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“The Parable of the Rich Fool” Texts: Colossians 3:1–11; Psalm 107:1–9, 43; Luke 12:13–21 [Sung Alleluia] Since I’m going to talk about greed, and money, and getting our priorities straight, I thought it would be a good idea to do a little more singing first. That parable we just heard drives home a message that we all need to hear, and hear well. Our life and our work should not be focused on gaining possessions. Jesus is all too clear on this—we need to avoid greed and instead we need to be rich towards God. I work in the Worship Department here at the Cathedral and I help to plan our worship services. And I’ve noticed the over arching theme of the readings this summer is discipleship. To be a disciple one needs to learn to pray—we heard about that last week. To be a disciple one needs to learn to care for others—as in the parable of the Good Samaritan—which we heard a few weeks back, and to be a disciple we need to learn to care for ourselves—avoiding traps like greed and self-centeredness. God has given us a finite amount of time on this earth and we need to use that time responsibly. Being responsible with our lives means that we need to maintain a balance between caring for our own needs and caring for others. Now… I think it is easier to fall into self-centered behavior when we are living an unbalanced life. When we get to a place where we are consumed by one thing—whatever it is—we throw our lives out of balance. We get a warped sense of the world and our priorities. So there is clear biblical warrant to live a balanced life. So how do we do that? The first thing to do is to take stock of how we are living now—which is not an easy task. For one thing we aren’t always as honest with ourselves as we should be about what we do with our time and our resources. Have you ever analyzed your spending habits? Several years ago, when my wife and I started using a computer software program to organize our checkbook, we were astounded to see where we actually spent our money. For one thing, we discovered that, at that time, we spent more money on cable TV than we did donating to charity. That’s one example of why it’s important to know how we spend our money, because it indicates how we actually prioritize our lives. It is a measuring stick to see if we actually live as we hope to. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” It is much harder to keep track of our time. Some of us may be required to complete a time sheet for work, but most of us probably have very little idea how we actually spend our time. It is a good exercise to track your time for a short period, perhaps just for a week, and reflect on what you see. You may learn that your time is divided up into several categories:
I think many of us would learn from that exercise that we spend far too little time doing the things which we enjoy. The burden of earning money to support a family, or pay a mortgage, seems to outweigh the need to care for ourselves, and take time for recreation and rest. But this is what knocks our lives out of balance. We need to pay attention to the things we enjoy doing, the things we have passion for, the things that are fulfilling, because they give us a clue to the things God wants us to do with our lives. And God wants us to enjoy life, not get worn down by it. It’s the summer time, so many of you may be taking vacation right now. I just returned from my own time away. I was surprised at how long it took me to relax into a vacation schedule—by the second day of my vacation I needed to take my watch off and leave it on the bedside table so I’d stop looking at it and wondering what I was missing here: it’s noon—time for the noonday service in the Great Choir—it’s 2:00 they’re meeting to talk about next Sunday’s service—I wonder who is preaching. With our current technology even getting away doesn’t help because we are tethered to our cell phones and PDAs and e-mail. I know some of you may not want to hear this, but life at the office will go on without you. As a matter of fact you may be creating an opportunity for someone else to broaden their experience. Sometimes we get an overly inflated sense of our own importance. This kind of behavior leads to what Jesus talks about in the parable today—the parable of the Rich Fool. Jesus tells this parable because he has been asked to mediate a dispute between two brothers concerning an inheritance. I don’t blame Jesus for wanting to stay out of the middle of that kind of argument. Jesus makes the determination that the question stems from an issue of greed. We don’t know which one of the brothers is being greedy about this inheritance, maybe they both share some fault. But Jesus doesn’t get involved in the dispute, instead he tells a story of a man who has been very fortunate. He has produced such a good harvest that he doesn’t have room enough to store everything. His first inclination is to build larger store houses—notice that he doesn’t think about giving his excess to others who may be less fortunate. He speaks in reverie about finally, after many years of hard work, being able to rest and relax and enjoy life. This sounds like the retirement dream that many of us talk about, isn’t it. But this is not to be; Jesus says that God arrives on the scene and demands the man’s life. It is all too true that sometimes it takes a tragedy to wake us up and help us understand what is important in life. Sometimes it takes a heart attack to get us to slow down and spend more time with family. Think about the people involved in the bridge collapse in Minnesota. Sometimes it takes a terrible accident to remind us that our possessions just aren’t important. There was a story a few years ago about a man who lost everything in a fire. He was interviewed by a TV reporter and he said that ironically he had recently talked with his brother about how they should be careful not to let their possessions possess them. This man, who was standing in front of the charred and smoking remains of everything he had owned, announced to that reporter with a note of unexpected triumph: “I am a free man now!” If we aren’t careful our possessions may possess us. Sometimes we search for happiness by accumulating things—but happiness comes through finding rewarding work, building healthy relationships, and contributing to society. The thing that gives us happiness and satisfaction in life is not how many toys we acquire before we die, but rather how many lives we can touch in a positive way. This is how we can be rich towards God. This is what Jesus is talking about in the parable. Think of Jesus’ short life. His active ministry was a little more than three years long and he changed the course of history. He and his followers didn’t worry too much about where to live and how to survive; they were supported by generous people that they encountered along the way. We can be those generous people, and we can be disciples of Jesus. Amen. |