What of selfishness and greed?

 

Just a couple of days after Thanksgiving Day and already someone in the house is saying: “That’s mine! You can’t have it!”

Let me paint you a picture: “Give me back my bike. Mommy, Johnny won’t get off my bike.” “Mom, I only want to use his bike to go to the store for the milk you wanted me to get. You know my bike is broken. Why can’t my own brother let me use his bike? I don’t want to walk. Tell him to share.” Then Johnny’s brother speaks up, “It’s my bike! I don’t want him to use it.”

The argument goes on and on. And the big question asks: “Who owns what?” Children, adults, companies, unions, towns, counties, nations—everybody wants to have and to hold—to keep and to keep others from having, because they “have a good reason” for doing so. And it may just come under what is called selfishness and greed, or simply power and the thrill of having the authority over others.

Robert Frost wrote: “Good fences make good neighbors.” Some people build “fences” to keep what they have “in” while keeping others “out.” Fences are like titles or deeds. They declare who owns what.

Do you realize that if God would put a fence around what belongs to Him, there would be nothing outside the fence? Everything, you see, belongs to Him. That’s what Holy Scripture says in the words of King David, who at the time ruled over all of Israel: “Wealth and honor come from You, O God. You are the ruler of all things. In Your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.” (I Chronicles 29:12)

Thank God that He isn’t selfish and greedy as we sinful human beings are. Thank God that we have His goodness and grace on our side of the fence! The inspired Apostle James tells it: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly light.” There are plenty of other such passages attesting to God’s giftedness and generosity toward us.

But of all that He gives us, the best gift of all, the greatest gift known to us all, is His Christmas gift to us: His beloved Son, Jesus, sent into this fallen world of selfishness and greed to save us from it and other such sinful things in order to save us by God’s grace through faith as His own that we may live under Him in His kingdom.

And what of selfishness and greed? Well, we pray that God would keep us from such things and that He’d make us faithful stewards and caretakers of His wealth bestowed upon us. Yes, we are called to share our blessings with others in all the circumstances of life – both our physical blessings, like food and clothing and such, but especially our spiritual blessings: God’s Word, the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, Christ our crucified and risen Savior, who forgives our sins daily and promises us that “good will follow.”

So who has a bike to share? Who has a fence to tear down? Who has a better word to speak because of God’s grace bestowed on us? For God is the Giver of all good things, without any merit or worthiness in us. For all this it is our duty to thank and to praise, serve and obey Him, through Jesus Christ. Happy Thanksgiving!

Each week a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Reverend Dean Rudloff, pastor of Life in Christ Lutheran Church, which currently meets at the Cook County Community Center Sunday at 9 a.m.