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Weekly Greeting: Sunday 14 June
Submitted by Trevor Hudson on Fri, 2009-06-12 09:32
Dear Friends
Warm greetings. Today we continue our sermon series on GENEROUS LIVING. Our theme today is LIVING BEYOND GREED AND SELF-CENTREDNESS. Certainly it is a deeply relevant topic. Examples of greed in our national life dominate the headlines. Today, greed has become good. As Donald Trump once said, "The point is that you cannot be too greedy." Why then does greed appear on the list of the seven deadly sins when it is such a powerful motivator in our lives?
Perhaps there are some crucial distinctions between self-interest and greed. Self-interest is the responsibility to look after ourselves, as well as those who depend on us, and to ensure that we don't abandon our obligations. If we have dependants, we have a responsibility to care for them. We cannot look after if we have no resources with which to do so. Nor can we do so if we neglect our own basic welfare, health or income. Greed however, is very different from this. Self-interest is different from greed, but it can soon shade into it.
How then do we describe greed? Greed always consumes. In particular, it consumes the person it takes hold of. It is never satisfied and is always hungry for more. The person who has given into greed is always unhappy because they never have enough of anything. Whatever they do acquire is always less than what it might be. Greed turns out to be unpleasant and destructive. Yet greed casts a darker shadow than just making us unhappy. It als threatens to destroy our world. Greed let loose will destroy our planet and its wealth.
The challenge then is working out where legitimate self-interest stops and unhealthy greed begins. When do we know we have enough? Are there limits to self-interest and when does it become greed? These are difficult questions but very important ones. Anyone who seeks to take Christ seriously will wrestle very deeply with them. However, one thing we can be clear about. If we want to learn to avoid greed, which would damage us and our world, we do need to begin learning generosity. This is what the sermon is all about
In the name of the generous God,
The Ministry Team
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