What Should I
Do?
Luke 12-13-21
Biblical Text
13 Someone
in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family
inheritance with me.” 14 But
He said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or
arbitrator over you?” 15 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.” 16 Then he told them a parable: “The
land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to
himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 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. 19 And I will say
to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat,
drink, be merry.’ 20 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?’ 21 So it is with those who store up
treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” (NRSV accessed through www.biblegateway.com)
When
I first read the text listed in the lectionary for this morning, I became
afraid. Money, wealth,
riches……really? I can’t go into a church
as a guest pastor and talk to the people about money. I’ll never be asked back again. Finances are a very personal thing. It’s one of those things along with religion,
politics and a person’s age or weight that you are not supposed to ask others
about. It is uncomfortable. Yet, the bible devotes 250+ verses to the
subject of money. Add to that scripture
about possessions in general and there is no telling how many verses take up
the issue of money/finances. Holy Scripture
tells us that the topic of finance and possessions is important. My temptation to run away from the text told
me that is precisely why I needed to wrestle with the text.
Our
text today begins with an interruption.
The text is set in the time period we often refer to as the Journey to
Jerusalem or to the Cross. Jesus is in
the final days of his earthly ministry and he takes every opportunity he can to
teach his disciples what they need to know prior to his being with them no
longer. Also, during this time the
Pharisees are in hot pursuit of Jesus, trying everything in their power to trip
him up, to find things wrong with his ministry.
Our text picks up today following Jesus being invited to dine in the
home of a Pharisee. This dinner provided
an intimate setting in which the Pharisees could further interrogate
Jesus. The subject at this dinner had
been about hand-washing and Jesus not following the rituals of hand washing
before dining. Jesus uses the question
as a teachable moment and tells them that they can wash their dishes on the
outside as much as they like but it is what is on the inside that matters. He
tells them that feeding the poor what is on the inside of the dish is what
matters. I believe he was talking both literally and figuratively. He is not only talking about the dishes with
food in them but also about their own bodies.
Washing hands doesn’t clean the inside.
Our spirits, who we are, is what needs to be kept clean and we need to
share that with the poor.
While
Jesus is dining a crowd gathers. A very
large crowd. Jesus goes out to address
them but before he addresses the crowd, he gathers his disciples around him and
teaches them. This is where our text
interrupts. It is interrupted by a man
in the crowd who hollers out to Jesus. Jesus,
make my brother give me my part of my inheritance. The man has been treated unjustly and in his
mind this injustice done to him by his older brother is worthy of Jesus’
attention. Jesus responds differently, however,
he responds by asking “Who made me the arbitrator and judge between you and
your brother?” This is puzzling.as we
know that we are supposed to bring all of our cares and concerns before
God. Isn’t God the ultimate judge and arbitrator? I wonder if Jesus wasn’t saying. This is not important; you have all that you
need, why get into conflict over this inheritance. We all know or have heard of families who
have almost irreconcilable differences over inheritances or other forms of
financial disputes. Perhaps by refusing to assist in this matter Jesus is
saying there are much bigger things to be concerned with.
Jesus
uses this interruption as another teachable moment for the disciples. He starts out by telling them to Watch
Out! Be on high alert against all kinds of
greed. “What do you mean greed?” Wasn’t this inheritance due this man, how do
you call that greed? That is a question
that comes to mind. However, scripture
teaches us over and over and over again that greed is having more than we need
while others go without. Greed keeps us
from trusting God for our daily provisions.
Notice in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches; give us this day our daily
bread, what we need for today. God
provided only a day’s worth of manna to the Israelites when they were in the
desert. If they tried to collect more,
it spoiled. We need to trust God to
provide what we need. We don’t need
more. So, Jesus tells the Disciples
Watch Out! Be on your guard against all
kinds of greed. Why? Because one’s life does not consist in the
abundance of his possessions.”
Stuff,
we all think we need more stuff. When I
graduated from college my first home was a one room apartment over the nursing
home my then husband worked in as the third shift supervisor. We had a tiny closet, a bedroom, and a
bathroom. We had to eat the food
prepared in the nursing home kitchen or go out to eat. Given we were just out of college we couldn’t
afford to eat out very much so we ate a lot of nursing home food. We couldn’t wait to move onto seminary where
we would have a one bedroom apartment with a living room, a dining area to eat
in and a kitchen to cook our meal in. If
I just had a place with a kitchen, that is all I need but I need that kitchen. Well guess what? It didn’t take long until I was saying: “This
is nice but I sure wish we had one extra room where I could be alone to study
or where we could have overnight guest.”
My next home was a trailer that I bought after my divorce. It was a three bedroom, 2 bath trailer and it
was mine. Surely this is all I could
ever need or want……..But guess what? I
adopted my son and he quickly filled up two bedrooms of the home. I just want a house, if only I could have a
house on property that I own, surely that is all I could ever want or need. Yes, it keeps going. I now live in a 3 bedroom house and it is
full of “stuff. There is more I think I
need. We’re driven to work for more
money to pay for more stuff. Right now
my home has 4 televisions, 4 laptops, an ipad, and 3 data capable telephones in
it. That doesn’t mention all the other
stuff. In his book Abundant Community, John McKnight talks about the United
States as going from a society of citizens to a society of consumers. He states that “THE ESSENTIAL PROMISE of a
consumer society is that satisfaction can be purchased. This promise runs so
deep in us that we have come to take our identity from our capacity to
purchase.” (McKnight
and Block 2010) Jesus here warns the disciples that is
absolutely not who you want to be, that is not your identity.
To
drive this point home Jesus tells the Disciples a story. He tells the disciples about a man who had
come into unexpected wealth in the form of his crop. His crop yielded so much that the barns he
already had for storing crops were full.
He didn’t know what to do. He
asked himself “What am I to do.” Then he
says to himself: “I know I will tear
down my existing barns and make bigger barns, and then I can retire and never
have to work again. I can eat, drink and
be merry for the rest of my days.
Well
okay, so what? The man worked hard, his
hard work paid off and now he can enjoy life.
Isn’t that what we all aim for?
We work toward retirement, we have our 401 Ks and our pension plans so
that when we get old we don’t have to worry about it. We can retire before we are too old to enjoy
retirement. What is wrong with
that? Listen to the rest of the
Parable. God addresses the man. “You fool. this very night your life is going
to be taken from you, then who is going to get what you have prepared for
yourself.” (NIV)
Aren’t
we supposed to prepare for retirement?
Aren’t we supposed to make sure our loved ones are provided for when we
leave this earth? Aren’t we taught that saving is an essential part of
financial responsibility? Looking at
other scripture lessons I believe that we will find evidence that it is prudent
to save. In the times of Joseph leading
in Egypt there was a famine predicted to come across the land. Joseph instructed the Egyptians to build
extra storehouses and to store enough grain for 7 years. His preparedness ended up saving his
family. When Israel was wandering in the
desert the Lord instructed them on the day before the Sabbath to gather enough
manna for two days as there would be no gathering of manna on the Sabbath. The instructions in Leviticus and Deuteronomy
regarding land and harvest instructs a period of time when land is given a year’s
rest. Extra crops are to be put up to
last through the winter.
Jesus
is not suggesting we be irresponsible.
He is suggesting that we not be greedy.
That we not continue to obtain and store up possessions and wealth that
we do not need when there are so many among us in need. He is suggesting that we do not let our
identity be defined by our possessions.
No, our identity should be defined by our richness toward God.
What
does it mean to be rich toward God? It
means to follow the way of Jesus Christ.
We heard read in Colossians 3 this morning what is not being rich toward
God and in that list was included Greed.
Paul states that Greed is idolatry.
If we read beyond verse 11 into vs. 12-17 we read what Paul says is
being rich in God. “It is As God’s
chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and,
if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord]
has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all,
clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect
harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to
which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16 Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all
wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual
songs to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do
everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him.
In his book From
Brokenness to Community, Jean Vanier writes, “Those with whom -Jesus
identifies himself are regarded by society as misfits. And yet -Jesus is that
person who is hungry; -Jesus is that woman who is confused and naked. Wouldn’t
it be extraordinary if we all discovered that? The face of the world would be
changed. We would then no longer want to compete in going up the ladder to meet
God in the light, in the sun and in beauty, to be honored because of our
theological knowledge. Or if we did want knowledge, it would be because we believe
that our knowledge and theology are important only so long as they are used to
serve and honor the poor.(accessed August 2, 2013 @www.commonprayer.net)
The
question the Farmer in the parable asks himself is what should I do? I challenge you today to ask what you should
do in response to this parable. In what
ways can you be on guard against greed?
What kind of changes do you need to make to simplify your life and live
rich in God, clothed with compassion, seeing Jesus in the hungry and the naked;
in the mentally ill and the sick, in the orphan and the widowed? What can you
do to be Jesus to those you come in contact with? What can you do to bring Kingdom to earth as
it is in heaven?
Bibliography:
McKnight, John, and Peter Block. Abundant
Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods.
Berrett-Koehler Publishers-Kindle Edition, 2010.
www.commonprayer.net accessed August 2nd,
2013.
www.biblegateway.com accessed August 2,
2013
