A Sermon Based Upon Mark 10: 17-31, CEB
By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin.
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Fifth Sunday After Epiphany, February 14th, 2016
A story is told about a break-in to an electronics store. It happened in the dead of night. The police responded to the alarm. The owner let them in. The police and the owner went through the store, but nothing seemed to be missing or stolen. So everyone assumed that the alarm went off accidentally. The owner locked up the store and went home.
But in the morning when shoppers came, they discovered something really interesting about the merchandise. High definition, flat screened TVs were selling for a $1.50. Computer cables were selling for $1500. Batteries cost $600 and laptop computers were going for $4.00.
What the intruders had done during the break-in was to simply switch the price tags on everything. They went around the store and took the price tag on the high definition TVs and put them on the batteries. They took the battery prices and put them on the TVs. The next morning shoppers suffered ‘sticker shock’ and ‘sticker surprise’, while thieves bought what they wanted on discount (http://www.richnathan.org/message/changing-the-price-tags-of-life/).
While this sounds a bit humorous, this has happened so often that more and more “price tags” are now embedded or ‘coded’ right into the product labels. Who knows what ‘work around’ thieves will come up with next?
MIXED UP VALUES
The act of ‘price’ altering can get you convicted of ‘larceny’, but I sometimes wonder what it means when society ‘alters’ the ‘price tags’ that have been attached to long-held, sacred and moral values? What happens when our most cherished ‘values’ get all mixed up?
Since our country places much of its value in ‘money’, think about how little value our country puts upon paying ‘teachers’ who educate our own children, over against how much we pay certain popular athletes? Or think about how much more actors or pop music stars are paid to ‘act’ or ‘play’ than we pay firemen, policemen, or other service oriented persons who do not ‘act’, but do ‘real’ and very dangerous jobs to protect us.
The same loss of value is true in many other areas, such as undervaluing the farmers who do the work of putting food on our tables, undervaluing the poor workers who make our clothes, the mechanics who fix our cars, or the nurses who provide close and personal care for us. These jobs are often undervalued, and the work they do is often overlooked, while those who thrill or excite us for a moment are overvalued and overemphasized. Who would dispute that we live in a world where ‘values’ are seldom calculated with deserved fairness or justice?
Besides money, another area where ‘values’ get mixed up are associated with morals.
Take for instance the moral value of ‘Chasity’. Most people don’t even know the word today. But years ago, when our nation was mostly influenced by a common set of moral and Christian virtues and values, it was agreed that ‘unmarried persons’ should abstain from sex until marriage. Chasity was then a commonly accepted moral value by a society that had been greatly influenced by Christian morals which once encouraged the sacredness of marriage (http://www.crisismagazine.com/2009/our-societys-common-values).
As we all know, any common set of moral values’ or ‘beliefs’ are no longer a shared by most people today. Even the whole question about morality has changed. The most important question in our society is no longer, “Is it wrong, or is it right, or what is best, but the primary question has become something like: “Can it be tolerated, could it be acceptable, or might a certain lifestyle be considered normal for some, even if it isn’t normal for others?” By allowing individuals and minority groups the freedom to establish their own personal values, as long as no direct harm comes to others, it seems to be deemed by the majority that liberty should be constantly increased so to insure the most justice ‘for all’.
While liberty and ‘freedom’ can be both overvalued and undervalued, our nation was founded upon a vision of liberty that afforded our forefathers a way of escape from the religious coercion of their time. The original vision of “America”, written into our constitution, offered an alternative ‘secular’ vision over any dominating religious vision, allowing for a ‘freedom from’ religion, as well as, a freedom ‘for’ religion. As we Baptist should know better than most, our ancestors immigrated to this ‘free land’ in hopes of finding a freedom to live and worship by their own self-determination. In many cases, they were fleeing from oppressive religious control and persecution in “Christian” Europe and desired some sort of secular protection from that very negative past.
Freedom remains our most cherished American value because any kind of moral, religious or political vision needs to remain flexible enough to prevent any return to the oppressive political and religious intolerance of the past. An interesting, even comical example of our need for moral freedom and flexibility is illustrated in the fact that we don’t ‘stone’ children for disobedience as the ancient Hebrews did, nor do we still punish ‘moral’ public “sins” with stocks and chains. We also do not publically humiliate or ‘church’ people for what we deem to be “sinful” behavior as has been done in the past. Any attempt to enforce, pressure, or coerce morality does not work just like it hasn’t worked in society at large. A prime example of this was America’s failed attempt to enforce Prohibition. When “alcohol” consumption was moralized it quickly became politicized and ended up making matters worse.
So, in a world where values are constantly changing, challenged, or corrected, how do we, as followers of Jesus Christ, arrive at any kind of consensus for a moral vision or consistent set of values we should embrace, promote, or expect from each other? With the decay and decline of moral consensus in our nation, even workplaces have felt the need to clarify their own mission, vision and values. We need freedom and flexibility, but we also know that even everything is at risk or can fall apart, if we lose our moral or ethical compass. So, what keeps us from getting our values confused and mixed up? Why do we need to try to assess or find ‘true value’ in the first place?
THE NEED OF ‘TRUE VALUE’
The loss of ‘true value’ is written all over this 10th chapter of Mark, which gives us an outline of broken relationships, vulnerable children, misplaced wealth, and wayward desires which could get, even the best of us in deep, deep trouble. Notice how this chapter begins with Jesus speaking about broken marriages that end in divorce and also concludes with a Blind man crying out for help, while Jesus’ own disciples find little value in responding to his cries.
Can you see the loss of ‘true value’ in the world exposed in this single chapter from Mark? These are astounding examples of how easily a broken, cold, heartless world can overtake us when values get all mixed up. And it can happen, as the gospel reveal, even among religious people. When we see Jesus own disciples failing to reach out to the most vulnerable---the children---or when we see these same disciples discussing their private and public desire for greatness at the expense serving humbly, we see the how easily true value is lost and tragic it would be if we lose sight of what values make us better people who could live in a much better world, if we could only ‘visualize’ it.
We could illustrate many of these examples of broken values, but we already know-all- too- well what happens when the ‘marriage’ loses its value to one marriage partner. It is impossible keep the value of a relationship, when one of them no longer values it. Or, what about the vulnerability of children? When society no longer understands the sacred value of childbearing and our responsibility to children? I recall walking on the streets of Sao Paulo Brazil back in the 80’s, seeing newspaper sections blowing in the early morning breeze all over the sidewalks. I asked my interpreter why they were left on the streets, and she responded this is where thousands of ‘street children’ lay newspapers down on the streets to sleep at night.
Of course, the devaluing of human life is not only about children. Just a few days ago, I was watching a Youtube Interview with Holocaust survivor, Manny Steinberg, who told of the horrendous experience he, his brother and father had during the Nazi occupation of Poland. But it wasn’t those stories which caught my attention. When he was asked about his early life as a Jew in Poland, he told of growing up in a home where his grandparents lived with them. He also told how his grandfather impacted his life, teaching him, guiding him, and even correcting him, so he would grow up ‘right’. That how it was then, but in world today, ‘grandparents’ and the ‘elderly’ are not valued as much as they once were in earlier days. Today most of them are understood more as liabilities and inconveniences, than assets, gifts, or responsibilities.
Perhaps most challenging of all in this chapter, is the story of this rich, young man, who walks up to Jesus desiring to find an answer for his hope of ‘life’, but then walks away because he is unwilling to exchange what he values for the ultimate value; answering the call to work for God’s coming kingdom. Let’s take a closer look at this rich, young man and how he epitomizes both the desire and the disappointment of our society today?
This rich young man comes to Jesus knowing exactly what he wants. Even though the has what he wants, he still a “spiritual dissatisfaction” which has led him to Jesus. The tragedy in the story is not that he refuses to give his money to the help the poor, but the real tragedy is that he doesn’t realize how poor of a person he has become because he can’t stop thinking about anybody but himself. Everything he came for is to get something, so that the only story of his life is about no one but himself. Isn’t this the real reason he rejects Jesus’ solution to his problem? He can’t see his real problem because he only sees himself. By only seeing the ‘value’ of saving himself, or saving his own pocket book, and by caring too little about helping anyone, he ends us ‘lost in the cosmos’, even with all his wealth. He just can’t allow himself to accept the ‘true value’ that can save his soul from great emptiness and regret.
Of course, this problem is not just a ‘money’ or ‘ethical’ problem, it is also an even deeper ‘spiritual’ or ‘character issue, which we see clearly reflected in how the ‘disciples’, even after they have left all to follow Jesus, are still stuck in the ‘values’ of the world as they seek to be ‘greater’ than the other and volley for power and position. Isn’t it true that even we in the church, like those disciples can even get our own “spiritual” values confused with what Scripture calls ‘fleshly or ‘worldly’ values. How much do we, lose our ‘value’ by going after ‘success’ or ‘reputation’ rather than elevating humility and service? How much more do we also consider what ‘we’ want over what ‘God’ commands?
Is there any way that a self-serving, self-seeking, self-focused culture like, can ever recover the value of the “good” that is not just for me, but points beyond ourselves, to the God-given value that God has put in all of us? How do we move from a self-obsessed and self-centered focus upon what is only good for ‘me’? Do we even want to ask what might be most valued by God? Might we see how his problem is a great problem of assessing ‘value’, as is also ours? Wasn’t there a ‘right’ solution he should have been able to find in as a sense of “true value”, purpose and vision which included others besides himself? Didn’t he walk away unsatisfied, unfulfilled, if not also unsaved, because he would not discover that finding ‘true value’ in life was much, much more than protecting or holding on to what would only be good for him?
FINDING VALUE THROUGH JESUS
However you ‘percieve’ the rich man’s problem, it is clear that Jesus was trying to help this very wealthy person find the only kind of ‘value’ that would save and redeem him from the ‘best’ and the ‘worst’ about himself. But this rich man was unwilling to accept the ‘value’ that Jesus ‘offered’ him. Because of all that he had and wanted to hold on to, he would not answer the call of Jesus Christ to find ‘true value’ for his life. Can or will we do any better?
What Jesus wanted this ‘rich man’ to do, was to realize his own self-worth (not just having money) by acting with human compassion to serve human need with all that he had. By reaching out to the weak, the outcast, and the disadvantaged, he could discover his own ‘self-worth’. But instead of answering the call to follow Jesus into to become part of the answer, he decides to walk away. He can’t accept Jesus assessment of what truly matters and what really counts. He will assess his life by himself. So, he decides to go away, even with regret and sorrow for how he will now go on to live the rest of his life. He has chosen not to do the one thing that will change everything. He wants what Jesus offers, but he just can’t accept it. He doesn’t refuse to follow Jesus because he is holding on to his money, but he refuses to follow Jesus by continuing to hold on to heart. He will not allow his own heart to be touched by what God values most.
But what if he had? Recently I saw the advertisement for an original movie, entitled, “Man In the High Castle”, which was a story that imagined “What if Hitler and the Axis powers had won the war?” In an imaginative way, I also wonder how this man’s life could have been different, if he had turned loose and followed Jesus to have the kind of life that could have brought him an even greater value than all his ‘wealth’?
When my wife and I decided God was calling us to become “missionaries”, we sold everything we had and left for Europe. Most everyone respected us, but not a few wondered ‘why’ we did something like this? What was the ‘value’ in it? As we started our mission work in Germany, even east Germans were asking us the same thing? Why would we leave ‘haven’ of our homeland and come to theirs, an area that had suffered two world wars and lived under communism for almost 50 years. Why?
One day, when I was searching for ways to establish my ministry in eastern Germany, a school teacher called me and told me about a student she knew who had been thrown in a ‘trash can’ and was being called ‘worthless’ by other students. “Knowing that you came here as a missionary, I wondered if you could do anything to help him?”
I went to visit that young man and asked him, “What would you like an American to teach you?” His short answer: “Play Baseball”. I leased an abandoned soccer field and we started unofficial baseball training program. It was so successful in reaching out to other youth, some of them, including that first young man becoming Christians, that even “Morman missionaries” took notice. It also helped build a new ministry and outreach to youth in that town, which still brings joy and value into my own soul and heart.
This is the kind of joy and blessing you too can encounter when you allow God to determine what you should value. What about you? Does your life have ‘true value’? Would you let God reassess what should matter for you, so that your life obtains a quality that endures, not just for a moment, but for an eternity?
PRAYER: “Dear Lord, help me not to be bound my own desires, but turn me loose to follow you into an adventurous world of new possibilities that gives life true value.” Amen.
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