Finding Faith ... in knowing the difference between wealth and greed

EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 2.5 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and the deepening of my theological mind. This sermon originally took place on Aug. 4, 2019.

Greed and wealth. … Now there’s a couple of weighty, difficult theological issues to wrestle with, aren’t they?

This past week I spent four nights and four days in the heart of Chicago for a conference. I stayed in a hotel right on the river not much more than a half mile from Lake Michigan.

When I looked out my 18th story hotel room window, I was staring at the massive southside of the Trump International Hotel. … And all around me there were skyscrapers as tall I’ve ever seen.

The conference I was attending was being held just across the Chicago River from my hotel at the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center, a state-of-the-art facility that was high tech and possessed south-facing windows that gave a wonderful view of the river and Chicago’s newest Vista skyscraper that is being built.

Lunches weren’t provided at the conference, and so for an hour and a half each day I was free to go anywhere in downtown Chicago and pick from any high-end restaurant I wanted to.

And then at night, after the conference, I was able to go back to the hotel and collect our soon Carter and his friend Simon, who accompanied me on the trip, and go sightseeing.

We went to a Chicago White Sox game, we climbed to the top of the Hancock building, 100 stories towering over the edge of Lake Michigan second only to the height of the Sears Tower.

We also spent hours walking up and down Chicago’s famed Michigan Avenue. Michigan Avenue is the heart of Chicago’s downtown. It runs north and south for a couple of miles and you can find every store that indicates opulence along that street. Saks Fifth Avenue. Neiman Marcus. Brooks Brothers. Retail stores that cater only to the wealthiest of the wealthy. … It’s nickname is “The Magnificent Mile.”

Let me tell you, it was a heady week for this simple kid from northwestern Minnesota. … I got a small glimpse of how the other half lives, and I tell you, I won’t forget it.

But then, there was another side of the trip I will never forget either. … And it started the very first night that we got to Chicago, about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.

We got in late because we drove to the conference, and so after a long day, I was sitting in a chair, unwinding and looking out our floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the downtown.

And there, on the sidewalk across the street, 18 floors down, I saw four people sleeping on the sidewalk, curled up on cardboard mats, snuggled in alongside the retaining wall that follows along the river.

One lucky person even snagged a plum spot on a raised grassy flower bed that was built into the sidewalk.

It was quite the jarring juxtaposition with one of the world’s premier luxury hotel buildings just across the river in the background.

But that wouldn’t be the only time during this past week that I was forced to juggle being face to face with some of the most extreme opulence in the world … as well as some of the most extreme poverty in America.

Every morning on my brief walk to the conference, I would walk by many, many people who were just rousing from their night of slumber on the dirty, urban streets.

As I passed with my belly full, warm coffee in hand, and a backpack full of expensive electronic gear, I watched as these people would fold up their cardboard mats, roll up their blanket and stuff their few belongings into a backpack, before moseying on. … Because in a few short minutes, those sidewalks would fill with so many pedestrian commuters that the folks sleeping on the streets would get trampled.

Then, on my lucky lunch breaks, when I would go off to eat at the pick of any tremendous restaurant I wanted, I would pass multiple people hunched along the buildings holding out cups in search of just a few dollars to help them get through the day.

And then worst of all, after I would collect Carter from the hotel, and we would head out for the evening, we would have very difficult conversations about wealth and giving and greed and how much was too much. And why was it that we were headed off to have a great Italian dinner, while these folks were scraping together enough to buy a burger for the night.

It was evident that this inexplicable juxtaposition of wealth and poverty … of opulence and despair … was as troubling to Carter as it was to me.

And so, as you can imagine, this week’s texts served as a challenging backdrop to this week’s visit to Chicago.

So I return back to those words we heard at the beginning of this sermon. … Greed and wealth. … And, it makes me ask, how as Christians do we juggle these concepts here in a world that places such value on wealth and material things, with our faith that places almost no value on them.

Go through the Bible and there are many more than just the four texts today that dwell on the concept of greed. … There are many scriptures that warn us against the storing up of wealth for earthly needs, and today’s texts in particular tell us that essentially those stored up goods will just pass to another person when you die. … We are told in these texts that this practice is folly. … Or fool’s gold, might be a better term.

But yet, most of us here are adults and we realize that there is a certain cost to living. It takes money, food and shelter to live a comfortable life.

And, surely, there isn’t anything wrong with wanting to preserve enough wealth so that our family’s next generation lives comfortably as well. Is there?

So what is that we are to do? … How is that we are to balance the earthly pull of everyday living, and the desire to want to take care of our loved ones, with the expectations of living a Christly life. … Surely, there is no crime in working hard and reaping the reward is there?

And I think the hard answer is no … but only if we don’t allow that wealth … allow our possessions and money … allow the pursuit of comfort … to become the value of our life. ... Because Jesus’s parable warns us against just that. Instead, the parable warns us to find our value in our relationship with God.

Admittedly, this is not an easy conversation. So I wish I had a better answer for you. … I wish I knew how to split the hair of what’s enough to take care of your family and everyday needs and what is considered greed. … But I don’t.

I honestly don’t know how to come to terms with being able to go to the restaurant of my choice while I pass a dozen people looking for the smallest handouts.

And I still struggle with the site of seeing a mother sleeping in a doorway of building that sells luxury clothing with her arms wrapped around her two children, while going on a cherished shopping trip with my son.

Full admission: I go back to this theological quandary on a regular basis.

How much wealth is too much? Is any wealth OK? … And just at what point do we cross over into greed? … And my honest answer is that I don’t know.

But what I do know from today’s texts, is that Jesus promises us we are on safe ground if we continue to value our relationship in him more than we do our relationship with wealth.

And the best way I know to do that is to value those relationships we have with others. … Not just our family, but all the others around us, because we are tightly woven together in a living fabric on this earth. And our God is a relational God. We know him through Jesus Christ, and we know Jesus through our relationships with others.

And if that sounds to you as if I don’t have today’s scripture lessons completely figured out, then you are absolutely correct. … I don’t.

But I know this: I know that each and every time I lift my hand to help another, I am valuing my relationship in Christ. And at the end of the day, that is what Jesus is teaching us to do in today’s parable.

As Christians, we are asked to abide by a tough code of principles. Such as that we value people and thus our relationship with Jesus more than we do money.

How that plays out in each of our lives will be different, and we each will be faced with difficult choices about using our resources, be they time, talents or treasure.

But the good news is that every time we make a decision involving our resources based on Christ’s principles and and not this world’s, we are doing what God asks of us.

And that is the good for this Sunday. … Amen.