July 31, 2016
11th Sunday After Pentecost Year C

“Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21

“Jesus doesn’t warn against money, wealth, or material abundance. He warns against greed, about the insatiable feeling of never having enough. And the parable he tells illustrates this. The farmer’s problem isn’t that he’s had a great harvest, or that he’s rich, or that he wants to plan for the future. The farmer’s problem is that his good fortune has curved his vision so that everything he sees starts and ends with himself. Listen again to the conversation he has with, not a spouse or friend or parent or neighbor, but only with himself: “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” Do you see what I mean? It is an absolutely egocentric conversation, even including a conversation with himself inside the conversation he is already having with himself! This is why he is a fool. He has fallen prey to the notion that life, and particularly the good life, consists of possessions, precisely the thing Jesus warns against. What, then, does the good life consist of? Read the rest of what Jesus says across the gospels and it becomes pretty clear: relationships — relationships with each other and with God.” (David Lose, working preacher website, What Money Can and Can’t Do, July 29, 2013)

What is the secret to life? I do not have an answer for that. I do have an answer, though, for the question “What is the secret to life with
G-d?” The secret to a life that is rich in and with G-d is the relationship you (and I) have with G-d. The richness of our lives is not defined by money, stuff or power – it is defined instead by the richness of our relationship with G-d. Think about it for a second. Money is fleeting because although you may accumulate a lot of it in this life, it will do nothing for you in the life to come. Stuff may bring you comfort in this life, but it will only be left on this earth for moths and rust to consume it. And power may feel good now, but you might as well leave it to your Harley Davidson, because earthly power has no place in the kingdom of G-d.

The biggest “beef” Jesus has in this story is the fact that the man is driven by greed. Jesus does not speak against money, or wealth, or accumulating stuff. He just thinks that focusing all of your attention on those things is wrong – especially if it keeps you from sharing what you have. What Jesus wants us to hoard is not stuff. Jesus wants us to hoard relationships, and not hoard them but collect them, nourish them, feed them, and care for them. That is how we live a life that is rich in G-d.

Pastor Dave