Oh, no! The story of the Rich Young Ruler! It’s impossible to talk about it without talking about — Yikes! — money! How tacky! People hate it when I talk about money, especially in church. They know that preachers can’t talk about money in church without hitting you up for some. (Keep your seat!)

Look, I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to trust me that we can’t talk about this story without talking about money. I know because the Church has been trying for two thousand years. Can’t be done. It’s a problem.

And you know who makes the problem worse? Jesus! He has no sympathy at all, no sense of decency on the matter; sometimes you really have to just wonder about his social skills. Because (and it’s a little embarrassing to have to tell you this), he talks about money more than any other topic!

Sometimes, just for a moment, I can’t help but wonder whether he really was an Episcopalian.

But! — not to worry; I’ve got a way out of this. It makes us very uncomfortable to talk about money, but by the time we’re done, I’m going to show you how we can squirm ourselves off this hook. So, bear with me for a while, knowing that we’ll get to comfort and sweetness. Because those of you who know me know that’s what I’m all about — comfort and sweetness and not having to ask any of those pesky hard questions. (I hope you know me better than that!)

Ok, here we go: this rich guy comes up to this poor guy. The poor guy is passing through, but everybody’s been talking about him, and the rich guy, who is a very spiritual kind of person, wants to get some wisdom from him. So he runs up to him and starts off with a tried and true method: flattery. “Good teacher,” he says, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

And the poor guy says, “Knock it off with the flattery. You want to call someone good — you call God good. And you want to earn your salvation? Well, OK, here’s the list.” Then the poor guy lists the Ten Commandments that relate to how one treats other people. “You shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, or defraud, and you shall honor your father and mother.” But in this list that at first blush seems so conventional, something very interesting has happened. Jesus, the poor guy, changes the Ten Commandments. He should have said, “You shall not covet.” That’s what’s in the Ten Commandments. But instead he says, “You shall not defraud.” That is not in the Ten Commandments. Look it up — nothing about defrauding (which, I imagine, God and Moses thought was covered by “Thou shall not steal.”). So, Jesus has customized the commandments for this rich guy. Why?

Remember what we know about the rich guy: “He had many possessions.” He was a fat cat. Now, if you were really rich in those days, it meant that you owned property. It’s pretty much the same today; you don’t see many rich folks who don’t have holdings in real estate. But in Jesus’ time, that was really the only path to real wealth. You could barely earn a living with your hands, and there weren’t many other avenues to wealth – no well paid doctors or lawyers or corporate CEO’s, and certainly no one making a killing in the stock market.

So when we learn that this young man "had many possessions" we can assume that he had "many properties." And in Jesus’ time, wealthy property owners almost always had an ethical stink on them. In those days, if you were a big landowner, it almost always meant that you had gotten rich by acquiring the land of your debt-defaulting neighbors, most of whom fell prey to the Romans’ hugely oppressive tax system. The Romans wanted a system that not only raised lots of money off the backs of the poor, but also concentrated ownership in a few. It’s easier to control a few big landowners who have gotten rich off the system than it is to control a thousand dirt farmers.

So rich folks like this guy were viewed as social vultures who had gained their wealth at the expense of their neighbors and as the beneficiaries of the Romans’ unjust policies. That’s why Jesus edits the commandments for the rich man to let him know what he must do to make things right again before God.

But the man counters Jesus’ move, and says, “I’ve done all that all my life.” You know, when somebody tells me something that is true, but I wish it weren’t true, that’s often my first response: “Na-uh. I’m not that way.” Does the rich guy just not get it, in which case he’s lying to himself, or is he just unwilling to go there, in which case he’s lying to Jesus? I don’t know. But at this point Jesus looks at him and loves him. That is his undoing, because Jesus sees who he is and won’t lie to him. Whether the man is lying to himself or Jesus, Jesus will tell him the truth about himself and what he needs to do. So, Jesus says, "Fine. You’ve done all this all your life? Fine. I’m not going to argue with you. But, prove it. Give everything away, and give the money to the poor.”

Checkmate. The rich man who ran run up asking for wisdom gets more than he bargained for. He wanted generic wisdom, sort of “be nice and go to church; do what your mama tells you” kind of wisdom. But Jesus sees him and loves him, so he gets customized wisdom: “For you, for YOU, do not defraud, and give away all that you have.” Generic wisdom is easier to take, and the rich young man leaves “grieving.”

Then Jesus gives a little speech about the dangers of wealth, saying it’s nearly impossible for wealthy people to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples are amazed (remember that then, as in some churches now, wealth is seen as a sign of God’s favor) and they say, “Then who can be saved.” Jesus says, in effect, “People who want to save themselves — and don’t we all know that the more wealth we have the more tempting that is? — people who want to save themselves can forget it; God does the saving.”

Peter, bless his heart, gets really nervous and says, “What about us? We’ve sacrificed so much.” Jesus says, “You’ll get a hundred fold in this age,” and he lists good stuff — houses, family, land even — but note that he also says you’ll get “persecutions.” But also eternal life. And just to keep them honest (Jesus knows how easy it is for these guys to hear something like this and start putting themselves ahead of others), he says, “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Now, that’s the rather embarrassing, uncomfortable story that I warned you was impossible to discuss without talking about money, in church no less. And this story can make us very uncomfortable. Does Jesus say that we all have to give away everything? Yikes!

But I also promised you a way to wriggle off this hook that Jesus has, in such un-Episcopalian fashion, put us on. Here’s the secret: Jesus wasn’t really taking about money. Money was just the symbol of what he was really talking about. Oh, thanks be to God!

So, here’s our easy way out: Jesus was really talking about what it is that we spend our lives serving. He was really talking about what is the most important thing to us. And for the rich young man, Jesus knew that, even though he was clearly a religious and spiritual person, when it came to money, he was willing to say to his faith, “Don’t go there.” And when we’re willing to say to our faith, “Don’t go there,” we’ve got a problem with what we’re really serving, what’s really the most important thing to us.

In wriggling off this hook, we also learn a couple of other things. First, Jesus sees us and loves us, and he’s not going to lie to us, even if we lie to ourselves or him. So it’s not enough to just follow the rules and say, “There! I followed the rules. That proves that God is the most important thing in my life.” Jesus sees us and loves us, and he will see what really is the most important thing is in our lives, and if it’s not God, he’ll change the rules to call us on that. He’ll say, “Do not defraud” to the rich young ruler.

Maybe he’ll say that to you. Maybe he’ll say, “Do not worship your money.” Maybe, “Do not worship your drink or drug.” Or, “Do not worship fear and anxiety so that you clutch your money.” Whatever it is, it will be that pesky, meddling, customized wisdom for each one of us.

And we also learn that Jesus will call us on it. He’ll say, “You say you don’t worship your money, your drink or drug, your anxiety that causes you to live a stingy life?” Whatever it is that his customized wisdom says to you and me, when we protest (and we will), he’ll say, “OK, OK. I’m not going to argue with you about it. But let’s see you act like it.”

So, you see, I told you I’d get us off this hook. Jesus isn’t really talking about money. All he is talking about, really, is making God primary in your life, ahead of your money and ahead of anything else. And all he is talking about acting like it. That’s all!

Now, see, aren’t you glad he isn’t talking about money?

The Rev. James H. Pritchett, Jr. St. John’s Episcopal Church, College Park, GA. If you would like to comment on this sermon or receive these sermons by email, contact me at rector@stjohnscollegepark.com.