2nd Week of Lent – 2020
March 11, 2020
Amos 8:4-14/ 2 Samuel 12:1-17a
Greed
It has been a while since anyone
looked at me and told me that I was greedy, or being greedy. The closest I come are those family dinners
when my wife fears I am taking more than my share. Her 97-year-old father (product of the
depression) will never empty a bowl. If I
fail to leave a sufficient amount for him to not worry there isn’t enough, he stops
eating and I get that look from Laura.
Perhaps it has been a while since
anyone suggested you were greedy. I hope
so, I really do. While I am only coming
to know you, I do not perceive you as a bunch of greedy persons.
Or at least I didn’t. Until I started preparing for these Lenten worship
services and began to do a bit of reading about the seven deadly sins. I feel compelled to share with you that we
have done ourselves and the whole Christian family a disservice by failing to probe
the wisdom of the early Church Fathers with regard to greed.
I am pretty sure that any and all
of those who were trying to give depth and understanding to the message of
Jesus would NOT accept MANY the behaviors which we have embraced. It would be difficult for those in the first
Church to comprehend how we not only fail to share everything in common, but
also become insulted when asked questions about our stockpile of stuff.
We can say that that was then and
this is now and that the two cannot be seen as one. We can.
And most (practically all) do speak of this as being the practical
realities.
I say it myself – obviously.
Which is why I hate it when God
puts a hair-brain idea in front of me and start to read and pray and study. Because what the bible says and what the theology
of the Church teaches is that we have allowed the sin of greed to become a
celebrated social good and a welcomed pillar upon which the good we seek to
build is established.
Greed is not only what happens in
my small scale interactions with others.
It finds opportunity for expression in larger pattern of interactions. Let me use myself as an example. When it was suggested to the Council that I
might be asked to serve as Interim Pastor, everyone knew we would need to talk
about pay. Those who came to see me will
tell you that I came to that meeting with the SC Synod compensation guidelines. I used those to basically say, “I will only
come to St Michael if you pay me this much.”
They will tell you, the amount was more than they expected. It cast an unfavorable light on the amount
that you had been paying Pastor Miles.
My colleagues in the SC Synod
praised me for my shrewd negotiations. And I think you next full-time pastor will also
be appreciative. What is frightening in
all this is whether those accolades will deafen me to the warnings about greed infecting
my life and driving my actions.
Greed is the deadly by-product of fearing
that there won’t be enough. Greed is the
life-robbing emotion which lies under the worry that if we don’t have
sufficient reserves then we will be left desolate and without resources. Greed is also the cancerous growth which
starts to rob our eyes of the ability to see the needs of our neighbors and our
heart to feel the pain of their suffering.
I had not thought of myself, or you
my brothers and sisters, as greedy until I made greed the center of my prayers
and the focus of my reading. We live in
a greedy culture, and our culture encourages greed.
Hopefully you have your small
catechism memorized. (If not, it is on
page 1161 of the ELW.) Luther points out
that the commandment, “You shall not steal,” includes a whole lot more than never
being the mugger on the street corner.
Luther reminds us, “We are to fear
and love God so that we neither take our neighbors’ property nor acquire them
by using shoddy merchandise or crooked deals, but help them to improve and
protect their property and income.”
It is easy for us to condemn the
greed which leads to theft and burglary, but what of the greed which lies behind
selling that used car before the oil leak is noticeable? Or the greed of a bull market associated with
the fear of a world-wide flu pandemic?
Our culture has made money-making a
good. A greater good than so many of the
other aims and ideals to which God’s people are to be committed. While we occasionally question how someone
made their money, practically everything in our society supports the acquisition
of wealth as good. We say –and it is
true – that having stuff is not in itself evil.
But when, over time, the making of money and earthly delights becomes preferred
over divine obligations, we are in a whole lot of trouble.
And, I fear, this is what has
happened to us. We have become greedy – we
have allowed our amassing of stuff to be the salve for our fear that God won’t
provide. We no longer look to God for
our daily bread but make sure we have enough money in the bank to buy bread for
the remainder of our days.
And maybe it is wise to adapt the
ways of the world. Unlike the early
Church, the Church of today isn’t likely to rally around us and help us if we
become unable to pay our rent or feed our children. That may be most profound difference between
the way things were then and the way they are now.
Greed has cut us off from one
another. Greed has isolated us even from
our Christian brothers and sisters. This
really is a deadly sin.
Amen.
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