Share the Wealth

Introduction

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are deeply embedded in the American dream.

However, if we aren’t careful, sometimes we lose our focus on what it means to have life, liberty, and happiness. A recent report has documented that per-capita income in America has more than doubled since 1972, yet the well-being of our citizens is on the decline.

In our neighborhood, we see the decline of society with children going hungry because it’s not profitable to put a grocery store in certain neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, in other neighborhoods, we’re seeing children growing up with increasing rates of obesity.

Why is it difficult to obtain healthy foods? Why is it so difficult to put a grocery store in a neighborhood just as populated as another neighborhood with a grocery store?

Corporate greed.

For the bottom line, it’s easier to mass-produce cheap ingredients, chemicals, and substitutes than it is to deliver alternative, healthier choices.

How about our healthcare system? The costs of healthcare are outrageous and impoverish the most vulnerable. Those most at risk are those with the inability to pay.

Preventive care and life-saving drugs are out of reach for so many people because pharmaceutical companies are trying to increase the bottom line for their stockholders.

When did the pursuit of happiness become equated with the pursuit of wealth?

There are times when we as individuals and society forget that we are all children of God with a divine right to healthy foods, safe shelter, access to healthcare, and clothes on our backs.

There are times when we become so invested in ourselves, in our little bubbles and our wealth accumulation, that it consumes us.

When this happens, Jesus reminds us about sharing with our neighbors.

The question is: How can we reorient ourselves to share with our neighbors?

Prioritizing Our Relationships

In today’s gospel reading, when the wealthy man falls at the feet of Jesus and asks him for advice on how to obtain life, liberty, and happiness, Jesus begins to quote the commandments.

However, the commandants and the order in which Jesus cites them are peculiar. The commandments are often categorized into relationship with God and relationship with neighbor.

The commandments that Jesus cites are related to fostering good relations with neighbors and family.

Jesus chooses these commandments because he wants to make a point. Jesus looks at this man lovingly, peers into his soul. Jesus is keenly aware that this man’s problem is how he prioritizes his relationships.

It’s not enough to be mindful of and follow the commandments; it’s not enough to love God.

To be a follower, you must embody love and love God with all your heart, soul, and might. To love God is to love your neighbor as yourself—your neighbor who is stamped with the image of God.

Yes stamped with the image of God. That’s right, I want you to know—when you are saying it’s too expensive, too much security, or flat out racist systematic zoning policies to place a grocery store down in a neighborhood—you’re starving someone stamped with the very image of God.

When you are trying to line your pockets by swapping out good quality foods with lesser foods—you’re feeding someone stamped with the very image of God.

This man was doing well for himself; he had enough to sustain himself. Jesus called upon him to share his wealth and care for those around him.

However, sacrificing the wealth he had built up was too much of a re-prioritization for him.

He may have been willing to follow the commandments to their technicality. But to embody them, to truly live them out in the spirit and fire in which they were breathed into existence… meant compromising his preferred lifestyle.

This was a bridge too far for him.

I want to share with you a conversation I had with my friend this past week. One of my dear friends retired in Homosassa, Florida, one of the communities where Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton struck.

Days after the event, she told me she woke up and walked the neighborhood, assessing the damage, checking in with neighbors, and providing assistance. Her conversations with neighbors brought her to tears whenever she walked up and down the streets and saw people's entire lives sitting on their front lawns and scrambling to find any small token to save.

She says that she has seen the best and worst of people during this time...

People who had their relationship priorities set on helping others such as... Neighbors helping neighbors…

and people who had their relationship priorities set upon themselves and increasing their wealth such as… people coming in and looting… dishonest contractors…

To reorient ourselves to share with our neighbors, we must prioritize our relationships.

Evaluating Our Values

But it’s more than just relationships, isn’t it?

We spoke about truly embodying the commandments—not just simply obeying them. Jesus is calling on us to evaluate our values and to dig deep. Jesus looked at this man lovingly and peered deeply into his soul.

It’s not just about following the Torah for the rich man or the Messiah for the disciples. Following Jesus isn’t about impoverishing yourself.

Rather, it’s about ordering one’s values rightly and justly.

When we love our material wealth so much that it takes up space in our hearts, we aren’t creating space to love God and our neighbor.

We lose sight of our dependence on God when we cling to our possessions.

I recall a conversation with a friend of mine whose church was discerning whether to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church over the issue of human sexuality.

Finances and how donors were leaving the local church over the issue were part of the conversation. Perhaps if that church were to disaffiliate, those donors would come back, the treasurer said.

You see friends, when we set aside our values of radical hospitality, love, and grace, and we follow temporary treasures… we lose sight of God for a lonelier and more desolate dark place.

Between January 2023 and April 2024, US political campaigns collected around $8.6 billion for the 2024 House, Senate, and presidential elections.

Just take a moment to imagine the problems we could solve by redirecting that money to solve real human problems here in Rochester.

What would you do with $8.6 billion?

To reorient ourselves and share with our neighbors, we must evaluate our values.

Making Connections

John Wesley preached three simple rules on wealth. Gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.

Our core identity is rooted in caring for the marginalized—those in prison, the hungry, the poor, and the widowed.

John and Charles Wesley set up societies and classes for small-group spiritual formation to address community needs. Part of this structure is collecting and pooling funds to make a collective impact towards caring for the marginalized.

Our tradition is deeply rooted in a connectional structure. We can do amazing things when we share our wealth and pool our funds together. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) collects funds for natural disasters like Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton to support providing equipment, tools, storage, cleanup, mobilize food distribution, and rebuilding resources.

I want to give one more example of our connectionalism. The Black College Fund was established in 1972 by the United Methodist Church to support historically Black colleges and universities to ensure that our neighbors historically marginalized and denied the right to education have that access.

You see church, this is the strength of connectionalism. It’s what we’re called to do in society—to care for those who are in their most vulnerable state, to address those who are being torn down by systems, those who are turned away from their community and government. We are called to love all those around us.

Church, a spirituality emerges from our tradition’s connectional structure.

When we join our hearts, minds, hands, and wealth, we are opening up the world to transformation by exemplifying Jesus’ command to love God and neighbor, thus seeking fulfillment of God’s reign and realm in the world.

We must make connections to reorient ourselves and share with our neighbors.

Kerygmatic Fulfillment

Friends, we live in a society that prizes individualism and rewards self-interest.

To accumulate wealth is to accumulate power.

To accumulate wealth is to accumulate prestige.

To accumulate wealth is to accumulate a sense of safety.

To accumulate wealth is to accumulate advantages over your neighbors.

While this may be true today, it was also true back then. Some people thought accumulating wealth was a sign of blessing from God. To accumulate wealth was to be righteous...—in right standing with God.

Jesus flips this notion on its head. Jesus tells us to share our wealth with our neighbors.

Friends, we have sat with this question of how to reorient ourselves to share with our neighbors.

By prioritizing relationships over self-interest, examining our values, and making connections, we can share the blessings God has given us with our neighbors.

Today's scripture reading was a tall order for our young, rich man. He genuinely seemed to admire Jesus as being a good teacher. Yet giving up his riches was a bridge too far...

The disciples, too, needed help accepting this teaching. One might even hear a bit of pride in their brag to Jesus on how they left everything to follow.

Indeed, following Jesus is tough; embodying the essence of loving God with all our heart, soul, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves is an even taller order.

Yet Jesus reminds us that all things are possible for God.

Jesus also tells us that we must be mindful of how we are called in this age. One of the cornerstones of the Methodist faith is to move towards Christian perfection here and now.

In the words of John Wesley: gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.

Jesus, I have promised to serve thee to the end; O give me grace to follow, my Lord and my Friend. In the name of our creator, redeemer, and sustainer. Amen.