Lectionary Scripture Reading – Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
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."
“The Rich Fool”
This week’s Lectionary scripture is part of an extended period during which Jesus alternates between teaching the crowds and teaching his disciples. Sometimes in teaching his disciples, Jesus did so publicly. This created opportunity for other people to gather around often with the hope they’d glean some gem of insight or wisdom they had not heard from Jesus previously.
It is in such a setting that Jesus tells the "parable of the rich fool" as this particular passage of scripture has come to be known. What prompts the story is a man who breaks into the conversation Jesus is having with his disciples. Like a bull in a china shop, this self-absorbed self-centered man has no awareness for what he’s disrupting. Narcissistically, he pushes everyone aside and demands Jesus attention.
The character of the man’s personality is all too apparent to Jesus as he pesters Jesus to make a judgment between himself and his brother. At issue is the estate of the parents. It’s likely that the man feels he is getting the short end of the stick and that may be true. For in the Mishnah, a Jewish book of laws, the elder son gets twice the amount of inheritance as does the younger son. Then like now, people quibble and fight and contest things before authority figures to get the estate portion they feel should be theirs.
Wisely, Jesus refused to enter into the debate as a judge between the brothers; whether he did this because he believed the man seeking his judgment was unworthy or Jesus was simply unwilling to get involved in the haggling is not important. What Jesus decides to confront is the man’s greed and selfishness. So he turns from the man to tell the disciples and crowd the tale of a rich fool. He does so because the man’s situation demonstrates a need to counsel against any kind of greed and selfishness. And what Jesus teaches is that one’s “life” is not about what one possesses.
As usual, the object lesson from Jesus’ stories provides both a warning and commentary. So he tells about this man who is already rich and who then has a plentiful harvest. The bountiful harvest is not the result of the man's wrongdoing. He did not cheat anyone to achieve his gain. He is careful and conservative. He planned well and planted well. In turn, the soil and rain and sun and wind rewarded him with a lavish harvest. Eventually the man has an internal conversation and makes a decision and says to his soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”
The decision he makes is that he’s going to use his wealth to ensure a life of ease for himself. So he plans to stop accumulating and instead "store up" all his grain in bigger and better barns. He then anticipates sitting back and enjoying the good life.
Jesus does not praise the rich man for tearing down his barns to build bigger ones but neither does he condemn him for that action. What Jesus speaks to in the story is the man’s behavior and foolishness. This rich man believes that he is capable of hoarding up enough stuff to sustain and protect his soul for as long as he lives. Clearly however, he envisions only his own pleasure over the coming years. What makes him the fool is that he lives for himself, talks to himself, plans for himself, and congratulates himself.
The rich fool has forgotten that his soul does not exist apart from God and its well-being lies in hands other than his own. His soul is not his possession and not under his control. When life inevitably or suddenly ends, the soul moves on to God. All that one has had on earth, one must leave behind. And whatever one leaves behind, it passes to others in some form or another.
What Jesus points out that should have occurred to the rich fool is that our souls can go to God at any time. This happened to my father the morning of April 2nd, 2005. Having been out enjoying a breakfast of biscuits and gravy with friends and then returning home, a fatal heart attack suddenly took his life. I know this because my brother found the restaurant receipt next to my father’s body. And so it is that death continues to happen abruptly and tragically. We never know when death will come for us. For Jesus, he knew that God’s mission for him would require his soul and he knew that death would happen tragically and brutally as it had happened for many martyrs.
The rich fool in our scripture story never considered such possibilities. He’d done a great job of looking out for his self but failed to adequately instruct his soul in terms of its welfare and security. As scripture in Luke 9:25 puts it, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?" The rich fool had forgotten about God. He’d forgotten about death. Anticipating and providing only for his mortal happiness, it never occurred to him that he should also have a plan for his soul’s eternal joy. Had he planned for such a need, he would have known that such joy comes from knowing that his resources in this mortal life had helped and nurtured others. "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” Jesus says, “Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom."
Throughout this year’s lectionary focus on the Gospel of the Luke, we’ll see this physician and apostle continue to set the standard for the disciples as persons who voluntarily share their resources with others. He will lift up the importance of being generous individuals, of being persons living outside the barn or box we construct for ourselves and who do so with the conviction that one's bounteous possessions are to be shared.
Often such teachings are lost on the rich, especially the rich who are narcissistically self-centered and self-absorbed. They do not see that sitting on their resources and accumulating wealth for themselves and their own enjoyment deprives others. And yet, it’s very easy to lose perspective on this in the course of life for us who do not consider ourselves wealthy. For me, it was very intriguing three years ago to hear a representative from an international non-profit development agency share that it would require four more planets like Earth to bring the rest of the world up to the average standard of living for most Canadians. Since the United States is much larger than Canada, the statistic is that it would take four more Earths to bring everyone in the world up to the poverty level as identified by the United States government.
So take a little time this week to consider how well off you are. And then think about whom will die today from starvation and the lack of access to healthcare and from the lack of safe and sanitary living conditions. Think as well about who will die tomorrow from those things and let us ask ourselves, do we really need all the stuff we surround ourselves with. Is there a better way for us to use our resources for the cause of God’s Peaceable Kingdom here on Earth? Let’s get outside the box we’ve constructed for ourselves. Let us share Christ’s conviction that our bounteous possessions are to be shared and shared for one reason only -- for accomplishing the Peaceable Kingdom that God has entrusted to us all.
***************
Resources utilized for this post:
• New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
• Community of Christ worship helps for August 5, 2007
• Luke 12:13-21 commentary for August 5th, 2001 from Homiletics Online at http://www.homileticsonline.com/.
No comments:
Post a Comment