“All Things Are Possible” by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat – October 13, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Mark 10:17-31

Jesus covers a lot of ground in the lectionary passage that we just heard. There’s a lot there. And I’m going to talk about some of it. As I said to the children, and as I say to you now, the part of this that I’ve been vibrating all week as I prepared this message is, “With God all things are possible.” Let’s start with a pop quiz. It’s one question, true or false. The Bible says that money is the root of all evil. True or false? (Members of congregation say false.) Very good, class. First Timothy, Chapter 6, Verse 10 says this, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” The Bible doesn’t say money is the root of all evil, the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil.

Some of the things that Jesus covers in this passage, I want to read a few lines from my Bible commentary. This is about the rich man who came to Jesus for guidance, and did you notice that they have an initial exchange? Please notice now that we’re told that Jesus looks at him and loves him. Did you catch that? I’m a seminary graduate, and my first few years of studying this I missed that. Jesus loved him. I’m not going to read this, I’m just going to tell you what He said. Everybody accepts the fact, all the scholars accept that Jesus’ disciples gave up their worldly possessions in order to become disciples, they gave them up. You remember that passage where Jesus sends them out and very specifically lists the things that they can take with them? Basically, the clothes on their backs and a couple of other things, and He says if you come to a house and they accept you and offer you a night’s rest, take it. They were homeless. And so Jesus looks at this rich man and we’re told that He loved him, and He wants him to follow them, He wants this man to become one of them. So he’s going to have to give it all up. And he can’t do it. There’s a tension, there’s a tension there.

We’re moving quickly now into stewardship time in the life of this congregation. I shared this with the choir this morning – most of you know I live in Westerville, and I normally leave my house on Sunday mornings around 7:45. This morning was the first one in a long, long time when I had to put my car headlights on as I pulled out of my driveway. I said to myself, how does this happen? Is the sun moving, is the Earth moving? I had to stop and think of my eighth-grade science. It’s time, the seasons are changing, and one of my mentors taught his students this – he said money is a real blessing in some people’s hands. More on that in a few minutes. Money is a real blessing in some people’s hands. Albert Einstein said this, this is so important to me I’m going to say it twice. “Many of the things you can count don’t count. Many of the things you can’t count really count.” I’m going to say it again. “Many of the things you can count don’t count. Many of the things you can’t count really count.”

I’ve shared with you from this pulpit that my wife Vicki’s parents live in Brevard, North Carolina, which is about 20 minutes south of Asheville. I’m assuming that everybody here today knows what has been going on in Asheville because of Hurricane Helene. I’m very happy to tell you that Vicki’s parents came out of it really well, no flooding, they’re fine. I have been absolutely obsessed with the news coverage in Asheville, North Carolina. Is there at least one other person who has been looking at this? And now this blessing and curse that we’ve got rampant in our society called YouTube, it’s such a blessing and such a curse because it’s so easy for me to get down into that YouTube well and then I can’t get back out. I’ve been watching these reports. I’m going to say the Einstein quote one more time, I won’t do it after this. “Many of the things you can count don’t count. Many of the things you can’t count really count.” Because of news reports, because of YouTube – and you’ve seen this too – I have seen people standing out in their front yards being interviewed, and they say to the news people, we lost everything. We lost everything. And the people, to a person, they always mention their memorabilia of their family, pictures, et cetera, all of them. With God all things are possible, is what Jesus tells us.

Empedocles – isn’t that a wonderful name? I’m thinking we should have named our son Empedocles. Empedocles was a fifth-century Greek philosopher, and he’s the one that we give credit for the quote that I put at the top of the bulletin this morning. Empedocles said, “The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere, and the circumference is nowhere.” Meaning – “God is omnipresent with no boundaries or limitations. God cannot be contained or confined by any physical or metaphysical boundaries.” I don’t know much about engineering, but I do know what the center of a circle is and I do know what a circumference is. “The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere, and the circumference is nowhere.” And in a fun, simple way let me say this. When I’m trying to hit a six-inch putt, God is there. When I’m trying to make a 35-footer on a really fast green, God is there. When we wake up in the morning on our good days, God is there. When we sit in the hospital surgery waiting room, facing something that is impossible, God is there. If we remember anything at all about this passage, remember that. God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.

Money is a blessing in some people’s hands. Money is a weapon in some people’s hands. I want to finish this morning with a formative moment in my life that happened to me. It was formative, and it happened to me when I was in the fourth grade. When I was in the fourth and fifth grades growing up in Marysville, Ohio, I had a paper route. I delivered The Marysville Journal-Tribune, I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It was a Monday-through-Friday local newspaper, The Marysville Journal-Tribune. It’s a Norman Rockwell memory for me because this was back in the days when all of the papers in at that time a 5,000-person town were delivered by either young men or young women on bicycles, and I was one of them for two years. Route Number 15, I had about 75 customers. You go down after school, you roll up the papers with a rubber band, you put them in a canvas bag, you put the bag on your bike, and you ride around and deliver papers. On Saturdays you got your money bag. This is a money bag. A few years ago, I wanted to tell this story in a sermon at another church. I went to a local bank, and I walked up to the teller, and I said, “Hi. I’m a minister, and I’m doing a sermon that involves a money bag. Could you give me a money bag? I’d be happy to pay for it.” She looked at me like I was crazy, and she said, “I’ll be right back.” She went and talked with her boss, I’m sure, and she gave me this. I said, “Do you want me to pay for it?”, and she said no. It says, “Please do not cut bag when opening. Return to U.S. Mint.” Am I breaking the law here? It says, “Return to U.S. Mint. Cents $50.” This thing holds $50 worth of pennies, can you imagine?

So, on Saturdays you collect. This was a formative moment for me, and it’s about money, and it’s about people. What you do when you collect, you go around on Saturday, and you go up to every door. People pay you for the week, if they’re at home, and you put the money in your money bag, and that’s what you do. You come home, and then on Mondays you go get your papers, pay your bill, and anything that’s left over goes in your pocket. The Saturday before Christmas was Black Saturday, right? We didn’t call it that. But the Saturday before Christmas when you went to collect you got tips. Some people gave $5, some people gave $10, it was amazing. The first time, my first Saturday before Christmas, my money bag was filled. Some people give you Lifesavers. If you’re a Lifesavers person, God bless you. So you put your Lifesavers in there as well, and by the end of my round my bag was full. It had to be $100, which to me was more money than the world could hold. So I got my bike, I rode home, and I pulled in the driveway and began to walk in the house, and I said to myself, where’s my money bag? I managed to lose it. I lost my money bag.

By the way, firm policy, and I’ve had it at every church that I’ve served. Sometimes people come up to me as the pastor and they’ll hold out a check, it’s usually a check, and they’ll say here’s my pledge, I forgot to put it in the plate, and I always do this – no (holds up hands). I scan the room for a responsible elder and I say, go give it to her, she’ll know what to do with it. Very firm policy of mine.

I lost my money bag. I told my mom. I went up to my room and I wept. What an idiot. Now remember, money is a blessing in some people’s hands and with God all things are possible. This is not about $100. This is about something much more important than that. So I was up in my room, it was the end of the world, and something happened that rarely happened to our house – just one other time and that’s a whole other story, that came a few years later. There was a police officer walking up. My bedroom was right above the front door, and I looked out and there was a police officer walking up. I stayed up in my room. Then the police officer left, and my mom walked into my room carrying my money bag. Now remember, it was a small town. My dad was the local Presbyterian minister, and I don’t know if he knew everybody in town, but it was close. Some people when they gave me tips gave me Christmas cards, and on the envelope, 10it said Jay Groat. Somebody found the money bag and took it to the police station. And somebody at the police station, one of the police officers, not surprisingly – the police station was right across the street from my dad’s church – put two and two together and they brought me my money bag. It was a formative moment, and if you’re facing something today that feels like it’s impossible, remember, Jesus told us with God all things are possible. Amen?