By Jordan J Ballor, Public Discourse.
If wealth is as deceitful as Christ teaches in this parable of the sower, and we are the wealthiest society that has ever existed, then the occasion for temptation and deception is greater as well. And so we must cultivate habits of gratitude for what God has provided to us and practices of giving for what God wills.
We all seek and depend on money in one way or another, directly or indirectly, every day. If someone were to come up and offer us a winning lottery ticket for $100, $1,000, or even $1 million I doubt many—if any—of us would turn it down. The reality is, though, that despite many of our everyday worries and anxieties about making ends meet, about paying off that tuition bill, or about that mortgage or car loan, we are all living in the most economically developed and wealthy era in human history. We could spend a great deal of time examining data points about the massive increase in material wealth that the world—especially what is often called the developed world—has enjoyed since about the year 1750. Suffice it to say that we live amid what has been called a “mountainous rise in well being”—at least measured in material terms—over the last couple of centuries. This “great enrichment” is truly unprecedented, both in terms of scale (how many people are enjoying the benefits) and in terms of scope (what benefits are on offer).
And yet even in this midst of plenty, we find plenty to worry about. Certainly distribution of wealth is a legitimate concern, even as the opportunities for consumption of goods are generally more widespread than ever. There are many other data points we could examine relating to so-called “deaths of despair,” drug addiction, digital addiction, and all kinds of other social pathologies that indicate that even the level of material well-being we now experience is not enough to make us happy.
Why Aren’t We Happy?
Christ’s parable of the sower provides us with an important insight into this conundrum. We read in that parable that seed falls in different places. And Christ’s explanation is that the seed is the word of God, and that it falls among the thorns, “which grew up and choked the plants.” Later Christ explains, “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.”