It would be so easy for us to sit here in indifference and with a certain amount of smugness and think that Jesus’ words don’t pertain to us, but only to others; others like those corporate CEO’s convicted of insider trading; or CFO’s using creative accounting practices to cook corporate books; or big domestic corporations exporting jobs in order to achieved greater profit margins, or self-indulgent Hollywood stars or millionaire athletes, whoever!!

But let’s not be too hasty to use Jesus’ words to judge others before we let his words soak into our own consciousness and apply them to ourselves. I remind us that wealth is a relative term. We who are gathered in this room this morning are wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of the majority of people living on this planet.

I once saw a bumper sticker that read: "He who dies with the most toys wins."  We laugh at it, but we know it to be a declaration of one of the most revered values of our culture. I am convinced that if Jesus saw that bumper sticker he would likely say, "You fools, this very night your lives are being demanded of you! And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?"

"Building bigger barns," the accumulation of wealth, is one of the most sacred values of our culture, built into the American Dream. The American economic engine is built on the premise of greed and self-indulgence. It depends upon it like a car depends on fuel for internal combustion. Our economic vitality requires the participation of millions of people like the man Jesus describes in his parable.

The man in Jesus’ parable could conceive of nothing outside of building bigger barns to accommodate his wealth. He could imagine nothing else to do with his wealth but protect it, save it, invest it, increase it and use it for self. There were, of course, all sorts of places to "store" his wealth: the stomachs of the hungry for beginners, but he couldn’t conceive of anything outside of keeping it all for himself. That is a primary symptom of the sickness of greed, a disease fatal to the soul. 

I am a patron of the poor man’s Starbuck’s – 7-Eleven. I had an interesting experience at the checkout.  The man ahead of me spent $1.99. He presented the clerk with his credit card. The clerk ran the card, and momentarily informed the man that his card had been "rejected!" No problem, the man fished another card out of his wallet. After a few moments, same thing, card "rejected." The man produced a third card - same result - "rejected." Just as I was reaching for my wallet to offer to pay the $2, amazingly, he produced yet a fourth credit card. No three strikes and you're out for this guy! The fourth card was approved! I have no idea what the problem was, but it got me thinking about how a piece of plastic has enabled us to instantly gratify our passions; no waiting, no planning, no budgeting, no saving! Our dreams, our desires, our passions can become an instant reality! 

The ancient fathers and mothers of the Christian faith in their wisdom named greed (or avarice) as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The simplest definition of greed is "excessive desire and selfishness out of control." You need not be rich at all! You need not have much at all, yet you can be controlled and consumed by the deadly sin of greed, because greed is an inner attitude about outward things. Greed is about hoarding things that we don't really need; refusing to share; hence refusing to care! Greed is about desiring what other people have and you don't. Greed is about flaunting what you have before others in such a way as to make them feel less. Greed is never being satisfied. Greed strikes us blind and indifferent to the need and suffering of others. Greed manifests itself on the massive scale of nations and corporations to smallest scale of the individual.

Dostoevsky in his classic The Brothers Karamasov tells a story called the Parable of the Onion. It's a convicting story of the destructiveness of greed out of control. He writes:

I think the way greed influences most of us in this room this morning is around the issue, "How much is enough?" At what point do luxuries become necessities?  A couple of years ago I remember looking in my closet and I counted about 30 shirts and a dozen sweaters – some unworn for a long time. I was ashamed and convicted! I had been ambushed by greed!  At what point do I stop my rationalization that certain luxuries are necessities?  I gave 3/4 of the contents of my closet away.  Now you know why I wear the same shirt all the time!

We live in a strange kind of culture, a culture of twisted, distorted, up-side down values. We might spend more going to a couple of professional athletic events than we give to the church or another worthwhile charity in the course of a year! We hardly flinch at the expense of the games, but might protest vigorously if the church or some other charity were to ask for the same amount.  Greed anesthetizes us to the needs of the people around us, puts us at the center and pushes every other consideration to the edge or over the edge into oblivion. 

I've am a big Star Trek fan. If you are too, you know all about The Borg. The Borg are part humanoid and part machine. Their mission is to take over the galaxy and absorb all other races into themselves, transforming them into Borg. They are unrelenting in their mission and cold-hearted in their tactics. When they approach another race of beings they announce they are going to assimilate them and they punctuate it by saying "Resistance is futile."

The Borg are a parody of greed. Greed is unrelenting in its mission and its inevitable result is to turn the heart cold toward others. In our pursuit of greed we can become like all consuming machines living with little regard of the consequences of our self-indulgence actions. That's why our early church parents named it as a deadly sin.  They knew that the latent power of greed is within all of us and has the power to kill a generous spirit. They had the conviction that Christians are to be people who take seriously the deadly sin of greed; and not excuse it, rationalize it, or explain it away, but see for what it is and how it wishes to control and take over!  They knew that the things that we grasp can never make us rich in the kingdom of God; and conversely, the things that make us rich in the Kingdom of God can never be grasped.

God gives us an incredible gift in Jesus Christ. But, the very nature of Jesus Christ is to give himself away in sacrificial love.  Grasping is not a Christ, but rather the open and empty hand of sacrificial giving.  You can't follow Jesus with one open hand, and also be grasping so tightly to your stuff with the other. There is a movement within Christianity to have it both ways called "Prosperity Gospel," and it cultivates the belief and attitude that abundant material blessings are the result of living under God’s favor and are deserved to the believer. In my mind it is a dangerous construction of faith; another treacherous disguise that greed wears to pass itself off as respectable. The battle against greed wages on everyday for the Christian whether you are relatively wealthy or relatively poor. It matters not. The Lord Jesus Christ has won the war with greed with the sacrificial giving of himself on the cross. We are called to choose everyday between greed and God. We cannot have both. We are possessed either by our possessions or by God.

Jesus is challenging us and calling us to trust him; trust that the way of greed, even if it's ever so subtly disguised, is not the way to being filled; not the way to peace; not the way to joy and purpose; not the way of the kingdom of God. But rather it is found in His way; taking up our cross and following; loosening our grasp, using our resources to minister to others and build up the kingdom of God. It is perhaps the most gigantic shift in thinking and radical change of attitude that an American Christian, especially, can ever make, but yet it's a shift that leads to nowhere less than to the Kingdom of God - which is to say it leads to a savior and a counter-cultural way of living that the world will never understand; but along the way you will experience the filling of God which is like nothing that the world can ever give – a rebirth of your life and your soul.