Overcoming Greed and Anxieties

Then Jesus said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”
Luke 12:15 (New Living Translation)

If you put the TV on today, you may well hear an advert that goes like this: with glossy pictures of beautiful people enjoying a care-free life, with beautiful homes and furniture, and a shiny new car. They urge us to buy now, pay later, with guaranteed credit or a loan.

If you struggling with debts and credit card bills, don't worry – consolidate all your different bills into one easy monthly payment. If you're in real trouble they can help to wipe out your outstanding debts, and set you free.

I was talking to a man who turned out to be a financial advisor who told me that we're creating not just a buy now-pay later society – we're building a buy now-pay never society! Just keep spending, and racking up the debt – then get someone to come in and write it off so you can start again.

This world thrives on people setting higher and higher goals for themselves, and each other, so that they can worry all day whether they will meet them. Its ironic that in this country where levels of wealth and the standard of living has grown so much, there is still such a high level of anxiety, worry and stress.

We've been seduced by our consumer society, we've absorbed the standards of greed and materialism of the world. As with so much of his teaching, what Jesus says here goes to the heart of the problem, to the heart of who we are.

Remember that Jesus is speaking to a crowd in Jerusalem, a crowd of people who weren't all that well off. Many of his hearers only just had enough to live on, and there was always the prospect that one day they wouldn't have even that.

So Jesus is speaking to simple people, without a great deal. He's talking about the Kingdom of God, and he tells them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a person's life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions."

The Kingdom of God is, at its heart, about God's sovereignty sweeping the world with love and power, so that human beings, each of us made in the image of God and dearly loved, may relax in the knowledge that God is in control. This is where God wants us to get our identities and priorities for life.

That's a question for all of us. Is our identity found in our jobs, clothes and gadgets around our home? Or is our identity found in the relationships we have – our relationship to God and to each other?

The world would have us identify ourselves as customers – where companies and organisations value is for how much we can spend with them.

Capitalism in the west is no longer about making and building things, where we are a creative part of the process. Capitalism is now about owning brand names, and our value is merely as customers.

That's all OK as long as you keep spending, keep consuming, and keep the cycle going. But if you fall down, you're no longer of value, and you can lose your identity in society too.

So – if you're sick of the rat-race, greed and consumerism in society – hear some fresh wisdom: Jesus says, “a person's life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions”.

We can proudly be different from society. We can help those around us in financial difficulties to break the habit and take control. We can value people for who they are, not what they own. And you can give up greed and anxiety, and live in trust in our Father God who made you, loves you and watches over you.