Being Rich Where God Is Concerned
Being Rich Where God Is Concerned
July 31, 2022
Luke 12: 13 - 21
”Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” That is how our lesson begins. Do you remember Jesus’ response? ”He said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’” Perhaps Jesus is simply rejecting the role that was wildly expected of religious leaders at the time. Or, it may have been said in response to the retort to Moses (Exodus 2:14) “Who made you a prince or judge over us?” which may have become proverbial. But Luke uses this story as an example for his teaching: “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” This theme, not connected with this story in the Gospel of Thomas, becomes Luke’s focus for the next three stories that he reports, following immediately with the Parable of the Rich Farmer.
The rich farmer’s fields produced bumper crops, more than he could store in his barns. ”Then he said {apparently to himself), . . . ‘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.”
In the terms of our time, this rich man is just retiring with a huge pension and plenty of savings. He has it made; it is time to relax, to eat, to drink, and to be merry. Isn’t that how we think today?
That is not the end of the parable. ”But God said to him,
You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you.’ You die and who’s will all your crops or money be?
Reinforcing his theme, Luke concludes this parable with the following observation: 21”So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
Luke seems to use this parable as an example story of the second of his four points about possessions.
The first point being the conclusion of his first account in verse 15: “Be on guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s live does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
The second, here in verse 21, ”So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
Luke’s third and fourth points are in verses 31 and 34, part of next week’s lesson and sermon. [We will save them for your reading in preparation for next Sunday’s sermon.]
What about these first two lessons?
1, Guard against greed; life is not about possessions.
2. Don’t store treasures for yourself; be rich toward God.
These are radical, counter-cultural ideas. We are continually overwhelmed by advertising that spells out exactly how much we must have the latest whosewhatchamacalit. If you don’t have this newest phone or car or computer game or air fryer, you are depriving yourself of everything that is important in life: at the very minimum, you simply have to keep up with the Jones – better yet, you ought to be the Jones. And Luke tells us that Jesus said “life is not about possessions.”
What do you mean? Our lives are all about possessions! We are possessed by our possessions. Our houses are so full of stuff that we have to rent storage units to hold some of our valued things. It seems that we have to move what we already have into storage so we can buy those latest models. How else can we properly impress our friend and neighbors – how else can we properly impress ourselves with the success of our living? But, “life is not about possessions”?
(Let me be honest, my house is full of stuff. too. As usual, I am preaching to myself as well as to you.)
Okay, enough about our stuff -- for the moment. What about our treasurers – our bank accounts? Luke reports that Jesus instructed: “Don’t store treasures (money) for yourself.” Our marketing-mania has helped most people on this half of Jesus’ teaching; we spend so much on those possessions that there are no treasures left for ourselves. What is it, 50 or 60 percent of all households in this country don’t have $400 dollars for an emergency? But some of the rest of us have managed to pile up some money even though Jesus taught “Don’t store treasures for yourself.”
Last spring when my sermons were addressing Jesus’ teachings in the Great Sermon – specifically the Sermon on the Plain in Luke, my brother who at least sometimes reads my emailed sermons asked if anyone still came to the Church when I kept talking about giving to everyone who asks and lending without expecting to receive anything back. Well, you are still here, but let me be reasonable for a moment.
Our world is not at all like the world of Jesus’ time. Most of us no longer grow most of our food. Most of us don’t live in one- or two-room simple houses. Most of us need to be responsible to provide for our families and then for ourselves when much more is required of us in this Country. If we don’t provide adequately for our children and spouses, the Public Health people will require us to meet current standards and expectations. And if we don’t store up enough treasure to provide for our years of retirement, we end up on the streets asking our neighbors to feed and clothe us and to provide us free or at least subsidized housing. So, let’s listen a little harder to these teachings.
Guard against greed; life is not about possessions. The first part of this teaching, “guard against greed” does not command that you can’t buy what you need for your family’s convenience, comfort, and well-being. Greed suggests requiring more – much more – than enough, having to have the latest and greatest of everything in order to feel and to be identified as successful in your living.
The second half of that teaching, “life is not about possessions,” is the focus of it, the guarding against greed is just a means to implement it. If life is not about possessions, what is it about?
The two greatest commandments come to my mind here. Life is about loving God and loving our neighbors --the way we love ourselves. Figuring out how to love God in practice is an interesting task. The only principle that comes to my mind is the Last Judgment in Matthew 25, whatever you do for the most inconspicuous people – or for the least of these -- you do for God. We can love God by loving -- in real life forms -- those neighbors who are most troubled and most needy. So we put aside greed and more possessions than needed in order to love our neighbors – that would include our family and friends and nearby neighbors and distant neighbors – and to love the inconspicuous, least-of-these neighbors. That is, instead of buying the latest and greatest thing on your wish list, you spend your time and money helping your family, your close neighbors, your distant neighbors, and those inconspicuous (least-of-these) neighbors gain the very save comforts and opportunities which you are seeking for yourself.
Doesn’t that make sense? My job this morning isn’t to call you to account for what you purchase. But I need to remind you that Luke reports that Jesus said that we need to guard against greed because the essence of life is not about possessions but about loving our neighbors. And we already know this fact of life; our spirits rejoice within us when we love our neighbor using our time and energy and resource to improve that person’s quality of life. That feeling is so much better that the temporary excitement of buying another new thing that soon becomes old.
Jesus is clearly standing against the flow of our society – just like he did against the flow of his society. He stands against the conventional wisdom teaching of the Old Testament that people who are good -- by the Temple’s standards - are given by God health, wealth, and long life. He is also not supporting the related Prosperity Gospel that animates many of our thriving churches. Jesus’ teaching does not fit well in our capitalist culture or our everyone-for-him or-herself-political attitudes. Jesus is not for business-as-usual; he says that life is not about our possessions; it is about being rich where God is concerned.
What do we do with this? We say that we follow Jesus, but our lives reflect our cravings for nice possessions and when we aren’t buying more possessions, we are laying up treasures for ourselves.
Discussion:
How do we get past our greed and begin to build riches where God is concerned?
Any ideas?
Or, do you want to get past greed and riches?
What would be riches where God is concerned?
Your life is not about greed and possessions.
Don’t store treasures for yourself.
Be rich toward God
Amen.
Sermons\Lk12_13-21.7e22