WHAT’S WRONG WITH WEALTH

Eccles. 5: 10-12

I Timothy 6: 6-10, 17-19

       As we all know, there are definite words of comfort in the Bible.  “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures.   He restores my soul.”   And Jesus said,  “Come unto me all who labor and are heavyladen and I will give you rest.”   And just as words of comfort are brought to us, so are words of warning.   In fact, some of Jesus’ words make us downright uncomfortable.   They seem to scream,  “Beware!”   Such as,  “How terrible for you who are rich; for you have had your easy life.”   (Lk. 6:24)  And James warns,  “And now, you rich people, listen to me!   Weep and wail over the miseries that will come to you.”   That scares us a bit, doesn’t it!   It scares me!

       And I shudder when Jesus says,  “It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven…. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

      But we ask,  “Am I rich?   Surely God would not consider me wealthy—I’m no millionaire by any means!”   But consider these amazing facts, reported in the Seattle Times:

     99% of all American families own at least 1 automobile; most own 2 and many own more than 1 per driver;

      2 out of 3 families own their own home;

      Nearly every American family owns at least 1 TV;  most own 2 or more and many have 1 TV per person;

      Over a billion dollars (that’s a thousand million) of our tax money goes to buy 1 submarine;

      In the world, 15,000 people starve to death everyday.   It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?   It is for me.

      We have a high standard of living in this country and a right to be proud of it.   We inherited a huge amount of natural resources and in our short history we have worked hard to utilize them.

     But the point is we are wealthy.   We have an abundance of riches.   And I don’t think we need to be ashamed of it.   But we do need to answer a question if we are going to put it in proper perspective.   The question is,  “What is wrong with wealth?”   We could simply say,  “Nothing is wrong with wealth; it’s the love of wealth or money that is wrong.”   And that’s true.   But let’s consider this matter of wealth and the Christian more deeply than that.

      First, there is the appeal of wealth.   There is no use knocking affluence.   A preacher like me could stand up and knock wealth until he or she is blue in the face.   But people will keep right on trying to earn more, buy more, enjoy more with scarcely a glance at the warnings the Bible gives us about the dangers of idolatry and enslavement to possessions.   If offered a million dollars today, who of us would turn it down?   Not me!   I buy a lottery ticket once in awhile.   And I admit I do a little dreaming, just in case I win.   After all, think of the good that money could do.   Colleges have been founded, hospitals started, the hungry fed, churches and homes for the poor built…. All by the power of wealth.

      But still the Bible repeats that wealth is like a siren song with its luring appeal and destructive intention, a corruptor, a seducer, destroyer.   Strong words!   That is why Paul wrote to Timothy, saying,  “If we have food and clothing, we should be content.   Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.”   Wealth requires discipline far more strict than that called for in times of hardship.   For every 100 people who have weathered bad times bravely, you will find only a few who adjusted well to wealth.   A recent study of Lottery winners shows that a majority of them are nearly penniless now or have gone through other traumatic personal losses connected to their inability to adjust to their wealth.   You see, wealth is like a 2-edged sword—it can cut two ways.   It’s like fire—a good servant but a terrible master.

       Wealth is a major threat to a rich spiritual life.   For we realize that just the preservation and the maintenance of possessions have a way of taking over the best part of our lives.   Property, as any land or home owner will quickly confirm, involves labor to get it, care to keep it, and maybe even a fear of losing it.   Yet, we all know that property also has many blessings for us.   A farmer once remarked to me about the good feeling it gave him to have his own land and work it, the same land his parents worked, the land he knew his children would work after him.   It is a good feeling to own something.   I bought a house when I lived in Cashmere—the first time I’d ever owned a home or property.   It felt good.   However, our property can own us too.   “I’m not greedy,” a woman protested to her neighbor.  “I only want the land next to mine.”    That’s a process that can go on and on.   That is what one of the richest and wisest people in the world was describing in our first scripture reading.   King Solomon observed,  “The lover of money will not be satisfied with money, nor the lover of wealth with gain.”

       Our wealth creeps in upon us imperceptibly, and it is especially deceptive when those around us have as much or more than we do.   But what a vast difference there is for most of us between what we have and what we really need, what we want and what is essential!   Billy Graham, during a crusade planned for India some years ago, was being briefed by a native Indian before the meeting.   The Indian said,  “Dr. Graham, I’m sure you are fully aware of the desperate poverty in which most of my people live.   Sometime in the course of this crusade you are bound to be asked about the difference between your own personal wealth and that of the majority of Indians to whom you will be speaking.”    Billy Graham answered with complete openness and genuine humility.   “I know,” he said.  “It is a thing I have given much prayer and thought to, and I still do not have the answer.”

      How many of us are ready to admit what is obvious to ¾ of the earth’s people—that we have an abundance that, unless it is held in the highest form of Christian stewardship, in the end will prove our curse instead of our blessing?

      So we are warned against wealth because it tends to make us forget that we are but dust and to dust we shall return, that apart from the life God has breathed into us we are but a collection of decaying cells, that we brought nothing into this world and it is sure that we will take nothing out of it.   We are also warned that riches are uncertain.   You cannot trust them.  Everyone who is on a fixed income watches the inflation rate with a sense of dismay.  You can’t trust what you earn.   It disappears as fast as the price on the gas pump goes up.   The remedy?   “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”   “Only one day will soon be past.   Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

      However, I would not want us to be wrongly filled with a sense of guilt over our wealth.   Wealth, rightly used, is a blessing.   Abraham was a great person, strong in his relationship with God.  In fact, James calls Abraham “the friend of God.”   And he had greater wealth than any others who lived in his time.   So did Jacob and so did Joseph.   And Job and Esther and David were other rich and dedicated people of God.

      But there was one thing that marked these people.   They were people who held all that they had as trustees of a wealth not their own, but belonging to God and therefore accountable to God.   How many of us think of what we have as belonging to God?   When we sometimes pray after the offering or sing, hear what we say,  “We give Thee but Thine own, whatever the gift may be.   All that we have is Thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from Thee.”   All that we have is God’s, entrusted to us.   Do we really believe that?

      In closing, there are three different sorts of speeches that wealth can make to us.   Our wealth may say to us:  “Hold me, hang on to every nickel of me and I will dry out the foundations of sympathy and charity in your soul and leave you barren and destitute.   Grasp me tightly, and I will change your eyes so they will be bored with everything that does not contain my image, and so transform your ears that my soft metallic ring will sound louder than the cries of widows and orphans and the wail of the starving.   Keep me, clutch me, and I will destroy your sympathy for the human race, your respect for what is right, and your reverence and love for God.”

     Or our wealth may say to us:  “Don’t hold on to me.   Spend me for self-indulgence and I will make your soul fat and indifferent to all except your own pleasure.   I will become your master, and you will come to falsely expect that I can bring you happiness.”

      Or, finally, our wealth my give a third speech:   “Give me away for the benefit of others, and I will return in streams of spiritual revenue for your soul.   I will bless both the one who receives me and you who have given me.  I will supply food for the hungry, clothing for the naked, medicine for the sick, and good news to those who need to hear it.   At the same time, I will secure joy and peace for the person who used me that way.”

      May God help us be people who open our ears to the third speech, that we may never hear our Lord’s judgment upon us:   “How terrible for you who are rich, for you have already received your easy life.”

                                                                            AMEN