Bible
Study: Romans 16, 3 to 27. And Luke 16, 9 to 15.
St. Paul
concludes his letter to the Romans today by exhorting us to greet one another
with a holy kiss. This reflects the culture of the people to whom he was
writing to. A kiss was a symbolic way of showing warmth and appreciation for
each other, it had no sinful attachment. Had it been St. Paul was writing to us
Africans, he would have said: “Greet one another with a humble bow or handshake
or perhaps with a respectful genuflection.”
It is
always a good thing to show respect to others by greeting them. A mere greeting
can either make or mar one’s day. The sound of Good morning, or Good afternoon
or evening as the case may be always cools one’s head especially when one is
having some trouble or lost in thought. Because greeting is a good thing in
itself, everybody deserves to be greeted. While growing up, I was told that it
is the right of elders to receive greeting from children but now, I have to
realise that even children have a right to be greeted by elders as well as they
too deserve to feel good and appreciated as well.
Most
times, we tend to greet people according to their pocket which is very very
bad. You see an elder and simply because he does not have money, you ignore him
but you see a person who may have made his wealth through very dubious means
and you start jumping over your head to greet him. This is the root of the evil
Jesus spoke about in the Gospel passage when he noted that “We cannot serve
both God and mammon.”
In all their
goodness and holiness, the Pharisees had a very serious problem; they loved
money! Little did they know that their love for money had become an obstacle in
their worship of God. Whatever we love, we worship! This is why the Pharisees did
not see anything wrong with people selling things right inside the temple and
money changers doing business in the house of God. And when Jesus drove them
out in rage saying my house shall be a house of worship, they started plotting
how to kill Jesus. The Pharisees did not directly carry out trade in the temple
but they were getting their share of the temple business and they loved it. They
felt they could deceive the people and give an impression to them of their holiness
by wearing broad phylacteries and praying obsequiously in the market places but
God alone could see their hearts. He knew what they really worshiped was not
him but money!
When we
ministers of God begin to love money, we too think we can deceive the people of
God. In many ways, our love for money has prevented us from giving God the
worship he deserves, it has prevented the truth from coming out and made us
offer our services only to the rich in our churches. We refuse to pick phone
numbers of the poor ones who have nothing to offer but we are present the money
the rich man coughs. Some of us even charge consultation fee as if we have
become doctors and those who cannot afford to pay cannot see us face to face. We
drive around town in the latest cars and explain our luxurious lifestyles as strategies
of evangelisation, that is, to show people that when they come to church, they
too can have the best of what life has to offer. We claim we are not
businessmen, but we run the church like a company churning out products in
terms of books, Sermon DVD’s, holy stickers, special anointing oils, etc. every
season and we force our people to buy.
While not
trying to condemn anybody, the point is, we all need to examine our consciences
very well. Even as I write this homily, I dare not claim to be innocent of the
vice of worshiping money in place of God. It takes a sincere heart to
acknowledge one’s sins before repentance can follow. Refusal to acknowledge and
admit your error leads to disaster.
Money is
very enticing and it always feels good to know you have it in your pocket no
matter how small the amount. Many have said it is not the love of money but
rather the lack of money that is the root of all evils. They say, it is only
when you don’t have money that bad thoughts begin to come to your mind that you
begin to get desperate and ready to do anything. However, come to think of it, is
it the lack of money that leads to desperation or the lack of God?
With money,
one can build a magnificent cathedral. With money, one can organise a powerful
crusade and get one thousand persons to repent instantly from their old ways of
life. With money, one can repair all the roads leading to our churches, so that
people do not have any excuse for not going to church on Sundays. With money,
one can earn respect even from State Governors and Senators and one’s words
become accepted. With money, one sponsor a bill in the house of assembly or
fight against a bill that is against the commandment of God. With money, one
can feed an entire hungry village and even empower the youths and so on and so
on. However, come to think of it, money is powerful but isn’t God more powerful?
I have
heard people say money answereth all things. Meaning that with money, one can
get anything or make anybody do anything. As good as money is, its goodness is
nothing compared to the greatness of God. Money is what it is because of the
value we humans give to it. An amount of money may have value today and tomorrow,
that same amount of money becomes useless but God never reduce in value.
In conclusion
dear friends, I think it is foolishness on our part to serve money rather than
God. As powerful as money may be, God is even more powerful. Maybe the problem
is that we are yet to start serving God well enough to discover his power!
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, open my eyes to see your power that I may never ever worship money in
place of you. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy Weekend.
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