Daily Scripture:
Luke 12:13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Rabbi, tell my brother to share with me the property we inherited.” 14 But Yeshua answered him, “My friend, who appointed me judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 Then to the people he said, “Be careful to guard against all forms of greed, because even if someone is rich, his life does not consist in what he owns.” 16 And he gave them this illustration: “There was a man whose land was very productive. 17 He debated with himself, ‘What should I do? I haven’t enough room for all my crops.’ 18 Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I’ll store all my wheat and other goods there. 19 Then I’ll say to myself, “You’re a lucky man! You have a big supply of goods laid up that will last many years. Start taking it easy! Eat! Drink! Enjoy yourself!”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will die! And the things you prepared — whose will they be?’ 21 That’s how it is with anyone who stores up wealth for himself without being rich toward God.”
Acts 20:35 In everything I have given you an example of how, by working hard like this, you must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Yeshua himself, ‘There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.’”(Complete Jewish Bible).
Reflection Questions:
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To all people, and especially the 1%, Jesus said, “Guard yourself against all kinds of greed.” How much do you want in life? How much of what you want do you need? Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5 identified greed as a type of “idolatry,” of loving things more than God. Jesus’ sad parable reminded us that “one’s life isn’t determined by one’s possessions.” The day comes for all people when the only question is, “Who will get all the ‘stuff’ I’ve accumulated?”
- One option never seemed to occur to the man in Jesus’ story. The principle in Acts 20:35, the only direct quote from Jesus not in any of the four gospels, seemed to have never crossed his mind. Looking at his huge harvest, he never said, “I’ve got more than enough —I’ll give some to people who need it.” How easy or hard is it for you to be generous with the money, time or “stuff” you have? What wishes or fears get in the way of generosity?
- Does God ask you give to godly causes because God needs the money, or because you need to give? (If in doubt, cf. Psalm 50:9-10.) How do you understand Jesus' challenging phrase about being “rich toward God”? What steps can you take, in your day-to-day life, to increase your “stock” of this kind of inner wealth? How can you model and teach that approach to life with your children or other people with whom you have influence?
Lord God, I can best guard myself against greed when your Spirit is living within me, guiding and shaping my life. Please shape me into your self-giving image. Amen.
Read today's Insight by Roberta LyleRoberta Lyle has been on the Resurrection staff since 2006. She serves as the Program Director for Local Impact Ministries, concentrating on Education, Life Skills and Youth Focused Ministries.My first career was working as a paralegal for a medium-sized law firm in Iowa. One of the services we provided was to probate estates and I usually enjoyed working on those because there was a lot of interaction with the heirs. I liked the process of helping with identifying and noting all the assets and making arrangements for everything to be distributed according to the will. Sometimes, though, something about the probate process brought up old feelings of hurt in the family. Maybe one sibling felt they deserved more than the other or there's disagreement over who inherits Mom's wedding ring. It was sad when these disagreements resulted in a split in the family. There usually wasn't a lot of money or assets involved, but that didn't matter when greed reared its ugly head.
Greed always tells us that we don't have enough but if we had just a little more then we would be happy. Unfortunately if we give into greed we find there is never a limit to what we want. Part of this is due to our market culture which feeds this dissatisfaction. For example, we've undertaken a lot of remodeling projects over the twenty-plus years we've lived in our current house. Still, when we recently listed our house we lost some potential buyers because the colors we chose several years ago don't match the current trends. We will soon be moving into a new house that does match current home decor tastes but in ten or maybe even five years it too will look dated. Do we need to continually be in remodeling mode to stay in style? How much money should we dedicate to this every year? What is the impact on the environment of constantly discarding and replacing stuff? What is the impact on my heart and soul if I give in to the greedy desire to always have the newest and best?
One of the last probate cases I worked on at the law firm involved two sisters whose mother had just died. The mother had a couple of savings accounts that she held jointly with her daughters. One savings account was much larger than the other. The daughter who was named on the larger account was also the executrix of the estate. Even though her mother's desire was that she inherit the most she insisted on pooling the funds so they could be divided evenly between her and her sister. She insisted her sister not know she did this and wanted her to believe their mother had divided her estate equally among the two of them. I don't remember the details about what families squabbled about over estates but the unselfish generosity of the woman who put her sister's feelings above financial gain has always stayed with me. Not only did she benefit her sister, I'm sure her decision gave her peace and lasting joy that would have eluded her had she kept the extra money.
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- Prayer Tip: What Would Jesus Say to the 1%?
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- Or download this week's printable GPS.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.
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