Greed Kills

Exodus 20:17

One-hundred and twenty-one years ago, Tolstoy wrote a short story

whose title asks simply, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”

-it’s the story of a Russian peasant who acquires some property,

but rather than satisfy him, it only creates a thirst for more

--through a series meetings with various travelers, he learns of

the Bashkirs...a people who own all the land beyond the

Volga River and they are willing to sell it for virtually nothing

--he journeys there to find rich, virgin soil...as flat as the palm of

your hand and as black as a poppy seed

-he meets with the Chief of the Bashkirs, a kind man who assures

him that they have plenty of land for everyone

--the peasant quickly asks about the price of land

-Chief answers, “Price is always the same. 1000 rubles per day.”

--“Per day? How much is that? How many acres?”

-the Chief, who seems quite naïve to the ways of the world replies,

“We don’t know how many acres. We sell it by the day. As

much as you can go around on your feet in one day is yours.

And the price is 1000 rubles per day.”

--“But, in one day, you can get a large amount of land!”

---the Chief laughed, “It will all be yours, my friend. There is

but one condition: If you don’t return to the exact starting

spot by sunset on the same day, your money is lost.”

That night the man could not sleep

-he imagined how far he could walk in a day

--he calculated how much he could farm, how many men he could

hire, how much land he could leave in pasture, and how much

he could sell

---it was all pretty overwhelming for such a simple man

-just before dawn he drifted to sleep...he dreamt he heard someone

chuckling outside

--he went out and he saw the Bashkir Chief sitting in front of the

tent holding his sides and rolling about with laughter

---going nearer to the Chief, he asked: “What are you

laughing at?”

--but then he realized it wasn’t the Chief, but the traveler who had

first told him about the land and the Bashkirs

---just as he was about to ask a question, he saw that it was

really the Devil himself...sitting there chuckling

--on the ground in front of him was a man...and as he looked

closer, he saw the man was dead...and then the face of the

man became clear—the dead man was him

---he bolted upright in bed, sweating, and gasping for breath

At sunrise, he gave his 1000 rubles to the Chief and began walking

-at first his pace was neither fast nor slow, but as the morning wore

on he picked up his stride because with each step the land

seemed even better

--in an effort to include a particularly attractive field, he went

much too far before setting out his claim marker and turning

around

---aware of his error, he began to hurry, but the hot afternoon

sun took its toll and he was soon exhausted—his lungs

burned, his legs weakened, and his heart beat like a

smith’s hammer

---occasionally he would stumble, but still he pressed on

-finally, he could see the starting/finishing hill with the Bashkirs on

top, cheering him on

Panicking, he saw the sun sinking below the horizon

-with all his remaining strength, he made on last rush, but as he

reached the base of that hill, the sun disappeared

--in agony he cried, “All my labor has been in vain!”

-but the Bashkirs were still cheering...and he realized to him the sun

appeared to have set, but on top of the hill, they could still see it

--he took a long breath and ran up the hill...he reached the top

and saw the starting point

---before it sat the Chief laughing and holding his sides

--he remembered his dream as his legs gave way beneath him,

he fell forward and reached the spot with his hands

-“Ah, that’s a fine fellow!” exclaimed the Chief. “He has gained much

land!”

--his servant ran to him, but saw blood flowing from his mouth...

he took a spade, dug a grave, and buried his master on a hill

overlooking the finest land on the other side of the Volga

-so how much land does a man need? Tolstoy answers his own

question: about six feet from his head...to his heels

Plain and simple—greed kills

-greed is an insatiable hunger...a thirst that can never be fulfilled

--and its danger lies in its subtlety...greed isn’t some obvious sin

like murder or adultery...it roots itself deep in the soul...and just

like some sinister cancer, it can hide dormant for years

---but still it remains a silent killer

-greed is a real threat to marriages and families, to friendships, to a

person’s spirit

--it’s so devastating that God warns us never to give it the

smallest foothold in our lives

Read Exodus 20:17

It’s only a guess, but I’d imagine if I’d ask people to name the Ten

Commandments, this would be the one that’s forgotten most often

-perhaps we don’t recognize the inherent dangers of coveting, of

wanting what you don’t have, or wanting what someone else has

--breaking many of the other commandments will cause you

legal trouble, relationship problems, not to mention serious

issues between you and God

--but it would seem you can covet someone’s property—their

boat or their plasma TV—and no one will know

--I mean, greed alone never got anyone thrown into jail, right?

---but look closely at some of those—what we call—“big sins”

and you will find the sin of greed or covetousness lurking,

leering behind them

Too often too many of us are simply not satisfied with what we have

-like the peasant in Tolstoy’s story, if we could just have one more

acre, one more field

--if our car were newer or our house bigger

--if our wife were younger or our husband more romantic

--if our job paid better or our position had more power

---...then we’d be satisfied...then we’d be happy

-but it’s all a lie...the truth is that none of those things will ever be

enough—you’ll be driving home your new truck from the dealer

and you’ll pass a truck that has more chrome, a longer bed, nicer

wheels and you’ll have that sick, empty feeling in your stomach

-Ecclesiastes 5:10 à Whoever loves money never has money

enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.

Sometimes the issue isn’t that we don’t have something, but simply

that someone else does

-you might not care in the least about having a nice home in the

country, but it eats you up that she has it

--covetousness cannot stand to see someone else happy

-Gore Vidal admits à Whenever a friend succeeds, a little

something in me dies.

--isn’t that sad? it’s honest, no doubt, but sad

We might argue that we Americans are victims of our culture that is

obsessed not merely with having something, but having to have

something...believing, somehow, that something purchased can

satisfy our need for more

-but even more is not enough

--we get an X-box 360, but then we want a Wii

---we get a Wii, but then we want more games

-Sports Illustrated poked fun at consumers who rush out to buy the

annual installment of the Madden NFL video game

--for example, according to CNN, the ’08 version sold 4.5 million

copies in less than three months, but the reality is that it’s not

that much different from the ’07 game

--Sport Illustrated wisely pointed out that we are eaten up by

the never-ending craving to have the latest and the best

Like someone addicted to methamphetamines, the first time is

remarkable, but the second isn’t as great...and it requires more and

more of the drug to produce an ever-diminishing high

-all along, the person dies a little more each time...the drug slowly

eating them away from the inside out

--that’s a harsh comparison, I know, but it’s right on target

Understand something clearly

-at issue here is not the car you drive nor the size of your portfolio or

the square footage of your house

--at issue is neither the blanket condemnation of wealth nor the

over-generalized, so-called blessedness of poverty

-the heart of this command is, as you might imagine, your heart

--who or what do you love? who or what do you worship?

--who or what motivates you to work?

--from whom or what do you seek the greatest joy or peace?

So what do we do—we sincere Christians who recognize the ever-

present temptation to covet, but really don’t want to do it...what

practices do we adopt to counter this deadly sin?

Let me pause for a moment and remind you of something important

-remember how we’ve tried to rephrase the “negative” or “thou shalt

not” commands in the positive

--clearly that’s not because the Bible’s negative wording is faulty

or inadequate in some way

-but I do that to reinforce the principle that we take on Christ-like

actions and attitudes in addition to staying away from evil

--for example:

---worship the one and only God

---honor God’s name

---respect life

---honor marriage and sexual purity

---respect the property of others

---tell the truth

There might be several different ways you could re-word the 10^th

Commandment in the positive

-personally, I would choose, “Be content”

Hebrews 13:5 à Keep your lives free from the love of money and

be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I

leave you; never will I forsake you.”

What does that attitude look like?

It means we recognize God as the owner of everything

-when I stop seeing possessions as belonging to you and me, and

instead understand that everything is His, then the temptation to

covet fades

--when I realize that what I have is what I have been given by

God to use for His glory, it totally alters my perspective

---that is, remember, the foundation of stewardship

Contentment put into action also looks like shameless generosity

-if we actually take God at His word never to forsake us, it means

we can give without fear and without worry

-it means we can give without demanding a penny-by-penny

accounting of how “our” money was spent

--I’m certainly not advocating unethical or secretive behavior by

those who receive our gifts—no!!

--instead I’m saying that we give freely and trust God to take care

of the details

---if it were truly never our money to begin with...and we are

compelled to give out of love...then we should give God’s

money joyfully and relax, knowing we have done what He

has called us to do

The beauty of contentment is that rich, and poor, and everyone in

between can know it

-in The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard cites an inscription

from Westminster Abbey that remembers Mrs. Katharina Boveyà

It pleased God to bless her with considerable estate, which, with

a liberal hand guided by wisdom and piety, she employed to His

glory and the good of her neighbors. Her domestic expenses

were managed with a decency and dignity suitable to her fortune;

but with a frugality that made her income abound to all proper

objects of charity, to the relief of the [needy], the encouragement

of the industrious, and the instruction of the ignorant. She

distributed not only with cheerfulness, but with joy, which upon

some occasions of raising or refreshing the spirit of the afflicted,

she could not refrain from breaking forth into tears flowing from a

heart thoroughly affected with compassion and benevolence.

Was Mrs. Bovey wealthy? <yes>

Did she believe she would find happiness in possessions? <no>

Was she content with what she had? <yes>

Was Mrs. Bovey rich? <yes, in this world...and in the one to come>

Read 1 Timothy 6.6 – 11

Does that describe you—godliness with contentment?

Would you be satisfied with food and clothing?

Are you willing to wander from your faith in your pursuit of more?

Read Philippians 4:11b – 13