SERMON NOTES

March 29, 2009

Canto VII

Greed

 

INTRO

Passing of the Peace:  How much is enough?

                                   Does GREED drive you?

Call to worship:  How much do you need?  Why is more never enough?

 

LAST WEEK

Dante’s Inferno

1.     Two requirements to be in “the Inferno”:  Dead before 1300 and unrepentant.

2.     VIRTUE:  (pillars/categories) Moderation, Courage and Wisdom

3.     Anti-Virtue”:  (pillars/categories) Incontinence, Violence and Fraud

4.     9 Circles:  Virtuous Pagans, Lust, Gluttony….

 

TODAY  -  GREED

 

GREED (defined)(according to Wikipedia)

“the desire for the pursuit of money, wealth, power, food, or other possessions, especially when this denies the same goods to others. It is generally considered a vice, and is one of the seven deadly sins in Catholicism.

 

QUESTION

1. Do you feel GREEDY?
2. On a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being all the time, how often does greed control your life?

 

            Is there Greed in Politics?  Business?  Church?  This Church?

Lines 1 – 3

"Pape Satan, pape Satan, alepe!" the voice of Plutus clucked these words at us…

 

OBSERVATION

Plutus is a mythological god of wealth.  Here in the inferno he oversees the folks who did not practice proper stewardship of their wealth.  Once again, moderation (of wealth) is the virtue, greed is the antithesis of moderation.  These folks allowed reason to be subjected to desire (desire is in the driver’s seat and reason is in the backseat) as they either hoarded or spent.

 

SCRIPTURE:  Luke 12:  13 – 21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

 

Jesus replied, “‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?' Then he said to them, "Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of GREED; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."

 

And he told them this parable:  "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.’

 

Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.  And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’

 

But God said to him, 'You FOOL!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

 

This is how it will be with those who store up things for themselves, but are not rich toward God."

 

OBSERVATION

This is a story of a person who thinks the purpose of life is wealth. instead of wealth being a good thing as a tool of life.  This person is driven by GREED.  Life is more than the accumulation of wealth.  Life is to be lived in relationship with God and others (driven by love).  To pursue possessions instead of relationships is to miss out on the beauty of life.

 

QUESTION:  Who is “Plutus” in your life?

Is there someone who is applying pressure on your life regarding your expenditures?  Are they wise?

 

THOUGHT

We are all driven by something.  Some are driven by lust (circle 2).  Others driven by food (circle 3).  Still others are driven by greed (circle 4).

 

QUESTION TO PONDER

What drives you?

 

Lines 4 – 6

(Virgil said to Dante) “Do not let fear defeat you, for whatever be his power, he cannot stop our journey down this rock.”

 

OBSERVATION

Virgil is reminding Dante not to be fear driven.  The power of Plutus is one that we give to Plutus.  Plutus only has power when we give Plutus power. 

 

Unfortunately there is a temptation to be driven by fear.  Those with little, fear the lack of money; while those with much fear the losing of money.  Both can be driven by fear.

 

SCRIPTURE

There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear.  I John 4:18

 

QUESTION  -  Do you need more love to drive out fear?

 

Lines 4 – 6

(Virgil said to Dante) “Do not let fear defeat you, for whatever be his power, he cannot stop our journey down this rock.”

 

OBSERVATION

Wealth only has power over us when we give it power over us.  It does not have power on it’s own, it is only our fear that gives it power.

 

Line 13 – 15

As sails swollen by wind, when the ship’s mast breaks, collapse, deflated, tangled in a heap, just so the savage beast (Plutus) fell to the ground.

 

OBSERVATION

Plutus, when fear of the other is taken away, collapses like a sail without the wind; reminding us that wealth only catches us when we allow it.  And, when it does, it can blow us out of control by it’s own direction.  But if the wind is taken out of he sail; or when wealth is taken out of our sails, then wealth, like wind is an airy emptiness; especially when it comes to what is real and important.  Thus, when we give money it’s true value, it no longer can push us around like a sail on a boat caught by the winds.

 

SCRIPTURE

19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:  19 – 21

 

THOUGHT

Wealth only has power over us when we allow it to be our lord.

 

QUESTION  -  Where does the wind of wealth drive you?

 

Lines 25 - 27

“More shades were here than anywhere above, and from both sides, to the sound of their own screams straining their chests, they ROLLED ENORMOUS WEIGHTS.”

 

OBSERVATION

Once again, Dante is borrowing from mythology for his imagery regarding circle 4.  In this circle, the “shades” were once people and are now held in this circle because of greed.  The “hell” (the punishment fits the crime) they have created for themselves is an endless cycle of one task, like Sisyphus, pushing a boulder up to the top of the mountain for it to roll back and repeating the task endlessly.

 

SCRIPTURE:  Ecclesiastes

  2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"  says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

 3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

 6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north;  round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from,  there they return again.

 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

THOUGHT

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.  Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

 

QUESTION

Why would Albert Camus think Sisyphus happy?  Was not his fate to push a stone up the hill to only repeat the process again and again?  In Greek mythology the thought of futile and hopeless labor was the most dreadful punishment.

 

NOTE:

Sisyphus is condemned to a life of pushing the rock up and letting it rolldown.  What have we voluntarily condemned ourselves to?  What rocks do we push up aonly to see them roll down again for us to push back up?  The rat race?

 

EXAMPLE

Think of it as being condemned as pushing up the rock that rolls back.  There are those things because of greed cause us to be condemned.

 

Life will be better when I graduate from High School

            College

            Get a job

            Promoted

            Buy car

            Buy house

            Build a bigger barn

            Retire

 

We keep pursuing with a passion, we push the rock up the hill and when we get it there, it rolls down again, and becomes a different rock, but still a rock; and we push it up the hill

                           

 

THOUGHT

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.

Lily Tomlin (William Sloane Coffin)

 

TRANSITION

We are not called to avoid the rat race, or to win the rat race, but be moderate in the rat race

 

Lines 28 – 30

“And when they met and clashed against each other they turned to push the other way, one side screaming, “why hoard,?” the other side, “Why waste?”

 

OBSERVATION

Saving (hoard) and Spending (waste) are the two extremes.  A mixture of spending and saving is the equilibrium (Augustinian), the healthy balance.  If we were merely HOARD (Savings) driven or WASTE (Spending) driven it can be considered an unhealthy practice and lead us down an unhappy path.  Be it Scrooge, or the Prodigal; we know where that path takes us. 

 

THOUGHT

There is something more important/better that should drive our lives than spending or saving.

 

QUESTION  -  What drives you? 

 

Line 38

Who are these people?

 

Line 41

“MYOPIC MINDS they could not judge with mediation when it came to spending.”

 

OBSERVATION

Incontinence (antithesis of moderation, a pillar of virtue).

 

Line 58

It was squandering and hoarding that have robbed them of the lovely world, and got them in this brawl (Inferno)

 

OBSERVATION

To be Spend/Saving  DRIVEN is to waste one’s life.

 

THE POINT

All of us are driven by one, or more, things.

 

Some of us are driven by GREED; others GLUTTONY; still others; LUST.

But, there are other things that can drive us:  SELF-INTEREST, SELF-PRESERVATION, POWER (Nietzsche), PLEASURE (Mill, Epicurus), etc.

 

Some of the things that drive us can drive us to the end of our lives to conclude that “Meaningless, Meaningless, Life is Meaningless (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

 

If we are driven by money, and spend our lives making money, we will have built bigger  barns for someone to inherit.

 

What morally drives you

What drives you each day?

 

EXAMINE YOURSELF (Know Thyself)

Examine your motives.

Are we afraid to be alone and are HERD Driven?

What is beneath the veneer?    What are the TRUE MOTIVES?  Not just the justification.