The Problem with Greed

The Problem with Greed
Sermon preached at Benson Presbyterian Church, Omaha, NE, June 16, 2013
1 Kings 21:1-21

This is one of those times when we are reminded that the Bible would actually make a very good soap opera, or maybe just a tragic opera.   This story has everything:  Naboth, the noble and innocent farmer, Ahab, the pouting King, Jezebel, the ambitious, foreign and dishonest queen, Elijah, the prophet who brings the words of doom.  And let’s not forget, the character that never shows up in any soap opera, God, who sees every greedy act, every dishonest word.

The story starts with what seems like a reasonable offer from King Ahab, to Naboth.   Naboth owns a vineyard, that is right next to Ahab’s palace, in Samaria.   If remember your Biblical history, you will remember that after the death of King Solomon, the kingdom that David and Solomon divided into two different kingdoms, Judah, in the south, continued to be ruled by descendants of David and Solomon.   Israel, in the North, was ruled by a series of dynasties.    Ahab’s dynasty built a new capital city in Samaria, so his royal palace was literally built in the middle of farm fields, like much of West Omaha.  

So Ahab makes what seems to be a reasonable offer to Naboth, let me have your vineyard.   It’s right next to my palace and I need a vegetable garden, I need I’m tired of having to have my servants schlep to the market all the time.   I will treat you fairly, Naboth, I will give you an equally good, no, a better vineyard or if you prefer, I will give you money, name your price!  Now you or I might have one thought if the king came to us with an offer like this, “Ka-ching!  Time to cash in!”

But Naboth, was not someone motivated by money.  “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.”  My ancestral inheritance.  This plot of land had been worked by Naboth’s family going back for generations.    Samaria had been taken from the Assyrians during the time of King Solomon and had been given to the tribe of Joseph, so Naboth’s family had probably owned this vineyard since the time of the legendary king.   It had been cared for and worked by Naboth’s ancestors so that he might pass it on to his children and they to their children.

Have you ever heard a person from rural Nebraska or Iowa speak of the home place?   That place that had been in their family, where their grandparents and parents had worked and struggled to pass on a legacy, this vineyard was Naboth’s home place.    To Ahab, it was just a convenient plot of land.    To Naboth, it was like the king was asking him for his heart or his right arm.

So Ahab does what all too many of us do when he doesn’t get his way, he pouts.   He goes and lies on his bed and turns his face to the wall, he won’t eat.    That’s when Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, enters the picture.

Jezebel has picked up a bad reputation over the years; her name has become synonymous with a bad or fallen woman.   She deserves that reputation.  I don’t think that the women we have referred to as “Jezebels” throughout the centuries deserve the comparison, though.   Jezebel wasn’t a just a bad woman, she was a terrible, amoral person.   Jezebel was a foreign princess, the daughter of the King of Tyre.   She was used to kings taking what they wanted with no arguments.   Jezebel promoted the worship of Baal, a god who did not call for justice and righteousness, but a false god, who promoted prosperity and ambition.   Baal was created by Jezebel’s people in their own image, a god who rewarded tyranny and who despised the weak.

So Jezebel came to Ahab and said, why are you pouting?   And when she heard it was such a small thing, just Naboth, who denied the king, she a princess of Tyre would show Ahab how a real king worked.    “I will get you Naboth’s vineyard,” Jezebel promises her husband.

So Jezebel arranges for Naboth to be accused of cursing God and the King, she arranged for false witnesses, she arranged for Naboth to be drug outside the city and stoned and she arranged all this in King Ahab’s name using King Ahab’s seal.   Then she went to Ahab like a child with a good report card and said, “Look what I did!  Naboth’s vineyard is yours!”  So Ahab didn’t ask any questions, but he stopped pouting and started tearing up the centuries old vineyard so he could plant his vegetables.

Of course, God is not a false God and has seen everything that has transpired.    God sends Elijah the prophet to give Ahab his comeuppance.   Ahab knows why Elijah is there before he even opens his mouth, “Have you found me, my enemy?”  

God is not a false God and God is not a God who believes that greed and power are the best humanity has to offer.   God created us to act justly, to protect those less powerful than us, to not put our own needs above everyone else.  We are not to thoughtlessly benefit from the suffering of others, like Ahab did.  We are not to brutally ignore what is righteous in order to get what we want, like Jezebel did.  Elijah tells Ahab, “You have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord.”  In sinning against Naboth, Ahab has sinned against God.  That’s the problem with greed, it’s not just a sin against the person our greed hurts; it is a sin against God.

So what does that mean for you and for me?  I’m certainly not an ambitious queen, not one of you is a powerful king.    Not one of us is ever going to be in position to bear false witness against someone so that we can steal their ancestral land for our own private garden.

And yet, I cannot ignore that I live so much better than most people on this planet.   I don’t make a lot of money right now and I share an apartment with my brother, but I’m not living in a mud hut or tenement or a homeless shelter.    I get good medical care when I need it and I have plenty of nutritious food to eat.  Something I have to face as an American, as a member of the most privileged society in the history of the world, there are others who suffer to keep me going.

I wrote this sermon at a Starbucks.   One thing I don’t have at my current home is a desk, so I like to go to Starbucks to work.   For about four bucks worth of coffee, I get two or three hours of electricity and Wi-Fi.  (Wi-Fi being necessary to look up things like when Solomon conquered Samaria!)

But, what about the people who grew and picked the coffee beans?   Were they paid fairly?   Do they have good health coverage?  What about the people who waited on me?   I saw a story on CNN recently that Starbucks baristas have to share their tips with their managers.   Is that fair?  

It’s not just coffee, the produce we eat and enjoy is grown in far off places and harvested by people who are poorly paid and then shipped tremendous distances so you and I can enjoy fresh orange juice or fresh strawberries or bananas.   One commentator I read this week wondered if we as Americans are turning the whole world into our personal vegetable garden?

What about the clothes on our backs?  I looked at the label of the Wal-Mart shirt I had on when I was writing this, it was made in Honduras.   My Old Navy pants were made in Vietnam.    What kind of conditions are people working under so I can have cheap clothes?    Listen to this report from the BBC about conditions in Bangladesh.  “Two months after the collapse of a factory in Bangladesh, new building inspections have revealed that six out of every 10 factories there are unsafe.  More than 1,000 people were killed when pillars supporting the Rana Plaza factory building gave way.  Most of the clothing produced in Bangladesh is sold in Europe and the US but, factories that have been declared unsafe are still full of workers.”  End quote.   I like a cheap shirt as much as the next girl, but is it worth the blood of others?

It’s overwhelming, isn’t it?   I don’t know about you, but I feel powerless in the face of all this.   But you know what, alone, I am powerless.  But as a Christian, trying to live in God’s justice, as part of a worshiping community that tries to live in God’s justice, I am not powerless.   As Christians, it is our responsibility to live intentionally and to call this wider community we live in to live intentionally.  It is our responsibility to call this society we live in to justice, to see the rest of the world not as our garden to be exploited, but the home of our brothers and sisters, equally entitled to God’s justice.

A funny thing about Ahab:  after Elijah threatened him with disaster, Ahab repented.   He didn’t do this because he was sorry; he did this because he was scared.  He put on sackcloth and went about dejectedly.   A funny thing about God:  God forgave Ahab.  God said to Elijah, “have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me?   Because he has done this, I will not bring disaster upon him, but will bring it upon his sons.”   Ahab was allowed to die honorably in battle, but Jezebel and her sons by Ahab died very gruesomely.   You can read all about it in 2 Kings 9 and 10 if you like, I wouldn’t recommend it if you have a nervous disposition.

That’s the problem with greed; God doesn’t like it, not one bit.   That’s the problem with injustice, false witness, unbridled tyranny; God doesn’t like it, not one bit.   But the amazing thing about God is that there is forgiveness, even for Ahab.  Even for you and for me.

Amen.