Resources»

Sermon Archive

Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Monsters Inside Us

Psalm 5:1-8; 1 Kings 21:1-21a

Reverend Richard E. Allen, Jr.

Stephen King is not someone I often read, but I respect his command of the craft of writing.  His name is essentially synonymous with the horror fiction genre.  And though I’m not one of his regular readers, sales of his books indicate that he touches a nerve in our culture.  His popularity, is partly because we love to be scared.  But, at a deeper level, I think that we sense a very real, almost palpable darkness in our culture that reflects darkness in our souls.  King himself is aware of the human shadow side.  He says, “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real, too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win.”  (This and following quotes are at:  http://thinkexist.com/quotations/greed/) In King’s fiction, of course the darkness often wins.

But the darker side, the shadow side, of human personality often wins in the stories of the Bible.  That’s true, I suppose, because the Bible is so honest about whom we truly are. And who are we: children of God, meant for relationships with God and with each other.  Yes, God has made us beautiful, gifted, and free.  But our freedom gives us occasion to explore the other side of life, and to give in to ugliness, to selfishness – the “monsters and ghosts” Steven Kings notes in every personality.

So today we hear this story of Ahab and Jezebel, the king and the queen of Samaria, a region that was at that time part of Israel.  It’s a story about God’s chosen people and their chosen king.  And it’s not a nice story.

Naboth is a nobody who unfortunately has a vineyard just beyond the walls of the palace that Ahab and Jezebel call home.  Ahab notices it one day, and longs for it.  Owning nearly everything isn’t enough for this king, who finds himself overwhelmed by avarice.  And that’s exactly what Ahab is driven by.  In our own time Gandhi notes our universal, timeless, human sickness:  “There is,” said Gandhi, “a sufficiency in the world for man’s need, but not for man’s greed.”                                                                 (Again, see:  http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/greed/)  So let us not miss the truth:  the story is about Ahab, but it says something true about all of us.

But we know this story is about us, don’t we, because we feel with Ahab his disappointment at not having what he desires.  “He lay down on his bed, turned away his face, and would not eat.”  Greed has won. No surprise there. Greed is an eternal hunger in human hearts.  A Chinese proverb is succinct:  “Love is blind, but greed is insatiable.”  Half a world from China, the first-century philosopher Publilius Syrus says, “Poverty wants much; but avarice, everything.”  (Ibid.)

Fortunately for Ahab, while he can’t use his own power to take what he wants, Jezebel, his wife and the queen, have no such inhibitions.  She conspires against Naboth, has him falsely accused and quickly executed, so that his estate falls to the king.  The story seems to end at verse 16 of our lesson:  “As soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab set out to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.”

It’s an old story, and a common one, of course.  Might wins the day, and Ahab is up, and happy.  He’s living the large life, and living it well.  Ahab could even be a poster child for Gordon Gecko’s famous dictum:  “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”  Or, if you prefer reality to fiction, Donald Trump, perhaps in some sense a modern moral equivalent of royalty has said essentially the same thing:  “The point is, you can’t be too greedy.”  (http://www.worldofquotes.com/topic/Greed/1/index.html)

Trump.  Gecko.  Ahab.  Jezebel.  Each of them is easy to judge, easy to condemn, and easy to convict of greed, what the church calls one of the seven deadly sins.  And yes, they epitomize for us this darker side of our culture of acquisitiveness run amuck.  We know that when we asked, “How much is enough?” they answer:  “More.”

But there’s a deeper truth here.  The bible tells us these stories for the same reason that Stephen King writes and sells so many of his stories:  These stories are about us, too.  The monsters and the ghosts are in our hearts, too.  And yes, even the greed.

The tidal marshes that lie between Beaufort, SC, and the nearby barrier islands are incredibly beautiful, soul-healing and water-cleansing places.  If they are not part of heaven, they form, at least, the view from heaven’s front porch.  For years they were unnoticed, home to a gentle, good culture of African Americans.  Lately, though, the lands that encompass those marshes, like those on nearby Daufuskie and Hilton Head Islands, have been noticed.  Ahab’s spiritual descendents have noticed the property of Naboth’s spiritual descendents.  Property values, and taxes, have soared.  Modern brick-veneer ranch homes have replaced old, worn wooden buildings.  New owners enjoy crabbing, shrimping, and fishing – not for subsistence, but just for fun.  People have been displaced, because their land is, well, just too beautiful, and now too expensive, for them to retain.

The wise Jewish twentieth century saint Abraham Heschel famously said, “Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”  You see, Ahab the king – and Jezebel the queen – serve themselves, but they provide service for their people, too.  Land values skyrocket because so many of us are drawn to the marshes of life’s origins.  Yes, a few are guilty.  But they work for us.  We are all responsible. 

We’re all greedy, after all.  We see the video of crude oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, under a mile of water, and we feel angry.  We see pictures of birds or marshes coated with brown, cruddy oil, and it makes us sick.  But then we go to the pump and fill up the tank, and we want the lowest price and we want it always available. We’re greedy, all of us, for the good life, the life of convenience, of beauty, and truth. And we want it all at the lowest price possible.  And if something goes wrong with the process or if jobs move to sweatshops – well, we’ll be angry at Wal-Mart for its practices, but whether or not we shop in its big stores we live by Wal-Mart’s implicit motto:  “More.  For less.” We want our lives super-sized, like our McDonalds value meals. Yes, Donald Trumps speaks for us, as well as for himself:  “You can’t be too greedy.”

That’s depressing.  But that’s our story.  And, as Walter Brueggemann notes in looking at this lesson, usually, the story ends there.  The greedy get the goods, and life goes on.  Remember golden rule of human power:  “Whoever has the gold, rules.”  Ahab, with Jezebel’s help, and acting for us all, seems to win the day.  Naboth is gone, and progress is on the horizon:  the vineyard will become the king’s new vegetable garden.  But he’s a moral man:  he plans to us organic fertilizer and bug control only, of course.

Most of the time, this story ends with the bad news for the Naboth.  But this time, no.  The story doesn’t end there.  Or, as Brueggemann says, “Where the story should have ended, is precisely where it begins.  History begins in Israel when the prophet appears….”  (Walter Brueggemann, 1 Kings, John Knox Press, page 96.)  And with the prophet’s appearance, God returns as well.

God returns, with a promise of justice.  The greedy king will be thrown down, promises Elijah.  And greed itself will be de-certified, de-legitimized, and de-throned.  God will be restored as the true giver of life, of health, and happiness.  After all, the Bible’s message begins with the blessing of all creation for all creation.  God makes the world of abundance, life, and joy.  God makes a world from nothing and gives is as a gift to its very creatures, all of whom are called enjoy it, not possess it.

After all, our lives don’t depend on our possessions.  We know that.  We know that everything we try to possess ultimately possesses us.  And we, the church, know a richer truth:  God already blesses us beyond measure.  Our accounts are full, our gardens are abundant, and our lives are easier, fuller, and more meaningful than even Ahab or Jezebel could have ever imagined looking out from their palace walls.  Our lives are gifts of a loving God, the One who has loved us beyond our imagining, and who blesses us with goodness, grace and mercy in spite of the fact that our hearts are full of monsters and ghosts, including the ones named “sin”, and “guilt”, and even “greed.”

In Christ, we can be free:  Free of greed’s guilt.  Free from the need to acquire.  Free from greed itself, if we accept this greater Christian freedom. In Christ we are free to live in the light, and free to enjoy the abundance of a God who provides all for us, even inviting us to share with each other a brothers and sisters, and to pray with hope:  “Our Father, … give us this day, our daily bread.”

God provides that, of course and more, as well.  And what God gives is enough.  God’s daily portion of goodness and grace is enough.  God’s provision of bread and wine is enough.  God’s daily gift of breath and laughter and each other, is enough.  Today, and always. 

Amen.

Go to Top

© Copyright 2005 Mamaroneck United Methodist Church

546 East Boston Post Road, Mamaroneck,  New York 10543, (914) 698 4343