Think Lightly of Wealth and Honor

From St. John Chrysostom, On the Epistle to the Hebrews 20.5, from Hebrews: Ancient Christian commentary on Scripture, New Testament X p. 167

Knowing then these things, let us be patient when we suffer evil and forthright in offering kindness.  This is all the stronger if we think lightly of wealth and honor.  He that has stripped himself of those affections is of all people most generous and wealthier even than he who wears the purple.  Do you not see how many evils come through money?  I do not say how many through covetousness, but merely by our attachment to these things.  Just think of one who loses his money and leads a life more wretched than any death.  Why do you grieve, my friend?  Why do you weep if God has delivered you from excessive watching?  Better that you come before God in fear and trembling.  Again, if someone might chain you to a treasure, commanding you to sit there perpetually and to keep watch for other people’s goods, you are grieved, you are disgusted.  But would you, having been bound with these chains, grieve when you yourself are delivered from slavery?

How do these words compare to the view of wealth in American Christianity?  What would our reaction be if they were preached from the pulpit?  Perhaps outrage, but it’s quite possible that we would just ignore them and go on, as we do so many things.