Guarding Against Greed

Sermon on Luke 12-13-21

Once I received a call from a guy. “Pastor, I know my mother attends your church, but I feel that she is not spiritual enough. Do you think you could arrange some equipping courses or bible study classes for her to attend?” If you were me, what would your response be? You might say, “Great! Equipping and discipleship courses are very important. I’m glad to see you are so supportive and caring for your mother’s spiritual growth. I’ll follow up with her and see what I can do.” That would be a reasonable response, or you might have some other similar ideas. What you would surely not expect was my actual response to this guy. After hearing his request: “can you organize some bible classes for my mother”, I responded: “Sir, I want the truth from you. Did or did you not chase your mother out of the house and threaten her with a cleaver?” The guy was flabbergasted: “What? No.” “Is that the truth?” “Yes.” “Very well, don’t do it again.” Click. Yes, this really happened. My response to the guy was to interrogate him to find out if he had abused his mother. Did anybody see that coming? Kind of a shock ending to a seemingly harmless request right? Imagine responding to all cold calls this way: “Do I need credit cards? How about you? Did you kick your mother out of the house? No? Well, don’t do it again.” Click. They’ll never call you again. You might wonder why I responded to this guy this way. What you do not know was that his mother called me weeks before this to complain precisely about these things that her son did. She said he kicked her out of the house and threatened her with a cleaver. And this was preceded by years of mother-and-son bickering and slandering. The mother would say this and that about her son; and the son would have another version of the story. When I first got myself involved in the muddle, a well-respected elder actually advised me to slowly step away. In the end, what this pair of mother and son wanted from me wasn’t really spiritual advice. The pastor was merely one of the many tools they used as weapons against one another.

I suspect that’s what’s going on in our passage today. A guy also came to Jesus with a request. 13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” This was a weird response from Jesus because religious leaders of that time often played such legal roles. Religious rules and civil laws were all part of the Jewish Law. We’ll explore that in detail when we talk about Deuteronomy later this year. And so, the guy could have responded “Who appointed you? Well, you appointed yourself when you went around teaching the Law and making yourself a rabbi.” The issue here isn’t that Jesus wasn’t qualified to arbitrate this business, but Jesus intentionally sidestepped the request because he didn’t want to be used as a tool in their sibling rivalry. Instead, Jesus questioned his motives towards the inheritance and used it as a teachable moment against greed. 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Essentially, Jesus was saying that this guy had greedy intentions in making his request, and that was a foolish way to live his life. He wanted this guy and his disciples to re-evaluate the meaning of life and their attitude towards possessions.

Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. This is the main message in today’s sermon. Show of hands, who agrees with this statement? (*assume most will raise their hands) All agree? Well, I guess my sermon is done. Gosh, another 20 mins. Hmmm. When I was young…(kidding). When I was preparing this sermon, I realised that most of us would know this message. Everybody would agree that life is not about possessions. It is about your friends and family. Those who are more pious would say it is about the kingdom of God. And, if I were to accuse anybody of greed, “you are greedy!” or “you are greedy!” I expect you would be indignant. “I’m not a greedy person”. Notice that in today’s passage, Jesus also did not directly accuse the man of greed. In terms of possessions, most people feel justified with what they have and feel that they deserve their entitlements. Many of us find nothing wrong with what we have because we have earned it. The amount of possessions is also highly subjective. How much is too much? Chances are, you would find that those richer than you have too much, they have too much. What about those poorer than you? Compared to you, maybe you have too much? No, they deserve their current fate, what I have is just nice. I doubt anybody would admit they are at a greedy level.

But if you think you already know the message and feel secure about your life, I would advise you to be careful. Jesus used the words “watch out” and “be on your guard” to describe our proper attitude towards greed. And both words are words describing vigilance and prudence. Why? Because there are “all kinds of greed”. Greed can be very sneaky, its temptations come in many different forms. We may imagine greed to be a man with dollar signs in his eyes, and rubbing his hands gleefully at the sight of money, yet the rich landowner or the guy with a request doesn’t fit the caricature at all. Greed isn’t about how much we have or don’t have, but rather our perception towards possessions. What do you feel about having things and wanting things? Jesus knows that we all have this bias towards ourselves. We are self-defensive, and we think that greed refers to other people, not us. And so he approached the issue in a different way. The litmus test for our true perception towards possessions is a thought experiment, a parable if you will.

In this experiment, a rich man had an unexpectedly abundant harvest. What would he do? What would you do? This sounds like those hypothetical questions which ask you what you would do if you suddenly won a million dollars. What would you do? This guy decided to build a bigger storage space to accommodate all the extra harvest. Sounds like a good plan. By enlarging the current storage space, you would not waste converting good farming land into barns. So, I think the actual problem lies in the next line: 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” Why is this a problem? Because this plan is purely self-centred, it doesn’t account for God’s plan. 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ What this means is, if you die tonight, can you still enjoy all your abundant storage? Simply put, the plan is a good plan from a business perspective, but the thought that it provides security and comfort for the future is foolish, because if you die, all the possessions are of no use to you at all. You thought you were rich? You thought these possessions were true riches? What happens to these things when you die? You can’t take them with you. These things mean nothing.

I’ll tell you why I think this is an excellent thought experiment. Death cuts at the very temptation of possessions. Why do we want things? There is the enjoyment, of course, but there is also the satisfaction of ownership. It is the sense of security when something tangible belongs to you. This is why the guy asked Jesus to ask his brother to divide up the inheritance. It wasn’t enough that he’d eventually receive what was his. He wanted to own it, to possess it at that moment. Possessions make us feel stronger and safer. I am not just I. I am I plus all these assets I own. Technically right, until Death comes along. Then you realise from the thought experiment that you are just you, you can’t take it with you.

It’s not just that you can’t take it with you; you also didn’t bring it with you in the first place. There’s a reason why Jesus used an abundant harvest as an analogy of the inheritance. Both are possessions that you don’t really have to earn. But even if you did earn your possessions, can you claim that it was totally your effort alone? In the recent American presidential election, Barack Obama made a serious gaffe that almost cost him the election. This is a part of his speech where he was arguing for higher taxes on the rich, see if you can spot the gaffe.

Obama said, “There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”[i]

Did you spot the gaffe? It comes from the line: “If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” The republicans capitalized on the phrase “you didn’t build that”. How dare you question the efforts and successes of good, honest, hardworking businessmen? We built that. We made that happen. Obama is punishing the rich by pooh-poohing their well-deserved claims on their success. Was their accusation true? No. First of all, the gaffe was taken out of context. Obama was referring to the American system including the roads and bridges when he said ‘You didn’t build that’. Secondly, and more importantly, I agree with the premise of the speech. Nobody can build their success alone. Sometimes, it is good fortune. Other times, it is because many have contributed to your growth and to your work. So not only are you unable to take it with you when you die, you also didn’t bring it with you when you were born. Even if you want to claim ownership over your possessions, you cannot deny that it is never full ownership.

This is why I admire Warren Buffett. He has chosen to systematically give his fortune to charity until the day he dies. His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. Buffett once commented, "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing"[ii] . I think he realizes the dangers of possessions. His children would not end up like the man in the parable 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”

We begin year 2013 with a sermon series on Luke. I think Luke has a unique perspective on the Gospel: A topsy turvy song for a topsy turvy world[iii] . The income gap between the rich and the poor is widening, not just in Singapore, but throughout the world. In a meritocratic society, you really think that what you have is based on your own merits. Your worth is also judged by your possessions. If you are poor, it means you are probably not very good with your abilities. When we crave for social status, we also crave for things. But what would God say to you? 20 “ ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” But what is rich toward God? We will explore this as we look through Luke and Acts. But today, on the first Sunday of the year, let us make this commitment: I may not fully understand true riches, but I know it is never found in my possessions.

Footnotes
[i] http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/13/remarks-president-campaign-event-roanoke-virginia
[ii] An Exclusive Hour with Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates. Charlie Rose.
[iii] http://www.jubilee.org.sg/sermons/?sermon_id=424