First Presbyterian Church                        “Don’t Be Foolish”

Sunday May 23, 2004                           Rev. James K. Teall

Could we have stopped it?  Could we have stopped 4 hijacked jumbo jet airliners from becoming weapons of mass destruction in New York City and Washington DC on that fateful day we know all too well as simply 9/11?  Was America prepared, were we on guard; were all hands on deck; were we at our battle stations?  These are the questions the 9/11 Commission is asking.  Were the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon inevitable or could they have been stopped?  Was America on guard or were we caught asleep on that infamous day?  

“Be on Guard.”   Jesus uses this phrase, “be on Guard,” six times in the New Testament.  “Be prepared, be ready, watch out,” Jesus says on six different occasions.  Five of those times He warns His followers to be on guard against the corruption of government and the brutality of religious fanaticism. “Watch out,” Jesus says, “Be on guard!”  This is some of the strongest language Jesus uses in the gospels.  Strong language for a King; so it must be important to stay alert and on guard.  

The Kings and Queens of England have always known the importance of being on guard.  Outside of Buckingham Palace men in bright red coats and really goofy hats, if I do say so myself, stand guard in front of the Palace of the Queen, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  These men carry their riffles as they crisscross in front of the palace on guard to protect their Queen at all cost.  Jesus instructs us to be alert at all times when it comes to ruthless regimes and religious racism less we become ruthless ourselves.    

Jesus the King also told his followers to be on guard about one other very important thing.  Jesus told his followers to be on guard against POSESSIONS.  Jesus says we must be on guard against greed; keep a strong watch out for the love of money; be alert to the destructive power of materialism.  Like the men who protect Buckingham Palace, Jesus says you too need to be alert 24/7 against the love of money because money has the ability to absolutely corrupt a good person and turn him or her into a wicked slave.  

Materialism has crept into the Western Church like termites infest a home.  Once they are in, it takes radical action to remove them, but if you don’t the home has no chance and will be destroyed.  So it is with the human soul; once the sickness of “possessionitis” sets in, only a miracle can reclaim the soul of the man or woman who has filled their lives with things and more things and more things. 

America is the wealthiest country of all time in the course of human history.  No other country or church in a country has ever acquired so much wealth.  Is this a blessing from God?  Or is it perhaps a curse, or at least one great big temptation? 

Chuck Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship, once said that the American Church is less powerful than the churches under communist rule because the American church, instead of opposing the culture, has embraced the idea that money buys happiness.  The church has fallen under the spell that “the one with the most toys wins.”  Do you agree with Mr. Colsons’s assessment?  Are you caught up in the web of materialism?  Do you find yourself consumed with the desire and need to consume and to then consume just a little bit more?  If you are not sure then take a little test.  Look over your check book tonight before you go to bed, go over your credit card statement.  What does it say?   Jesus said you can have only one God, you cannot serve both God and money.  Where you spend your money is where you place your faith.  Are you guarding your heart by keeping your credit cards in your pocket or have you let your guard down and thrown caution to wind believing that money really does grow on trees?

Go home today and turn on the TV.  Watch a little golf and then wait for the advertisements.  Smith Barney, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley will tell you that you are fool if you do not save up riches for yourself so you can retire early and have the good life.  Even better though, go home and reread the passage I read this morning.  Jesus says anyone who saves up riches for himself is a FOOL!  Are you a fool?  No one likes to be a fool, so how can we make sure we are making wise decisions when it comes to money?

Now, what is the real problem? Is it money?  No.  Is it savings plans?  No.  Is it material possessions?  No.  The problem is the human heart and its condition.  The condition of the human heart is to think of self and self alone.  The problem is not the altitude of ones possessions but the attitude of ones heart.

Six times in the text the man seeking early retirement uses the first person.  I will build barns, I will take my crops and I will take it easy and so on and so on.  The man who wanted to build bigger silos was not a financial genius but a delusional self-centered man, who fooled himself in believing that what he had was his, and that because it was his it was his to decide what he could and could not do with it.  This man did not make the cover of Fortune Magazine but instead the back page of the obituary and under his name it said fool.  He was a fool because he thought it was his grain and his barns but he forgot one of the basic principles of faith.  Since God is the creator of all he owns all and we are simply to be stewards of the resources he gives us.  We are told that we should use the material things in our life not to indulge our latest whims, but to use it to build up the kingdom of God. The wise man invests in the future, yes, but the eternal future, the kingdom of God; the foolish man invests in real-estate on the beach that is here today and gone tomorrow.  So are you a wise or foolish investor?

The problem most Americans face is that we do not realize just how much material resources we have.  We get upset when our 20 oz steak is not cooked to our liking and so we send it back when at the same time a child in the Sudan is trying to live off of 20 oz of oats for the week.  Materialism covers the American culture like saran wrap covers our favorite leftover dish.  It is there but it is hard to see, and why is it so hard to see?  Because we are so caught up in it.  The spider spins his web in the dark.  The thin strings are invisible to the fly that unknowingly soars straight to his death.  So it is with the love of possessions…we too are so close to the problem we cannot see it for what it is.  In Karate, the fighter always wants to keep some distance between he and his enemy so he can see what is coming.  If he gets too close, his enemy might pull out his dagger and slay him and he would not even see it coming.  A good fighter is on guard to his enemy by keeping some distance to see what is coming.  We the American Church need some distance to see just how much greed has taken over our culture and the church to its demise.

Based upon demographics, the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church is in the top 8% of the wealthiest people in the world.  Some of you might be top 5 and others top 15, but on average we make the top 8% of the wealthiest people who inhabit planet earth.  We are the creme de la creme, the summa cum laude of wealth, and yet most of us spend our time thinking about how to make more money so that we can consume more things.  1 in every 100 people in the world has a phone and we stress out about not having a GPS in ours.  1 in every 1,000 people owns a computer and we get frustrated with our slow dial up connection.  We need the proper perspective so we can have the proper attitude lest we fall into the temptation of this world…to love and obsess over cash.  Jesus, I think, would think we are foolish people worried so much about our constant obsession with more when God has already given us so much.

Jesus talked about three things the most during his earthly ministry; the first being the Kingdom of God.  The second was money and the third, fear and anxiety.  And what he said was that the Kingdom of God must be first in our life and he warned us of the two great distractions from that focus and goal.  The greatest distraction to following Christ is materialism and second the anxiety that materialism causes keeps us from following and trusting God.  Terrorism did not make Jesus’ list, homosexuality did not make Jesus’ list, other world religions did not make the list, but fat wallets and oversized purses were at the top of his list.  The fastest way to derail your spirituality is to worry about the acquisition of stuff.

I was told the other day that the state flower was the orange construction cone.  Traveling down 7th East or I-215 I would believe this.  The state flower of the orange cone is an obstacle to me.  It causes me to veer off my path and go another direction.   So it is when money wins our affection and instead of being good stewards of it we become slave to it.  The love of money is an orange cone in the middle of the road and is the great obstacle to an authentic faith in Jesus Christ at least it is according to Jesus.

A popular theology today jamming the TV preaching and some church is the notion that God wants to bless you with good things.  Now this is true, but what is good for you is neither wealth nor even health, but what is good for you is faith.  The health and wealth gospel of today is nothing less then heresy and it is leading people into despair and desperation.  God does not will that you be healthy and wealthy but what He does will is that you serve Him and follow Him.  Jesus said that he had no place to lay his own head, our Lord and Savior was a homeless man and we know that know servant is greater than his master.  God’s agenda is not to make you rich.  No, His agenda is to have you be obedient to His will and His will is clear.  Jesus says, it is better to give than to receive.  Jesus said it be easier or a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, why?  Greed and greed is the number one obstacle to an authentic and vibrant faith in Christ. 

It is interesting in this passage on the pitfall of storing up riches for one self that Jesus is addressing a large crowd, probably in the thousands.  Who was in that crowd, the poor?  Jesus preached to the poor and the poor followed him where ever he went.  The rich were to busy building barns for their grain to follow Jesus.   This message of giving your resources away for the kingdom of God was not preached to the top 8% wealthiest people in the world, but to the bottom 8% and he said, be on guard, protect yourself from the love of money.  Don’t hoard it up for yourself, but give it away.

Why give it away?  Why did Jesus tell the rich young ruler to sell everything and follow him, because Jesus loved him and he loves you and me?  Jesus knows how easy it is become a slave to money and he wants to free you from your addiction.  He wants to give you a good night’s sleep where you are not pacing your bedroom anxious about money.  Jesus wants you to be free, free not to buy, but free to give, free to love.  You see culture tells us freedom comes with the ability to put more on your American Express Card, but Jesus tells us the freedom comes when we tear those little green, gold, or platinum things up.  Freedom never comes with acquiring more; to the contrary it only brings more anxiety.  Bigger house, more windows to wash.  Put in a pool, more things can break, Larger SUV more gas to pay for at the pump.  Freedom is found not in spending more but in giving more. 

Right now at First Presbyterian we are operating at around a $150,000 deficit.  Half the members of this church do not make a pledge to support this church.  If  every person in this church gave 1 more % of their income then we would not only take care of the debt, we would have money to spend on more missions, more ministries, more to invest into the Kingdom of God.  1% breaks down for most of us on average around 7 dollars a week.  Make your lunch one day instead of going to a restaurant and change the world.

3,000 people died in 9/11.  It was a tragic day that Americans will never forget. Today   6,000 peopled died, tomorrow 6,000 more will die and the next day and then next day in Africa because they do not have the AIDS medication that could help bring an end to this emergency crisis. At least 87 billion tax dollars will go to fight terrorist this year and maybe 13 million will go to help AIDS victims where 6,000 people die every day!   I am not calling upon any government to save the world, but God is calling you the church to sacrifice to save the world.  Jesus is our model.  God is not counting on America to solve famine and AIDS but He is counting on you, His church.

The choice is ours to make.  Will we trust the cultural masses that tell us, what we have is what we are or will we put our faith in the Eternal God who tells us, what we give is what we are.  Jesus gave his life to save others, are you willing to give away just a small portion of what you have to feed a child, to print Bibles, to provide shelter for those left out in the cold, yes to build the Kingdom of God.  Friends, invest wisely and do not be foolish.