When people ask me what my job is like, one of the things that I often explain is that I think through things backwards compared to everyone else in the church. What I mean, is that prior to a particular Sunday, I think through the topic that I‘m preaching on. I get immersed in Scripture, other books, research, my own thinking, etc. I try hard to ask hard questions of my own life, so that the exercise of teaching isn’t just me wagging my finger “at you sinners out there,” but is instead an exploration of how we all struggle with sin. Sunday morning then, is the end of the road for me. After I finish on Sunday, I turn the page and begin thinking about the next Sunday.
For everyone else in the room, Sunday is just the beginning. My hope and prayer every Sunday, is that the message that is given serves as the catalyst for further thought and conversation throughout the week between spouses, friends, small groups, house churches, etc. Some weeks, I get a real sense that this happens, other weeks not-so-much.
In our current series, Vice & Virtue, last week was one of those weeks, that since Sunday, I’ve heard a lot of buzz. I think because we live in a culture where greed has been turned into a virtue, it’s hard for us as Americans to really think through what it might look like to follow Jesus in this regard.
Someone said, in our 2nd service last Sunday, that it’s hard for us to read parables of Jesus about money and hear them as Jesus’ first audience would have, because we hear them first as Americans. And he’s so right. It easy for us to begin with our cultural “norms,” when Jesus may be calling us to seeming deeper and more radical.
Here are just two of the very practical discussions I’ve either hear, overheard, or been told about. I’ll just give you a couple of the questions that others are wrestling with, and maybe it will stimulate your thinking more on this.
What about life insurance? How much life insurance is wisdom and how much life insurance is just about feeding my fears? Does getting life insurance mean I don’t have faith in God?
Is retirement planning “building bigger barns?” Again, how much is wisdom, and when does it turn to greed? Is it even possible to live in our culture and to live differently in terms of saving for retirement?
Hope this gives you something more to chew about greed.
In the meantime, I need to get busy working on sloth for this Sunday (or I could just watch TV).
