Greed is wide­spread. But nobo­dy would say of them­sel­ves that they are gree­dy. Greed is the desi­re for what you don’t yet have, com­bi­ned with dis­sa­tis­fac­tion with what you do have. It is wide­spread. That is why peo­p­le have always tried to limit it. The best way to cure greed is to give gene­rous­ly. Giving as an obe­dient step of faith can help to redu­ce greed in one’s own life. Only when I give do I rea­li­se whe­ther I am atta­ched to my pos­ses­si­ons or not.

This mor­ning is a first in my care­er as a pre­a­cher. I’m giving the first ser­mon that pro­ba­b­ly won’t appeal to anyo­ne – but I know exact­ly who they’­re lis­tening for. Today is the third ser­mon in the Pos­ses­si­ons & Faith series. Yes, I’m not a finan­cial expert. I am a theo­lo­gi­an and I always try to empha­sise God’s mes­sa­ge for us humans. One of them is that peo­p­le can­not ser­ve pos­ses­si­ons and God at the same time and that rich peo­p­le have a har­der time ente­ring God’s king­dom. That is why I do not give spe­ci­fic finan­cial tips, but prin­ci­ples and guidelines.

If some­thing bothers you about it, then the­re are two pos­si­bi­li­ties: First­ly, I’m wrong and that’s why it bothers you. Or else it hits a sore spot in your heart. I may have less finan­cial respon­si­bi­li­ty than others, but it is my respon­si­bi­li­ty to pro­cla­im God’s word to the best of my con­sci­ence. That’s why we’­re tal­king about greed today.

Greed – (not) a side effect

Greed affects all peo­p­le. I defi­ne it as the desi­re for what you don’t yet have, com­bi­ned with dis­sa­tis­fac­tion with what you do have. Greed for more and ava­ri­ce are clo­se­ly rela­ted. But greed hides its­elf. Nobo­dy has the fee­ling of being gree­dy. Becau­se the­re is always someone who has more than me. At the end of the day, nobo­dy feels rich. John D. Rocke­fel­ler, the richest man in the world at the time, was asked how much was enough. His ans­wer: «Just a litt­le more!» Nobo­dy would say: I abso­lut­e­ly need this house, this car, this watch, this holi­day, becau­se only then will I feel com­ple­te. Peo­p­le are pre­pared to do and lea­ve behind a lot of things for money. «Tho­se who are atta­ched to money will never get enough of it, and tho­se who love pro­spe­ri­ty will always be dri­ven by greed for more. All this is so point­less too!» (Eccle­si­as­tes 5:9 NLB).

In the text rea­ding we heard a para­ble. A wealt­hy man wan­ted to rely on his pos­ses­si­ons. Jesus tells this para­ble after a man asks him to ensu­re law and order, name­ly that his brot­her divi­des his inhe­ri­tance fair­ly. After all, this was his right – or so he thought. Jesus» ans­wer to this man’s request is: «[…] Take heed to your­sel­ves! Do not desi­re what you do not have. True life is not mea­su­red by how much we pos­sess» (Luke 12:15 NLB). He then tells the para­ble. The rich far­mer is very sel­fi­sh. He only thinks of hims­elf. But he is sur­pri­sed by sud­den death. Jesus comm­ents on the sto­ry with the fol­lo­wing harsh words: «You see how stu­pid it is to accu­mu­la­te wealth on earth and not ask God for riches» (Luke 12:21 NLB). This para­ble makes it clear that the gree­dy per­son replaces God with his pro­per­ty. He may be out­ward­ly suc­cessful, but inward­ly he is dead. The pro­blem behind this is that the far­mer has ulti­m­ate­ly added not­hing. Ever­y­thing is a gift from God. As long as I don’t see ever­y­thing as a gift from God – inclu­ding my suc­cess, my ear­nings, my fami­ly, my rela­ti­onships – greed has a big gate­way. So how do I deal with my pos­ses­si­ons? What do I acqui­re? Every acqui­si­ti­on also takes time. If you own a lot, you have to spend a lot of time on it. Fewer pos­ses­si­ons the­r­e­fo­re also mean more free space. Becau­se the things we have need to be loo­ked after and used: Motor­bike, house, sports equip­ment, pets, bicy­cles, swings and sand­bo­xes, fri­ends, fami­ly, holi­day homes, cara­vans, gar­dens, TVs, sub­scrip­ti­ons (strea­ming, music, fit­ness), gam­ing con­so­les, club mem­ber­ships, etc. Fewer pos­ses­si­ons bring more mea­ning to life, as I defi­ne mys­elf less by them. «The more you have, the more it has you» (Joshua Becker). May­be you’­re thin­king: You’­re cra­zy. But imme­dia­te­ly after this para­ble, Jesus speaks at length about how we should not worry. If I have to worry about some­thing, it shows that it has cap­tu­red my heart! Not worry­ing does not mean indif­fe­rence. It means caring, but always depen­ding on God for everything.

Dealing with greed

So how should we deal with greed – the desi­re for more and dis­sa­tis­fac­tion with what we have – in our lives? The first step in tack­ling a pro­blem is to reco­g­ni­se that it is one. The­r­e­fo­re, it is important to fight the batt­le of gene­ro­si­ty against sel­fi­sh­ness. If you don’t give enough money so that it limits you, so that it is a sacri­fice – if it does­n’t affect your life­style and makes no dif­fe­rence to how you live your life – then that is not an ans­wer to how Jesus Christ sacri­fi­ced his life for you on the cross. How much should I give away? Jesus is the stan­dard – his cross. «You know the gre­at love and grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. Alt­hough he was rich, he beca­me poor for your sake, so that through his pover­ty he might make you rich» (2 Corin­thi­ans 8:9 NLB). Last Sun­day we loo­ked at tithing as a good prin­ci­ple in deal­ing with our finan­ces. But it’s about ever­y­thing. Tho­se who fol­low Jesus Christ must lea­ve ever­y­thing behind (Luke 14:33) and can­not ser­ve God and money (Matthew 6:24).

I would like to illus­tra­te the dif­fe­rence bet­ween a dona­ti­on and a sacri­fice with a litt­le sto­ry. The chi­cken and the pig want to orga­ni­se a brunch tog­e­ther. The chi­cken says: «OK, pig, let’s get star­ted. I’ll con­tri­bu­te the egg and you con­tri­bu­te the bacon!» The chi­cken makes a dona­ti­on. A dona­ti­on is some­thing, but basi­cal­ly you keep your free­dom and secu­ri­ty. The pig, on the other hand, makes a sacri­fice. A sacri­fice means that it rest­ricts you. It cos­ts a lot – in the case of the pig, even your life. I am invol­ved in a dona­ti­on, but it cos­ts me much less than a sacri­fice. How do you want to deal with your possessions?

The topic of greed is not­hing new. But how did the church deal with it? The medieval church for­ba­de usu­ry – exces­si­ve inte­rest – and threa­ten­ed offen­ders with expul­si­on from the church. The two gre­at Swiss refor­mers also com­men­ted on this. Zwing­li, for exam­p­le, said: «He who sets his heart on money clo­ses the door to God’s king­dom» (Hul­drych Zwing­li). In the so-cal­led Let­ter to Dio­gnet from the second cen­tu­ry AD, the fol­lo­wing is recor­ded: «They mar­ry like ever­yo­ne else, they father child­ren, but they don’t throw away the new­borns. They share a meal, but not a bed. They live in the fle­sh, but not accor­ding to the fle­sh. They dwell on earth, but their citi­zen­ship is in hea­ven. They obey the exis­ting laws, and by their lives they tran­s­cend the laws» Fol­lo­wers of Jesus were gene­rous with their pos­ses­si­ons, but reser­ved with their sexua­li­ty. Today it is the other way round. We are gene­rous with our sexua­li­ty and reser­ved with our possessions.

In essence, it is about reco­g­nis­ing Jesus Christ as the more sta­ble ground than any­thing else. «True faith and the abili­ty to be con­tent with litt­le are inde­ed gre­at riches» (1 Timo­thy 6:6 NLB). It is the­r­e­fo­re important to con­scious­ly set boun­da­ries. We humans live in a world wit­hout boun­da­ries today. I would like to quo­te from the Idea of 15 Octo­ber 2025: «Tho­se who have mea­ning in life live more ser­e­n­e­ly. Tho­se who know that this world is not the last, but only the penul­ti­ma­te, can sleep peaceful­ly. Tho­se who have arri­ved – with God and the­r­e­fo­re with them­sel­ves – have an inner anchor that holds. What our world lacks and what faith has to offer are: Love, for­gi­ve­ness, grace and hope. Abo­ve all, gra­ti­tu­de for what we have. Gra­ti­tu­de makes you hap­py, healt­hy and balan­ced» (Ste­phan Holthaus).

Cure greed

So how do I cure this urge insi­de me to always want more? «We limit the num­ber of our pos­ses­si­ons, expen­ses, occu­pa­ti­ons and social obli­ga­ti­ons so that we are free to live with joy in the King­dom of Jesus» (John Mark Comer). Paul wri­tes to Timo­thy about the wealt­hy in his church: «Chall­enge them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good deeds, gene­rous­ly sup­port the nee­dy and always be rea­dy to share with others what God has given them. In this way, they lay a good foun­da­ti­on for the future with their pos­ses­si­ons in order to embrace true life» (1 Timo­thy 6:18 NLB).

What do we do with such state­ments? One of the most important Ger­man theo­lo­gi­ans sin­ce Mar­tin Luther says that belie­ving in Jesus and obey­ing him belong tog­e­ther: «Only the belie­ver is obe­dient, and only the obe­dient belie­ves» (Diet­rich Bon­hoef­fer). I learn what obe­dience is by sim­ply being obe­dient for once – not by asking ques­ti­ons. In the step of obe­dience I reco­g­ni­se the truth of the state­ment. So how do you find out whe­ther you are atta­ched to your pos­ses­si­ons? By sha­ring it! The key to beco­ming free from this is: give, give, give. Paul wri­tes that God loves a cheerful giver. But this should not ser­ve as an excu­se for sel­fi­sh­ness. For with the­se words, Paul is cal­ling for a coll­ec­tion of money. The fol­lo­wing ver­se is just as important: «He will gene­rous­ly pro­vi­de you with ever­y­thing you need. You will have what you need and you will even have some­thing left over to share with others» (2 Corin­thi­ans 9:8 NLB).

A few more incom­ple­te thoughts and sug­ges­ti­ons: The day will never come when God will say: I wish you had kept more to yours­elf! We need to limit our­sel­ves. Becau­se our heart always wants more. What could I do wit­hout and bor­row, for exam­p­le? This in turn frees up finan­ces, time and worries. This series on «Pos­ses­si­ons & Faith» is clo­se­ly lin­ked to the one on «Work & Faith». Money is often a dri­ving moti­va­tor the­re too. Many stay in their job becau­se of the good sala­ry. Some don’t take a day off. This would be a good oppor­tu­ni­ty to limit yours­elf. Becau­se the Sab­bath vol­un­t­a­ri­ly redu­ces pro­fit. In our working world, we often live cut off from the rest of life. And this in turn has an impact on our lives. Basi­cal­ly, it can be said that we always ori­en­ta­te our­sel­ves upwards. Why not down­wards? When deal­ing with money, it must also be said that saving is not bet­ter than spen­ding. When saving, the­re is a dan­ger of rely­ing on my pos­ses­si­ons, and when con­sum­ing, my pos­ses­si­ons deter­mi­ne my iden­ti­ty. As a fol­lower of Jesus, I am cal­led upon to be gene­rous towards tho­se who have not­hing to give back (Luke 6:27–39).

Do the­se things sound radi­cal? Or is it obe­dience to God and his invi­ta­ti­on to fol­low him? Per­so­nal­ly, I don’t want to miss out on the tre­asu­re becau­se I’m con­tent with earth­ly trin­kets. Becau­se the way we tre­at our pos­ses­si­ons shows a lot about whe­re our heart is. To allude to next Sun­day: What is a mark of a fol­lower of Jesus? The heart is in hea­ven – and the tre­asu­res are laid up there.

Last but not least, we end this ser­mon with pray­er again: «Lord, show my heart what is important to your heart.» May he show you what the next step is for you.

Possible questions for the small group

Read the Bible text: Luke 12:13–21

1. Whe­re does greed show its­elf in my ever­y­day life? In which are­as of my life do I noti­ce the desi­re for «just a litt­le bit more» – be it pos­ses­si­ons, com­fort, reco­gni­ti­on or secu­ri­ty? And how does dis­sa­tis­fac­tion with what I alre­a­dy have mani­fest itself?
2. What cap­tures my heart? What mate­ri­al things cau­se me to worry? How do I rea­li­se that I am rely­ing on my pos­ses­si­ons rather than on God?
3. Dona­ti­on or sacri­fice? Whe­re in my life do I only give «from abun­dance»? And what could a real sacri­fice look like that would chan­ge my life­style and make my disci­ple­ship more practical?
4. Set­ting boun­da­ries – whe­re am I out of bounds? In which things (pos­ses­si­ons, lei­su­re acti­vi­ties, sub­scrip­ti­ons, purcha­ses, obli­ga­ti­ons) would it be bene­fi­ci­al for me to con­scious­ly set or redu­ce boun­da­ries in order to gain more free­dom for God’s kingdom?
5. Gene­ro­si­ty as a reme­dy: What con­cre­te steps of gene­ro­si­ty could help me to detach my heart from pos­ses­si­ons? Are the­re peo­p­le or orga­ni­sa­ti­ons that I could sup­port – not out of duty, but out of joy?
6. What does my hand­ling of pos­ses­si­ons reve­al about my heart? If someone just obser­ved my hand­ling of money and pos­ses­si­ons – wit­hout hea­ring a word – what would that per­son rea­li­se about my prio­ri­ties and my rela­ti­onship with Jesus?