A Sermon About The American Dream And Being Loved By God

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Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from the Holy Trinity. Amen.

As I was thinking about Jesus' words to sell everything, give the money to the poor, and follow him, I thought to myself "Well, it's a good thing I'm in Urban Servant Corps where a major tenant of the program is simplicity...I don't have anything I COULD sell...so Jesus obviously really likes me and I'm definitely getting into heaven. And for those people in the congregation who don't make only $75 a month like I do...well, I'll just re-iterate the words of Jesus to go, sell everything, and give the money to the poor...or the church. There we go. Sermon done.

Then, an ad campaign popped up on my newsfeed. It was a series of "First World Problems."

Problems like "When my mint gum makes my ice water taste too cold."
And I hate it when my neighbors block their WIFI
And I hate it when I tell them no pickles, and they still give me pickles.

Which are all funny, when we tweet them. But they're not quite as funny when, like in this ad campaign, they are read by Haitians. Who don't have easy access to clean water, let alone ice water. And my first thought was...well, I guess I'm not getting into heaven now, even though Urban Servant Corps means relative poverty for the year...$75 a month and $60 a month for food...I still have ice water, and an iPad, and a heated house. Things that I'm not particularly keen on giving up to follow Jesus, because I'm pretty content with my lifestyle.

Which puts me pretty much right in the same place as the rich man, who comes to Jesus seeking justification for his piety, and hoping Jesus would just ignore the financial part of his life. I, being confronted with my possessions by a youtube video, had to rethink what Jesus' words to the yuppie really meant.

A few years back, the New York Times had a series of articles they published into a book called "Class Matters." It is primarily a book about class and social difference and the gap which exists within American culture. And it's about the American Dream. A notion that is distinctly American in nature...when was the last time you heard about The Chilean Dream? I've been pretty obsessed with the concept of the American Dream since college, where I took a class that scrutinized American idealism, and looked into the gap created between the ideal of the American Dream and the reality of life in this country.

We considered that "The Pursuit of happiness" and "climbing up the ladder" and "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and making something of yourself" all sound like really nice things to be able to achieve. And these ideas my very well be what gives people hope during economic recessions, and draws millions of immigrants to our shores, and gives small town kids big city dreams.

Only, we have come to realize that the so called American Dream, is in reality never attainable...since once a new level of financial or material security is reached, if that's even possible at all, it's time to get up to the next one. And we can end up sacrificing part of ourselves to get there...working longer hours, getting another credit card, trading in the old promises of the iPhone 4s for the new promises of the iPhone 5. We end up in a cycle of trying to "trade-up", sometimes not even knowing how or why we got there in the first place.

I get it. The new iPad calls my name, buying clothes at the Gap instead of Buffalo Exchange makes me feel good when I'm carrying that blue bag around the mall, taking out *another* student loan so I can go to Ikea and buy a new sofa...all these things are daily temptations...that just feed my vanity. Even if the American Dream isn't real, and even if we know we can't attain that sort of made-up ideal, it's nice to feel comfortable, and to want a future, and to make sure that the kids can go to college.

And then Jesus comes along talking about camels, and needles, and giving up your fields, which generally makes people who have any money or means or electricity feel uncomfortable.

And feeling uncomfortable is not particularly Good News, nor is it what I think Jesus is really getting at in this story. He starts out with a discussion of commandments, which the rich man has kept to a T. The guy is pretty proud of that, and he strokes his ego by telling Jesus what all he's done, and what he's accomplished. He's done and said everything he's supposed to do and say. This guy had fallen for the dream of something better from what he DID...the same dream we like to fall for.

It doesn't particularly matter wether what we do is materialistic, or altruistic...neither one will help us experience a future, or a present, with God.

Now, I don't want to imply that doing things is bad, or wrong...I'm all about Operation Turkey Sandwich, and giving money through offerings to the Lutheran Malaria Campaign, and giving away food from the community garden to those people who don't have access to fresh vegetables. Those are all great.

But they won't exactly earn us anything in God's economy...they won't exactly help us get the grace of God any faster than anyone else. Because God grace does not come on our schedule...or through our actions.

See, when we read the story of the rich man and the camels and needles, it's easy to skip over something small...but something that entirely changes the story, in my view. Before Jesus tells the man to do anything...before the man runs away crying because he is afraid of giving up his 401k...Before any of that, Mark tells us that Jesus loved the man.

God's love for us isn't something we get after we do the right thing. The grace of God...the mercy God has for us when we want to look into the mirrors of our lives and congratulate ourselves instead of looking past that to those around us...That is what Jesus showed the man, and what God shows us. For God, the eternal and unending gift of love for us means that we don't need to be afraid of not doing enough, or not thinking the right things, or not selling enough of our possessions. For God, loving us means that our self righteousness about our work and how we're changing the world doesn't matter. For God, the very act of loving us is more important than wether we give 20% of our salary to the poor or wether we give nothing.

Mark tells us that Jesus loved the man...before anything else. I wonder if the guy felt that. Or if he, like us, was taken aback by Jesus' command so much that he wouldn't let himself feel the unending and unfaltering love of Christ in his life. Jesus shows the man, by loving him, that God is not some angry parent who wants to take our toys away so we'll behave and be good. Instead, we see that those things we put our trust in...security, wealth, twitter can't love us like God can. God's desire for us is to be free of that stuff that we trust more than God, and to simply experience God's love.

It's easy to get so caught up in ourselves that we don't see God's love in our lives. And Jesus today reminds us that before anything else, God shows us love. God shows us love in those gathered around us in work and worship. God shows love to us through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, reminding us of the resurrection we too experience daily. God shows us love in God's very presence in the bread and wine which we eat and drink together. God's love, in every way we experience it...though people, through nature, through sacraments...surrounds us always. God's love, shown through Jesus' love to the rich man, means our vanity, our attempt to one up our neighbors, our busy-ness, doesn't matter, for nothing can compare to the love of God shown to us through Christ Jesus.