The Power of Greed and the Promise of God
The Bible episode from 2 Kings 5:14-16, 19-27 of greed gone bad warns us about its power, and the grateful generosity of a man blessed by grace encourages us with God's more powerful promise. This is a testimony to "The Power of Greed and the Promise of God." October 25, 2009.
Gordon Stewart, a 74-year-old retired cabinet maker, would pedal his bike around the neighborhood picking up cardboard boxes and bags full of junk. When neighbors hadn’t seen him in several days they called police. Officers broke in to find a house so full of trash that the only way into it was literally digging tunnels through the filth. The stench was so bad that a police dive team with breathing apparatuses was called in to search for the man, who was found deep inside the heap – dead. Police actually believe Gordon got lost in his own garbage and died of dehydration.
It’s a real story, as real as our own hoarding of money and possessions because we just can’t seem to have enough. Greed is no joke. It hurts us, others, and God – and in some cases even has the power to kill. How can we control it? Or do we really want to? Today a Bible episode of greed gone bad warns us about its power, and the grateful generosity of a man blessed by grace encourages us with God’s more powerful promise.
Greed uses God to serve money
He was a strong, wise, and wealthy soldier with a chest full of colorful ribbons and dangling medals. His bravado could command thousands, dominate a press performance, or frighten away enemies but it could do nothing to fight off the incurable disease of leprosy. Naaman, the commander of the army of Israel’s heathen neighbor, Syria, made plans to buy God’s help, bribe the prophet Elisha, and bankroll his own healing with extravagant gifts: 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten Armani suits all loaded on the royal chariots. If that didn’t guarantee Naaman VIP treatment from this God of Israel and his prophet, nothing would. But it got him nowhere. God’s help is not for sale. God wants to give it away, and that he did by empowering Elisha to heal Naaman of his leprosy. Free of charge. “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel,” Naaman rejoiced to Elisha. “Please accept now a gift from your servant.” But Elisha refused. He didn’t want to give the impression that God’s help was for sale or that the prophet himself could do special tricks if bribed. Elisha would not use God to feed his greed. That’s contentment. Spiritual and financial peace.
Meanwhile too close for Elisha’s comfort, a boiling volcano of greed was erupting in his wide-eyed servant, Gehazi. Instead of following the lead of his mentor, Gehazi followed his greed. “My master was too easy on Naaman by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the Lord lives I will run after him and get something from him.” Greed steers us off the path of wise decisions related to money and possessions, blinding us to the good example of others and deafening us to their godly advice. Greed exploits the kindness and generosity of others. Greed makes hasty decisions. “Gehazi hurried after Naaman ‘My master sent me to say ’” and then he made up a story about two needy seminary students. Greed convinces us that it’s okay to tell little lies. After getting the goods from Naaman, Gehazi hid the loot in his house with the help of some servants and when Elisha asked him where he had gone he said, “Your servant didn’t go anywhere.” Greed uses people. Greed must be sly and secretive. Greed ruins a relationship with God. “Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever,” Elisha cursed greedy Gehazi, to remind him daily of greed’s power.
Gehazi used God to serve money. He used his God-given position and the God-inspired generosity of Naaman to feed his greed. For Gehazi money became his God and greed his act of worship. In Colossians 3:5 the Bible calls greed idolatry because it shoves God off the throne of our hearts and replaces him with money and possessions. In Ephesians the Bible warns, “No greedy person – such a person is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Ephesians 5:5). Try to buy the good life and you’ll lose it. Greed can get you a lot of things, but the blessing of God is not one of them. Greed comes with a price. Richard Heene, greedy for his own reality TV show, concocted the balloon boy scam and he got the media swarm he was looking for, but he’ll also get a prison sentence, not to mention lifelong distrust from the son he used for his own greedy gain.
Generosity uses money to serve God
Children of God know a better way. It’s just sometimes hard to believe it because the power of greed pressures us from the outside and deep from within. That’s why God doesn’t just tell us what that better way is, he leads us there with his promise, like the one in Hebrews, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (13:5). Contentment isn’t an attitude or a way of seeing things – it’s a state of being – a gift from God that is ours through faith. The gift is God’s merciful commitment to sinners that we may have a little or a lot, may have a job or be looking, may be healthy or hoping for a cure, may feel good or not so good but God is there. Nothing a child of God does or experiences would ever make God want to leave. When the disciples were worried about how hard it is to believe that, Jesus led them to stronger faith with his beautiful promise, “All things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). With God, you can be more content and generous.
Elisha believed that from the beginning when he was in the middle of farming and God called him to be a prophet. He burned his plowing equipment and used it as firewood to cook his oxen that he butchered for a party celebrating God’s gracious providing that comes – always comes – with his call to follow. And now, faced with lavish gifts from Naaman, Elisha flashes back to the providing of God in his life. Once God multiplied the widow’s oil and another time God miraculously produced fresh water for drinking. So Elisha could contently and politely refuse Naaman’s gifts, “No thanks, I already have a sponsor – God.”
Elisha’s contentment is matched by Naaman’s generosity. God’s power healed Naaman by grace that Naaman couldn’t buy but he did believe. This healing of Naaman (not just of his leprosy but of his sins) led Naaman to give Gehazi twice as much as Gehazi asked for. Naaman’s generosity used his money and possessions to serve God. What a contrast between the Syrian, Naaman, and the Israelite, Gehazi. The Syrian become an Israelite in heart and spirit, and was cured of his leprosy. The Israelite became a Syrian in heart and spirit, and was struck with the leprosy of the Syrian. What each had sown, he reaped. As a testimony to The Power of Greed and the Promise of God.
Comedian Stephen Wright once joked, “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?” Well, it’s not so funny to read the sad story of Gordon Stewart who tried to hoard everything he could, and then realize there’s a Greedy Gordon in each of us. And it wants to kill us too. To prevent that, give it all away. As in give everything you have to God. Let me ask, how much of your income should you give to God? Think generously now. 2%? 5%? 10%? More? Yes, much more. “Go sell everything you have and you will have treasure in heaven,” Jesus promises (Mark 10:21). Give 100% of your money and possessions to God with a faith that believes they don’t belong to you, they belong to God and he’s just loaning them to you for a while. What truly belongs to you what makes you rich what you as a believer can’t lose, and it won’t decrease in value and it can’t be taken what guides you better than greed and empowers you more than greed and blesses you in ways greed never will is your true treasure of heaven: God’s promise that he is yours now and forever. It might help if we adjust our attitude and instead of thinking in terms of giving 5% or 10% to God by giving it to church and using the rest however we want, giving all that we have to God so that everything we own serves him. Whether you’re saving or spending or digging out of debt, whether you give 5% of your income or 10% to church, whether you own a mansion or rent a flat or stay in the dorm, whether you drive a Beamer or ride the bus, you are rich, and you can be even more content when you give all that you have to the glory of God, using all of it in every way with faith and generosity.
That’s the good life. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on October 25, 2009
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