Sermon 10-20-24

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Includes the Gospel for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, Mark 10:23-31.

Non-Idol

In order to get the drift of today’s gospel lesson, we’ve got to back to last week’s, where a man ran up to Jesus wanting to know how to gain eternal life. Jesus said to obey God’s commandments. The man said he was doing that. But Jesus said the man lacked one thing — namely Jesus. Therefore, Jesus invited the man to follow Him as one of His inner circle and a potential apostle. However, knowing that concern about wealth would only hinder an apostle from being an apostle, Jesus gave the man a condition. Give away your great wealth. Then, come follow me.

Giving away all one’s wealth is not an absolute condition of being a Christian. In another incident with the tax collector Zacchaeus, Jesus was content when Zacchaeus said in Luke 19:8, “. . . ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’” And, let’s note, Jesus didn’t call Zacchaeus to be an apostle.

In this morning’s gospel it amazed the disciples when Jesus said in Mark 10:23, “. . . ‘How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’” And again in Mark 10:25, “‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’” He also said something in between that we can easily glide over. Mark 10:24, “. . . ‘Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!’” Why is it so difficult for everyone, not just the rich? Answer: there’s only one entry point, one narrow door into the Kingdom of God — and that’s Jesus Himself. If someone refuses to follow Jesus, then there is no other entry point.

What Jesus was really saying is, “There are many, many things in this world that can and will prevent you from following me into the Kingdom of God. Whatever those things are, they have become idols for you. They have become your gods. You worship, serve and adore them instead of the true Creator God. These things must be jettisoned from the center of your being. They can no longer be your gods. You can no longer worship, serve and adore them. And I am a jealous God. You cannot have them as gods alongside me.” As Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “‘No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.’” Just think about it. Have you ever had a job where you had to serve two bosses? That would be nearly impossible. Right? Jesus says that it’s the same with Yahweh and money. Only one can be your God. Only one can be at the center of your being and the center of your life. Choose!

Now, has God called us to be beggars or thieves? We read in Ephesians 4:28, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” Therefore, working to accumulate wealth is not wrong in itself. For, we, then, have something to share with those in need.

Again we read in 1Timothy 5:8, “. . . if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” So, taking care of one’s own family by creating wealth is no sin. It’s commanded.

We also read in 1Timothy 6:17-19, “17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” What hope do we have in riches? It certainly can’t be an eternal hope. For Solomon complains in Ecclesiastes 2:18-19, “18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun.” Death parts us from all this world’s riches. Therefore, great hope in anything except that which is eternal is misplaced hope. This includes hope in earthly riches.

And as for haughtiness, that’s thinking you can lord it over everyone simply because of your wealth. Now, in the world and among those who are of the world, such lording is done all the time. But such lording is not permissible in the Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom, there is but one Lord — Jesus. And He is Lord by virtue of His giving Himself up for us all on the cross. That’s a humiliating way to be Lord. But in the Kingdom of God, it’s the only way to be a lord under the Lord of lords. The cross beats the haughtiness out of us all — even the rich, and perhaps especially the rich.

Therefore, we read in James 4:8-10, “8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” And in 1Peter 5:5-6, “5. . . Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” Therefore, let us humble ourselves.

Now, you have probably heard it said that money is the root of all evil. Let’s look at what Scripture actually says. 1Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” It’s the love of money — having money as a god — that’s evil, not the money itself. We saw Solomon agree with this in the first lesson this morning when he wrote in Ecclesiastes 5:10, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.” In that verse Solomon points out that craving wealth is actually an addiction. In the entire first lesson, Solomon advises everyone to learn to be content in life. Now, contentment can be had with a little or with a lot. As Paul said in Philippians 4:12, “. . . In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”

To round out some other sayings on money, we have Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” If Yahweh is your God, then there will always be a way out of desperate circumstances for you. And if Yahweh is our God, even if desperate circumstances cause us to die, nevertheless, we will be with Him forever, instead of in hell. And that’s definitely a way out of desperate circumstances.

Then, there are these verses from 2Timothy 3:1-5, “1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” Did you notice here all the hell that will come along with the love of money in the last days? You see, the problem behind the love of money is the idolatry and denial of Yahweh that produces not only the love of money, but all these other terrible sins.

Finally, with money, we go to the historic Lutheran doctrine of Vocation. Vocations are the multiple tasks that the Lord gives us to perform in this life. For instance, at present I have the vocations of husband, father, grandfather, citizen, pastor, chaplain and much more. I wear a bunch of hats at the same time.

Now, to some, the Lord has given the vocation of great genius, great creativity, great persistence and great organization. In the present time, these are the great industrialists like Henry Ford, or most recently, Elon Musk. It seems that these people just look at something and it turns into wealth. But not so. People are willing to go to market and pay good money for what these geniuses have produced because their product is well thought out and works reliably.

It may take a lot of trial and error to reach their objective. But the people to whom Yahweh has granted the vocation of genius persist in what they do until they’re successful. For instance, Space X had to endure a lot of failure in order to bring the first stage of its rockets back to earth for reuse.

The result of the vocations of genius, creativity, persistence and organization given to ease people is that life in this harsh world is made easier and better. Let’s just take the automobile as an example. The amount of genius invested in automobiles since their initial creation is monumental — from finding and producing the fuel, to the invention of the wheel, to the refining of metals, to the making of computer chips, and tires, glass, fibers and plastic, to taming mechanical motion and combustion and so much, much more.

Should the people who have been given these vocations become wealthy? Of course. Everyone who sees the value in what they produce will want to buy from them. That’s the only correct and godly way. Yahweh doesn’t give us stealing as an option. And if they want too much for what they produce, the market will correct that.

Now as a result of the vocations Yahweh has given such people, their souls are in danger. As we’ve just seen, if they succumb to the temptation to make money their idol, it puts them in great danger. Therefore, they need to come to the Lord for His forgiveness, strength and righteousness in order to resist the devil. For as it says in James 4:3, “. . . Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

Interestingly, poverty doesn’t make anyone exempt from having money as a god. In almost 50 years of ministry, I’ve observed this many times with poor people. The lives of those who don’t know how to make money or use it properly are often consumed by their lack of money. For instance, why is it that the poor are so devoted to playing the lottery? It’s the dream of their ship coming in — that if only I have money, everything will be heaven on earth. No it won’t. Having money means that you have to learn how to keep it and use it properly. If you are not a wise steward of money, it will all run through your fingers until you’re poor again.

Proper stewardship of all the resources God places in our hands is wisdom from God Himself. If you remember, we heard it said that we should earn a living in order to properly take care of our families and have something to share with others. This is good stewardship.  It involves storing up money for difficult times; wisely using it for the stuff we can actually afford; giving it to support the household of God; paying taxes and giving it wisely to those in actual need.

Good stewardship begins with acknowledging that everything we have on earth comes from Yahweh. We may have earned what we have. However, we didn’t have it before we got here. And we won’t have it after we leave. Therefore, ultimately, everything comes from Yahweh and returns to Him.

In this life, all of us are only stewards, no matter how much or little we have. All of us have been charged to handle rightly what really belongs to Yahweh. And the only way to learn right stewardship is from Yahweh Himself. The study of His Law and His Gospel will teach us to humble ourselves under His mercy and under His directives.

In conclusion, we have to acknowledge this morning that we’ve been warned by Jesus Himself. In this life, and on this earth, if we have money as our God, we will not be able to enter the Kingdom of God.

On the other hand, we also saw a promise. Mark 10:29-30, “29 Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.’”

Certainly, this promise was for the apostles. They would give up everything, including their lives, in order to proclaim the Gospel. However, it also has application to every Christian. Houses, brothers, sisters, parents, children and lands can easily become gods that we worship, serve and adore. The people on the list need our time and our commitment. But, they are never to take the place of Yahweh. And physical things, including money, are certainly not God. We can love the church of Christ, but even the Church is to be no idol. We are to have no idols whatsoever. We have but one Creator and lover of our souls. Therefore, Lord Holy Spirit calls all of us to make Him the center of everything. We’re called to make His ways our ways.

All this is possible only through the justification of our lives through the forgiveness of sins. For we have had other gods. But by dying for us on the cross, Jesus has bought forgiveness for those who repent, even for the sin of idolatry. Take courage. If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

One more thing. Did you know that you can easily make an idol of Yahweh Himself? Yes. It can easily happen when we use human wisdom and philosophy to try and discover if there is a God; prove there is a God; or reach out to God.

I’ve spent the last two days absorbing some very interesting lectures on the roots of both Marxism and Fascism. In case you don’t know it, both movements are leftist and socialist. Hitler was not a far right guy. He was far left. Indeed, the main reason Hitler attacked Soviet Russia was because his National Socialism was in competition with Communism as to who would rule the world.

These lectures showed how the philosophy of the ancient Greeks worked its way into the Renaissance. Ancient Greek philosophy was then utilized by those who desired to do philosophy without the God of Christianity.

In Western philosophy, there’s an important thinker from the early 1800’s that you probably have never heard of. He’s a German: G.F.W. Hegel. Drawing on a long line of those who came before him, Hegel set out to prove the existence of God. But he adopted and developed some bizarre ideas. He believed and taught that God doesn’t know He’s God. Therefore, God had to create the world, and in particular humanity, to reflect his image back to him. And so, for Hegel, an important part of our existence is becoming more complete so that God can become more complete. Does this sound like nonsense? It is. Does it sound like the God who reveals Himself in the Bible. No. But, this is the kind of idol the human mind can make Yahweh into.

Hegel is important for one other reason. From the Greeks he’s very interested in solving the problem of change in this world. If you light a match, allow it to burn and then blow it out, the match has changed. It’s not the match it was. Yet, at the same time it is the match that was. That’s a contradiction, according to the ancient Greeks and according to Hegel. Whether it’s a contradiction or not, is another matter. But for Hegel it is a contradiction.

Now, in order for humanity to get closer to God, these contradictions have to be resolved. Therefore, Hegel developed a theory called the Dialectic. It works like this. Since because of constant change, everything in the world is a contradiction, the opposites enter into a dialogue — a dialectic — with each other. Finally, the human mind conceives of a way that the two opposites become reconciled so that their synthesis results in a new third position. But as soon as the new third position is created it is in turn opposed by its opposite. After a time, the resulting dialectic will bring forth yet a new synthesis that in its turn will then be opposed — and so on and so on in a never ending fashion. Again, if this sounds like nonsense, it is. But, it’s precisely this nonsense that has fundamentally transformed your world, as we’ll see.

One more thing. From the ancient Greeks, Hegel inherited the idea that the material world is a fake reality. It’s too long and too complicated to tell you why Hegel adopted this position. Just know that he did. Therefore, in Hegel’s system the dialectic transcends the fake reality and makes real reality. Again. Just stay with me.

Now there’s a significant problem in Hegel’s system. With each step of the dialectic we get closer to God. But if we get to God Himself the dialectic will have an opposite non-God. The dialectic will then have to reconcile the opposition into a new synthesis of God, and then on into infinity. So, Hegel cheats. He never allows his system to ever define anything as God. For, the moment something is called God, it becomes part of the fake reality, and the spiritual magic of the dialectic is lost. Got that? Therefore, people who believe in the dialectic — and there are plenty of intellectuals who do — can never let anything in the system be defined. It must remain an indefinite, gobbledygook of made up words that sound good but mean nothing. This is so the process of the dialectic can remain.

Marx, Hitler and the father of Italian Fascism, Giovanni Gentile, are all inheritors of Hegel’s system. They each gave it their own twist. But the dialectic remains the same. Here’s a quote about this. “Ideologues cannot give you a straight answer. Because if they name something, it makes it concrete. If it’s concrete, it’s no longer magical. It’s material. The Socialists cannot define what socialism is because socialism is a magical word that means whatever people want it to mean. Socialism is when the workers are rich, when puppy dogs and rainbows happen . . . . It is nothing and everything at the same time. . . .  So long as they never say what Goddess Socialism is, Goddess Socialism can be anything and everything to anybody. They have no policies, just vague sweeping promises that have no basis in reality. Same with Fascism. Same with Marxism. Same with any of these ideologies. As soon as they give you something concrete, it destroys itself. . . .  It has to remain as this pie-in-the-sky idea and not be defined in order for it to be effective. . . . they’re all about magic. They can’t give you anything concrete. They wriggle and squirm out of arguments they don’t like. They won’t accept material evidence because materialism is bad.”

So, do you now have a little understanding of the bizarre thought process behind the Supreme Court candidate who refused to define what a woman is? The minute she defines a woman, the dialectic is lost and so-called fake reality sets in. It’s the same reason one of the presidential candidates is an expert at giving word-salad answers that sort of sound good, but say nothing.

In conclusion, like the love of money, it’s all idolatry. The god who needs man to know who he is, is an idol. The dialectic is an idol — an idol bigger than God Himself.

When Yahweh told Moses His name — I AM WHO I AM — that Name prevents all idolatry. For Yahweh means that we cannot make Him who we want Him to be or who we can imagine Him to be by any human wisdom or philosophy. The only thing we can do is say “You are Who You are.” And we accept what you have told us about yourself in Scripture.

In Scripture, Yahweh is very concrete about Himself in ways we can understand. He sent His Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.

Some of that is totally out of the ordinary. But birth, suffering and death are not. And, this is the God with whom we have to do. He operates in the concrete reality He created. And In Messiah Jesus, He is most understandable. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.