Seven Ways to Die: Greed

(From a recent teaching time on "greed" at the Rochester Church)

Conservative Christians claim to be a people of the book, but are these folks a people of the whole book? That’s why we’re doing this study on the “Seven Deadly Sins.” It is too easy to reduce sin to legal and medicinal language, as we discussed last week, when Scripture describes sin in relational terms (sexual affairs break the relationship with the trinity, church, and family). It is too easy to reduce our sin list down to whatever I’m comfortable with, or I’ve been exposed to. Scripture has much to say to such reductionistic tendencies. We’re opening up the sin discussion by wrestling with the Hebrew Scriptures and pride, greed, lust, anger, envy, gluttony, sloth.

So turn your hearts and minds to a rather ignored story in Scripture: Ahab and Jezebel in I Kings.

I Kings 16 introduces to two important details pertaining to this new King of Israel: First, “Ahab did everything evil in the sight of the LORD more than all who were before him,” (16:30). The writer also notes that Ahab does more to provoke “the anger of the LORD” than all kings put together. Second, a natural result of his marriage to Jezebel (a foreigner who does not regard the laws of YHWH) is the practice of Baal worship. “You shall have no other gods before me”—yeah, that whole notion is pushed the margins of the collective consciousness.

This section in First Kings is a profound depiction of God’s reign (as understood through the witness of Elijah) and the way of darkness (Ahab and his cohorts). Let’s turn our attention to the story in chapter 21: Naboth’s Vineyard.

***Reading from I Kings***


Greed: Obsessive desire to acquire wealth, notoriety, fame, or attention. From cover to cover, Scripture warns against greed. In fact, scripture warns that the pursuit of wealth over and above the pursuit of God’s reign in our lives will lead to death of the worst kind: spiritual death (Ecclesiastes 5:10-16; Amos 4:1-3; Mt. 19:23-24; Lk. 16:13;I Timothy 6:9-10).


The story from I Kings does not hide from the subject of money and material posession. There are strong implications for those of us under the spell of wealth, material comfort, and luxury (and I confess this was a lot easier to deal with when I was under the poverty line as a grad student). The reality is...most of us are affluent, blessed beyond what we need to sustain health, decent living.

1. Wealth produces a subliminal but strong slavery. Chasing financial security turns you into someone you never intended to be. This is thus the great paradox of the pursuit of wealth. Though one thinks it will provide security, contentment, it only leaves the pursuer in pursuit of more. The pursuit of money and wealth is spiritual quicksand leaving no survivors.


2. Greed reveals a self-mutilation of the soul. We become splintered people killing the whole child of God we were created to be. Our time, thoughts, motives are divided. We almost become two different people: the Christian and the one out to get “his or her’s.”


3. Wealth perverts humans into objects and friends into allies. Though we might be reluctant to participate in outright formal schemes, we’ll turn an eye or participate indirectly if we stand to gain financially (i.e. Ahab). The temptation is to manipulate our tax return. “Well I can qualify for this exemption, if I just fudge a few details here and there.” The temptation is to skim off the top of a budget, to give the waitress a dollar instead of the expected rate of 18 percent.


4. Greed, the greatest grievance, turns our hearts hard toward the poor and suffering. Elijah cannot stand for injustice, exploitation of the poor and innocent. The real terroists, to paraphrase one person, are the Christians who sat on the board of Enron.


The temptation for some is to spiritualize the challenging stories of scripture. “As long as you put God first.” I remind you that save “kingdom language” Jesus (whom the Christian faith believes to be God’s purest revelation) discusses money and material possession more than any other subject in the Gospels. Money, wealth, material possession might be the strongest indicator of one’s discipleship. Don’t believe me? Why are people so defensive in talking about the issue? “This isn’t a religious issue. Don’t bring stuff that has nothing to do with the bible into this discussion.”

Consumerism (to get verses to give away/empty) is the water we swim in, the air we breathe. It is asking someone to describe the color black, when everything is black, no light, only oppressive darkness exists. Consumerism is so much a part of our existence; we are often unable to see it. We accept this fallen attitude/power as normal when Scripture wants to combat such thinking.

Wall Street Movie Quotes (1987)
Michael Douglas (Gordon Gekko): Lunch is for wimps.

Martin Sheen (Carl Fox): Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others.

Michael Douglas (Gekko): The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bull. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own.

Charlie Sheen (Bud Fox): How much is enough?
Michael Douglas (Gekko): It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.

Michael Douglas (Gekko): The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of it's forms - greed for life, for money, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you.


The Bible collides with the message of greed. It calls us to choose simplicity over complex purchasing habits. It calls us to ask ourselves “do I really know what difference is between what I ‘want” versus what I ‘need?’” It calls us to change. It calls us to question. It calls us to repent. It calls us to remember the poor. It calls us to remember that we were blessed so that we might bless others.

Oh, Father—we are sometimes a selfish people.
We seek to gain at the expense of others.
We attempt to exploit when it will benefit us.
Teach us to give away, to empty ourselves
Just as Jesus gave away his power, control, and influence.
Amen.