greed and transformation
The
other day I had my first meeting with a financial advisor. He is the brother of
a friend and a really nice guy. Frankly, I can use the help. So we met and had
a discussion to get to know each other a bit and so that he could get a sense
of where we could use his help.
Eventually
he showed us a picture of a healthy financial plan. It was a bit like a puzzle
that was made up of a variety of pieces. Each piece of the puzzle represented
an important piece in a financial plan. Some pieces represented insurance and
savings that would protect my family in case of non-controllable events that
might happen- like illness or disability.
Other pieces represented planning for retirement and paying off student
loans. At the very top of the puzzle were the gold pieces “maximizing wealth”
and “estate preservation”. I’m still not completely sure what those mean, but the
goal of the plan was to eventually retire comfortably, and be secure in the
thought that my family will be taken care of.
I
read the Gospel for today and I feel like I am supposed to plan to be the man
in the parable. I should plan to have enough that I can say to my soul, 'Soul,
you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry' (Luke
12:19).
This
leaves me feeling awkward in all kinds of ways.
First, I’m left wondering how to be obedient to Jesus regarding money
and still plan for retirement and for my children to go to school. Second, I’m
conscious that a number of you are retired or are planning you retire, and I
love you and don’t want to offend you. Third, I’m conscious that we live in a
hyper-consumerist world and I’m not quite sure how to not live as a consumerist
in the world we live in. We are surrounded by advertising that is continuously
trying to convince us that we are in need. We live in a world that thrives on
lending money at interest, which was against God’s law and called usury (Ex 22,
Lev 25, Deut 23). Usury has been condemned in many cultures throughout the
world, but it is pervasive in our world. The whole stock market and banking
system is based on it. It can be a system that allows greed to run rampant. It
was greed that caused the near economic collapse just a few years ago. We have
seen some of the effects on our neighbors to the south where many homes have
been foreclosed on after interest rates inflated. This is the world we live in.
If we have money in the bank we are a part of this system. If we have stocks
and mutual funds or GICs we are a part of this system. The system wants us to
be the man in Jesus’ parable who is able to make the system work in his favour.
We accumulate so much that we need to tear down our barns and build bigger
barns to hold all our wealth. We
accumulate so that we can say to ourselves in retirement, “you have ample goods
laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”
We
are told to be this person, but what does Jesus say in the parable? God says to
the man, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the
things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up
treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God." (12:20-21).
Anyone
who loves Jesus and has any savings in the bank is feeling a bit bothered right
about now. There are three questions that arise out of this state of anxiety- What
is wealth for? What does Jesus intend by his parable? And, can we trust him?
First,
what is wealth for? We have attached to wealth notions such as security, power,
successfulness, and happiness. And there is some truth there, though it is a
partial truth. We have become convinced
that all we need to make our life better is more money. I was in a coffee shop
the other day and I overheard the person next to me lamenting the fact that a
lottery can be won for 50 million dollars. “Why can’t there be 50 winners of a
million dollars”, she said. “Imagine what that would do for your life”. … You
don’t have to be rich to be consumed by wealth. Anyone who places their
ultimate trust in wealth- rich or poor- has fallen pray to greed. It is an
especially deep trap because it is insatiable. There is always more to have. I read
that John D. Rockefeller, who I’m told was once the wealthiest man in the
world, once expressed to a reporter that he was not really happy or satisfied.
When the reporter asked how much money it would take to make him happy,
Rockefeller replied, “Just a little bit more”.[1]
The ability of wealth to satisfy all our desires is limited. Like Rockefeller,
we will eventually reach the limits of our wealth to give us security,
happiness, success, etc.
One
response to this dilemma by Christians has been to reject wealth- To leave it
all behind and enter the wilderness like John the Baptist, like the dessert
fathers and mothers, like St. Francis of Assisi, and like numerous monks
throughout history up to the present day. I believe that this is a valid
response. In fact, some may be so stuck in the trap of greed that getting rid
of it all will be the only cure, just as an alcoholic might have to commit to
leave the world of alcohol showing themselves unable to drink in a responsible
way. Jesus told at least one person to give all his wealth to the poor (Luke
18). It is one path to free oneself from greed.
Not
all of us are called to take such a step. In fact, the spiritual writer and
philosopher Dallas Willard thinks it would be disastrous for all faithful
Christians to abandon their wealth. He believes that we need faithful
Christians who know what wealth is for in order to bless the world.[2] It
would be a disaster if all faithful Christians gave away all their wealth and
fled to the desert because they might be leaving the world’s wealth to be
managed by greed-filled powers of this world. I believe the monastics have
their place in the Christian world, but that won’t be the path for most of
us.
The
majority of us will be called to a life of simplicity where our needs are met,
but not necessarily our wants. We are called to live not being possessed by our
possessions. But, ultimately this isn’t about ‘stuff’ it is about our hearts.
We can have very little and our heart can be twisted with greed, but we can also
have a lot and have our hearts twisted by greed.
In
Jesus’ parable the rich man isn’t necessarily criticized for his wealth. He is
criticized for his lack of wealth towards God. God said to the rich man who
died with full barns, 'You fool! This
very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have
prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for
themselves but are not rich toward God." The rich man planned for his retirement,
but he didn’t plan for his future. He neglected to plan for the fact
that he is going to live forever. He planned for his retirement, but not his
future. This is what St. Paul is teaching us today, (Colossians 3:1-2) “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not
on things that are on earth…”
At times Christians haven’t taught very
helpfully about life after death. Because of that we now tend not to teach
about it hardly at all. But, the
Christian hope and promise is that we will live forever and we are on a journey
of transformation. We are learning to be saints. This is about what it means to
be human- the way God wants us to be human. That doesn’t start after we die. It
starts right this moment with every decision we make. Each choice we make
transforms our heart, even if just a little. The choice to be kind to someone
who doesn’t deserve it transforms us a little. Little by little we cooperate
with the Holy Spirit as He makes us into a new kind of person. If we allow the
Holy Spirit to work on us we will grow to reflect God and our life will be
filled with the fruit of the Spirit.
Jesus wants us to be rich toward God- this is
what is means to be a saint. He wants us to invest in our own transformation
and relationship with God. It is a life
and relationship that starts in this life, but it doesn’t end in this life. It
continues. And it continues to develop and be perfected in eternity. This life
is marked by love of God and neighbor. We
slowly learn to want what God wants, and even love as God loves. The result is
that we start to look more like Jesus as we learn to live like him and spend
time with him. This is the investment advice Jesus offers us. Invest in your
relationship with God.
The
question we need to ask ourselves is “do we trust his advice?” Do we truly
believe that there is an eternal reality? Do we believe that we can be rich or
poor toward God? Do we believe that God will protect us and hold us in his hand
no matter what happens? Do we trust our future to Him? That doesn’t mean don’t
plan and that we aren’t responsible with our money, on the contrary, we will
plan with God’s priorities in mind. Ultimately is our trust in God and not in
what we have in our barns?
If
we do believe that there is an eternal reality and that we will live forever,
and if we do believe that God loves us and is taking care of us and that he
desires our transformation and salvation, then we are free to live the way he
told us to- seeking to serve God with all we are and all we have. We can trust
that if we seek first the kingdom of God that God will take care of us (Matt
6:33) and that by doing so we will be storing up heavenly treasure (Matt
6:19-21). And that is an investment in
our future.
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