What in the world is happening?
Over the past few weeks, despite some ups and downs, investors around the world have lost over 70 trillion Rand! That’s 70 with 12 noughts added or, to put it another way, it’s over 20 times greater than the value of all goods and services produced in South Africa last year! For some of us that may be a meaningless number, just too large to contemplate. It is just another headline among many others that scream from the pages of the financial press. But for others it is a far more tragic story. It means the loss of a job as factories and shops shut their doors. It means the loss of a pension as investments shrink. To some it means the loss of a roof over their head as they are no longer able to keep up their monthly instalments. The worldwide credit crunch, far from being something that has upset the worldwide economy, is something that has literally invaded their homes and their lives. And in many households in this country and right around the world the question is being asked over and over again – why? Why is this happening?
Even as recently as June this year world stock markets were hovering at record highs. Now, less than 5 months later, we hear the Head of the International Monetary Fund talking of a global financial meltdown. And to make matters worse we see world leaders appear powerless to stop situation, despite their best efforts.
So why is it happening – what’s changed to reverse a trend towards riches which seemed inevitable and unstoppable? Well I make no claim to be a financial guru, (something you may wish to confirm with my bank manager!) but for me it resolves itself to two issues which have nothing to do with money itself – but have everything to do with human nature. The first of these issues is greed. And the second is trust.
As human beings we have always wanted what we cannot have. Whether you believe the Adam and Eve story to be literal or an allegory to explain the nature of humanity, its fundamental premise is true. God said we shouldn’t eat the apple – so we went ahead and ate it anyway. No-one, not even God, was going to deny us something we wanted. The apples we want to eat today may have changed a little – today they are a flashy new car, a bigger house, a diamond ring, a better overseas holiday. In and of themselves there is nothing wrong with any of these things – let me repeat that in case someone leaves here saying Lew said we shouldn’t buy a new car or take a holiday – there is nothing wrong with buying a new car or travelling to Europe. It’s when these things become too important in our lives – when, like the apple, we have to eat them. It’s when we are prepared to compromise our integrity to get them, as many of the world’s financial
institutions and leaders have done, that they take on the mantle of greed.
The Bible never said ‘money is the root of all evil’ as is so often quoted. What Paul, in writing his first letter to his good friend Timothy, actually said was, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”
And there is more than a subtle difference between these two phrases.
The first one implies that money, that stuff which we use to denote value, is somehow dirty and sullied. Although it’s true that I wouldn’t want to eat my dinner off many of the crumpled notes that pass through my hands, it is nevertheless patently untrue that money is intrinsically evil. It is a meaningful and valid indicator of value and without it we would be unable to maintain the relationships which ensure, at least for most of us, that we have a roof over our heads and food on our table.
What Paul was saying is that money leads to evil when we lose perspective and elevate it to a priority in our lives. In Matthew’s gospel we hear Jesus say the same thing in these words, “No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Again let’s not jump to conclusions about what Jesus is saying. He is certainly not saying that you cannot earn money or maintain a healthy bank balance if you’re a Christian. What he is saying however is that you cannot be a servant to money. Let’s look at that a little closer and ask ourselves a few questions. How important is it to you how much money you have? Does it affect how you think and feel? Do you regard money as somehow being a measure of your worth? Do you think that possessions are important to the way other people see you? The answers you give to these questions are a good indicator of the perspective you have on money.
I cannot answer those questions for you but what I can tell you is that for many years of my life most of my answers would have painted me as a servant of money. Money, and the apparent security and stature it implied was extremely important to me. I may have fobbed Judi off when she asked the question, “Can we really afford it?” but the nett effect of her question was to make me all the more determined to afford it – whatever that ‘it’ was!
I even remember one day blaming God for the situation. I told Him that it was His fault for letting me be born into a working class home where there was never much money. I told Him this was the reason that I strove for riches and the supposed security they implied. I’ve no doubt you can hear echoes of Eve blaming the serpent!
The simple fact is that our Western Society has become the servant of money. Our very capitalist system is premised on the accumulation of wealth by a minority of people who supposedly expend greater measures of perspiration or inspiration. There is nothing wrong with that if perspective is maintained. But the fact that investment bankers, in the past, received annual bonuses in the hundreds of millions of Rands is an indicator that something has gone wrong. Particularly when it has encouraged them to take dangerous and, what has turned out to be, fraudulent risks with other people’s money. Abject greed has become the motivator of our Western economic system and it has finally been exposed.
But isn’t it easy to poke fingers? We speak about the greed of business leaders and so, in a way, greed becomes relative. We delude ourselves that it is somehow only measured in millions and billions of Rands.
But the fact is that greed is a temptation we are all prone to. Our bank balance tells us we cannot have it – whatever that ‘it’ might be – but we want it anyway. And the longer we are denied the greater becomes our desire. We fix our eyes on the object of our desire and we take our eyes off what should be most important in our lives – our faith, our family, our friends. Jesus summed it up in these words, “Watch out! Be on guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” That admonition is as true today as it was 2000 years ago. And it almost certainly applies to every one of us, in some way or another.
Greed is at the heart of our current economic woes but it is trust, or should I say rather the lack of trust, that continues to fuel the plight. Let’s take a step back for a moment and look at that thing we call money. Here you see a R100 note. In reality it’s just a piece of paper – something you could buy for less than a cent. So what has transformed it to become worth a hundred Rand? It’s not the printing that’s on it, it’s the trust we have in it.
I don’t know how many of you can remember back to the days of the old British Pound Note. Printed very large on the back of those old notes were the words "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of one pound". It’s still there today but it’s much smaller!
What that meant until the 1930’s was that whoever owned that note could go into the Bank of England and demand one pound’s worth of gold. So, at that time, the Bank of England could only print notes in proportion to the amount of gold they held in their vaults. And the same was true for all currencies. With all the wars that had to be funded during the last century and the incredible growth in post-war world trade it became impossible for countries to hold sufficient gold to support the money they needed. In fact it is interesting to note that the value of all the gold ever mined throughout history is currently worth less than half of the banknotes in circulation in the United States. So that promise to pay in gold was discarded and countries were free to literally print money. But of course this is where trust comes in – because each of us must trust the government to honour the value we see printed on the banknote for it to have any intrinsic value.
When Judi and I emigrated to South Africa in 1971 you could exchange a British pound for about 93 South African cents. In other words it appeared that the world economic system trusted South Africa to honour their money more than they did the British. On Thursday this week you would have had to pay around 18 Rand for a pound. The trust has swung dramatically the other way.
The present world economic crisis is based on a complete loss of trust. It I can remember not so long ago you used to be able to say “as safe as the Bank of England”. Well I’m not so sure that that carries the weight it once did.
The absolute truth is that, if all of us were to go to our banks tomorrow and ask for the money in our accounts, they could not pay and the world’s monetary and economic system would collapse.
Some 2000 years ago Jesus told a story to his followers which is perhaps even more poignant today than it was then.
In the latter part of what we call the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ in Matthew’s gospel Jesus relates the tale of 2 builders. One built his house on sand and when it rained the foundations were undermined and the house collapsed. Jesus referred to this man as the foolish builder. He contrasted this with the wise builder who built his house on rock. When the rains came his house stood firm.
Jesus told his followers that his words were the rock. What he said, and what he promised, could be trusted. In fact the inference was that his words were all that could be trusted. And surely at this time when the rains of economic, political and social unrest are coming down in torrents we all need a rock on which to build our future.
Of course there may be some who will say, “We’ve weathered these economic storms before. It will eventually get better.” And that may be true. But I would ask 2 questions. The first is “Can you be absolutely sure that this crisis will pass?” Not even the so-called experts are expressing that kind of confidence. The second question is, “Are you prepared to endure the uncertainty in the meantime?” The fact is that all of us need something on which to build our lives which is stronger and more trustworthy than economics – something that will offer eternal security rather than the day-to-day volatility of share prices and currency values – something which never changes whatever the circumstances. And that something is the love of God. In John’s first letter, chapter 4 and verse 16 we read, “God is love.” Love is the very nature of God. And nowhere is that love better expressed than in the words. “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That’s the rock on which every one of us can build our future. Jesus willingly paid the penalty for the wrongs we have committed. He made it possible for each one of us, no matter our history or the baggage we carry, to build a relationship with God; to place our future in His hands; to anchor our lives in eternity.
Today there appears to be less and less that we can trust in this world. It makes sense for us to look beyond the sandy foundations of economics and build our future on the rock that is Jesus. He said “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” Many of us are world-weary at this time, Jesus promises rest. He also said, “If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” The Holy Spirit is our comforter, the one who comes alongside to support and guide us through difficult periods. And finally Jesus promised, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in.” That’s a promise that can be trusted for eternity – if we ask Jesus into our lives, he will come in and take up residence in our hearts.
He is the rock on which we can build our lives. He is the one, perhaps the only one, that we can truly trust in these turbulent times.
God bless you all. Amen.
