THE BLACK HOLE OF NARCISSISM

THE BLACK HOLE OF NARCISSISM James 5:1-6 April 17, 2011 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction There's a lot more money to be made on Wall Street. If you want real power, go to Washington. If you want sex, go into the fashion business. But if you want the whole poison cocktail in one glass--go to Hollywood. Actor Alec Baldwin Wealth is an idol (James 5:1) Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Like he did back in 3:9, James calls for dramatic repentance and demonstrative humility before God as believers face the reality of their sins of worldliness and idolatry. It is the appropriate response for one who has befriended the world and made himself an enemy of God. Like an Old Testament prophet he erupts almost violently warning of the judgment to come. Specifically, he is addressing a class of people—I believe both Christian and non-Christian—who are “rich” – who “have wealth” – considerable “gold and silver” – and who have misused their wealth. Don’t assume too hastily you are not included in this warning. Even the poorest among us are rich by global and historic standards. Ron Sider draws from the research in Robert L. Heilbroner’s book, The Great Ascent. There he describes the luxuries that you and I would have to abandon if we were to be like most of the other 3 billion people in our world: 1. We begin by invading the house of our imaginary American family to strip it of its furniture. Everything goes: beds, chairs, tables, televisions, lamps. We will leave the family with a few old blankets, a kitchen table, a wooden chair. Along with the bureaus go the clothes. Each member of the family may keep his oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. We will keep a pair of shoes for the head of the family but none for wife or kids. 2. We move to the kitchen. The appliances have already been taken out, so we turn to the cupboards. … The box of matches may stay, a small bag of flour, some sugar, and salt. A few moldy potatoes, already in the garbage can, must be rescued—they will provide much of tonight's meal. We will leave a handful of onions, and a dish of dried beans. All the rest we take away: the meat, fresh vegetables, canned goods, crackers, and the candy. 3. Now we [strip] the [rest of the] house: the bathroom [is] dismantled, the running water shut off, the electric wires taken out. Next we take away the house. The family moves to the shed. 4. Communications must go next. No more newspapers, magazines, books—not that they are missed, since we must take away our family's literacy as well. Instead, we will have one radio in the entire shantytown where we live 5. Now government services must go. No more postman, no more firemen. There is a school, but it is three miles away and consists of two classrooms. There are, of course, no hospitals or doctors nearby. The nearest clinic is ten miles away and is tended by a midwife. It can be reached by bicycle, provided you have a bicycle 6. Finally, money. We will allow our family $5—a month’s wage Are we, then, the same as those against whom James is railing? Let me simply say this, I believe we have this Word today to help us face up to the objective reality of all the wealth and privilege we have, and while considering the glaring abuses of the stewardship by James’ readers, we can find wisdom for the way we use our wealth. God shows us the pits so that we will not fall into them. Wealth is a predictor of coming misery (2-3) Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. Here James is using a style of delivery that is uniquely prophetic. He speaks in the past tense, as if all that he describes has already taken place, but it is a “futuristic” past tense—that is, like much of the prophetic literature of the Old Testament, the prophet takes the perspective of looking back on what has happened—which is the thing he is warning his audience about. It’s a bit strange to us because we don’t talk like that. If we warn someone, we say, keep playing rough and someone will get hurt. But God, who alone is privileged to know our future as well as he does our past uses this artful, prophetic style, through James. What does he say? In a nutshell, the stuff you’re hoarding for yourself—it’s really worthless. He says, Your fancy clothes are nothing but moth food. We think our stylish dress these days make us more attractive. In biblical times to have a nice suit of clothes was even more of a status symbol than it is today. Your gold and silver are going to corrode. We are savvy enough to know that these precious metals don’t actually rust or corrode. But this is hyperbole. James is saying These coins that seem so valuable will one day be useless to you. In even more intense hyperbole he says, And when these things rust that corrosion is going to eat your flesh like fire. This highly illustrative language is reminiscent of the book of Revelation, isn’t it? But the meaning is clear. The things this world calls valuable are really not valuable. Do you know what gold will be in heaven? Pavement! Compared to the value of knowing and serving the Lord, this world’s treasures are less than trinkets. To emphasize the foolishness of idolizing such temporal possessions, verse 3 ends with the expression: You have hoarded wealth in the last days. That reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the rich fool who had lands and great harvests and, instead of helping the poor with his abundance, decided to build more storage so he could amass even more. I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things 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?” (Lk. 12:19-20) And then the piercing prophetic word comes from Jesus: “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” (Lk. 12:21) Wealth is an intoxicant that dulls spiritual urgency (2-3) One of the saddest things I experience in life is when I have to watch someone get all caught up in materialism. To fill some spiritual void in himself that only God can fill, or to try to erase some pain from his past that only God can heal, he foolishly thinks that “stuff” will make him feel better. So he works feverishly to earn enough to buy. Or maybe he is enamored with the idea of success. But once the demon of “gotta-have-it” gets him by the throat, he is done for. From then on the hunger for more is almost impossible to overcome, because the addiction to worldly success or the kingdom of thing-dom has dug in. And I watch their interest in the things of God drain away. The commitment to put God first dwindles in startlingly predictable inverse correlation with the worldly addiction’s rise. It is the saddest thing I ever see, because way too often, he forfeits not only his own soul, but his family as well. Mother Teresa: The prophetic word is a warning to all of us who, like deer in the headlights become fascinated with this world’s bling and foolishly trade our devotion to God for the fool’s gold of this temporal world. The Word warns that if you allow yourself to be intoxicated by the world, your spiritual urgency will die. Mother Teresa - Once the longing for money comes, the longing also comes for what money can give: superfluities, nice rooms, luxuries at table, more clothes, fans and so on. Our needs will increase, for one thing brings another, and the result will be endless dissatisfaction. This is how it comes. But there is another danger in wealth . . . Wealth is a lidocaine that suppresses concern for justice and righteousness (4-6): Lidocaine is the popular chemical used in your dentist’s office to numb that sensitive skin area in your mouth where you are about to get the shot that fully numbs the larger area by putting the nerves to sleep. James warns us that wealth can act just like lidocaine, numbing our sensitivity, not to pain, but to justice. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. Why would the rich guys not be fair to their workers? They have enough money—they could really take care of those workers who labor so hard to take care of them and their farm. But they don’t. Because wealth has a way of desensitizing us to the needs of others. It is partly because the more we get the more we want to keep it and get even more. But there is the strange truth that wealthier people become less caring and just. There were apparently in the towns and churches to whom James wrote wealthy people who were taking advantage of the poor, if not outright oppressing them. That brand of injustice always irks God, and because it stirs up the righteous anger of the Lord, he prophets get excited about it, too. If you think James is coming off pretty strong here, it’s because he is feeling strongly the will of God for justice and benevolence. God hates injustice, and He promises here to deal sternly with them in judgment. The indictment grows even stronger in verse 5: You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. Bishop Desmond Tutu: There's nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible. If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible. Each of us who have been given a more-than-fair share of this world’s riches must sincerely question ourselves: Are we stewards of Justice, or stewards of Just Us? I read recently that the amount of money spent in the US annually on imported toys is just under $24 billion! The next ten highest toy-importing countries combined spend $22 billion. How we spend our resources, and how mindful we are of those we must share with in personal ways that honor God, is really very important to God. The Bible doesn't mind prosperity; it just insists that it be shared. The Bible teaches that to whom much is given, much is required. I believe God would capture our attention again through this text and remind us that all that we handle is His, not ours; and that there will be a just and righteous accounting. Don’t be drugged by materialism to the point that you forget that what you have is God’s INVESTMENT in and through you to demonstrate His love and character to the world. Wealth is a catalyst to narcissism (6) Finally, and this point rather sums up all the others: if we let it wealth will hold us captive to the narcissism of our age. Narcissism is the personality trait of egotism, vanity, conceit, or simple selfishness. Applied to a social group, it is sometimes used to denote elitism or an indifference to the plight of others. The term, actually coined by Sigmund Freud, comes from the Greek myth about Narcissus. Narcissus was a young man who fell in love with himself by admiring his reflection in a pool. Narcissism is the god of our age, especially among the younger population—an obsessive self-love, a demonic pre-occupation with my own self, my own appearance and everything about myself—to the point that I just don’t, cannot, care a thing about others, including God. This is the idol James is addressing—behind the wealth, behind the sins of injustice and oppression, behind the selfish behaviors of the wealthy. Blinded by self-love and self-devotion, we too quickly arrive at the place where we care nothing for God and nothing for His kingdom purposes to serve others through us. James is characteristically straightforward in verse 6: You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. Had those wealthy ones in Asia actually falsely accused and killed innocent men? Perhaps so; or maybe this is more hyperbole on the part of James. In either case, the Word is highlighting the serious extent of sins of injustice and oppression of the poor and marginalized around us. Let me ask you, if we who have experienced the love of Christ and have been commissioned to administer that love to others in His name cannot or will not demonstrate mercy and care toward the downtrodden, who will? Who should? I’m hearing James say to me, to us: Get generous with the needy around you, be fair in all your dealings, let the golden rule be the centerpiece around which you build business and personal policies of benevolence. In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you. Our narcissism is like a huge black hole, sucking into itself everything around it, never relinquishing any of it, but hoarding and possessing it all to the point that it all closes in on itself and begins to own us. Haddon Robinson says, If there is one message that comes to us in 10,000 seductive voices, it's the message of our country and our century that life does consist of things. You can see it on a hundred billboards as you drive down the highway. It is the message from the sponsor on television. It is sung to you in jingles on radio. It is blared at you in four-color ads everywhere. We're like the donkey that has the carrot extended before it on a stick. The donkey sees the carrot and wants it, so the donkey moves toward it, but the carrot moves, too. The carrot is always there, promising to fill the appetite. But what it promises, it does not deliver. I pray that we will learn and grow in our learning the lessons of real stewardship of resources and neighborly love. And that for these reasons: We need to be healed of our narcissistic self-centeredness We need to be delivered from our materialism and greed We need to be about the Father’s business of loving others and demonstrating that love with the resources He has lent us for that very purpose We need to respond to the love and justice of God’s own character by aligning our behavior according to His Finally we need to stop lying to ourselves that we have earned what we have, that we deserve more than we have and that what we have is all for us. One man put it this way when he suddenly found himself on a hospital bed. He writes: "I came to realize I no longer really cared for what the world chases after, such as how much money you have in the bank and how many cars are parked in the garage. As it says in Ecclesiastes, chasing after these things is like chasing the wind, anyway. Suddenly, the rat race became vanity to me, utter vanity. I felt naked before God. "If I died, I would take none of the stuff with me. All that really mattered ultimately was my relationship with the Lord, my relationship with family and friends. If it weren't for the loss of my health, I could have wasted the rest of my life chasing achievements and acquiring more transitory things." I'd say his loss served him well, wouldn't you?     [ Back to Top]