WHAT IS THE PURPOSES OF HAVING VICES HOW TO
WHAT IS THE PURPOSES OF HAVING VICES PDF
WHAT IS THE PURPOSES OF HAVING VICES SERIES

And so Jesus says to his disciples after the rich, young ruler had gone away grieving, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God… It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The problem with greed is that if we are bound by it, prisoners to the power that our stuff has over us, then no matter how much stuff we have, it won’t allow us to truly love others, to truly love in ways that begin to answer the great questions of life, questions of purpose, hope, meaning and eternity. It goes way deeper than writing cheques or donating food, although it can include those things as well. It means to love others in the same way that God has first loved us. It ends, in the old KJV like this, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity.” That sounds a bit strange doesn’t it? It’s because most of us know the verse to read, “And now faith, hope and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” Charity isn’t just writing a cheque to the United Way or dropping off a donation to the food bank. Charity is love, agape. You will probably know the reading from 1 Corinthians 13 about love. The Christian definition of charity is rooted in the Greek word agape. It isn’t just giving money or helping those who have less or nothing. But charity as a virtue isn’t exactly what we might think it is. Let it go, let go of the power that his stuff had over his life, but the man couldn’t let go, he remained stuck in his gilded cage.Īnother understanding of generosity as the opposite of greed might be charity. If the rich, young man’s bondage was his greed, his attachment to his stuff that prevented him from knowing eternal life, from knowing that which all his money couldn’t buy, then Jesus offered him liberty, he offered him freedom. From the same root word comes the word liberty, freedom. The theologian, priest and philosopher Thomas Aquinas wrote that the opposite of greed is generosity, but he used the Latin name for that virtue, liberality.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSES OF HAVING VICES SERIES

This week’s vice in our series of sermons on vices and virtues is greed. He sought purpose, he sought relevance, he sought hope and Jesus wanted to give it to him, he wanted to set him free. But the man couldn’t take the direction, his stuff got in the way.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSES OF HAVING VICES HOW TO

He was so trapped that he sought out Jesus to ask him how to get that one thing all his power and youth and wealth couldn’t get him, eternal life. And at that, the man went away grieving, for he had many possessions. You lack one thing, go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come, follow me. So, Jesus gets to the heart of the matter. I’ve done all these since I was young, he replies. Keep the commandments, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, and so on. Jesus goes through the usual chatter with him.

In a way it’s ironic that someone who should have had all the freedom in the world comes before Jesus and is exposed as someone who is trapped. Maybe he had so much wealth that he had nothing to do but to contemplate the bigger questions of life and maybe he found out that money can’t buy you everything, at least it can’t buy you eternal life.

He comes before this rabbi, this Jesus, who hangs around with fishermen and tax collectors, and he kneels before him and asks, Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?įrederick Buechner, the Presbyterian minister, theologian and author, once wrote, “The trouble with being rich is that since you can solve with your chequebook virtually all practical problems that bedevil ordinary people, you are left in your leisure with nothing but the great human problems to contend with: how to be happy, how to love and be loved, how to find meaning and purpose in your life…” Maybe that’s what brought the rich, young ruler to Jesus. So why is he running up to Jesus and kneeling before him? Well, for a guy who’s young, rich and has power, he seems to be lacking something. We’ve come to know him as the rich, young, ruler, a pretty good combination if you ask me. What’s up with the rich man in the story from the gospel reading this morning? In other gospel accounts we discover that the man in our story isn’t just rich, he’s also young and a ruler.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSES OF HAVING VICES PDF

Click here for PDF version: Aug-Vices and Virtues | Greed and Charity

What is the purposes of having vices