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.”
A while back, there was a television program called, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. It was probably at its height in popularity when my family which included a couple of middle schoolers, an elementary schooler and a preschooler.
The middle schoolers (my boys, Gavin and Ryan aka “Popi”) were especially fascinated with the interesting pieces of information they would glean from the show.
“Hey, mom - the hotel room that the rock star so-and-so stayed in cost $10,000 a night! And the custom guitar cost even more than that! And look at that 20 room mansion - there’s only 2 people that live there?!!? O my gosh - that closet is bigger than our living room...and it’s full of stuff!”
Incredible stories of incredible, conspicuous consumption! As I recall, there was some news type magazine program that was also on around that time, maybe just before, maybe just after Robin Leach’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” The news program often explored poverty around the world. Needless to say, there were lively family discussions about the less than equitable distribution of wealth. Looking back, I realize those discussions must have helped to shape their values...even then, I heard a certain disdain for the rich and famous who did nothing to help the rest of the human family.
I am reminded of this memory today as we explore and talk about today’s scripture...because it contains a key to living the lifestyle of the rich in God’s eyes.
In the gospel reading from Luke this morning, we find Jesus teaching among a crowd. A man calls out to him - he wants Jesus to settle an argument between him and his brother. According to the law of the day, the eldest son received a double portion of the family’s inheritance. So, we might imagine that the man who comes to Jesus with the complaint is the younger brother, and wants everything divided equally.
But Jesus refuses to get involved in the man’s problem. He says that he hasn’t come to be a judge or a negotiator and then he goes on to give the crowd a warning about life. He tells them to be careful, to be ever watchful, against all sorts of greed. Then Jesus reminds them that their lives are not measured by what they have, life is not ultimately about the accumulation of stuff.
Just to make sure that the crowd understands his point, Jesus teaches them with a parable:
There is a rich man whose fields produce a bumper crop. He has no place to store his harvest, they’re overrunning his current barns. So, he figures that the solution is to tear down the buildings he already has and then put up even bigger barns. When he does that, he is convinced, his soul will be able to relax, and he can eat and drink and celebrate because he has all he needs. But God comes to the rich man and says that this very night his life will be asked of him. God asks where all the man’s possessions will be then, when he is gone? Then Jesus gives the message of the parable – so it is with those who are rich in the things of this world, but are poor towards God.
Indeed, where will all the possessions be, when he, when we, are gone?
And even when we’re not gone yet - sometimes there isn’t room for all our possessions...have you all those storage facilities sprouting up all over the place? Budget Self Storage; PayLess Self Storage; Public Self Storage; Security Public Storage – just to name a few.
Our friend, Pastor Moira in rural Wisconsin, counts 4 such storage facilities in the 20 minutes it takes to drive from her home to one of her two churches. And in the wide open spaces of Wisconsin where there is only one stoplight in her own town, she can’t understand why people would need such storage facilities!
It seems that we, as a nation, have so much stuff we can’t keep it at home anymore. We have garages and basements and attics, but that’s not enough room. We have to go down the street and around the corner and rent someone else’s garage or out to the freeway and rent a storage room from a public storage facility. While some of us may need to rent such a facility for a short time to store our belongings in while we wait for a house to be built or to prepare for a sale of a home, people, in general, rent them for years and years. Sometimes the stuff is there for so long that the owners forget they have it. Occasionally they move and don’t take their stuff with them so the landlord auctions everything off.
It is hard to live, in our culture, without stuff. In other places around the world it might be easier, but in most of these United States, we love stuff. We have stores that provide us, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, with seemingly endless choices of stuff, twenty or thirty kinds of toothbrushes for example. There are a number of television channels that are dedicated solely to selling stuff, and that doesn’t even count the endless commercials and infomercials on other channels. And for those of us who use the internet, there is yet another way for us to acquire our stuff, delivered to the door of our already overcrowded homes.
It’s not strictly the stuff that’s the problem. We all have stuff! You can look into my office and know that I have a collection of books, worship resources, and angels. The problem comes when we convince ourselves that the stuff is what defines us…that we have to have bigger and better stuff in order for people to value and appreciate us. The problem is when we neglect our relationships – with God, with others, and with ourselves and pay more attention to our stuff. God calls us to live another way - to live in service to God and not to our stuff - to live nurturing our relationships, not neglecting them because we are constantly trying to earn the money that will allow us to acquire even more stuff. We are to live by faith, and not by things.
So, how do we go about that? How do we learn to live attentive to God’s presence, and not controlled by the stuff our culture is so in love with? How do we make our relationships a priority instead of being enslaved by the pursuit of things? What is the lifestyle of the rich in God’s eyes?
First, get as much of our stuff out of storage as we can. There are times when we need to have things stored away, and when the places we live in simply aren’t large enough to accommodate them. It’s very tempting to store things away because we think that, maybe someday we might need it and then what will we do if we don’t have it? But if we haven’t looked at our stuff in six or eight months, or longer, maybe we need to think about getting rid of some stuff. There are people who are in need. They would put our stored away stuff to good use – wearing those clothes we don’t fit into anymore, using those pots and pans we replaced last year, refinishing that dresser that hasn’t been used since our kids were little to furnish their child’s new room. Have a rummage sale, or better yet give the stuff away to someplace like Goodwill or to our Annual Women’s Fellowship Rummage Sale - next year it will be in April – the last Saturday in April. Simplify - give away stuff - accumulated, stored stuff.
Second, stop acquiring more stuff. You all know that I’ve been trying to prepare for my son’s wedding next week. I found a dress - I was ecstatic! Now I’m looking for shoes. I was looking through the racks at Penney’s at Hilltop and a woman bumped into me because she was laden with bags and boxes of stuff that she had already purchased. Under her arm were several pairs of shoes that she placed on the counter to buy! “I can’t resist sales,” she said to her friend. “I’m not sure they’ll fit in my closet, but these are just perfect for my grey dress and these are.....” She rambled on and I began to wonder what was wrong with me that I couldn’t find one simple pair of shoes for my son’s wedding!
It’s a hard thing to do, resisting the temptation to buy stuff, but it’s important that we try if we want to be faithful. The next time you’re in a store and there’s something that grabs your eye that you think you just have to have, stop and think twice, or three or four times.
Do I need it?
Will I be unable to live without it?
Where will I keep it?
How long will it last?
How long will it bring me joy?
Maybe most importantly, ask yourself
“What else could I do with the money?
Could I give that money to someone so that they could get the things that are really essential in life?
First, simplify - give away “stuff”
Second, live simply that others may live...stop acquiring more stuff!
Finally, in order to resist the temptation to be controlled by stuff we have to have meaningful relationships. Sound familiar? Fruit of the Spirit, Parts I, II and III. Take time to have a relationship with ourselves. We need to look inside our hearts and think about what we believe. To see ourselves, not as the world sees us, but as God does, as a loved and treasured part of creation. We need to examine our motivations, what we say is important to us, how we act, what we say and what we do.
We have to take time to have a relationship with others. We need people who will support and encourage us as we travel down life’s path. We need people to laugh with when times are good and people to cry with when times are difficult. We need people who will help us reduce the “stuff” in our lives, and challenge us when we might have accumulated too much.
We have to take time to have a relationship with God. It can be as little as a minute or two, but spend some time every day in prayer, talking with God, reflecting with God and listening for God speaking to you. Take your joys and concerns, no matter how trivial they seem, to God. Seek God’s input in your life and then let God guide you.
If we can do those things – get rid of our stuff, resist acquiring more stuff, and nurture significant relationships with ourselves, with others, and with God – then we will all be much better off than the rich man in Jesus’ parable.
Lest we think that being rich is all bad - I would like to share this story about two brothers who are rich by the world’s standards AND rich in God’s eyes.
A very rich man died and left his inheritance equally to his two sons. One son had married young in life and had a large and happy family. The other was still a bachelor. The night after the division of the estate, the single man sat thinking in his living room. “Why did my father make such a mistake? here’s my brother, with all those mouths to feed, so many to provide for and no real joy in it. While I’m quite comfortable, I’ve got more than I could ever use. Why did my father divide the estate equally?”
The other brother, when the children were tucked in bed and his wife was off at some project of her own began also to think:
“Why would my father divide the estate equally? Here I am, surrounded by a loving family and all this joy, while my brother sits alone over in his house. I have my family to care for me, while he will need financial security for his future. Why did my father divide the estate equally?”
So each man, that very night, resolved to place the majority of his inheritance in a suitcase and take it over and hide it where the other brother would find it and use it.
As they were doing just that, they met between their two homes and realizing what each had intended fell into one another’s arms, meeting in love as their father had hoped they might.”
This is a lifestyle of the rich in God’s Eyes...may we taste the joy and peace of living the lifestyle of the rich in God’s eyes.
May it be so! Amen.