August 4, 2013
There’s a movie called Wall Street came out in 1987
It’s about a young man who will do anything to rise to the top
of the financial world.
Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you’ve probably heard the
monologue by the other main character, Gordon Gekko
played by Michael Douglas. He says:
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| James B. Janknegt, The Rich Fool |
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 its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, 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."
It’s almost inspirational, if it didn’t make my skin crawl.
We can think that he must be dead wrong, or that that was the 80’s
but the fact is he’s right and it’s still right.
Greed does work to a certain extent.
If that extent is that you get more things.
It does work.
And it’s supported, rewarded, encouraged in overt and subtle ways.
A lot of us say that we’re offended by that kind of thinking
and try to center our lives away from that.
But like it or not, we’re all a part of it.
When we had a recession recently, people started tightening their belts,
not spending as much. Possibly being actually responsible with money.
And then we get the hear, consumer spending is down.
Companies are cutting jobs. The message we get is,
that it’s because we’re not spending like we should be.
It’s our responsibility we need to do it.
I’m not getting a new car this year and so
it’s my fault that Detroit is bankrupt.
It’s our responsibility to keep the wheels going in the economy
To buy more, save more, invest more,
to put our money in the stock market
so that those young people on wall street have more to gamble with.
We’re told to save, save, save money for our kids education,
save money for retirement, store it away, work for the future.
I try not to watch those financial segments on the news
because I know I’m just going to be dissapointed in myself.
We spend our time working, so we can get more things,
or take more trips, or get more gifts, so we can save more for the future,
so we can get more things then.
everything requires money.
And when we have nothing, in those lean years,
all we’re doing is working toward the time when
can get ourselves into back into the system like the others
who are running on the treadmill.
And when we see people who have nothing and are relying on
the generosity of the church or of others,
we almost can’t help but judge them
“They should have made better choices in their lives.
If we help them, we’re just encouraging them”
Even helping others requires money.
If we want to engage and make a change,
If all the good people dropped out of the system some how,
the money would all be left in the hands of the greedy.
Then the poor and oppressed would be even more poor and oppressed.
we have to be involved in the system if we care.
When I was thinking about it, this week, it’s like
we’ve got this beast that’s living in the basement
one that we’ve created with our own want and desire and fear and need
whether it be a need for a bigger house, or a new car
or that thing called security, lack of want, or control, or even to do good.
We’ve made it.
It lived in our hearts but then, at some point
it developed a life of it’s own and it moved out of our hearts and out of our control.
And now it lives out there and it threatens us,
and it’s constantly hungry it demands more and more.
And the only solution we’ve found is:
Feed the beast so it doesn’t get angry.
Feed it, just keep feeding it.
Greed works because we keep feeding it, and we don’t know how to stop.
You fools. What exactly have we done with our lives?
Jesus warned us.
“Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;
for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
It’s not actually the money that Jesus warns against.
It’s the persuit of it. It’s the greed, small and big ways.
The man who was the recipient of the parable today,
just wanted his brother to share their inheritance.
Seems reasonable. He was no Gordon Gekko.
Greed is not about money,
although that’s what we see most often.
Cassian, who was a monk in the 4th and 5th century
he wrote about how monks, who had renounced all their own possessions
would get angry and possessive over a pen or a book.
They renounced their money, but they had not renounced their greed.
Jesus tells us a parable of a man who had enough,
too much for him to use right then. Too much to fill his barns.
And so he spent all his time making bigger barns to hold all his extra stuff.
He said after he was done with that,
then he would relax, eat, drink and be merry
But before he was done, he died.
And God said to him, ”You fool. Tonight your life is demanded of you.
what’s going to happen with all that stuff you saved.”
This response from God is not so much a threat
as it is a sadness about how this man spent his life.
The man was fooled into thinking that his struggle for
security was a worthy persuit, like it was some kind of life in itself.
That having everything would actually make him secure.
That investing in himself was the best investment.
We are fooled into the same thing.
Investing in ourselves, in our own control, our own power and security.
is tempting, but in the end, as in the end of the parable,
the security is just an illusion. It was no security at all.
We clutch over and over again at our own lives,
rather than opening our hands to God’s free gifts.
As long as we live in this world, we won’t be free of the
beast of greed and the persuit of more and more.
It’s kind of hard-wired into our world.
But we can avoid falling completely into it’s grasp
by listening to what the parable says, we can be rich in God
We can invest in God.
This is the time in the televangelists sermon where
they would pass the offering plates again
and we’d try and get a bonus offering out of you.
I won’t do that to you right now,
But there is something to that.
Invest in the things that God values.
Invest in the community of God, God’s church for one.
Basil the 4th century Greek bishop said,
"If you want storehouses, you have them in stomachs of the poor."
Invest in those who need.
The vulnerable, the lonely, the oppressed.
Those who can’t pay back dividends or money.
Invest in care for others, in relationships,
friends, family, your Christian family, and strangers.
Invest in generosity and people.
Invest where God’s heart is.
That is where the real security it.
Companies have actually found lately that generosity
is a better business model than greed.
Gordon Gekko was wrong in the long run.
It turns out that so many of those companies that
were built on greed have been burning out.
But those companies that treat workers right and invest in their
communities and give back to those in need.
Those are the ones that have longevity
and are succeeding more these days.
Of course then, now they have models of corporate
generosity that those greedy companies can buy into
in order to imitate the ones being generous in order to
get more share the business and more money.
But that’s not how it works.
Generosity, a giving heart, are not for sale.
God’s love, and the care of a community are not for sale.
Ironically, it’s only in our greatest need that
we actually find out how secure those investments are.
That is when we find out about God’s generosity
and the generosity of others.
And the other wonderful thing about investing in God’s things
is that the more we give away, the more we have for ourselves.
We shouldn’t spend our whole lives storing up treasures for ourselves.
There is no need for that.
We have been given access to God’s barn.
And endless supply of love, fulfillment, joy and life.
That is the place we should put our treasures in.
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