The recent Powerball lottery pay-off was 588 million dollars. This prompted the hosts of a Lincoln (Neb) sports-talk show, following Dan Patrick, to ask the following question: would you give up watching sports forever for $500,000,000? The guest to whom they asked the question groaned and hesitated. He was struggling. As he wrestled with the question I re-framed it in my mind while I waited for him to answer: would I give up the means of grace (the preaching of the gospel, the sacraments, and prayer) for 500 million bucks? I hope not. I trust not. I think that I understand that the free, gracious, salvation from judgment and wrath, earned for me by grace and freely given to me and received through resting, trusting in Christ (which resting itself is God’s free gift) is worth more than all the Powerball jackpots that could ever be. In 2Corinthians 8:9 Paul wrote,

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

The riches of which Paul wrote are not material. They are spiritual. Contrary to what the Word-Faith hucksters say, they are not temporal, they are eternal. They begin with free acceptance with God and they include Spirit-wrought union with the risen Christ through faith. They include the presence of Christ with us by his Spirit through the ministry of Word and sacrament. Framed in terms of heaven and hell, the decision between Christ and wealth would seem to be obvious but all we children of Adam are fallen. Here’s another way to put wealth into perspective. The rich and the poor all die. They may get to the grave differently and they may have better or worse markers but when they die their wealth (or poverty) will be of no value whatever. Their bones will rest in nice caskets or cheap but both will be dead and under the ground and both will appear before the Lord. Indeed, contrary to expectations, however advantage the wealthy have materially they have real disadvantages spiritually. Not for nothing did our Lord say,

Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God (Matt 19:23–24; ESV)

The truly wealthy carry unexpected burdens. For one thing it’s very difficult to tell who is a genuine friend and who simply wants something. It’s difficult enough in this life to tell true friends from phonies but add money to the mix and it’s exponentially more difficult. We don’t always know or understand our own motives, so how can we tell if someone else is genuine? Great wealth creates a certain wariness among the wealthy. Great wealth also causes one to think more about this world and is a significant distraction from the age to come. To be sure, grinding poverty also causes one to think about this world, about daily survival—I am not suggesting that poverty is romantic but assuming that one has just enough it is true that people will tend to ask less of you. Wealth is a symbol of what a culture values. Because this is so it is almost impossible to put away wealth and leave it alone because others (governments, worthy organizations, the needy) always want it. Thus, it demands attention and attention takes time and that is a finite commodity. The history of lottery winners suggests that immense wealth suddenly gained isn’t all we imagine. It is truly a life-changing event for which few are a prepared. Just as great power bought with it great responsibility to Peter Parker, so immense wealth can be a genuine burden. That seems counter-intuitive, especially to those who are struggling to get by, but history says that wealth doesn’t solve as many problems as one might imagine and it brings with it unanticipated problems. For example, a significant percentage of the fellows who play in the NFL, who sign large contracts but who tend to play for only a few years before injuries end their careers, are bankrupt and millions of dollars in debt just a few years after they leave the game. Some professional athletes support dozens of other people (their entourage) so they become nouveaux riche American nobility. They now have serfs for which they must care and more money is going out than is coming in. A few expensive cars and houses and a bad investment or two and poof! It’s all gone. So it has been with lottery winners. I remember a discussion I had with one of my elders, in Kansas City, in the late 80s or early 90s. We were talking about the morality of playing the lottery and whether it would be right for the church to accept a gift from a lottery winner. My response was no, because it was ill-gotten gain. My more experienced elder looked at me sideways. I was young, full of enthusiasm, poor, and had no idea of the allure or potential of great wealth. He knew that there are always ways to justify what we want to do. He knew that my snap answer wouldn’t be so easy if the money were right before us. Now I understand my elder a little better. Would I try to justify taking the money? The question of what to do with “tainted money” isn’t new. Though the expression, “The Devil’s had that money long enough” is often attributed to Billy Sunday but was probably said by the evangelist D. L. Moody (1837–99). The problem of “tainted money” is quite real. Craigslist generates a great deal of income from advertising illicit activities and they intended (in 2010 at least) to donate some of those proceeds to non-profit organizations. That potential created a crisis for some non-profits. Is lottery money really tainted? Some have argued to me that gambling is a matter of Christian liberty and that investing in the stock market (which most of us do via our retirement funds) is nothing more than gambling. If that isn’t wrong, they argue, then it is too scrupulous to worry about gambling. Nevertheless, the old Reformed view was stoutly against gambling. It used to be grounds for suspension from the Lord’s Table. The Westminster Larger Catechism says:

Q. 142. What are the sins forbidden in the eighth commandment?

A. The sins forbidden in the eighth commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are, theft, robbery, man-stealing, and receiving anything that is stolen; fraudulent dealing, false weights and measures, removing landmarks, injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man, or in matters of trust; oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust enclosures and depredation; engrossing commodities to enhance the price; unlawful callings, and all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbor what belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves; covetousness; inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods; distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them; envying at the prosperity of others; as likewise idleness, prodigality, wasteful gaming; and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate, and defrauding ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God hath given us.

Has anything really changed or have we just gone soft? Is gambling an example of where we’ve become inured to sin? Is it so much a part of our culture that we can’t see it as sin any more because it would put us at odds with virtually everyone? Perhaps, however, because it is so much a part of our culture we should think about whether it is sinful, whether it is destructive, and how we should relate to it?

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