LICC - word for the week - If it's mine, I want it....

word for the week - if it’s mine, I want it

Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ Jesus replied, ‘Friend, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Luke 12:13,14

So, you have a comfortable contract with a large handout when you leave. The company hasn’t done too well, profits and dividends are down, some expansion has been ill judged and several thousand are to be made redundant. You have to go. Will you decide that the handout may be your due, but you’re not going to take it? Or will you tell us the money is yours by right and that’s the end of it?

And then there’s the UK rebate from the EU – in the contract, due by right, but much has happened in 20 years – new countries, different economic priorities and needs – and ‘we’ve got it, we’ll keep it’ doesn’t sound like a moral neighbour-loving response. Will it be politically damaging in the UK to make some concessions? Perhaps some will understand that taking all we can get does not contribute to peaceful coexistence.

So what makes a man keep some of his brother’s inheritance? And what makes the brother think that Jesus will support the demand for his rights and his due? Be on your guard against greed – all kinds of greed, even for the pound of flesh. I suppose the man in the crowd had a right to a share in the inheritance his brother was holding. In all this the echoes of childhood reverberate – it’s not fair – it’s my turn – she’s got more than me. Are we greedy for our rightful share, our due – for every penny of it? Greedy for our rights to be acknowledged?

Jesus ‘being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing’ (Philippians 2:5,6). Until we learn the art of not insisting on our share, we will not know what may result – knock-on generosities, heart-warming goodwill, and above all a deeper understanding of the incarnation and the cross. ‘Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions.’ It may indeed be the richer for not acquiring some of them in the first place!

Margaret Killingray