YOU CANNOT WORSHIP BOTH GOD AND MONEY

Third Week with Jesus on the March to Jerusalem

  Jesus was very clear about money – as are all the Holy Scriptures. Today, we focus on that teaching as we walk with Jesus towards our own transformation. Jesus taught that, “You can’t worship both God and Money.” Let’s bring that up to date – in today’s world.

A giant multi-trillion-dollar corporation abruptly shuts down an auto plant in Ohio, taking away the livelihood of ten thousand workers and their families. They do this to increase their profits by a few percentage points over the next ten years. At the same time, the U.S. government supports the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Honduras to protect their very profitable control of the banana trade in the Americas. The coup leaves the country in shambles, tens of thousands facing jail and murders for resisting the new government.

What happens next? President Donald Trump, who promised to keep the auto factory in town, blames the families coming north from Honduras to survive for the loss of jobs in Ohio. The white workers who believed this pack of lies formed his political base. That political base, here and in many countries, is the breeding ground for white supremacist terrorists such as those who murdered 49 people as they gathered to pray in two mosques in New Zealand this week.

And it happens over and over and over again. That is what Pope Frances calls the Terrorism of the Dollar when he states that Capitalism has become a danger to the human race.

Capitalism has taken new forms. In truth, most money is made now through investments and buying and selling companies. Still, there has to be a ground level of business to support the financial manipulations. That ground level is the consumer economy.

The most expensive commodities U.S. companies produce are military hardware. Some of this is sold to the U.S. government for tax dollars – but much of it is sold to foreign countries. The U.S. is the main exporter of military arms and munitions in the world, the tools of war and death – all for the dollar.

A lot of what the U.S. produces is oil based. Of course, there is gasoline for the cars, but oil is used in all plastic goods. Look around and you will see that we are surrounded by plastic things. Oil – and the dollars it produces – have led us into one war after another and it is destroying the environment with climate change.

Internationally, some countries are too poor to buy U.S. products – even products that are produced in other countries by U.S. companies. Still in these countries, the U.S. sells its products, even though less than ten percent of the population can afford to buy them. In other countries, in Europe, 90% of the population buys these products.

In the U.S., corporations have designed a strategy to take dollars from even the poorest people. I went to the Family Dollar this week to buy some dishes. The sign outside said it was closing. Inside, the cashier explained that the store was being taken over by the dollar tree – where everything really sells for a dollar. For the rich there is the stock market. For the poor, there is the flea market. Capitalism finds its way into every pocketbook.

You can buy a new car with loans that make banks millions. You can buy a used car on time too. The used car looks like the new car – only older and without some of the new tech gadgets. The new electronics have created a whole new set of products that are sold cheap enough for poor people and teen-agers to buy. There is a multi-billion-dollar business producing and selling products for babies – who would be just as happy with a homemade bunny. No matter how much or how little money you have, they have something for you to buy, something you don’t really need. Of course, when someone is deported their family loses everything they have invested because they cannot keep up the payments.

And as we know, health care remains out of the reach of so many, captured in the claws of insurance companies and drug companies, depriving those we love of precious years of their lives,

You can’t afford a ticket to see the Bears or the Bulls - but you buy the shirts and the gear – and of course the shoes. It becomes an addiction.

NIKE is the biggest dope dealer in the nation, beginning its addictive advertising and sales at very early ages, raising children into adulthood with more and more expensive shoes. I mean, what do you do with 25 pairs of shoes? Most of us still just have two feet!

For those who can’t find their place in the regular economy, there is the other economy. One of our first youth health service corps leaders is facing attempt murder charges. She was in a house alone where marijuana was sold. When she heard unidentified men breaking in, she fired through the door, injuring one of the police that were engaged in the raid.

The illegal consumer economy leads into the police, courts and prison. Those who try to find their place in the nation’s economy there, now populate the largest prison population in the world, and, increasingly, fill up private for-profit prisons. We have people in our congregation that have done ten years in the penitentiary for selling marijuana – in states where it is now legal – while white collar criminals that steal millions of dollars go to country club prisons for a few months. Like they say, “Money talks!”

We are seeing everyday how money controls elections and corrupts our elected officials. How many marriages and friendships have fallen apart over money disputes?

Whether today or in ancient Palestine in the time of Jesus, the struggle over the idolatry of money, the worship of the dollar, is with us and around us. The rich young man that approached Jesus asked him, “What must I do to gain salvation?” Jesus asked him about the ten commandments, and he replied that he followed them all. Then Jesus told him, “Give everything you have to the poor and follow me.” The rich man became sad and walked away – his money meant more to him than salvation.

           In another conversation, Jesus explained that all the efforts a certain man made to become wealthy would not mean anything, if he suddenly died. As we say, “You can’t take it with you!” Jesus taught this: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. You cannot serve both God and money.”

           Remember where we are in our spiritual journey with Jesus this year. We are walking with Jesus on the road to transformation. When Jesus is saying these things, the rulers have spies watching and listening to his every word. The Jewish rulers are living well, doing the dirty work for the even richer Romans. Jesus is pointing out their hypocrisy as religious leaders who live well while the poor suffer – a hypocrisy that will lead him to take over the temple when he gets to Jerusalem and throws out the moneychangers.

           But Jesus is also preparing the people to survive in communities of faith, for he knows they will soon be forced from their land, dispersed as immigrants without rights in the Roman Empire, treated as illegals, as criminals, blamed for the failure of capitalism to meet the needs of its people. They will not have a temple or priests to teach them. They will have to rely on each other – and on their faith – as we do today.

After he sends away the rich young man to whom he had said, “Give away your money to the poor,” the disciples are alarmed, like some I know in our movement. “We have given up everything to follow you. What will we receive?” Jesus answers them, “No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the Gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.” He says you will have homes and families and dignified work to do. But you will also be persecuted as you struggle for a world in which the last are first and the first become last. That too is your treasure! 

           We all have to survive. We need to work and make money. But we don’t have to put money above God, above the just and loving relationships that bring the Kingdom of God to our lives.

           This Tuesday, we will be testifying for a resolution at the County Board. Our resolution calls on the new Congress to pass legislation to protect the undocumented parents of U.S. citizen children and Dreamers. Democrats in the Congress have introduced legislation to protect about one million dreamers, legislation which we support. But what will these dreamers do if their parents are deported? Why do the powerful want to cut them off from their families, from their heritage, from their people?

           The question we ask this morning is this: “Why is relief for the dreamers easier for some people to accept than relief for their families.” They portray these young people as “Good Americans, in every way but their papers.” Think of the name the politicians have given them, “The dreamers.” What is the dream they are talking about? Is it the dream that Martin Luther King fought for, that people should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin?” No! the American dream is the hope that drives people to make enough money to buy things – even to become rich in America!”

           We fight for families – for the right of babies, children and young people to grow up with the support, love and guidance of their families. We fight for the dream that Jesus had, that “Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” We fight for justice and for relationships and lives lived for love and respect, not for money.

           We came before God today in confession. We need to be honest with ourselves and with each other. Most all of us are double minded. We want justice – but we also want a piece of the prosperity of this country. That is why we spend unwisely on things we don’t need. Yes, there is dignity in work and justice in getting a fair wage. Yet when we put the dollar first in our lives, we quickly lose our way. The worship of the dollar not only creates injustice and suffering throughout the world, it eats away at our own relationships. It eats away at God’s purpose in our lives and leaves us in despair – with a closet full of shoes!

           I know fathers who would trade every dollar they ever made for the life of a son shot down in the street or a daughter overdosed in an alley. Jesus is just asking you to think about what is really important to you.

           When you put serving God and God’s people first, when you stand by your people, you are strong. When you put the dollar first, you are weak, a pawn in a rich man’s game. Jesus offers you a chance to clean the slate, to renew the purpose God gave you. He makes you innocent of the crimes of the dollar and that innocence gives you power to confront the hypocrisy of wealth, of those who live well on other people’s labor. We withdraw from the worship of the dollar, but we do not retreat from the struggle for justice.

           That is the power we need to keep our families together, to pass on to each new generation the values and the faith that will make them strong. That is the power we need to create our own communities that can provide health care and education. That is the power we need to transform this whole nation which serves the dollar. That is Transformation power! It begins with the transformation that the living Jesus offers every one of us here today. We are on the road to that transformation this year. Let the hypocrites compete for riches they cannot take with them. Say instead with Joshua of old, “As for me and my family – we will serve the Lord!”

Lord give me faith, give me faith!

 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES FOR THE THIRD WEEK IN THE MARCH TO JERUSALEM

L. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, 

P.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 

L. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

P. You cannot serve both God and money.

 Matthew 6:19,20 Treasures in Heaven

 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

 Mark 10:17-23 The Rich and the Kingdom of God

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?”  “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.  You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.  “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.  Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!”

Mark 10: 24- 31 Many who are first will be last

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is[b] to enter the kingdom of God!  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.”  The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”  Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”  Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”  “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel  will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”