Hosea 11:1-11 or Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Psalm 107:1-9, 43 or Psalm 49:1-12
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21
Jesus takes on the problem of greed in Luke 12. He warns, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."
On the other hand, "Greed is good," exclaims Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street (1987). "Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms – greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge – has marked the upward surge of mankind."
And so we have the classic wisdom versus world viewpoints, leaving mankind in the swirl of a life-long struggle.
One of the underlying challenges for us is that we are part physical being and part spiritual being. Together, they make us a human being. The physical part has been hard-wired for survival and security. The world is a dangerous place, and certainly not always fair. Many of us have experienced the impact of a flawed economic system over the last several years that barely cares about individuals. The world Gordon Gekko praises is one that creates inequality which benefits some people while harming others – survival of the "fittest."
So, one of our basic drives is to secure enough "stuff" to make sure that we can survive and prosper in a tough world. We don't trust the system, and we feel like we're in the race for ourselves. The present system is uncertain and unforgiving. It fails many people.
Why do we build such an unstable system using our own principles and laws? Because we really don't trust the wisdom of God. And this is not a new problem – Hosea speaks of it when he reports what God said: "The more I called [my people], the more they went from me...My people are bent on turning away from me." It happened back then, and it happens now.
Why don’t the people trust God? Usually when we don't trust people it's because we don't really know them. Same with God, I suppose. We don't always trust Him because we don't really know Him very well. We hear conflicting reports from various groups about what God stands for, and it leaves us confused. We often listen to other people about who and what God is, and it always seems to leave us incomplete.
Why don’t people really know God? When we really want to know what another person is like, we have to spend time with that other person, and not listen to what other people say about that person. We need to experience that person ourselves to really know the truth about him or her. Same with God. We don't really know God because we don't really spend enough time with Him in prayer, meditation, contemplation, nature, and being with other people.
Why don't we spend enough time with God? One of the reasons, which Jesus pointed out at the very beginning of this lesson, is that we are too busy striving for survival and security, which leads to greed – and that leaves little room for God. In Ecclesiastes we read, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! It is an unhappy business for mankind to be too busy...for their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation – even at night their minds do not rest."
Jesus did not say it was wrong to work or have possessions. What he was stressing was that when the physical human needs dominate one's time and effort, then the spiritual human needs suffer. If we gain a good balance, our heads will clear, and we will be able to do many things the right way, including developing an economic system using God's wisdom that leaves no one behind.
Greed and hoarding will no longer be necessary. And, contrary to what Gordon Gekko believes, humans will continue to evolve into the human beings they were meant to be, building a society based on wisdom, love and community that far outshines what we have today.
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