FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

October 22, 2006

RED LETTER CHRISTIANS

Scripture: Mark 10:17-22; Luke 6:46-49

INTRODUCTION

As a young boy growing up in Sag Harbor, Long Island, one of my prized possessions was a red lettered edition of the King James Version of the Bible. My parents gave it to me when I was baptized at the age of eight, and I promised them that I would read every word straight through from beginning to end.

It wasn’t long before I slowed down at “the begats” in the fifth chapter of Genesis, and then ran out of momentum when I got stuck in the rules, rituals and regulations recorded in the Book of Leviticus.

My mother suggested that I turn to the Gospels, and I can still remember, as if it were yesterday, thinking to myself when I discovered all of those sentences colored in red, “This is it! This is the most important section – these are the words which Jesus actually said.” Fifty years later, I still believe that is true.

Today, many of our young people and even some adults now wear wrist bracelets and necklaces with the letters “WWJD” – “What would Jesus do?” – and I think that is good. But what I’d like to focus on this morning is “WDJS” – “What did Jesus say?” and what does He want us to do?

I

I have heard it said in a number of sermons and even preached it myself, that “Jesus spoke more about money and sharing our resources with others than anything else.” Last Monday, while attending a conference in Indianapolis on congregational giving and Christian stewardship, I asked some of the professional experts who were there if they could document that statement.

To my surprise, none of them could answer the question. So flying back on the plane early Tuesday morning, I opened my Bible and started to count the verses colored in red which referred to anything Jesus said about money, possessions and His instructions about sharing what we have received with those in need. Beginning with the Gospel of Matthew, this is what I discovered:

In Matthew, Jesus weighed in on this subject 40 times; in Mark, He spoke about it in 15 places; in Luke, there are 39 statements; and in John, I found 3 quotations. All together, that makes 97 specific references, totaling 693 verses, give or take a few percentage points for margin of error, as George Gallup would say.

Now, I haven’t counted the number of times Jesus is recorded in the Gospels speaking about the hot button, front burner issues we are struggling with and fighting over in all of our denominations today – especially human sexuality. But my calculated guess is that if you added up all of those subjects together and counted how many times Jesus spoke about them, you would find that they don’t begin to compare with what Jesus said about the great chasm between the rich and the poor, and our responsibility to reach out to those in need as we seek to be stewards of the gifts which the Lord has entrusted to us.

The question is – “Are we listening to what Jesus told us to do, and are we willing to do it?” Jesus put it this way in the Gospel of Luke: Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you? (Luke 6:46) And He went on to say that:

Anyone who…hears my words and does them is like a man who builds his house upon a rock solid foundation, and when the storms come, that house will stand. But anyone who hears my words and does not do them is like the man who builds his house upon the sand, and when the storms come, that house will fall. (Paraphrase of Luke 6:47-49)

II

Well I don’t know how many houses this one man owned who came to see Jesus, as recorded in Mark chapter 10, but one thing for certain: he wasn’t asking for a loan. Instead, he wanted to know how to inherit eternal life.

Jesus answered…You know the commandments: do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.”

The man replied Teacher, all these I have obeyed from my youth. Now there must have been something special about that man – perhaps it was the way he knelt down before Jesus in humility, or the sound of sincerity in his voice, or a glimpse of integrity in his eyes, or maybe he already knew this teacher from Galilee and sought earnestly to be His friend.

Whatever it was, the Bible says that Jesus looked at him and loved him and then said to him: You lack one thing – go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven – and come follow Me (Mark 10:21).

The words that are written next in Mark’s Gospel are among the saddest in all of the Bible: At that saying, the man’s countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful – for he had great possessions (verse 22).

Now I’m wondering today…if that person had been me or you, what would we say? What would we do in response to Jesus’ invitation: Go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven – and come, follow Me.

III

Almost thirty years ago, during a Sunday evening broadcast over KDKA Radio, I heard a sermon preached on this same text by Robert Cleveland Holland, pastor of Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh’s east end and one of my closest friends. The sermon was entitled “Pie in the Sky, By-and-By.” I have the transcript here in my hand, and this is how it began:

“Once upon a time, there was a businessman who had started his own company and over the years watched it grow into one of the city’s major firms. He was still in his fifties when he ‘stepped up’ from being president and named himself ‘Chairman of the Board,’ which meant mostly that his sons and daughters, and certain other trusted employees, carried on the day-to-day work, while he went to the plant on a more relaxed schedule. He and his wife started traveling, which they’d always wanted to do; and he volunteered himself for many community service projects, and was greatly respected in the place where he lived. He kept busy, but not quite busy enough.

One spring, the evangelist Billy Graham came to town and conducted a Crusade for Christ – thousands were involved and it was held in the sports stadium. The businessman – the semi-retired chairman of the board – attended; in fact, he went to the meetings for several nights. And because he was a prominent citizen, he was invited to a breakfast in a downtown hotel where he met Dr. Graham personally. Though he had always been a church member, for the first time since his youth he began to think about religion seriously.

One night Billy Graham preached from the tenth chapter of Mark about the story of the rich man who came to Jesus asking to be guaranteed eternal life. And Jesus had said ‘Keep the commandments,’ and the rich man replied ‘I already do that.’ The Bible says that Jesus loved him, and then told him those famous, difficult, almost impossible words: ‘Go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ A lot of people went forward at the crusade that night, but the businessman did not. He went home, very sober, and he thought about what Billy Graham had said.

Over the next several weeks, he pondered the tenth chapter of Mark many times; and then there came a day that summer when he suddenly began liquidating all of his assets. He arranged for his children to gradually assume ownership of the company. He sold his home, cashed in his securities, and with less than enthusiastic cooperation from his wife – who didn’t feel quite the same way he did – they prepared to move to Nicaragua, which was the most poverty-stricken land he could find. He took a Berlitz crash course in Spanish, and they actually did re-locate in Nicaragua, where he intended to live frugally, to help the poor, and to teach the Bible. People back home outwardly expressed awe and respect for his new Christian commitment, but privately they decided he had become some kind of a nut.

Things did not work out in Nicaragua. Both he and his wife were half-sick all the time they were there. It cost far more than he had expected, and he discovered his Spanish didn’t amount to much, and his knowledge of the Bible even less. And very few people wanted to listen or seemed to appreciate his help. After several months they quietly came home, physically exhausted, financially drained and spiritually disillusioned. Only through the patient love and generosity of their children did he and his wife survive. He never did any volunteer work again; nor did he believe anymore in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark.” (From a sermon “Pie in the Sky By and By” by Dr. Robert Cleveland Holland, preached at The Shadyside Presbyterian Church, September 10, 1978)

I listened to Bob Holland’s sermons on the radio every Sunday night, and we often talked about it – his sermons and mine – over lunch during the week. I can still feel his profound influence every time that I preach. But I remember sitting here that particular evening after hearing that story and wondering to myself “Where is he going with this?” In brief summary, this is what he said: “Before you decide to sell everything you have and move to Nicaragua … remember that when Jesus talked to that rich man in ancient Judea and told him to sell everything, that was a specific prescription with a special purpose for a particular person in his own unique circumstances. That rich man was possessed by his possessions and he needed radical transformation…but that is not necessarily the right prescription for everyone else.

Moreover, not everybody is supposed to be a missionary. Some people are, thank God, but not all of us. That businessman was highly respected in his own hometown and he could have done a lot of good right there – and so can we.

And the final point of the story was and is that Jesus doesn’t want us to be possessed by our possessions. Some say that treasure in heaven is pie in the sky religion. But Jesus said that salvation and eternal life are more important than anything we own on this earth, and that all of it is only on loan to us anyway. So give thanks to the Lord, share your resources with the poor, and look forward to the day when the door to heaven opens wide and there will be great rejoicing on the other side. That, in so many words said Bob Holland, is what this story in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark is all about…and so I say the same to all of you today.

CONCLUSION

Let me add these two thoughts in closing which I hope will help move us forward in our Annual Giving Campaign. When I heard the words of that sermon about 30 years ago on KDKA Radio, I was convicted more than ever before of our calling as Christians to share our God-given resources with the poor. So I bowed my head and promised the Lord that night that as long as He would give me the opportunity to preach, that would be a recurring theme. I am fortunate indeed to be the pastor of this great church here in the heart of the city of Atlanta, because you believe the words are true. And that’s where the words of our Benediction came from – inspired by Dr. Holland’s sermon: “Love and serve the poor, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.”

“Love and serve the poor.” Who are they? Where are they? This morning coming to church, parking on Peachtree Street, walking up the steps and through the front door, I found these. Do you know what these newspapers are for? A homeless man slept on them last night right in our front door, and that’s often the case at night in all the doors of this building.

And I hope that man was able to wake up and walk next door into Fifield Hall, to enjoy the breakfast, the good singing and the fellowship. That man, together with many others, will be able to come here day after day after day to receive what we have to share with them – food, clothing, counseling, foot care and so many other things that we provide because of your generosity. Who are the poor? Where are they? Right at our front door, and Jesus said that we are all called to love and to serve them.

And they are all the way around the world, in places like Sudan. I keep on the credenza in the pastor’s office this photograph from Time magazine that was taken many years ago. It is of a little Sudanese boy down on his knees with his face in the dirt. It says he is on his way to a feeding station. I don’t think he made it. And standing behind him on the trail is a vulture. Connie Lee tells me that in just a few more weeks a refugee family from Sudan is being brought here and we have an opportunity to help them - so let’s do it!

In this Annual Giving Campaign for the first time since I’ve been here, we have included all of the international mission outreach in the regular campaign. Therefore, what you give will make a difference so that people can live a better life in places like Brazil, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya and the Sudan. That’s the difference your giving makes as we reach out to love and serve the poor.

And that takes us back to where the words originally came from – recorded in red ink in my old King James Version of the Bible – words from Jesus Christ our Lord, who loved and lived and served among the poor and who has called all of us to come alongside them through our Annual Giving Campaign.

That was and is and always will be Jesus’ calling and His commission – for us to be “Red Letter Christians” who read His Word, listen to what He said and then resolve to do it. So “Love and serve the poor” my friends, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit!

In the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The sermon distribution fund has been established by the Session of First Presbyterian Church to enable friends and groups to make contributions for the printing of the Sunday sermons. Sermon leaflets will be printed from time to time, as they are requested and as funds are available. Please designate your gift for Sermon Distribution Fund. Thank you for your support.