Scripture Luke 12:13-21 (NRSVUE)
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.”
Sermon
As most of you know, C. R. and I spent this past week at the Presbyterian Youth Triennium; Channel was a member of our Youth Delegation of 15 from five upstate New York presbyteries, and I was one of ten Adult Advisors. We were just a handful of the 3000 in attendance. I can tell you, it was absolutely wonderful—and we will tell you all about it, one Sunday in the future.
The theme of this year’s Triennium was, “As if We Were Dreaming,” an idea taken from the opening verse of Psalm 126:
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream…
We spent the week pondering what it is to dream. We talked and heard and read in scripture about the kinds of dreams that come to us by night, whose content is not something we can usually control. We studied the dreams of Jacob and Joseph and the magi, and we heard brilliant sermons about them. And we talked about the kinds of dreams we might have for ourselves, for our lives. For many of us in this room, we’ve had dreams about everything from the kind of job or career we would pursue, to the kind of life-partner we hoped to find, even to the kind of home or community we wanted to live in. For many of us, these kinds of dreams could well include something like retirement, for example.
It's not unusual for people to start early, planning what they want their life to look like after they have set down their careers and callings. We get advice, sometimes from our parents, sometimes from our friends, and sometimes from people we pay for that advice. And much of that advice centers on how to save enough money—of course! So that we can enjoy our retirement. So that we can, travel, if we want. Or pursue other interests. But surely, crucially, so that we can survive—have a roof over our heads, eat and drink. Maybe even be merry. You see where I’m going with this. At first glance, it’s pretty hard to fault with the guy known as the foolish rich man, who is at the heart of the parable Jesus shares. What did he do, except the same thing most of us have been told it’s wise to do, and foolish not to do? What did he do wrong?
The gospel of Luke talks about money more than any other gospel, with a particular focus on wealth. Luke warns us about the spiritual perils of focusing on money. But is that what the man in the parable did? Didn’t he just try to store an unexpected bounty, a larger harvest than usual? What is wrong with that?
Jesus tells the parable in response to a question about a family dispute over an inheritance. He declines to step in, but he goes on to say, “Careful, now. Life isn’t possessions.” Speaking today, he might say something like, “The one who dies with the most toys does not necessarily win.”
The parable goes like this: The land of man who is already rich has a bigger harvest than expected. The man wonders, ‘What shall I do with my crops? I have no place to store them,’ Then he decides to demolish his barns and build larger barns… you might say, he has a dream, that if he builds bigger barns, the result will be good for him. And then he speaks to his soul…
Do you ever speak to your soul? Maybe today we call it, “checking in with yourself.” Sometimes we need to pause in the middle of the day, or maybe the night, to see how we’re doing. Am I ok? What emotion am I currently having? Is it good? Is it difficult? What does it mean? Am I worried? Am I afraid? Checking in with yourself—speaking to your soul—is probably a good practice for all of us.
The rich man to speaks to his soul and says, ‘This is a great idea. I will have it made! I will be able to rest and relax, and eat, drink, and be merry.’
Which is when God rushes in to call him a food, because he has made a decision based on the premise that in doing so, he can control the future. And he can’t. He will die the very night his plans come to fruition. All the financial planning in the world will not protect us from our own mortality.
I would say this man makes three mistakes. I’ll give them to you in reverse order of direness.
Here’s mistake #3: Believing he can control the future by preparing financially. We can potentially affect the future—make ourselves ready for various possibilities. We can even cultivate great health habits—in fact, we all should! But even these are no guarantee as to what our future will look like. Thus, the Yiddish proverb, “Der mentsh trakht un Gott lacht;” “Man plans; God laughs.” Life is unpredictable.
Mistake #2 is easier to spot if we hear the man’s thoughts again:
‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ ‘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…’ etc. etc. The man’s focus is entirely on himself. He has a huge harvest. He spent nothing extra to get it. It was a result of good fortune, the blessing of God. He didn’t earn it. He didn’t steal it—he's not a bad person. He didn’t take it from someone else. But neither did he think, ‘What about my neighbors? Perhaps they could use a gift of this excels grain.’
Which brings us to Mistake # 1. Did you notice that the man spoke to his soul—checked in with himself—only after he’d hatched the plan to build the barns? And we don’t know what his soul said back to him—maybe just, “Ok.” What if the man had consulted his soul first, before making that decision? What if the man had said, “Soul, I have just received a magnificent gift—an enormous harvest… What should I do with it?” What if the man had listened for the still small voice of God in the midst of that check-in? What if the man had allowed himself to consider generosity to his neighbors in the wake of such incredible generosity from the universe…which is to say, God?
The man isn’t foolish to think of the future, any more than he was foolish to plant crops in the first place. Working, saving—these are all wise things to do. But the man’s dream is entirely self-focused. Sometimes, we need to consider what God’s dream is—for us, and for the world. Sometimes we need to wonder whether gifts we receive from God might have a specific purposes that we need to discern? What if the man’s abundant harvest was a part of God’s dream to help a community that had been down on its luck? What if it was part of God’s dream to help the man to experience joy in sharing his plenty? What if sharing his plenty had led to deeper connections with his neighbors? With the building up of community?
When we ponder our dreams for our lives, it’s always good to see whether they seem to align with God’s dream for us. God does have dreams for us—look at the world God have us. Spectacularly beautiful and diverse, filled with every kind of beauty to gaze upon and every kind of delicious thing to eat. It’s almost as if God had a dream that all of us would work together to ensure that no one would go without, so that every person would have enough. It’s almost as if God’s dream for the world, God’s design for the world was perfect. And all we have to do is wake up, and enter that dream ourselves, and play the part God had in mind for us all along.
Thanks be to God. Amen.