“Bling.” It’s all about wearing the right clothes, having the best jewels, going to the “in” parties, driving the biggest cars, living at the toniest address. Apparently that is what some people aspire to. Bling. However, if there is one thing that the Bible in general and Jesus in particular warns against it is the lure of wealth. Jesus said, “One’s life does not consist of possession.” When getting and having stuff is the be all and end all of life, one is on the road to nowhere. According to the parable God says to such a person, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong!” Have you ever seen a Brinks truck following a hearse? I don’t think so. We as the church-going people probably have heard the message against greed any number of times. (In the “Fiddler on the Roof” the student radical proclaims that riches are a curse. At which, the milkman, Tevye, cries out: “May the Lord curse me with it and may I never recover.”) Christians resist the message of bling because we believe that the truly blessed are the poor in spirit. But notice how Jesus puts it: “Take care to guard against ALL greed.” Our Lord is warning us that there are forms of greed other than the greed for things, for bling. So greed is bigger than just wanting more stuff. When Jesus tells us to beware of greed in all its forms he is alerting us to the human tendency to want, to cling to, to hold onto, to grasp after. How did sin begin? With Adam grasping after, snatching at that apple. All sin is simply a repeat of the first.
St. Paul tells us why greed is so dangerous in the epistle to the Colossians. He refers to “the greed that is idolatry.” Greed is more dangerous than some of the obvious sins because it goes to the very heart of our relationship with God. Idolatry occurs when we elevate something which is not God to the place of God. So, according to the apostle, by being greedy we are really saying that this out there that I am going after is the most important thing for me. And whatever is most important to us, that is our god. We make bling our god if that becomes what we want most in life. But we must be careful not to look on other stuff as more important than God: a nice body, achievement and success, comfort. And remember, Jesus cautions us that even something as important as our families cannot be more important than God. (“Anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” Matthew 10:37). By warning us against greed Jesus is really telling us that only God is God, that nothing else is as important as “being rich in what matters to God.”
It’s not just the grasping – it’s the holding onto, the clinging. Look at the parable. The problem was not that the man was rich. The problem was not that he had a great bounty. The problem was that he was storing up treasure for himself. He only thought in terms of how he could use his abundance for his own benefit. “You have so many good things stored up for many years.” Instead of thinking that the blessing he received was for his personal use, he should have been thinking in terms of using the bounteous harvest to help those around him. In other words, generosity trumps greed. And that does not only apply to material blessings. Good health, good reputation, good education are not meant for us but given to us to help bring God’s love into the world. When we realize that all that we have comes from God and that we are merely stewards of these blessings, then we are on the road to right living. Instead of storing up blessings for himself in barns, the man in the parable should have stored it in the homes of the hungry and the needy.
One of the first words a baby learns is “mine.” They hold out their pudgy little hands to the Cheerios or the new Slinky and say, “mine.” Coming to faith is unlearning that word. One of the most important words for the Christian to learn is “thine.” Everything that we have comes from God. “All is yours, all is thine, O Lord.” We only have it on loan to be used as God intends. The sixteenth century Spaniard, St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, had it right in a famous prayer in which he wrote. “Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my entire will, all I have and possess. You have given all to me. Now I return it.” What could be more personal than our memory? What could be more individual than our will? Yet, Ignatius insists even the things that make us the person we are, the individual traits that characterize me are not really mine, but God’s. Once we realize that there is no cause for greed. I can live for God whether I have health or not, whether people praise me or not, whether I’m knowledgeable or not. I can live for God with or without bling. In fact, if I am willing to give God my memory, understanding and entire will then even something as frightening as having a stroke, even something as dreadful as Alzheimer’s disease is not an ultimate tragedy. God gave me my memory and perhaps one day he will want it back. As long as I have as my one desire and choice always and only to do the will of God then nothing that I have or don’t have can cause me distress. God’s love and God’s grace are sufficient for my happiness. “Seek what is above,” St. Paul says in the epistle to the Colossians. “Think about what is above, not of what is on earth.” Once we’ve learned to see everything from the perspective of eternity, then we live in right relationship with the fabric of our lives. One day a traveler came many miles to visit a wise rabbi. When he was ushered inside, much to his surprise there was no furniture in the room. “Where is your furniture, rabbi?” “Where is yours,” the rabbi responded. “Mine? But I’m just passing through,” said the visitor. “So am I,” said the rabbi. AMEN
