Loose and Extravagant Ways -- FPC sermon excerpt
Dave Ramsey, the popular host of a radio show on financial topics, says, “We buy things we don’t even need with money we don’t even have to impress people we don’t even know.”
He is absolutely right. We Americans are attracted to large houses, luxury cars, and the latest electronics, which we purchase with jumbo mortgages, auto loans, and ever-increasing credit card debt.
Although we think that such material goods will make us happy, we quickly discover that the opposite is true. Luxury items do not provide lasting satisfaction, debt increases our anxiety, and the people we want to impress remain distant from us. No matter how much money we have, we always believe that just a little more will bring us happiness and security.
This is so true. No matter how much money I make, I always think that another $10,000 a year will be enough to make me truly comfortable. But you know what? It never is.
God knows the seductive power of worldly wealth, which is why Revelation contains two chapters on the danger of materialism — in the ancient world and today. In chapters 17 and 18, John sees a vision of an attractive woman named Babylon, who represents the most harmful aspects of the global economy. Her way is tempting and attractive, but it leads to destruction. God’s way is the path that leads to life.
The Dave Ramsey Show is promoted with the tagline, “It’s about your life and your money.” The same could be said about these chapters of Revelation.
At the time of John’s vision, the city of Rome is a powerful center of commerce which has grown wealthy from the labor of people throughout the empire. Although Rome seems invincible, John knows that worldly riches are transient, and that societies built on exploitation will fall. He believes that God will bring the empire down, in a collapse as dramatic as the Great Recession of 2008 was for us in the United States.
One of the seven angels with the seven bowls calls for John, saying, “I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk” (17:1-2).
The woman is the city of Rome, and the kings are the leaders of Asia Minor who have sided with the Roman Empire in its vast economic enterprises. God knows the attraction of power and wealth, and passes judgment on those who have been seduced by it. Rome is a “great whore,” says the angel, a prostitute who has slept with kings and intoxicated others.
John knows that the words of Jesus are correct: “You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24). The worship of God always competes with the worship of earthly riches, both in ancient Rome and in modern America. God’s judgment on the great prostitute is a warning to us about the danger of materialism.
He is absolutely right. We Americans are attracted to large houses, luxury cars, and the latest electronics, which we purchase with jumbo mortgages, auto loans, and ever-increasing credit card debt.
Although we think that such material goods will make us happy, we quickly discover that the opposite is true. Luxury items do not provide lasting satisfaction, debt increases our anxiety, and the people we want to impress remain distant from us. No matter how much money we have, we always believe that just a little more will bring us happiness and security.
This is so true. No matter how much money I make, I always think that another $10,000 a year will be enough to make me truly comfortable. But you know what? It never is.
God knows the seductive power of worldly wealth, which is why Revelation contains two chapters on the danger of materialism — in the ancient world and today. In chapters 17 and 18, John sees a vision of an attractive woman named Babylon, who represents the most harmful aspects of the global economy. Her way is tempting and attractive, but it leads to destruction. God’s way is the path that leads to life.
The Dave Ramsey Show is promoted with the tagline, “It’s about your life and your money.” The same could be said about these chapters of Revelation.
At the time of John’s vision, the city of Rome is a powerful center of commerce which has grown wealthy from the labor of people throughout the empire. Although Rome seems invincible, John knows that worldly riches are transient, and that societies built on exploitation will fall. He believes that God will bring the empire down, in a collapse as dramatic as the Great Recession of 2008 was for us in the United States.
One of the seven angels with the seven bowls calls for John, saying, “I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk” (17:1-2).
The woman is the city of Rome, and the kings are the leaders of Asia Minor who have sided with the Roman Empire in its vast economic enterprises. God knows the attraction of power and wealth, and passes judgment on those who have been seduced by it. Rome is a “great whore,” says the angel, a prostitute who has slept with kings and intoxicated others.
John knows that the words of Jesus are correct: “You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24). The worship of God always competes with the worship of earthly riches, both in ancient Rome and in modern America. God’s judgment on the great prostitute is a warning to us about the danger of materialism.
posted by Henry Brinton | 7:38 AM
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