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It’s mine – it’s all
mine! (sound of maniacal laughter follows). Yes, another pantomime villain
is about to get his or her come-uppance after trying to do whatever it
is they’re after - to take over the world, to find the secret formula,
to get the ring of power, or to be the fairest of them all.
I got a leaflet from Dell computers through the post this week. It’s
full of wonderful new road-ready computers with aggressive styling and
unrivalled performance that will revolutionise my digital life, boost
my Windows Vista experience, enable me to work and play harder, and solve
all my pc problems for £79 a year. At least, that’s what the
leaflet told me. It gave me a headache and I put it in the bin. But it’s
going out in its millions to get people to want and buy what they don’t
know they need yet. Like those Innovations gadget catalogues with the
electric footbath or the nose hair remover that you didn’t know you
couldn’t do without - but soon it will be mine, all mine.
The media were full this week of the statement from the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change which confirmed that humans are responsible for
global warming and that we have to change substantially our way of life
or we won’t have a way of life worth keeping. And we listen, and
we hear it, and we go out and we buy more cars and build more airports
and carry on as though nothing is going to happen, and it will all be
ours for ever and ever.
The ancient Greeks had a word for it, which comes in Paul’s letter
to the Colossians read this morning (3.5) – pleonexia, which means
literally more-having – covetousness, greed, wanting control over
things and people, ultimately making yourself and your wants the centre
of the universe.
Paul is talking about conversion to Christ and its effects, calling us
to turn away from old things and put Christ and not ourselves at the centre
of our life. He uses language drawn from the Christian baptism service:
we’ve been raised with Christ, we’ve died to earthly things,
so we should take them off like the dirty old clothes which candidates
for baptism take off before going down into the baptismal water. And the
things we take off include not only wrong passions, anger, prejudice and
division, but in particular this word pleonexia, I must-have-more, greed
- which, says Paul, is idolatry.
Why is greed idolatry? Idolatry means to put something in the place of
God and worship it instead. And greed does that – it puts us and
our desires in the place of God, and we worship them – we want it
so we get it, we use things and people for ourselves, we use them and
we don’t love them or take care of them – we allow the abuse
of animals, we tolerate exploitation of others for our own profit, and
we destroy the environment in order to have a better standard of living.
Because we want to have more, because we are as the Greeks would say pleonectic,
we take what doesn’t belong to us and use it to destruction.
And even in religion we tend to greed, to self-centredness – how
often do we pray wanting God to do what we want rather than what he wants,
our prayers taken up with our own concerns rather than open to listen
to God’s concerns? Do we go in for gadget prayers - things that will
make our life better? rather than prayers which will make us uncomfortable
and bring in God’s kingdom? I’ve known people pray for more
of God’s gifts, spiritual things like speaking in tongues, having
miracles and such like – and that can be a spiritual form of greed
too, where we want things for ourselves – when we should want only
God himself, whatever God may bring along, easy and difficult together.
Even in faith we can become greedy.
Before you get uncomfortable or protesting, let me assure you - I say
these things to myself as well. Greed is part of the human condition,
as whoever gave us the big tin of Roses chocolates for Christmas knew
only too well (does anyone like those praline ones? – we’ve
only got the ones left which you eat when you’re so desperate for
chocolate that you don’t care what it tastes like).
And what can we do about it, about this pervasive greed around us? That’s
the cry that lots of people make in response to global warming or human
greed – what can we do?
The Stop the Traffik event here on Tuesday night with nearly 300 people
was set up by a few people with a passion to make something happen, to
do something to stop the trafficking and exploitation of women and children
and men too – to end slavery now as Wilberforce began its ending
200 years ago. We can be part of that.
Many of you I hope were handed a leaflet this morning about the Church
Urban Fund, which raises money to help the poor and excluded, including
here in Bradford – the Bishop’s Lent Appeal is raising money
for this.
And you’ve responded magnificently to the appeal for money for wells
for Pakistan, to bring clean water to villages affected by earthquake
and disease – we’ve raised over £1500 so far.
All of these are things we can do and be involved in. Every low-energy
light bulb and every TV turned off from stand-by is a contribution to
saving energy, and we can all do that.
But there’s something even more important to do. It’s to live
life with the opposite of pleonexia, wanting more. And the opposite is
what, says Paul? It’s to be loving and compassionate, yes; and it’s
also to live a life which is thankful (Col.3.15-17) – a life which
doesn’t try to grab what we can, but to give thanks for what we receive
– knowing that it comes from God.
How does it feel? Life is really complicated, moral choices are very difficult,
we don’t know what we should do for the best? Well, says Paul, do
everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him. If we can do it thankfully with a full heart before God,
doing it while praying to Jesus, then we’re on the right lines. At
least we won’t be living in the self-centred idolatry of greed. If
in doubt about what to do – try giving thanks to Jesus for it. Say
grace at meals and grace for everything else too – so our lives are
full of thanks.
If the Greek for being greedy is pleonectic, what’s the Greek for
being thankful? It’s eucharistic. Every time we have holy communion
we give thanks for Jesus and through Jesus. The way to stop being greedy
& idolatrous is to be a Eucharistic people – to desire the bread
and wine of the kingdom of God, to have a heart which gives thanks to
God for what we receive, rather than a life dedicated to getting as much
as we can.
If you want to turn your back on the me and mine culture of today –
start by giving 10 minutes of your coffee time to holy communion this
morning in St Aidan’s straight after the end of the morning service–
time to let go of me, and embrace with thanks God’s love for us and
for all.
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