - a mere pittance by today's standards - was inherited wealth. And he thought he was entitled to it. And in keeping with the theology of the time, he thought it was a sign he was righteous and favored by God and was on God's inside track. Depicted by Rembrandt as smooth of face and soft of hands, with no harsh life experiences disturbing his comfort, this rich, young man was shocked beyond belief by the demands of Jesus.
And so are we. If you think Jesus isn't concerned about you and your money, you are sadly mistaken. He has a closer scrutiny on our assets than the Internal Revenue Service. So, dear friends, we might as well come clean. Which list do we most long to be on - "Forbes 400" or Heaven's "Book of Life"?
II.
One way to gain a place in the heavenly list is to give to charity. Maybe if we give part of it away, we can get on both lists. After all, Jesus did ask the rich, young ruler to give to the poor.
Perhaps that was what was on the mind of that maverick billionaire, Ted Turner, who recently announced he was giving $1 billion to United Nations Charities, the largest, single charitable donation ever!
He was flying to New York to receive an award from the United Nations Association for his longtime support of U.N. charitable causes. He had just been measured for Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum and mused that as you grow older, "You get more conservative in life," since he is about to turn sixty. And he admitted, "You're not as colorful as you were when you were younger."
So flying on his plane reading his financial statements, Turner discovered his net worth had grown from $2.2 billion in 1996, to $3.2 billion in the first eight months of 1997. So, encouraged by his celebrity wife of several years, Jane Fonda, and brushing aside his gulping and gasping attorneys, he made the typically startling Turner announcement at the U.N. dinner. And said Turner, "I'm putting every rich person in the world on notice. They're going to be hearing from me about giving money away. If you want to lead, you got to get out in front and lead...." And talking to reporters the next day he said, "There is no greater joy in life than giving to a worthy cause."
As a matter of fact, many Americans are very charitable. And many church members are very generous and charitable. We'd rather do it ourselves than have government do it. So we Americans gave over $150 billion to charity last year. About eighty percent of the giving came from individuals and about 46 percent of the money given went to religion, with education being second in line with thirteen percent of the gifts.
And some of America's richest are giving. Bill Gates finally gave $200 million for computers in libraries; Coca Cola's Roberto Goizueta (who died recently at age 65) gave $38 million to an Atlanta foundation; Raymond Nasher gave $32 million for a downtown Dallas sculpture garden; and Southern Methodist University received $31.5 million from Robert and Nancy Dedman. On and on the list goes to a total of over $150 billion in giving by individuals, corporations, and foundations.
All that is well and good for the ERPs, the Extremely Rich People, and the Super--rich, you might say. But what about us poor common folk worth only a half--million or a million or two? What about us? Well, in 1987, 71.1 percent of American households gave an average of $790 per household to charity. In 1995, the percentage of household giving had dropped to about 68.5 percent with an average annual contribution of about $1,017. (How much did you give to charity? What percent of your income was it?)
Well, that's more like it, more like us, down out of the extraterrestrial financial worlds of the super--rich. And besides, just who are the rich? Surely not us, we say. But if you go to the inner city where I used to work, and ask who are the rich, they would point in our direction toward the suburbs. The average annual household income for our area is around $130,000, somewhat higher than the average household income in East Harlem or the South Bronx!
But wealth and riches are all relative. The people of Tijuana, Mexico, or Calcutta, India, look to the average resident of Harlem as being very well--to--do. But by world standards, we - most all of us - are well--to--do, with incomes and standards of living higher than at least ninety percent of the people of the world. And since Jesus, the Son of God, always takes the global view, he probably looks at all of us as rich, like the rich, young ruler of our text. And I suppose the question is: Can he squeeze Joe Camels like us through heaven's gate, let alone the eye of a needle?
The truth is, he may not ask us to sell everything we have to give to the poor as he required of the rich, young ruler. After all, Jesus had numerous devoted followers who were well--to--do - Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, Matthew - not to mention the wealthy women who traveled with him and helped support his work financially.
But you can be 100 percent sure if you love your money more than you love him, the Son of God is going to ask you to part with it. It's the first commandment - "You shall have no other gods before me," and "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength" - not your money. And, dear friends, if you and I find these words offensive, point your finger at the Son of God and accuse him, not me.
But once we've settled the question of our first love, then we are to make as much as we can honestly and then share as much as we can - especially with the Church. After all, in the New Testament, we are asked again and again to give generously to support the work of the Church.
Since by world standards most of us in this country are the rich people Jesus is speaking about - the rich people harder to squeeze into heaven than camels through the eye of a needle - since most of us are in that category, the Son of God asks us to examine the object of our heart's affections. And he asks us to give to charity - especially to the Church. Remember yesteryear's multibillionaire philanthropist Andrew Carnegie who said, "The man who dies rich dies disgraced."
Turner, who once thought of becoming a minister, went through his closets and found fifteen perfectly good suits to give to charity. And we can do the same, giving clothing, toys, and books for the needy through churches and charities. A suit here, a billion dollars there! "You know," said Turner, "it's not easy to give up your hard--earned money. But once you do, you feel really wonderful. I just hope this giving thing is contagious."
So do I. And then Turner added, "According to Jesus Christ, money is worthless. It won't buy you anything in heaven, if there is one. It might not even get you in." And then the Newsweek writer adds, "Ted Turner seems to have concluded he might as well travel light" - about a billion dollars lighter.
And what is that? What is that I see over there? Why it's Ted Turner being squeezed through the eye of a needle. Thank God, with God all things are possible!
(I am indebted to the following special sources: Newsweek, September 29, 1997; Forbes Magazine, 1997 Forbes 400 edition; Newsweek, August 4, 1997; Time, September 1, 1997.)
Prayer
Almighty God, ruler of the universe, whose creative activity is seen from the unimaginable explosion of the big bang down to the quiet energy of the tiniest cell, and whose prolific providence for our well--being ranges from rain forests to amber fields of waving grain, we praise and adore you for creating the world, and not leaving us, but standing by, causing the faithfulness of the seasons and the miracles of seedtime and harvest.
Forgive us, O God, if in our frenetic pace of life, we forget to be thankful. Having much, we seem always to want more. Filled with good things, we seem never satisfied even when sated. Accustomed to plenty, we feel entitled to unprecedented abundance. Teach us truly to be grateful and thankful.
Loving Father of the generous hand and compassionate heart, we ask you to help us open our hearts and hands to those in need. May the pain of the suffering and the pangs of the hungry and the desolation of the homeless and the hopelessness of the oppressed touch us in such ways as will cause us to be generous in outreach with time and money and influence. How earnestly we pray for a more equitable world.
And for the needs of our church, we pray. Place before us the vision of children and youth spiritually grounded and ethically mature. Cause us to see families centered in you, and adults sophisticated and alert, well--educated in your truths and resolved to influence the Church and world for your kingdom's cause. And help us all to pledge generously, to give lovingly, that the goals you have for this church might be achieved. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
