Defining Moments in the Land of Plenty

A sermon preached by Dr. Peter James Flamming, Pastor
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
November 29, 1998

Text: Mark 19: 16-26

Dr. George Modlin, Chancellor Emeritus of U. of R., and I used to go to football games together. He loved to tell me of the defining moments in his life. Many of them were catalyzed in such casual ways. "George, have you thought of this?" "George, have you applied there?" "George, why don't you send a resume to so and so?" Each of our lives revolve around surprisingly few defining moments. They make us who we are and who we will become.

What are your defining moments? Think about it. If I were going to ask you to list them, what would they be?

The man in our Scripture today came to Jesus to ask a religious question. Instead, he got a defining moment. The question was, "What good thing must I do to inherit eternal life? (Mt. 19:16) The defining moment came when Jesus told him to give what he had to the poor and to follow him.(Mt. 19:21) Would he follow Jesus? Would he give away his money to help the poor? It was a defining moment.

Surprisingly, we know a good deal about this man. Matthew says he was young. Luke adds that he was a ruler. All note he was rich. So we put it all together and come up with the Rich Young Ruler. Let me call him, R.Y., rich and young. Clearly, the marker-post that defined this man was not religion, not his place in the community. not even his family. The defining marker-post of his life was his wealth. It was not so much that he had lots of money. It was that lots of money had him. It defined who he was, his place in life, his ability to influence others, his power, his superiority. Apparently it didn't help his eternal security because he came to Jesus seeking eternal life.

Substitute please the word American for the phrase Rich Young Ruler. We are the richest nation on earth. We are the world's Super Power. Abbie Joseph Cohen, analyst for Goldman Sachs on Wall Street, says America is like a Super Tanker - not the prettiest, not the quickest, but virtually unsinkable. Maybe. But that is what they said about the Titanic!

I am reminded of something that John Steinbeck wrote: ". . . no culture has ever been comfortable, wealthy, and powerful and survived." Jacob Needleman put it on a personal level when he said, "It is not possible for man to become both comfortable and conscious at the same time."1

Jesus gives us a better way. But I warn you. It calls for us facing up to a defining moment in our lives. Jesus spells it out specifically in Matthew 26:31. In the end, says Jesus, when this old world will have been folded up like a little tent, and the universe is but a past memory, we people will be separated like a herdsman separates sheep and goats, between the righteous and the unrighteous. The righteous will go to be with God, the unrighteous will not.

Who are these righteous? The righteous are those who didn't do drugs - right? Wrong. The righteous are those who knew all the right doctrines? Wrong again. The righteous are all of those who guessed right about the Second Coming? Wrong again. The righteous are all of those who are Baptists - right? Sorry, but no! Jesus says the righteous are those who respond to those in special need and in so doing they bless the Lord Jesus. Listen: "I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

Well, the righteous are really puzzled. They have not seen Jesus hungry, or thirsty, or in prison, or sick, or in need of clothes. In fact, they have never seen Jesus in the flesh ever! Jesus clarifies it all. "Whatever you did for one of the least of these you did for me."

Then the judgment falls on the unrighteous. "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." Verse 46 reports, "Then they will go away to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life."

Clearly, how we respond to others in need is a defining moment in our lives even unto eternity.

My people, here in our church we these words seriously. We feed the hungry, we have a clothes closet for those in need of clothing, we have a prison ministry and we visit those in the hospital. But lets face it. We can become numb to all of the tragedies in the world of today. It is almost a tragedy de jour, a tragedy of the day. Are tragedies more frequent than ever before? I doubt it. Through TV we are just so much more aware of them all.

But friends, the Honduras tragedy is in a class by itself. It is a horror unto itself. Did you read the report of the physicians this week in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. These are guys who work in the Emergency Room. They see death all of the time. But what they saw in Honduras was suffering beyond imagination. They took some video of what they saw and the reporter, Jeff Schapiro, described it in this way:

"Flickering on a television screen in a darkened room were images of weary, malnourished people foraging for scraps of food in trash heaps flattened by bacteria ridden flood waters; ubiquitous vultures hovering overhead and perched in trees; a crowded orphanage and rescue personnel, sometimes offering no more than a kind word."

The doctors reported that had no medication to give and could give little assurance that medication could reach them.

We had a mission team in Honduras the week before Hurricane Mitch hit. They built a little church and shared the gospel and had a medical clinic. They built the church out of cinder blocks. When the storm hit, the people in that village were behind the walls of that church, shoulder to shoulder, wall to wall. Their little shanty-like houses were gone, but the church saved their lives. There is a parable there, I think.

So, what are we doing now? Our own Harold Hurst was a missionary in Honduras before retirement. He has put some medical teams together, Doctors who will go for a week to help. He has one going this week, next week, and the week following.

If you would like to help financially, send your gifts to our International Mission Board, Box 7676, Richmond, 23220. The Treasurer of the I.M.B. is a member of our church as are others of his staff. I can guarantee you that every penny you give will get to Honduras. The support system is already in place because our missionaries were already there. But they need virtually everything. We need rain here in Virginia. But can you imagine what it would be like to get two or three feet of rain in two days?

It is, I think, a defining moment for all of us. Can we shake off our numbness to tragedy and realize this is beyond imagination. Can we follow Jesus and seize the opportunity to help those who cannot possibly return the favor. As Christians, the key words for us are from Jesus: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me." Do it for Jesus' sake.

Edie Ogan was fourteen when Easter came in 1946. Her Dad had died five years before. Her mother was left with the girls to raise and no money. It was right after World War II and such things as pensions and Social Security didn't have much meaning.

A month before Easter the pastor of their church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially. When they got home, Edie's family talked it over. What would they do to help? They decided to buy fifty pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow savings from their regular grocery money. They could give that to the offering. There was no television back then but they thought they could save electricity if they didn't listen to the radio. The kids did yard jobs and baby sitting and pooled their money. When Easter Sunday morning came they had saved up $70.00!

It rained that Sunday and they didn't own an umbrella, but they felt so good, even so rich, that they didn't mind walking to church. When the sacrificial offering was taken Edie's mother put in the ten dollar bill and the three girls each put in a twenty. After church they sang all of the way home. For dinner, the Mother had a surprise for them. She had bought a dozen eggs and they celebrated with boiled Easter eggs and fried potatoes.

Late that afternoon there was a knock at the door. It was the Minister. He talked with Edie's Mom for a while. Then he left. She came back with an envelope in her hand. The girls asked what it was but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money, including one ten and three twenty dollar bills. It hurt. They were the poor people the offering was taken for. Edie remembers that afternoon as if it were yesterday. She wrote, "We went from feeling rich to feeling like poor white trash."

The singing stopped. Nobody spoke. They had such love in their home. Even though they had nothing, they had never thought of themselves as poor. The offering meant that everybody else looked at them as being poor. Probably everybody at school saw them as poor. It was humiliating. Edie decided that at the end of the year she would quit school, because in those days all the law required was to finish the eighth grade. She didn't quit, of course. But that day she felt like it.

That week they mostly sat in silence. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked what they wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? None of them knew.

On Sunday, none of the girls wanted to go to church but their Mother made them. The sun was shining but nobody sang and nobody spoke.

They had a missionary speaker from Africa that day at church. The missionary reported that the African Christians had no money, but they could make bricks out of clay. They needed $100.00 to put a roof on their church. Could the church help? The Pastor was deeply moved and asked, "Can't we sacrifice a little bit and help these people?"

The girls looked at each other and then to their mother and they all smiled. Now they knew what they would do with their money. The mother reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She handed it to Darlene, and Darlene handed it to Edie, and Edie handed it to Ocy, and Ocy put it in the offering plate.

When the offering was counted the minister announced that it was over $100.00. The roof would be built! The missionary was praising the Lord all over the place. He said, "You must have some rich people in this little church."

Suddenly it dawned on Edie and her family that they had given most of the $100.00. They were the rich family in the church that the missionary was talking about because they had given the most. It was a defining moment for that little mother and her three girls. They weren't poor no matter what anybody said. And they felt so rich because they had given more than anybody else.

Edie wrote years later as she told the story, "From that day on I've never been poor again. I've always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus and I feel so rich when I can give to others in Jesus' name."

Friends, it is a defining moment for us. Can we say, "I have Jesus and so I'm rich." Can we say, "I feel rich because I can give to Jesus by giving to those who suffer." Following Jesus and sharing our selves with those who are suffering- that is what Christianity is all about. It is a defining moment for all of us who live in the richest nation on God's planet earth.

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1. Both quotes are from Paula Ripple's book, Growing Strong at Broken Places, p. 15.

2.This story was originally published in "Mountain Movers," a foreign mission magazine published by the Assemblies of God Church.

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