The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, August 5th: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23; Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21)

GREED IS IDOLATRY

This week is one of those rare occasions when the readings at church have nothing to do with our lives. Every once in a while the selected biblical texts, written thousands of years ago, simply do not apply to us here in the modern world. This week is one of those times.

You see, the readings this week focus on archaic, unfamiliar topics: greed, wealth accumulation, being obsessed with possessions, and thinking that a person’s life is measured exclusively by how much stuff he or she owns. These issues, of course, are completely foreign to us. Since we live in a society today where people own only what they need to get by and donate the rest to charity, and where a person’s worth is measured by his character and honesty, this week’s readings are irrelevant. So this week’s Bible readings have nothing useful to tell us here on the planet Skriknak.

Oh wait, my mistake. I was confused there for a minute. We actually live on the planet Earth, specifically in the materialistic whirlwind of a nation known as the United States. So maybe these topics are relevant after all.

In the gospel reading, Jesus said, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

Wow, if Jesus ever made that statement in the boardroom of the New York Stock Exchange—or, for that matter, in the players’ lounge at the Torrington Country Club—somebody would call the cops to come and drag Him away. (Although there might be a few guys in the lounge who would reply, “Of course life does not consist of possessions—life also consists of showing off your possessions to make the neighbors jealous.”)

Jesus told the story of a man who spent all of his time and energy accumulating wealth. No days off, no vacations, no time to be with his family, just work, work, work to build up his business. (Know anyone like that?) This workaholic thought to himself that someday in the future he would accumulate enough assets to finally take it easy, or as he put it, “Rest, eat, drink, be merry.”

But as Jesus explained, one day God came to this man—probably as he was simultaneously talking on the phone with a supplier, chewing out a couple of employees in his office, and reviewing the latest sales reports—and the Lord said, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?”

Now, the man probably kicked God out of his office, shouting, “I don’t see nobody without an appointment! And I mean NOBODY!”

But as he was driving home late that evening in his new, leased BMW, he might have starting thinking to himself, “Hey, what if I die suddenly? My moron nephew Leonard doesn’t deserve to inherit this company. He’d just run it into the ground within six months anyway. Why am I working so darned hard?”

And right at that moment, severe pains began to creep across the man’s chest, and the next thing he knew, his soul was standing before the throne of God, where God, always a fan of irony, shouted, “I don’t see nobody without an appointment!” The man was then escorted by security personnel out of God’s presence for the rest of eternity.

So this week Jesus reminds us of the old adage that a person on his deathbed never wishes he had spent more time at the office. Jesus calls us to put things in their proper perspective.

This week’s first reading is even more blunt in discussing the topics of work and possessions. The book of Ecclesiastes describes a man “who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill.” Although this person has worked hard and built up a nice estate, “yet to another who has not labored…he must leave property.”

In other words, after all that hard work and all those years of sacrifice, death finally comes and that moron nephew Leonard inherits the company anyway.

The book of Ecclesiastes calls this situation “vanity.” Other Bible translations use different words, such as: meaningless, futile, useless, or emptiness. Whichever word the translators choose, however, the meaning is the same: spending so much time and effort just to build up a pile of possessions that you rarely have time to enjoy is the height of foolishness.

The second reading this week, from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians, makes it clear that this kind of behavior is not only foolish, it is a sin.

Paul warns against the many aspects of our sinful nature: immorality, impurity, passion, and evil desires. But he emphasizes one aspect above the others: “the greed that is idolatry.” He didn’t just list the word greed among the many other sins; he made a special point of describing greed as being idolatry.

Idolatry is the worst of all sins, because it puts something which is not God in the place of God. Worshipping anyone or anything besides our true Creator and Lord is by far the most offensive of transgressions.

And “the greed that is idolatry” has become, at least in this nation, practically a way of life. (I’m not sure if it’s a problem on the planet Skriknak.) There are countless people in the U.S., including many professing Christians, who are obsessed with their possessions and the status those possessions bring. If they were forced to choose between either their Lord or their Lexus, they most likely would say, “Sorry, Jesus, people don’t get jealous of me when I read my Bible, but they get positively green with envy when I cruise down the street in my expensive new car!”

Actually, they’d never admit that. They would insist Jesus is Lord, while continuing to focus most of their time and energy and devotion on their possessions. It’s similar to the time Jesus rebuked the Pharisees by quoting Isaiah, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matt 15:8).

In ancient times people committed idolatry in blatant, obvious ways. They worshipped a golden calf. They bowed down before stone carvings and other sculpted images. It was clear they had abandoned the true God and put their faith in man-made things.

Here in the modern world, the idolatry is more subtle. People don’t bow down and offer prayers in front of their homes, cars, wardrobes, stock portfolios, country club memberships, or electronic devices. But oftentimes these man-made things—and the status they bring—have replaced God as the object of devotion.

And just like the man Jesus described in this week’s gospel reading, at some point in time—usually when we least expect it—our life will be demanded of us, and God will say, “The things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?”

Let’s pray that God does not also say to us, “You spent your whole life focusing on money, possessions, and status. You neglected your family and ignored faith, hope, and charity. And now your life is over and even as we speak, all of your precious wealth is being squandered by that moron nephew of yours, Leonard.”

©2007