The state of greed

Charles did enough international travel to be familiar with US customs procedures. So when he was pulled aside in Dallas for an interview and a search by a customs official, he was curious.

“Why did you pull me out of line?” he asked the official.

The man shifted a little uncomfortably. “Are you sure you really want to know?”

“I wouldn’t have asked,” Charles told him, “if I didn’t want to know.”

“Well, as you came through customs, I heard you say that you were a Christian. I find that Christians lie more often about what they bring back into the US.”

Ouch.

This is a true story. What can we make of it?

I’ve talked with waiters and waitresses who dread the Sunday after-church crowd for these are the most likely to leave a pittance for a tip along with a brochure on how to get to heaven.

I suspect a thoughtful tip might convey something of God’s love, too.

I know of churches who nurse along a healthy savings account, calling it stewardship when I wonder about their trust. For some reason, I think about five loaves and two fishes turning into food for over 5,000 – with leftovers. Couldn’t God re-fill the savings account?

King Nebuchadnezzar was reduced to an animal state because he used his wealth and power to live a life of ease, taking pride in his own abilities rather than submitting to God.

Are we a greedy group of followers?

Job said it well:

If I have made gold my trust, or called fine gold my confidence; if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, or because my hand had gotten much... this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I should have been false to God above.

Job 31:24-28

How can I find the answers?

Houses were shredded by a tornado ripping through Windsor, Colorado last week. A 12-year-old boy is sweating to re-learn to walk after a throat-gripping gun accident at Christmas. A godly, missional woman is fighting cancer.

And we want to cry out, “Why, God?”

We know from Deuteronomy that sin causes suffering. Is the opposite true? Does all suffering come from sin?

That’s the question Job’s friends threw to heaven. Their conclusion? Of course. They badgered Job to admit his sin. But Job, from the first chapter of the book, was described as righteous. Job’s claim, as he sat on a pile of dust scratching his painful boils, was that he deserved none of this.

He shouted: “Why, God?”

When God’s answer finally comes to Job, it silences complaints. God, in describing all the animals of creation, reminds Job that no one understands why God formed the heavens or created an ostrich. Our minds are finite and limited. We cannot understand infinite deity.

God tells Job, as he tells us, that there are mysteries beyond our abilities to understand.

We are people, not deity, and our need is not to understand but to trust.

God challenged Job: "Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God's critic, but do you have the answers?" (Job 40:2)

Job was humbled. His knowledge was dew in the sun. "I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will put my hand over my mouth in silence. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say." (Job 40:4-5)

The answers to tornadoes and injury and cancer don’t come through the “why’s.” We can’t know. But we can trust the One who does.

(Painting from The Genesis Project, used by permission.)