Proper 15B’24
18 August 2024
I Kings 2.10-12; 3.3-14
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
North Little Rock, Arkansas
The Rev. Carey Stone <+>
“Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need, or I shall be full, and deny you, and say, “Who is the Lord?” or I shall be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God.” Amen. – Proverbs 30.8-9
Today in our series on the seven deadly sins we come to a sin that is practically in the air we breathe; we are surrounded by the sin of Greed. Like all of the seven deadly sins, Greed takes something that is morally neutral – in this case, money (a material we all need in order to live) and twists it and turns into something it was never intended, and it becomes our life, our god. As St. Paul noted in his first letter to his disciple Timothy, Money itself is not the trouble, but “it is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil.” (I Timothy 6.10)
How does money take God’s place? Rather than possessing our money and possessions, they possess us, and we place our trust in money – As our currency says “In God We Trust” but in the case of Greed money itself is the god (lower case g) we place our hopes on. Noted author put it this way, “The trouble with being rich is that you can solve so many problems that bedevil ordinary people. That leaves one with only the great human problems to contend with: how to be happy, how to love and be loved, how to find meaning and purpose in your life. The rich are then tempted to believe that they can solve these problems too with their checkbooks, which is presumably what led Jesus to remark one day that for a rich man to get to Heaven is about as easy as getting a Cadillac through a revolving door. We all know in our heart-of-hearts that the deeper issues of life mentioned by Buechner, can’t be bought or sold.
One would think we had learned this lesson many years ago after getting our first pair of new white tennis shoes. For about two days we would hold our head higher and walk with a lot more kick in our step, that is until they get scuffed and our classmates that are wearing older shoes decided to step on them. By the end of the week, that high feeling was diminished and we hardly thought about them anymore. Retail therapy delivers in the short term but can never satisfy. John D. Rockefeller zinged it, when he was once asked, “Mr. Rockefeller, how much is enough money,” and he said, “Just a little bit more.”
Countless crimes have been committed, lives have been lost, countries have been bombed into oblivion, by those blinded by greed and those only able to think of themselves. How in God’s name could Native Americans be driven from their native lands and forced to walk the trail of tears? By men possessed by an insatiable need to possess more and more at other’s expense. Modern day casinos doting the landscape on Native American reservations throughout Oklahoma, stand as stark reminders of the high cost they have paid for white European immigrant’s progress. As Jesus himself can attest he was betrayed by a greed driven Judas for thirty pieces of silver (that’s about $200 in today’s money).
In today’s OT lesson we read about Solomon, the successor to his father David as king of Israel. He was a young man of about 20 years old when he ascended the throne and he was pretty scared. One night God appears to Solomon in a dream and asks him what he wanted God to give him. Unlike the stories where a Genie appears and grants someone three wishes and they always ask for the wrong thing; Solomon got it right. He confessed to God his inexperience: “I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.. Give your servant an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil.” And Solomon’s request pleased the Lord. Because he had not asked for riches or long life for himself or for the death of his enemies but asked for wisdom to rule God’s people. God told him that he intended to not only grant his request but that he would be known as the wisest king who ever lived and he would give to him long life, riches, and honor all his days.
Probably one of the greatest stories of the last three centuries that demonstrates the power of greed and the greater power of God would have to be a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Ebeneezer Scrooge hardened by long years of his slavery to greed, is given the opportunity for redemption. He experiences three visitations by spirts, with the first being the spirit of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley. You will find a still shot from the famous 1938 movie depicting Marley visiting Scrooge. You will notice he is bound by chains that have bank ledgers, and financial records, and locked coin boxes and jangling keys. As he rattled his chains and moaned, he said:
‘I wear the chain I forged in life, I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it….” When Scrooge tried to defend him by telling him he was only doing business, Marley exclaimed, “Business!’ and rattling his chains again said, ‘Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.”
By God’s grace, Scrooge sees the error of his ways repents of his greed and begins showing a marvelous generosity to his employee’s family his nephew and his fiancé!
What is the antidote for the deadly poison of greed? Generosity. God knows our temptation to be possessed by our possessions and so God invites us to keep greed in check by writing a check and giving money away as an outward and visible sign that we truly believe that God is our guider and provider and it is in this God above all other gods, that we place our trust. Amen.