The Many Faces of Greed

I want you to imagine that you are standing at a cocktail party. You are dressed up. There is a smile on your face. The purpose of the party seems to be to look as good and feel as good as you can. There is great food, lots of wine. You don't know anyone else there. People come up to you and they ask you what you do for a living, do have a family, where did you get your degree? And you ask them the same questions. And it's all about this is who I am verses this is who you are. Labels. And the entire evening is spent on your self-examination and comparing yourself to other people. You get home worried that your career is not enough, your finances not enough, your relationships not enough. You feel alone after being in a room full of people. You leave feeling empty. Have you ever been to a party like that?

The author of the book of Ecclesiastes tells is that All if Vanity and a chasing after wind. In other words, if your goal is life is to feel good, you might as well spend your time chasing the wind. We cannot hold or control our feelings. If happiness is your goal, good luck with that.

I was walking on the beach about a month ago with an old friend. He asked me what the goal of my life was. I told him I wanted to serve God as best I could. Then I asked him the same question. He had suffered from depression for the better part of his life. His answer surprised me. "My goal is that I want to feel as good as I can," he said.

I was struck by his honesty. Most people would have made something up that sounded less selfish. He was clear and truthful. All he wanted was to feel good. But the answer seemed so sad to me. Here was a man who was so spiritually poor that the best he could imagine in life was simply to feel good.

And most of us want to feel good too. We want enough resources to be comfortable, enough time to spend with family and friends, we even want a purpose in life so that we can feel a sense of worth, feel that we are important. We want to be happy. We will even do good works to feel good about ourselves. All we want is for ourselves. We seek to please ourselves and all it leads to is emptiness. For we are chasing a mirage, the mirage called happily ever after. Our advertisements believe it. Movies promote it, this idea that if you buy the right stuff, you will be happy. I need to buy the right stuff, I need to find the right job, I need to find the right relationship....it's all about me, me, me...

When Jesus came by and asked you to follow him, there was one thing that you couldn't do. One thing just didn't jive with his invitation. You could not stop to think about yourself. To get invited by Jesus meant to trust him with everything. Just say yes and give yourself to him. All the folks who wanted to care for their stuff, say goodbye, even bury their loved ones, they got left behind. You just couldn't be concerned with yourself. Jesus did not give you time.

Jesus tells us of a man who stored vast amounts of grain in his grainery and thought only of his own comfort. The man was consumed with providing for himself. He was convinced that if he stored up enough stuff, he would be comfortable, happy, not afraid. He accumulates so much grain that he has to build an extra storage facility. Sounds like some of us with our storage facilities, doesn't it? As soon as he is sure he has hoarded enough to really ensure his own happiness, he dies. And when he dies, he has nothing, he is poor with God.

Jesus tells us to be on guard against what he calls "all kinds of greed."

All kinds? I did not know that there was more than one kind...

Greed does not just consist in hoarding possessions or money or even food. Greed is formed in a person who focuses solely on the self by hoarding. And you can hoard more than just money. You can hoard success or relationships or even emotions. You can greedily hold on to your ambition, your honors degrees, even to your wounds. You can greedily hoard all those times that someone you love has hurt you or offended you. You can hoard your hurt. And all of these are kinds of greed. All of these kinds of hoarding make you spiritually poor. If your goal in life is about you and only you, it is not of God. And ironically, you have nothing.

In Eden, the tempter asked Eve to disobey God in order to feed herself. Take this for yourself and you will be like God, he said. The fall of humanity began with selfishness. It began when Even put her desire over God's command, when she made herself the first priority and it continues whenever we put ourselves in front of God.

Remember the order of the great commandment that Jesus gave us. LV the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Number one is love God, number two is love your neighbor as yourself. There is a reason why Jesus did not begin with love yourself first. The love of God must come first or the love of self is distorted and not love at all.

Why do we go to church on the morning of the first day of the week? We do it to put God first.

God would not have us focus on ourselves. Love ourselves, yes, but not focus on ourselves. If you spend your day thinking of only yourself and doing only for yourself, then beware of greed. Or perhaps a better way to put it is in a positive light, be rich towards God rather that rich for yourself.

Todd Huston was fourteen when he severed his right leg in a waterskiing accident. The doctors saved and reattached the limb but infection crept in. After 28 surgeries and ongoing physical therapy, this young man from Tulsa had to accept the fact that he would loose his leg. He began a life of self-pity.

He wrote, "I would hide my physical scars from my friends. I seldom swam and I used humor to hide my mental scars." He tried so hard not to loose that leg, but it was time it let it go. He had every opportunity to wallow in self-pity, every excuse to live a miserable life because life itself had not been fair to him. But he got tired of hoarding his self-pity. So he decided to live for others, more specifically, to champion those who had disabilities.

Todd Huston decided to climb Mount McKinley, the highest point in North America. His goal took him years of training to complete but when he reached the top and returned, this is what he said. "I see myself as a representative of the forty-three million Americans who, on any given day, are struggling against a major illness, a disability, or any other health-related challenge." He even went on to describe such things as divorce, the death of a loved one, or overcoming addiction. Todd climbed for all of us, because all of are missing something that we wish we had. All of us feel the urge to hoard something to make up for our insufficiencies. All of us. We hoard because we feel empty. We are greedy because we feel poor.

That is why we can feel so lonely at the cocktail party, because we are trying to appear to have it all together. And it is not the truth. The truth is that we are empty. We get greedy for stuff or money or relationships or success because we feel empty inside. But the truth is that we cannot fill our own emptiness. The only thing that fills our emptiness is not taking more stuff but giving it away.

There is only one recipe to treat all kinds of greed. It is generosity. Every single day, do something for someone else. Do it not just for family members or someone who will make you look good. Do something for someone else who has no impact on your life. Give so that you may be rich with God.

Instead of asking yourself, first thing in the morning, "How can I feel good today?" ask yourself, "What can I do for you today, God?"

There are all kinds of greed but there is only one kind of generosity. Generosity belongs to God. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Store up love and hope and generosity. Store up gratefulness. When we talk about giving money to charities and to the church, I don't tell you so that we can pay the church bills. I tell you this because you MUST give your money away. No matter how much you have, you must be generous. There is no option if you want to follow Jesus. And believe me, you don't want to let Jesus walk on by and be left with only yourself to focus on. Give yourself away so that you may truly live.

- The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead

Monday, July 29, 2013