Sermons for the Month
There's rich, and then there's rich
DATE: August 1st, 2004
SERVICE: 9th Sunday After Pentecost
TEXT: Luke 12:13-21“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
Today's Gospel gives us the opportunity to reflect on the word "rich"; that's a concept that I've had a couple interesting encounters with recently. A colleague of mine has two little boys; the oldest one is a bright 3-year-old. This family lives a modest, faith-filled life-style. They are particularly intentional about what they teach their children, focusing always on God's love for all people.
So, when on a recent drive through a neighborhood in Akron where there were large homes and expansive yards, their pre-school son proclaimed, "Those are rich houses!" they were surprised and even shocked. How did he learn such designations, they wondered, when they were so careful not to make such distinctions among people?
The fact that this child could somehow pick up that concept says something about the messages that our world conveys. Even at the tender age of 3 he had developed an understanding of rich based on appearance. Of course that little one could not yet grasp that there is rich, and then there is rich. Let me tell you another story to explain what I mean.
During the past month I heard from the only high school friend with whom I'm still in contact with the sad news that her father had died unexpectedly. I was reminiscing about the time I spent at their home, remembering particularly the kitchen table where I ate with the family often and played games, and I recalled that at the time I had the impression that they were rich.
Well, after his funeral, I received in the mail a reflection that my friend's brother had written about their father and their life together. One of the things he wrote was that he and his sister thought they were rich because there were many gifts to be opened at Christmas, but in all actuality the family had a very modest income and during some years struggled financially. That struck me and I said to myself, "Why did I think they were rich?"
I then realized that the richness I had identified as a teenager was not material. It was a feeling of abundance that grew instead from the warmth and comfort of their home, from parents who interacted with their children and their friends, from a sense of safety and calm.
You see, there is rich and then there is rich. There is more to richness than money. People who live in large homes with expansive lawns may be rich, or they could be among the poorest people around. And, by the same token, people who live in the tiniest apartments may be poor, or they may have riches beyond imagining. There is more than one way to be rich, and some ways more valuable than others.
That's what the parable in today's Gospel lesson is about. The main character is Jesus' parable has a fatal case of "I" and "my" disease. Did you notice it? He's self-absorbed. In his short conversation with himself about preserving the abundance of the harvest he uses the word "I" six times and the word "my" five times.
As one commentator noted, "He gives no thought to a bonus for his hired hands or a service project for his community. He offers no word of thanksgiving to God for the tremendous harvest. Everything is "I" and "my".
His plan is to keep what he has and enjoy himself. He's living by the "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die," principle; the only problem is that he never sees tomorrow. So his barns full of the harvest are, in the end, worthless to him. Jesus concludes his parable by saying, "So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."
"So it is…", so what is? Well, the end result of the man's self-focus is emptiness, which is always what idolatry creates. The man in the parable has worshipped and trusted something more than he has worshipped and trusted God - that is idolatry. A person can worship and trust many things besides God, and the end result is always a hollowness that is never filled. In this case that "something" was material possessions, money.
Such idolatry of "stuff" can be evident in people from all walks of life. Someone who is materially rich may be mired in emotional and spiritual poverty. Someone who is materially poor can abound in emotional and spiritual wealth. And, by the same token, the materially rich can be rich in other ways, and the materially poor can be overwhelmed by lack in all areas of their lives. The fact is that regardless of how much a person owns, material "stuff" and money - or the desire for it - can squeeze our hearts and become a god to us.
That's when it becomes a problem. And that's when Jesus tells people to sell all that they have and give the proceeds to the poor. The spiritual consequences of worshipping and trusting something other than God is so great that drastic action is required to solve the problem.
It's ironic that such problems arise because, taken at face value, money is good. It can be used to feed the hungry, to house the homeless, to provide for families, to build schools, to enable churches to do ministry. But, its value is easily perverted. One writer suggested that it sneaks up on people, like a computer virus, and silently does damage. It gets in the way. It ensnares us.
That's why, in the reading from Colossians where Christians are reminded that their old lives are dead, greed (idolatry) is on the list of that which is to be put to death. The writer lists various behaviors - they can be summed up as sexual promiscuity, lust, bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity and, as I said, greed - and then identifies them as part of a life that is "shaped by things and feelings rather than by God," to quote The Message translation of the text.
This translation goes on to express the ideas in a really colorful way. "You are done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you are dressed in a new wardrobe."
Another way to put it is to say that we have been transformed. And part of that transformation is realizing that true wealth is found in our relationship with God. Shouldn't that relationship, then, be THE priority in our lives?
There is rich, and then there is rich. I've known people who are truly rich, abundantly wealthy, and they always humble me. They are the ones who are positive in the face of adversity, who are faithful in their support of the church regardless of their circumstances or of what is happening in the congregation. They pray with assurance and put on their faith as naturally as one puts on shoes or a shirt. In short, they trust God above all else. They are rich in God.
I'll never forget a couple I visited regularly some years ago. The first time I went to see them I drove by their house, thinking it was abandoned. They lived the simplest - some times alarmingly so - life style I have ever witnessed and yet the richness there never failed to take my breath away. There was no complaining, no bitterness, no regrets, no fear, but only thankfulness and faith and trust in the Lord for what was and what would be. I always shook by head in disbelief at them, I still do. Oh how I long for such richness in my life!
Jesus is telling us that the barns may be filled to the brim, but our lives may still be empty. And, the reverse may also be true. So, we strive to seek the things that are above, to acquire wealth that only increases when life on this earth ends, and to be among the truly rich. AMEN