Sunday 30th September 2007

At the end of July UK personal debt stood at a staggering £1,355billion.

Not including mortgages, the average household owes an average of £9,000 . UK citizens will borrow an additional £322 millionpounds each day this week and the average household debt will increase by over £13 a day.

Getting into serious debt has become an epidemic. Banks have been too willing to feed and exploit our debt and we have begun to see a large rise in the amount of families in desperate need giving into unscrupulous money lenders. Every day 77 homes are repossessed. The damage this causes to families and relationships doesn’t bare thinking of.

Following the recent problems at the mortgage lenders Northern Rock, the Christian charity, Credit Action, has warned that people need to revive the skills of saving, budgeting and sensible purchasing. And John Preston, the Church of England’s National Stewardship and Resources Officer, writing in a new booklet about personal finance argues that applying Christian principles to handling money could reduce the UK’s consumer debt crisis, keep mortgage payments down, and eliminate global poverty

Both Credit Action and the Church of England have good reasons to be concerned.

How did things get so out of hand?

Perhaps it's our misguided sense that real life will be found in material possessions – in bigger houses, better cars.Perhaps we are driven by a desire to keep up with the Jones’.

Appearance is valued in our celebrity culture society.

Clothing, cosmetics and cosmetic surgery are massive industries. We have become a driven society. Our spending rises out of our need for instant gratification.

In every age some have abused the wealth given to them for inordinate luxury at the expense of others who simply want the essentials of life. God’s anger at such a spectacle runs as a constant theme throughout the bible, for the wealth of the world is given into our stewardship not for the privilege of the few but for the common good of the human race.

The rich man in today’s gospel appeared to have it all.

He dressed in expensive clothes and lived in great luxury every day. Outside his house was a poor and sickly man, Lazarus.

We don’t know why he was there, except to assume that the food the rich man would throw away would be good enough for him. Perhaps he’d read the statistic that most of us throw away 1/3 of the groceries we buy each day.

In our epistle reading today Paul tells us that in the end what ever material possession we have will not count for anything ‘for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it”.

One day death, of course, met both men. The rich man, tormented and in great pain, looked up from hell to see Lazarus sitting very near Abraham. Now the rich man, who had never had a thought for Lazarus while on earth, begs to have his afflictions soothed by Lazarus. "Remember...that during your life time you received your good things," Abraham answers, "while Lazarus had bad things.

But now he is comforted here and you are in agony." In this parable the sin that took the rich man to hell was not his wealth. The sin that took him there was his indifference to the sufferings of Lazarus.

It’s very easy in our society to fall into the trap of only looking after ourselves and our immediate families. But as Christians we are called to look after all in need – to love our neighbours as ourselves. An obsession with looking after our own lot is self-serving and leaves us with little time or energy to love others. I certainly have been blessed with a healthy share of good things.

I enjoy good health, have a wonderful family, have a roof over my head and food on my table. I have a good job, we have two cars , enjoy the company of good friends, and have plenty of things to wear.

But it hasn’t always been like that.

I was brought up in a very poor family, sharing a bedroom with five other siblings – no kitchen to speak of ,no bathroom, no car, very little money. Living in England in the 1960s was very different.

Of course people aspired for more but people also sought gratification in community, in friendships and helping each other.But nowadays the temptation is to want more and more and for some of us, what we have is not enough. We want more and we are willing to do anything to achieve it.

Is it any great surprise, then, to find ourselves in financial and spiritual trouble? 

What motivates us to risk not appreciating what we do have by constantly striving for the things we don’t have?

What keeps us living a life of quiet desperation, lived inside impressive walls? Well Paul gives us a clue when he says that the "love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." Let's look at that for a moment. Debt is our most raging addiction.

Those in debt are becoming alarmingly younger and younger. University students, for example, are prime targets for credit companies. Personal debt threatens our ability to help the needy – as John Preston states “If every UK household gave away five per cent of their income, we could eliminate poverty globally, educate every child on earth and provide water and sanitation for all”.

With more and more people falling into debt the evidence shows that that whilst causing personal misery our own debt hinders our chances of helping the Lazarus’ of this world.

Is money the root of the evils that ravage our society?

Some very familiar characters in the Bible were very wealthy: Abraham, David, Solomon, Job.

Throughout the Scriptures we read how God promises his people that he will multiply...bless...increase... what they have been given. Paul does not tell us that money is the root of all evil, but the love of it is! We have to be able to stop, take stock and let go and accept that enough is enough. We have to be willing to support and encourage those in financial hardship, particularly through debt.

And all of us, no matter what our financial position, have to consider what we give and can give to the Lazarus’ of this world. For as this parable clearly states God is displeased with those who ignore the plight of the poor and needy.

In a moment Robert will baptize Sofia – I hope and pray that as Sofia grows up future generations might be less obsessed with materialism than many of us are. I hope that our young will have seen the stress that debt causes their families and that the tide will change; I hope that the young will see and respond to the Lazarus’ in both our own country and overseas.

For us, as it will be for Sofia, the good race of the faith is run in pursuit of treasures in heaven. It is there, Paul assures us, that we win the life that really is LIFE. Amen

© Revd Renos Pittarides 2007

(statistics courtesy of http://www.creditaction.org.uk)