Sermon Notes for Proper 13 C

 

“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”

 

• So, famously, said Gordon Gekko in 1987 movie, Wall Street.
• Point simple – and persuasive:
• Greed works
• Greed is force behind evolution:
• Gekko: “greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind”
• Others agree: [1]
• Greed motivator for innovation:
• New drugs
• New technologies
• Better life
• Greed motivator for:
• Our work
• Desire for lower taxes
• Higher pay/promotions
• Greed powerful and universal motivator in human life
• Freidman: “Is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed?” [2]
• Sometimes w/good results
• Some -- e.g. Friedman – claim only way to get good results.

 

So what is problem with greed?

• Why does is "Greed is good” make us uneasy (at best)?
• Why is greed one of 7 deadly sins?
• Why Jesus:  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; [3]
• Why Colossians:  Put to death whatever in you is earthly:
• [including] greed -- which is idolatry. [4]
• What’s wrong with Greed?

 

• Greed damages human lives
• Limited capacity to regulate our greed. 
• Easily takes over behavior
• Why one of 7 deadlies
• Results
• Damaged lives
• Damaged society
• Easy case to make today:
• Greed in housing bubble:
• Dishonest mortgage brokers
• Wall Street manipulations
• Trust in “goodness” of greed in Washington
• Result –
• Lost homes, lost jobs
• Companies collapsing
• Recession
• High unemployment
• Financial, emotional stress & worse for millions
• Damage not just to individuals, but society
• Damaged trust in:

§       Institutions

§       Leaders

§       Each other

• Cuts in

§       Education

§       Health care

§       Needs of poor

• And aboard

§       Some countries near total collapse.

• All from Greed
• Sorry Gordon: Greed is not good!

 

And that’s not all that is wrong with greed…

 

• Greed  damages lives and souls of the greedy. 
• End of Wall Street
• Gekko to jail, life in shambles
• Maybe worse – person greed has made him :
• Dishonest
• Manipulative
• Selfish
• Friendless
• Violent
• What happens to a person when greed takes over.
• What Colossians means  in saying Greed is idolatry.
• Idolatry = worshipping something other than God.
• We are shaped by what we worship
• What we build lives around
• What we give ourselves to
• What we love.
• What we focus self on
• Shapes our:
• Behavior
• Values
• Feelings
• Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. [5]
• If Almighty Dollar is god, then damage to:
• Others’ lives
• Our lives, our souls.
• Usually not as obvious/extreme as Gekko
• Often closer to home, simpler
• Mister God, This is Anna [6]
• Anna -- spiritually precocious girl London in’30’s
• Teaches her friend Fynn

·       About holes in your middle

·       Fynn:

·       Seen motorbike in shop window

·       Motorbike hole

·       Gets in way of being filled with

o      Real Self

o      God

• For us – if focused on:
• Money
• New:

§       Car

§        TV, computer,

§       cell phone, iPod or iPad,

• Not much time and space in life – or heart –

§       for God.

§       Real self

• Life does not consist in abundance of possessions. 
•  Rule by greed, we will miss out on real life.

§       Greed not good

 

How then shall we live?

• What to do re Greed’s place/power in
• Our world
• People’s lives
• Our Lives/Souls

 

·       Challenge “Greed is good.” 

• No one says so baldly, but still there:
• Self-interest
• Profit motive
• Reduce greed’s damaging power in society
• Work to help those most damaged:
• Poor
• Homeless
• Jobless.
• Trad. Christian calling.

o      Support social restraint on greed – financial regulations

• Aim: prevent Wall Street repeat
• Right balance? – maybe
• Something  needed

 

• But not just about “Them.”:
• Wall Street
• Politicians
• Oil Industry
• Usual Suspects
• “Them” is always too easy.

 

• About US. 
• Our lives and souls at risk – couldn’t be otherwise. 
• Human: prone to greed
• In our DNA – literally!
• Consumer culture in which we live:
• Excels at tickling our greed. 
• Exploiting inner holes – like Fynn
• Walter at mall:
• Feeling soul being pulled out of him
• So for health of our own souls and lives:
• Colossians:  So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [7]

·       In other words, build our lives around God

o      1^st, 2^nd commandments

§       You shall have no other gods but me.

§       You shall not make for yourself any idol.

o      First Great Commandment:

§       You shall love God with all your heart, soul, mind strength

§       Means whole of life:

§       practical stuff we do

§       what our lives are built around:

·       emotions

·       time

·       energy

·       work

·       thought

·       Worship God – not something other than God

o      Church

§       First about God, not us

§       Great to see our friends – but God is center

o      Prayer

§       Daily

§       More than:

·       Good Morning and Good Night

·       Enough time/availability to:

o      Matter to us and to God

o      Make a difference in who we are, how we live.

o      Self-examination in daily life choices re stuff and money

§        In what does your life consist?

§       Look at checkbook, calendar

§       What really matters to you?

§       What needs to change for God to be first?

o      Put God first in money

§       Giving as antidote to Greed

·       Give first, not last

o      Generously

o      In proportion to income

o      In thanks to God

§       Give to:

·       Love needy neighbors

·       Support God’s work in/through church

·       Last, not least, ask for God’s help

o      Greed:

§       Real

§       Powerful

§       Built into us

o      Won’t overcome by

§       Will power

§       Own efforts

§       Trying harder

o      So, ask, seek, knock as Jesus taught last week

§       Ask for grace to let go of idols

§       Seek God’s help for freedom from greed

§       Knock at door of God’s love.

o      Know God wants you to have a life that

§       Does not consist in abundance of possessions

§       Finds wholeness and joy in God’s love