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Greed
by
Major Danielle Strickland
Occasionally I feel like I’m in an episode of Hoarders. You
know the show that reveals the apartments and houses of people
who just keep collecting things and won’t throw anything away.
They suggest that this kind of behavior is an actual mental
disorder. I’d suggest it’s just an extreme version of what
most of us suffer from – greed.
Now greed is a bit tricky – because most
of us have been convinced that it’s measured by how MUCH stuff
we have. Yet, even if we are living on the minimum wage – or
if we are on a government subsidy in any Western, developed
country we are still in the top ten percent of the wealthiest
people on the planet. I’m not kidding – check out your own
status here:
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
Now, to be sure two-thirds of the world live on the money we
spend weekly on munchies – but that’s just it. It doesn’t mean
that we are greedy just because we are rich - does it?
What does greed look like?
My
friend was a missionary for a few years in a pretty poor
country. On the compound where she lived were several
families. Some of them were from the country and some were
from Western countries. One of the young little boys, Johnny
(name changed to protect the guilty) received a gift from his
home country (a tricycle) and he was so excited that he was
riding it around the compound all morning. His friend had
never seen a tricycle before and was running around after him
– enjoying the excitement of it all. Eventually, as Johnny got
tired of riding his friend asked him, ‘can I try’? At this
question Johnny got very mad and said ‘NO’ and wouldn’t get
off the bicycle. Quickly distracted the little bike rider saw
the swings close by and realized that he felt like doing
something different. But because he didn’t want to share his
new bike he got off, picked it up in his little arms and
carried it over to the swing set. He was not going to share
that bike!
Greed looks like that. It’s a staunch refusal to share.
Mother Teresa was once being questioned by a skeptic reported
who said to her, ‘how can you believe in a God who allows
people to go hungry?’ to which she replied, ‘don’t you go
blaming poverty on God. Poverty exists in the world simply
because God’s children refuse to share.’ Ouch. Greed grows
like an infection in us – hollowing us out inside – making us
dead to other people’s needs and plights – causing extreme
poverty in the world and while other people are looking for
food to survive we are throwing ours out by the platefuls -
what can we do?? We need to fight greed in this generation–
but how?
Jesus helps us out here. He lives a life that is radically
different than the status quo. Greed isn’t a new idea – it’s
an old one. Actually, it’s greed that caused Adam and Eve to
want what they couldn’t have and then blame each other! It’s
greed that has caused war, famines, dictatorships, and
countless casualties of crime. It’s greed that turns the
greatest expression of generosity the world has ever known –
Christmas – into a frenzy of selfishness. So, Jesus always
attacked greed with excessive generosity. Even salvation is
generous – he made it free for anyone who would receive it.
Jesus took what was originally the Jews (the message of the
Messiah) to the entire world. He lived what I call an
open-handed life. He was free.
Ever since I
began to see the posture Jesus assumed – the way He lived His
life open-handed I’ve been trying to live like Him. It’s hard
– but it’s fun. It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t receive – even as
a young baby He received extravagant gifts. It wasn’t that
Jesus didn’t have any money (He had appointed a disciple just
to look after the cash). It’s that Jesus wasn’t owned
by his money, gifts, status, successes – freely He received,
freely He gave. This is an open-handed posture.
Why don’t we live like that?
Jesus instructs his disciples to make
this the posture of their whole lives, ‘freely you’ve received
now freely give’ (Matthew 10:8). Once the disciples catch this
radical idea of living open-handed in a closed fist world…
it’s amazing what happens. Thousands of people get saved in
one day. Prison breaks (miraculously done), people are healed,
saved, set-free, there
are dead people raised up – people started to live together to
share resources – the scriptures tell us that the first
disciples so caught this message that in their community NO
ONE WAS IN NEED (Acts 4:32-35 - which by the way, was the
miraculous sign for the Israelites in the desert in
Exodus 16:18, “the one who
gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered
little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as
much as they needed). Wow. They solved poverty by learning to
live open-handed. Freely they received, now freely they gave.
Why don’t we live like that?!
(For some further resources on
fighting GREED at Christmas check out the advent conspiracy –
theadventconspiracy.org).
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