In the light of the recession, I felt it only right to taste something of Jesus’ teaching on money. We’re going to look at verse 13-34 of this chapter over three weeks. This week, we will consider why we should guard against greed when it comes to money. Next week, how we can work through our worry about money. And then in the third week, we will see how, having dealt with greed and worry, we might use our money wisely.
Just look again at how our parable starts. It was quite common for Rabbi’s do settle disputes. Because they were the one’s who knew God’s law. So a man comes and asks: [READ v13]
Now this may have been a legitimate request. An inheritance should be shared. So Jesus doesn’t question the justice of the request. He questions it’s motive. Speaking now to the crowd – verse 15, he says: [READ v15]
In and of itself it is not wrong to want certain things in life: whether clothes, a TV or a car. But it IS always wrong when our motive is greed.
[I] Reuben is almost two. When we take him down to breakfast, he just cannot cope with the promise of food, without having it. He wines, even bursting into tears with his craving for a big pile of cheerios. He has no self-restraint. He cannot control himself. When the cheerios are within his grasp, his eyes open wide, he reaches out, and he grabs as many as is humanly possible to fit in a two year old’s hand – and then he stuffs them in. Well THAT is greed. Excessive desire.
And did you notice what Jesus says: “Guard against ALL KINDS of greed” – that is ALL forms of excessive hunger for money and things.
If you are ever tempted to whine about not having something, if you ever show a lack of self-restraint in what you buy, if you dream as Reuben clearly does, about what might be yours – then Jesus says: “Watch out! Be on your guard.” Why? Well he tells us. Verse 15: Because “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
The point is that greed confuses. It lies to us. Like a devil on our shoulder it whispers: “Life is about what you have. You cannot really be happy unless you have more. Your life’s priorities really should be luxury weekends followed by a cosy retirement. That’s all that really matters.”
[I] Last week Shirley Coxon spoke to me about the children in Nicaragua. She said how struck she had been by their joy in life, despite being the poorest of the poor. With wonder, hey took delight in the littlest of things, the things we take for granted.
The same week, Bethan commented on a pirate’s party she took Esme to. The parents had gone to a lot of work. Games galore, and a wonderful cake. But the children took it for granted. They devoured the food without a thankyou, and couldn’t really be bothered with much of what had been laid on.
Our culture trains us to seek life in having more. And so when we experience something we have experienced before, we are often not content. We want the better party, the latest things. Yet, in our more sober moments, we know, as Shirley’s story shows, that life really doesn’t consist in these things.
And so in what follows, Jesus hints at five ways in which actually the love of money and possessions is LIFE-QUENCHING rather than LIFE-GIVING. And if you are suffering financially, it is particularly important to hear him. Because by realising what life is really about, we find ourselves more content with what we have, and more convinced about why our focus should be on the things OF God rather things AS God.
1. Greed destroys our relationships
Now this comes in many forms. Greed can lead to theft. For some it leads to dissatisfaction and even to depression, and so to withdrawal from others. More just act with resentment to those who have more. More subtly, greed makes us more superficial because things are all that interest us. It can even breed self-love in a concern always for how we look or how we will be perceived.
In all these ways greed destroys relationships. But consider now its impact on families. Jesus is responding to an argument over money between brothers. And one has to wonder what impact the man’s ambition in the parable had on his family.
So often I hear of marital strife, where one wants the other to work harder so they can have more, or one cannot cope because of what the other is spending. Factor in the overwork that then comes to try and resolve the conflict, and the couple have no more time for each other!
[I] One poll records that 50% of British motorists admit to being emotionally attached to their cars. 25% consider it a member of the family. 5% - describe it as the love of their life. No wonder, money is one of the biggest factors leading to divorce.
In all seriousness, our devotion to things can becomes a form of adultery, because we can end up giving things more love and attention than we do our spouse.
2. Greed encourages our selfishness v16-19
This is a more major point. Verse 16 [READ v16-19]
Now, did you notice, Jesus isn’t criticising this man for being wealthy. Verse 16 tells us he just had a good crop. In other words God had given him what he had. No Jesus’ is critiquing the fact that he keeps that wealth to himself. He is critiquing those who use all their time and money to making THEIR lives easier rather than thinking of the lives of others.
And doesn’t that so powerfully challenge our culture? The long hours, the stress, put into success and a greater pension, or into just having more possessions - or more hobbies than we need. Is this really what life is about? Or are these distractions? Distractions from time we could give to knowing God. And distractions from his priorities, from the good that we could do in God’s name with those same hours, stress or money.
In an age where one fifth of our world uses up four fifths of the world’s resources, even if we give nothing away, stemming our greed helps the needy.
3. Greed distracts us from our God v16-19
This is assumed throughout. The man is Jew. Yet his greed has numbed his spiritual sense. He is unwilling to remember God and so remember his will. [A] Changes in patterns of church attendance are often commented on. 30 years ago, people would go every week, usually twice. Today, many go just once a month, or maybe twice.
Can I suggest that this is because we have forgotten what life is about. Some tire themselves out with excessive work, so they cannot give their Sunday morning. Others absorb themselves in the hobbies that work pays for. Greed absorbs our attention from what really matter in life.
As mentioned, we end up serving things AS God, rather than the things OF God. And this is not just spiritual adultery, it is in fact idolatry, isn’t it? And this is exactly where Jesus takes his parable. Verse 20 [READ v20-21]
4. Greed limits our perspective v20-21
It is surely no surprise that greed is a particular mark of our secular culture. If this world is all there is, then all there is is to live for this world.
[I] I’ve done a number of funerals, where the person has died just as they have reached retirement. It’s a stark lesson isn’t it? Many live their entire lives for themselves and what they have, assuming a place in heaven, but with no thought of the judgement to come.
[I] Well this is rather like waiting for a bus to take us on our long awaited holiday. But something in the road catches the sun and dazzles us - a pound coin. Without thinking, we step out to pick it up. And we are hit by the very bus that we were waiting for.
Consider these Proverbs: 28v6 “Better a poor man whose way is blameless, than a rich man whose ways are perverse.” 15v16 “Better a little with the fear of the Lord, than great wealth with turmoil.” 11v28 “Whoever trust in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.” 11v4 “Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”
The proverbs describe the difference between the wisdom and foolishness. And they hint at what Jesus would say to us if do not heed them. It’s there at the beginning of verse 20: “YOU FOOL” x2.
5. Greed endangers our soul
Verse 21 gives the sense of the parable. [READ]
Perhaps above all else, the recession has reminded us that money doesn’t last. We can loose what we have strived for all too easily. Redundancy may come, house prices may fall, banks may go bust. It has reminded us that other things matter more. Yes we need to work – to pay our way and to give t others. But why be greedy? Why strive for more and keep it to ourselves, when in a moment in can be gone? Better to prioritise the things that really count.
Well Jesus makes clear, that even if we don’t lose what we have in this life, we will when it ends. And the lesson he draws is pretty much the same.
Conclusion: So what is it that really counts? What does a man’s life consist in, if not the abundance of his possessions? Answer: In being rich towards God; in loving and serving him.
You don’t need to remember the five points of this sermon. You just need to remember this. Be rich towards God. This must be our priority. And this should be our joy. It is to experience what Jesus called “life in all its fullness” – the truly human life that delights in knowing our Maker and doing his will.
As we are reminded of the transience of money and possessions, let’s commit ourselves once more to contentment with less. To prioritising God, and prioritising his priorities in giving ourselves to our families and to our world.
