The Misery of Misplaced Trust

 “The Misery of Misplaced Trust”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, Nov 9, 2014

Text: James 5:1-6 // Series: Mirror, Mirror: Reflections in the book of James

Around a year ago, I started to see a request pop up in my Facebook feed.  The post was an invitation to list the top 10 books that have stayed with you in some way.  The instructions usually said something to the effect of “Don't take more than a few minutes and don't think too hard. They do not have to be the 'right' books or great works of literature, just ones that have affected you in some way,". Well over one million people worldwide responded to the viral discussion post.  So Facebook tasked two of their employees to do research on people’s responses.  They pulled 130,000 status updates from the last two weeks of August 2014.  Take a guess what the number one book was?  (Bible was #6; To Kill a MB #2, Lord of the Rings #3, Hobbit #4, Pride and Prejudice #5).  #1 – Harry Potter. 

Personally, I never finished the exercise (I think I overthought it).  But there are a few books I would put on that list for me.  You see, I grew up in a farming community in Northern BC where my dad ran his own business, we never wanted for anything that I can recall.  But then when I was 13, we moved to suburban Toronto and I began to encounter people who were poor and began to travel to places in the world where abject poverty was normal.  And this discrepancy between my experiences growing up in Canada and the daily existence of the majority of the developing world began to gnaw away at my heart.  It was about this time in my life that I came in contact with a book by Canadian-born theologian and activist Ron Sider entitled “Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger” (the cover has since been updated up since they have published almost half a million copies).  What I read in those pages jolted me.  I had been involved in short term service and learning trips to places like Cuba where we saw the church living under oppression; I had observed a little faith community gather in a fire hall on an isolated island in the Baltic sea and watched them pool their meager resources to feed and clothe people who were poor in their city.  And then I returned to my conformable suburban existence, a state of life that often caused me to forget about people who lived in a daily state of need.  But as I read Sider’s book amongst others, something inside of me was shifting.  I was beginning to ask questions that I had not wrestled with up before.  Questions like “as a Christian, how much is too much for me to own?” The questions and the answers I was uncovering were unsettling to me and I still wrestle with them today.  Perhaps you have wrestled through your own version of these questions.  I hope today we can start or further this conversation because the Bible gives some important warnings & good advice that we need to heed.     

The issue is laid out in stark and sharp contrast for us in our text this morning in James chapter 5.  This fall here at Jericho Ridge, we’ve been studying in the book of James in the New Testament in a series entitled Mirror, Mirror.  The Bible has a surprising amount to say about economic realities, about notions of justice and greed and what it means to be rich and how God feels about people who are poor.  If you’ve been tracking with us in person or online, we already brushed up against this topic in chapter 2, where James has asked us to consider if we treat people differently or show favoritism based on their economic status.  But now here in chapter 5, James is very, very direct.  Unfortunately when I read this passage, I pretty quickly think of ways to exclude myself from the line of fire, but I want you to sit with this a minute before you think of linguistic or theological loopholes or economic labels to soften the impact of this intense admonition.  Follow along as I read James 5:1-6 [2 slides] 

Ouch!  James doesn’t pull any punches, does he?  In that book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, Ron Sider relates a story about the early 20^th century author Upton Sinclair who once read this passage to a group of pastors.  Then Sinclair attributed the passage not to the book of James but to a woman named Emma Goldman, who at the time was an anarchist agitator.  The ministers’ response was: ‘This woman ought to be deported at once!’  The passage so conflicted with their cultural norms, our cultural norms, that even a group of pastors didn’t recognize it coming from the Bible!  Sider observes: “Most Christians in the northern hemisphere simply do not believe Jesus’ teaching about the deadly danger of possessions. … We live in the richest society in the history of the world surrounded by a billion hungry neighbours, Yet… we insist on more and more.”  This is what James is asking us to wrestle with and why we shouldn’t let ourselves off the hook easily by saying “but I’m not rich!  Have you seen my bank account lately?!”  When it comes to the question of defining who is wealthy, James challenges us that Being rich is about my attitude and my actions as opposed to an amount.  Canadian Business magazine conducted a national survey 2 years ago asking “what net worth would someone have to have in order for you to describe them as rich?”  Look at the results – the floor is $100K!  Being rich is not about your net worth, it is about my attitude toward money and my actions toward others.  For the attitude and the actions that you take with the resources you have been entrusted by God you will be held accountable.  The great news is that God will not hold you accountable for managing the resources of people on that pie chart.  But the hard news is that because you and I live in an era and an area with a high standard of living, you and I will be held to a high standard of accountability for what we do with what we have.  To whom much is given, much is required.   

So today, we are going to wrestle with two of the tough questions that are related to our attitudes and our actions toward wealth.  The first question this text presents to us that I think we have to wrestle with is this: “is it a sin to be rich?”  By global & historical standards, every single person in this room is wealthy.  But is being rich in and of itself sinful?  I think the answer to that question is “no”.  The Bible doesn’t’ condemn wealth itself, in fact, in the Proverbs 8:21 talks about wealth being a blessing from the Lord.  But the Scriptures are clear that “wealth can be a particularly strong obstacle to discipleship.” (Moo, 160).  Both the New and Old Testaments do spend time warning and yes, condemning wealthy people but the condemnation isn’t focused on the fact that they have stuff.  The rebuke is focused on their attitude toward the stuff they have and their actions toward those around them.  Think, for example of I Timothy 6:10 which does not say “money is the root of all evil” but “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”  The warning is focused on the love and the craving, not on the money itself. 

But how do we know when we begin to cross the line?  How do we know we are living in a danger zone when it comes to money and possessions?  It would be nice as we ask the question “how much is too much” if there were warning lights that would come on.  Similar to warning lights on your dashboard in your car… when they come on, you need to pay attention.  In this passage, James highlights some specific places of warning where we can experience misery, so let’s look together at them.  So the answer to the question is it a sin to be rich is NO, BUT I am sinning when I am… engaged in the following actions and attitudes:

1. Hoarding – displaying misplaced priorities by confusing my needs with my wants (5:5)

Not in the TLC show sense, but in the sense that you are inordinately focused on accumulation.  The sin here is that when you hoard stuff, you demonstrate misplaced priorities and a profound confusion between needs and wants.  Look at verse 5 – “you have spent your years on earth in luxury satisfying your every desire”.  It’s not a sin to have stuff, it’s not a sin to have nice stuff, BUT when we allow our desire for more and more to run overtime in our lives, we begin to exhibit a profound confusion between what we need and what we want.  And when we reach that point, a warning light should be going off on the dashboard of our lives. 

A second action that should set off a warning light that I am in danger is…

2. Defrauding – preoccupation with growing my wealth with no regard for its impact (5:4)

Here James focuses not just on the impact that my accumulation has on me, but what impact does my financial plan have on the world around me? 

James rips into the rich here in verse 4 because while they own their day labourers or employees money but they don’t give it because it’s tied up in accumulating more stuff.  If people are living pay cheque to paycheque and you withhold a paycheque because you are investing in the next big thing, you are cheating people who need it out of their daily bread.  James says “pay these people what they are worth and pay them today so they can feed their families”.  What impact does your financial plan or your business plan have on the lives of others?  Do any of the sophisticated financial tools that you have at your disposal create harm?  Do you know what your mutual funds are invested in?  If you are an employer, do you make sure that your people are paid on time?  Do you pay them what they are worth or do you keep more of the profits of your business for yourself under the guise of “reinvesting in the company”?  Those in positions of power who are decision makers need to be careful. We need to use our position of power and wealth to speak up for and to advance the cause of the widow and the orphan and our workers instead of just taking the route that will put the most money in your own accounts.

This is the third warning light that James talks about.  It’s not a sin to be rich, but it is a sin to be 

3. Uncaringly self-indulgent – living a lifestyle that reflects no concern for those in need (5:3)

Is there a place for resourcing people who are poor in your financial plan?  I like the way 16^th century protestant reformer John Calvin says it “God has not appointed gold for rust, nor garments for moths; but, on the contrary, he has designed them as aids and helps to human life.”  What good is your money doing out in the world?  You see it is very easy for us to focus our financial plan focused only on us – I need to get a better job, I need to renovate my house, I need to do x or y…  But James asks us to pause and consider is there margin in your budget for those in need?  This is what James is after in these verses.  If you and I have so much gold that it is getting rusty, if I have so many clothes that I can’t remember the last time I wore something and I have no resources allocated to helping those in need, the warning bells should be going off loudly in my life.   

Douglas Moo in his commentary on James says it this way: “The hoarding of wealth is wrong not just because it demonstrates utterly false priorities; it is doubly sinful because it also deprives others of their very life.  This is another instance where failing to do good is sin (4:17).” 

This attitude is in keeping with what James has just finished telling us about at the end of chapter 4 – that boasting in the future is completely pointless because it is presumptive and arrogant.  He starts 4:13 by saying “look here you” and then again in 5:1 he repeats “look here, you”…  He is saying the same things about wealth, and wealth accumulation that he was saying about the future.  He isn’t against wealth, but he is in keeping with a long line of prophetic tradition including Amos and Isaiah and Jesus in Matthew 6:20 who would say you are in danger when you are hoarding, when you are lining your own pockets at the expense of other and when you have not regard for people who are under-resourced in your budget.

But WHY are these things so dangerous?  The same reason that arrogance planning for the future is sinful – it demonstrates misplaced trust.  This leads us to the second logical question in this text: Is it a sin to plan for the future?  I thinkJames would give the same answer to this as he does to the first question, NO, BUT I am sinning when I am… Trusting in the temporal & not investing in the eternal.  When I focus my financial world on acquiring and managing that which is temporary, it shows that I have misplaced priories as it relates to what is really important in life.  This is why James takes pains to remind us about the coming return of Christ to the earth.  And he says on the final day of judgment when each and every one here in this room and who has ever lived will have to stand before the throne of God and give an account for their life this will also include a discussion of your stuff.  James says if you have focused your life on acquisition, the very stuff we acquired will stand as a stark testimony against you.  She or he who dies with the most toys still dies.  And when we die, you and I will be held accountable for how we used our resources.  Did we use them in such a way that reflected our beliefs and the Biblical worldview?  I love the way Eugene Peterson puts these verses in his translation called “The Message”:

“A final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment… You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse.” (The Message)

It’s not a sin to plan wisely for the future, but the real question is what kinds of plans are you making for what kind of future?  James would warn us that it is criminally ridiculous to accumulate wealth as if the world will go on forever when the Bible clearly teaches us to live in light of the return of Jesus.  It is dangerous and inexcusable to focus my financial planning only on this life and not to actively consider how I can use what God has entrusted me with to advance His purposes and plans not only here on earth, but also for all eternity.  If I fail to do that, then all I will have to show for all my hard work at the end of my life is a fatter than usual corpse.    

I think it is helpful to ask ourselves a number of probing questions for reflection and response here today. 

1)   Has $ blinded me to my need for God? 

One of the profound disadvantages we have is that we don’t’ actually need to depend on God to give us this day our daily bread because we have most everything we need.  Perhaps for the first time, you realize you need God.  Perhaps you realize your trust has been misplaced.  Repent.  Turn to Him.  Say “I need you, God”.  Don’t live in the misery of misplaced trust.

2)   Am I content with my current financial situation? 

This is the way to keep your life free from the love of money – being content with what you have.  James warns us here that the more money I have the more danger I am in because there is a higher chance that I have trouble ahead.  Be content with what you have, don’t always be striving for more and more and more.  Do you believe that God will take care of you and provide for you?  I’m reading through a book right now by Bill Hybels called Simplify.  Hybels was very unequivocally direct when it comes to this: He says “beginning today, can you commit to living joyfully within God’ current provision for your life?  God’s provision goes up and down but you will only know true financial peace when you learn to live joyfully beneath God’s provision in every season of your life”.  Are you content or are you scheming and planning and living in the future in unhealthy ways that James condemns here?   

3)   Do my financial plans demonstrate I care for those in need?

Is there margin in your budget for those people who are poor?  Are you directing resources to change lives of others and not just upgrade your own? 

4)   What plans for the future am I living by?

It is foolish and unwise to rely on financial security to produce ultimate security.  If I am storing up wealth for this life alone and not allowing God to direct me to use it for eternal purposes but investing in things that matter to Him and that change lives, then even if I am planning 60 years out, I am taking a very, very short term horizon on my investments.  James isn’t against plans or planning for the future, but he is against plans that contain arrogant or improper assumptions.  Because remember, the question is not of amount, it is of attitude and actions.  As the worship in song team comes, let The Spirit search you heart.  Is there an area of conviction He needs to bring?  Is there an action you need to take?  Write yourself a TO DO note or set up an appointment with someone.   Prayer team - Aaron Franson and Katy Kwon Meg and I will be available for you. 

Benediction

Bishop Oscar Romero in his work The Violence of Love says “How many there are that would better not call themselves Christians, because they have not faith.  They have more faith in their money and possessions than in the God who fashioned their possessions and their money.”  Go in the grace and peace and strength of God to live as the people of God who are identified as such because you place your trust and confidence in God and who steward well the things that God has entrusted you for eternal purposes this week.