Do you know the song, “He jumped without a parachute from twenty thousand feet”? Well, I think they’re going to have to rewrite it. I was reading this morning on the BBC News website that yesterday a man called Luke Aikens did exactly this. After 2 years training and preparation, he jumped out of an aeroplane, actually at 25,000 feet, without a parachute or a wingsuit and survived by landing in a special 100 ft * 100 ft net after 2 minutes falling through the air. Seems a bit daft to me to be honest, but then it takes all sorts.
Jesus once told a story about a man who jumped from 20,000 feet without a parachute. The irony of Jesus’ story was that the man thought he had a parachute, in fact he thought he had a parachute, a spare parachute, a net and a bouncy castle to keep him safe. Turns out none of them were any good for the fall he was facing, it really was a heck of a way to die.
In this story, Jesus does his classic trick of extending the remit of the Old Testament laws.
You see, in the Old Testament, in the 10 commandments, the people of God are forbidden from coveting things. We read,
“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
This is focussed on a coveting as wanting what we don’t have, of being jealous of those who have these things, of wasting our energy running after them, of keeping up with the Jones’, of believing the grass is greener on the other side.
In this story of the landowner Jesus extends this idea: Covetousness is not only about wanting what we don’t have, but also about holding on too tightly to what we have already.
In his letter to the Christians living in Colossae, Paul helps us to understand the underlying problem with coveting. The thing that links the two sides of it, the wanting what we don’t have and the hoarding of what we do have. Almost in passing, he links covetousness or greed with idolatry.
And what is idolatry? It is putting things that aren’t God in God’s rightful place.
God is our creator. God made us and everything that there is, including everything that we own or would like to own. Everything is created, we are created, we are creatures. When created things become the focus of our hearts and minds, when we desire them, then they take the place of the Creator, of God, and that is idolatry.
God is our provider. Everything we have comes from God. Nothing that we have has been provided for us apart from God giving it to us. Our money, our families, our jobs, our houses, our skills, our education, it has all been given to us by God. When we focus on the provisions, when we are more concerned about getting more than thanking the one who has given us what we have, then they take the place of the Provider, of God, and that is idolatry.
And when created provisions take the place of the Creator who provides, then we are no longer worshipping God, and it is fatal.
It is fatal in our own individual lives because it leads to our death, emotionally and spiritually. As we put other things in the place of God in our lives, then our connection to God is weakened. With even more irony, we cut ourselves of from the true source of all the good things that God has for us, from all the provision God has made for us, because we are no longer trusting the Provider, we are choosing to trust ourselves more than the one who created us. And the greatest gift God has given any of us is our life, and if we cut ourselves off from that gift then we will die forever.
It is fatal to the life of the community (global and local) because what is meant to be shared is hoarded. God has created the world in such a way that there is plenty for everyone. God has provided us with more than enough for everyone in the world to live fruitfully and to thrive. We have chosen not to distribute what God has given us fairly. We who live in one of the richest societies on earth have a responsibility here. We need to be careful that we are not like the farmer, building ever bigger barns to store the good things we have as a society, whilst others are starving.
It is fatal to the life of the church when we see church as ours, something that belongs to us, or over which we try to exercise ownership. This is God’s church. We are part of Christ’s body. It is not ours and does not belong to us. When we are tempted to look back and covet the way church was in the past, we turn away from what God is calling us to be and to do today. When we are tempted to look at other churches and covet aspects of their lives then we turn away from what God has given us here and is calling us to be and to do here. When we believe that church is for us and our benefit, when we put our arms around it and fail to welcome others in to it, then we turn away from God’s purpose for the church, which is to be a servant of those who are not yet part of it.
So, if covetousness is so fatal, to us as individuals, to our communities, and to our church, it seems to me that we need to be on our guard against it, and to do something about it. So what can we do?
We need to put it to death. There are no half measures here, it’s not about tranquillizing it, or treating it, or imprisoning it. We are to put it to death: covetousness is to have no life in our thoughts, in our hearts, in our lives.
But how do we do that?
Well, if the root cause and evil of covetousness is idolatry, then we have to put God back in God’s rightful place, and we do that in worship. And I don’t just mean the formal and gathered worship that we share together when we meet on Sundays and at other times, though that has its place. I mean the normal, everyday worship that we express in our every action and word. I mean the decisions that we make at home about our shopping, our holiday plans, our work lives, our family lives, about how we spend our time. Everything that we do in these places reveals who or what we actually place value on, who or what we actually think is worth considering, who or what we actually worship.
We defeat covetousness we need to practice generosity. Rather than wishing we had more we look for opportunities to give away. Rather than extending our ownership we choose to relinquish it. We choose to say less and less, “mine”, and more and more “yours”. We recognise that all that we have is gift, given to us by God.
We focus on Jesus’ example. He gave away everything, emptied himself of all but love, and came to earth to live among us and die for us. Jesus, as in everything, is our example and our teacher.
I’m not saying that this is easy to do. Especially if other members of your family aren’t Christians, and they have a say in how your household finances are arranged. It isn’t easy if your household finances are already fully committed. But, it is possible to start planning and to have conversations and to put into place actions that over time will change the pattern of your lives so that you can give away more. If we allow the fact that we can’t change everything today to stop us changing anything then we will never get anywhere. And we are not alone, the Father has also given us the Holy Spirit, to give us the wisdom, grace and courage to do this.
The fantastic thing about God’s upside down economy is that, in my experience, when we take God seriously about this we discover a far greater joy than we ever would in the things that we thought we wanted, and that when we are generous, we discover God’s generosity in many new ways.
The reality of our lives is that one day we are all going to jump from 20,000 feet. The question is, how are we going to land? Hard and fatally, clinging on to the stuff we collected and hoarded through life, or gently and safely to enjoy the things we have stored there by holding lightly to things we have been given here?
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