Enron, Easter, And Eternity

We are ready to fight for security. The one thing we all want,

whether we be aggressive and hostile and always ready to

strike out, or whether we be quiet and retiring and always

ready to run – the one thing we all are ready to fight for is

security. We need to know that our futures are solid. And

when the things on which we base our security are

threatened, we are ready to fight.

The trouble is that we’re looking at the wrong basis for

security. We have assumed that security lies in things like

bank accounts and weapons and houses and position.

These have turned out to be shaky. We have fought for all

the wrong things.

Have you heard of Enron? Enron is an energy company in

Houston; some of Enron’s executives were so invested in

financial security that they “cooked the books” to hide losses,

they conspired with other companies to create phony

partnerships, and they enticed their auditors into covering up

the truth. All that to drive up the stock price, cash out huge

profits, and then turn a blind eye as the company crashed

and burned and wiped out thousands of employees and

small investors. Enron has become an icon of greed; it is an

example of the pursuit of selfish wealth even when that

undermines the security of many other people. Enron is a

symbol of human sin that is deeper than stock prices and

broader than accounting fraud; it is a symbol of our desire to

base ourselves on things material and not on things spiritual.

Things that pass away and not on things that are eternal.

But it would be too easy to bash Enron this morning and

forget that its story is our story, too. Enron may be huge,

and you and I small, but the principle is the same. We too

fight to secure ourselves on things material. What foolish

things we do to achieve material security! And at what cost

to ourselves!

I thought about this the other day as my wife and I planned

our grocery shopping expedition. We are dyed-in-the-wool

coupon shoppers. If I have a little slip of paper that says “50

cents off” on some bottle of detergent, I have to have that

detergent! So when I see Sudso on sale, and I have a

coupon, and better yet it’s at a store that doubles coupons, I

will break the sound barrier to pick up my box of Sudso.

Never mind that I already have five boxes on the shelf.

Never mind that the store is out in Lower Slobbovia. This is

a bargain, worth fighting for! So I fight the traffic and the

crowds, and I spend a lot of time to save a couple of dollars.

I am fighting for things material, that do not matter in the end.

It’s Enronism, at my little personal level.

And it won’t let go. We have a reimbursement system here

at the church. When I go out and spend money on behalf of

the church, I can get it reimbursed when I have spent at least

$50. That’s designed to keep our treasurer from writing

innumerable little checks; I submit a list when I have spend

at least $50 for parking fees and postage and whatever, and

I will be reimbursed. But I’ve discovered that when that total

gets up to about $40 or $45, I can hardly wait until I am up to

that $50 boundary! You would think that that $50 was the

difference between bankruptcy and solvency! $48 – now

where can I find a couple more dollars in expenses so that I

can claim my check?! So I fight the calendar, I fight the

church’s policy, and I spend my energy, to have now what I

could easily wait for. I am fighting for things material, that do

not matter in the end. It’s Enronism, at my little personal

level.

But we are here today to declare that Enron has been

trumped by Easter, and that there is something better to fight

for than those things which pass away. We are here today

to learn how to fight for eternity.

I

We do well to begin by reminding ourselves of what is

perfectly obvious, and that is that earthly life, is not eternal.

There is no way we can change that. Every living thing will

ultimately wear out and die. Even the Queen Mum, whom

they thought might go on forever, finally succumbed after

101 years of hand-waving! No amount of finagling the books

or accumulating wealth or preserving strength will make us

eternal. We are going to die. And the Bible warns us that it

is very foolish indeed to suppose that we can beat that rap:

Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with