Matt Chandler - Oppressor, Laborer

If you have your Bibles, turn to James, chapter 5, and look at the first six verses. While you’re finding that specific page, I want to mention that in the April issue of Texas Monthly, there was a featured piece about a suburb outside of Houston along the San Jacinto River called Highlands. It wasn’t called «the Highlands»; it was simply called Highlands. Highlands was a master-planned community with lot restrictions, so the lots were large. There weren’t any small, «let’s go play in the backyard» types of lots. Instead, there were big spaces, pasture land, and magnificent homes—the American Dream embodied: green pastures, large houses, and a beautiful master-planned community. However, not all was well in Highlands despite its external beauty.

You see, in 1965, the Champion Paper Mill, located in Pasadena, Texas—has anyone ever been to Pasadena, Texas? You didn’t stay long, did you? Yeah, then you bowed out. I understand; I went to high school close to that area. In Pasadena, Texas, a contract was worked out with McGinnis Industrial Maintenance Corporation to dispose of Champion’s industrial waste. MC dug pits along the San Jacinto River and dumped toxic waste there until 1967 when the unlined pits reached capacity. After all, if you’re going to dispose of toxic waste, you might as well do it next to a river, right? I mean, we might as well put that as close to our water supply as we can get it. The following year, MC’s Board of Directors voted to abandon the site.

Over the next four decades, the riverbank that separated the pits from the river gradually eroded until large sections of the toxic waste pits were submerged beneath the San Jacinto River. The site was basically unknown to anyone else until 2005 when the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department realized what was there. By this time, suburban sprawl had landed Highlands two miles from these pits, and in 2008, Hurricane Ike struck just east of the pits and flooded the Highland area. The amount of sickness in Highlands post-2008 was staggering; cases of cancer and digestive disorders, among other ailments, skyrocketed.

It’s a terrifying idea that in the midst of such external beauty, there can be such toxicity. There’s a juxtaposition taking place in Highlands. At this point, the issue has gone to trial, and MC has paid millions of dollars to the victims, but there’s a stark contrast between this picturesque environment and the pervasive toxicity. In this beautiful landscape, which we all desire, we are dying. In fact, the very showers we take, the water we drink, and the air we breathe can be detrimental to our health. This serves as a terrifying illustration, meant to help us understand that we are very much in the midst of a similar toxicity—a type of deadly, silent, soul-shriveling environment that stifles the true potential for which we were created and traps us in a state of boredom and unfulfillment.

So, James, chapter 5, starting in verse 1: «Come now, you rich.» Let’s pause here for a second because some of you might think, «Okay, he’s not talking to me.» But if you make twenty-five thousand dollars a year, you are in the wealthiest 2% of the world. Did you hear me? If you make twenty-five thousand dollars a year, you are in the wealthiest 2% of the world. So, in this context, you might be earning seventeen thousand and feeling broke, but by global standards, you are wealthy. You are someone’s Bill Gates! When you’re living in humble means, someone else’s mind would be blown at how you live.

«Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth-eaten; your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person; he does not resist you.»

Now, if you’re a skeptic or an unbeliever, let me just start by saying this: We’re not taking an offering today, so you can breathe! This isn’t an extended offering session. If you’re thinking, «I knew they just wanted my money,» I don’t want your money—keep it! I don’t need a new plane; my 2005 Honda is running just fine. I’m not asking for new gear or anything like that. This isn’t that type of sermon; this is a sermon for the good of your own soul. You can hear it through skeptical lenses, but I assure you, I am NOT interested in your money, and my outline will prove it.

So, James is going to argue—and he joins Jesus in Matthew 6—by arguing really four things. The first is that money is dangerous. It’s not bad; it’s dangerous. Money is dangerous; it’s not a bad thing to have. Think of money like fire: like fire can keep you warm, it can cook food, but it can also burn everything down.