SE7EN: GR3ED
1 Timothy 6:6-12
May 18, 2008
True or false. The bible says that money is the root of all evil. Who votes for true? False? It is false. The bible says (and this is our passage of focus today) that the love of money is the root of evil. The love of money is also known as greed. In the KJV Jesus uses the word Mammon. This greed in the extreme. Greed that sort of takes on a life of its own. It is the heart of the body of sin for this is where we see what or who it is that we truly love. Jesus tells us that we cannot love God more than we love money. Either we are devoted to the one or committed to the other. So he asks us to choose who we would follow. Will we follow Jesus and his ways which is his Shema or will we follow the ways that lead to death, destruction, and separation from God?
Our passage is going to be 1 Timothy 6: 6-12. Here is a letter supposedly from Paul to a guy that Paul has trained and discipled named Timothy. He wants to give him further teachings and encourage him not to give up on his faith in Christ.
As you find your place, I want to share a little story with you from my trip to Ireland. It was a dreary day as we traveled and we were winding up the trip for the day. As we loaded up for the hotel, we noticed a guy standing on the side of the road clutching a black bag. It looked like it was going to let loose with a torrent of rain any second. A group of us talked our tour guide into giving the poor guy a ride. Now this wasn’t something that the tour company did because of the obvious safety reasons but for some reason we did it.
The guy sat there in silence not saying a word. Harry, our tour guide, trying to be sociable asked him what was in his bag.
“None of your business,” he muttered. He then proceeded to utter some of the most obscene and vulgar expletives that you could imagine in English and Irish. I hope you will understand if I don’t repeat them.
Now our bus driver, Tony, was a mountain of a man. He had arms like tree trunks. He was a very quiet fellow but something seemed to give way.
“Now you see here fellow. We were just trying to be sociable. There is no need for that kind of language in this company. Harry just asked you a polite question and there was no reason for talk like that. After we are doing you a favor here and all we would like to know is what is in your black bag.” Said Tony.
“Mind your own business!” said that man and again he issued a string of vulgarities that would make a sailor blush.
Harry said later that he had never seen Tony angry or given to any kind of violence whatsoever. But immediately Tony screeched the bus to a halt. Got up and grabbed the poor buy by the scruff of the neck, dragged him off the bus, and tossed him in the grass to the side of the road.
Tony got back in the bus and we drove the rest of the way in complete silence. As we exited the bus someone noticed that the man had left the precious black bag. It was really very tragic all around as we had no way to get the bag to him. He wasn’t there when Tony went back. Ok. Let’s take a look at the passage.
What’s that? You ask, “What was in the black bag?” MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!!!
There is always one who just can’t helped themselves. You just gotta know. You can’t stand the curiosity. Although greed is far different, I think perhaps the mental state is much the same. You just gotta have more.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. For with money comes power. And this is a sickness of our culture. It is a sickness that we all struggle with. It even infects the church. Study history and you will find that almost always (and maybe always) the root of the atrocities and tragedies and wars and conflicts and so on is money.
Even our war on terror has a huge economic basis. We went to war because the terrorists threatened our security. We were no longer safe. So what do we do? We spend billions on the war machines to make our country and our families safe. We want to protect not only loved ones but we want to protect our prosperity.
But what are we protecting ourselves from? Those who don’t have enough? Those who want more themselves? Those who have attacked us have done so because of our greed so they say. And they are right. We are a greedy nation but there is also much that our country offers (and could offer more) to the world.
The problem, I think, is what the “American Dream” has become. The American Dream that originally was conceived was about life, liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness. It was about making things better for everyone. Now the American Dream is about whatever makes me happy. It has become about the pursuit not just of happiness but happiness without limits. And that is how I think we need to define greed.
GR3ED: Limitless wealth.
There are no boundaries. No healthy boundaries. More and more we are becoming a people who know no boundaries and who seek to remove them. We struggle to set healthy boundaries in our spending and in our relationships. My friends, God’s Word talks a lot about greed and about money. The most important thing that God points out to us is that our pursuit of wealth and our use of wealth effects all areas of our lives and it is an indicator (a spiritual litmus test) of all the areas of our lives: spiritual, social, physical, mental, emotional, and even environmental.
The goal and sign of ultimate happiness is no limits: doing what I want (that is anything I want) when I want and how I want. This we seem to think is freedom. But what actually happens? When we remove all limits and healthy boundaries, we don’t find freedom. Instead we find bondage. Ask any recovered alcoholic and addict and they will tell you that limitless using started out as a blast but soon devolved into a pit of despair out of which they could not escape without some extraordinary help.
A few examples. Limitless sex. When I want and how I want and with whom I want. We seek sexual pleasure without limits and therefore without consequences. After all, what are consequences but inherent limits. So our culture teaches us that if it feels good in this moment and if two people want to then they ought to be able to have sex without suffering any consequences including an unwanted pregnancy. Forget that there may be another time to have sex that may not result in pregnancy. Forget that there are several different contraceptive options. Forget that we might actually choose to abstain completely and save our enjoyment for the one specific person that God provides to experience something that is absolutely sacred. These are all limits to be discarded. The real issue is not about abortion or marriage or any of these other issues that are mentioned. It is about a form of greed (called lust) that seeks to destroy any of the healthy limits that God knows brings life in all its fullness and lets the sin take on a life of its own.
How about corporations that destroy the environment? I can’t think of any company that has as its number one value to make as much greenhouse gases as possible in order to turn the earth into a desert. Their desire is to make money without limits. Each year, the goal is to make more profits this year than you did last year. Going green cuts into the profits so we rationalize and justify and making excuses why we can’t implement green practices. Yet, we are finding that the consequences of endless consumption are limiting us naturally.
Resources are being completely used up. In Ireland, they used up the forests and timber decades ago. Right now, the primary source of oil including heating oil and gas comes from the North Sea. But at current consumption levels, those supplies will be used up in fifteen years. So Ireland and Britain are seriously pursuing alternative energy sources but will it be too little, too late?
Last year, Exxon-Mobil posted the largest profit (profit is money that is made after all your bills and employees are paid) ever recorded for an American company. They made almost 41billion dollars. The top five oil companies made a combined 128 billion dollars. A few politicians (whose campaigns weren’t funded by these oil companies like the current administration) began asking why these companies were getting such big tax breaks? The oil companies responded that if the tax breaks were removed then they would have to charge more for gas.
But we don’t personally want limits either. The amount of debt that people maintain is staggering. What once were considered to be luxury items but previous generations are necessities for emerging generations. When was the last time that you even heard people talk about luxury items? We hear luxurious from the media as we are told that we deserve to treat ourselves with the best.
I go on about this with the hopes that we might see that there is a problem and the problem is not just out there or with the Jones. The problem is also with us. We are a part of the problem as well as the solution. You see, we no longer feel the need to keep up with the Jones as the expression goes. You know that expression, “Keeping up with the Jones.” If your neighbor gets a new car, you’ve got to get a new car. If your neighbor gets a HD TV, you get one too. No, we no longer want to keep up with the Jones, we want to be the Jones. So if your neighbor gets an HD TV, you get a plasma TV.
So how do we deal with all this?
Dealing with GR3ED
• Recognize that there is problem
What I said before, we need to see that greed is a major problem for all of us and each of us and we need to find God-honoring ways to deal with it.
When in Ireland, I saw versions of Deal or No Deal and The Weakest Link. The biggest difference that struck me was the amount of the prize money. The money that was won and the money that was accepted as a decent prize was usually a tenth of what is won here in the US. In fact the largest prize on Deal or No Deal that could be won was about $500,000—half of the top prize here. When contestants were offered money that would be about 10 to 20 thousand dollars, they talked about how that amount of money would be “life changing.” We would never say that a sudden windfall of $30,000 would be “life changing.” It would be a big help. It would be a good start but certainly not life changing. But wouldn’t it be life changing, if we were content with living lifestyles that required a lot less?
We first need to see that there is problem.
• Recognize that the problem is complex.
The issues aren’t always black and white. They are cut and dry. Certainly not as some people would like for us to believe. It usually is a matter of establishing the right priorities. Even then we need to remember that our priorities are not the same as other people’s priorities. What is a necessity? What is a luxury?
Is a cell phone a luxury or a necessity? I think a good argument could be made for it being a necessity. But remember that at some point not too long ago, a phone was a luxury that people shared. They used to share a phone line.
We drive a Honda Odyssey. A pretty expensive vehicle. Yet, we decided to downsize several years ago to one vehicle that ran good and was safe for our kids rather than two junkers that were deathtraps if we were in an accident. Now we have a second vehicle only because it was given to us. Our priority was for a hassle-free vehicle (with some the perk of a DVD system since we make a couple of long journeys each year) that was rated high in safety.
The issues are complex and often are based on the alignment of priorities, which are based on what we value the most. This is why are use of money is a clear indicator of what is really important to us. Your checkbook will tell you what is really important to you.
• Re-alignment may be necessary
Just like a car sometimes needs to have the wheels aligned after an Erie winter and the wonderful potholes that seem to suddenly open up in front of us, we also need to re-align our priorities when we hit the potholes of life: medical bills, job loss, pay cut, higher gas prices, higher food prices. Sometimes we need to reevaluate what is really important.
Paul wrote, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” What do we really need to be content?
• Make giving a priority
God has not left us without a way to overcome greed as we overcome the world. It is through giving.
Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
They have pierced themselves with many griefs. As I mediated on this passage, this phrase just jumped out at me. Pierced themselves. Paul is implying that we crucify ourselves with our greed. Instead of giving us the freedom that the culture lies to us that we will have by eliminating limits, it nails us to a cross. Trials, tribulations, problems, difficulties, and the life multiply as we strive for more. The more we have, the more we need to spend in order to keep it safe. So we need more money to spend on security systems and security lights and then the electricity to run it all and then we need more police and a bigger military and on and on and on.
It never ends. Grief upon grief upon grief. So Jesus says give alms to the less fortunate. Give your wealthy away. Don’t be a slave to it. Give to the work of God. As God blesses you with more, God expects you to give even more of yourself.
Many of you are amazing givers. You give of yourselves and your stuff and your money and your time. You have found the true freedom that giving brings. This is the way of the Kingdom of God. Don’t protect yourself from your enemy but love them. Show hospitality. Give generously. When we envision this as the way of Jesus, we begin to see a new reality. We begin to see world that is different from what we used to see. We start to literally undo the damage that greed does. When we make giving as an act of love, we enact to new reality and bring God’s Kingdom into existence. In this we find a blessed joy that exceeds anything that we could imagine and certainly is beyond what words can describe.
And it won’t be easy. Greed will not go down easily. Jesus was crucified because he sought to bring a new way of living that undermined the status quo of the day. The culture of greed will not be put down without much kicking and screaming. Following the ways of Jesus is not the easy way out. It is much easier to pursue happiness without limits. Except that is the way that will ultimately destroy us heaping upon us grief upon grief. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. So what are you so desperately trying to hold onto and why are you doing it?
