Rich towards God

Spoiler Alert: Most of the readings we heard read today circle around money, possessions, and greed. And it would be easy for me to preach a sermon today on the large scale greed that we see in our world: politicians, the fact that we live in a world where billionaires co-exist with those who are starving and without a home, our consumerist, capitalist structure that thrives on telling us we are nothing without what we own and what we produce. We often like to take the passages where Jesus preaches and teaches on money or possessions (which he does, by the way, far more often than he talks about sexuality, or divorce, or any of the other things we like to claim God has a clear opinion on) and spiritualize them. We put them at arms distance of us, so that we claim to understand the message, but perhaps not enough to make any changes in our lives to more closely follow what Jesus is asking of us, or definitely not to make us feel any discomfort. So, I want to attempt to bring Jesus’ words here closer to us; explore what Jesus sees underneath the money, the possessions, the greed that consumes the characters of these stories, and explore what he might be summoning us to instead.

We pick up while Jesus and the disciples are continuing on their way to Jerusalem. Someone in the crowd comes forward and asks Jesus to essentially be judge of a situation he’s in with his brother. We know next to nothing about this man, and his request—to mediate how he and his brother should divide the family inheritance—doesn’t seem to be a terribly unreasonable request. But Jesus refuses, he has something more to say than to settle this man’s family arguments, and begins to teach the crowd of the prevalence of greed.

He moves to a parable, of a rich man with many possessions, wealth, and crops. So much so that the barns he currently has are not big enough for all of it. So he decides to tear down these too-small barns and build bigger ones. Once he’s done that, he can live the easy life off of what has been stored up. And then, God calls this man out : You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And all the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” We are told that this is how it will be for those who store up many treasures, many possessions, but are not rich towards God.

As I mentioned, these elements of the story are about money and possessions, AND they are about the things we are trying to hide or cover up with money and possessions or the pursuit of money or possessions. In the request from the man and within the parable, Jesus is attempting to share what he sees at the root of these individual’s searching, what is getting in the way of pursuit of God. As one scholar writes:

“Jesus looks at the man embroiled in a family feud over money, and sees that his obsessive need for a fair share is twisting, gnarling, and embittering his heart.  In the heat of his pursuit…He can’t see his own brother as anything more than an obstacle or a competitor.  He’s so concerned about possible scarcity that he doesn’t even notice actual abundance (Jesus) standing right next to him…In his greed, he reduces the Son of God to an estate lawyer.”

“Meanwhile, Jesus looks at the rich landowner reveling in his stores of grain, and sees a person drowning in self-absorption.  A man enamored of his own power.  A man oblivious to his own mortality.  Notice the narcissism of his inner dialogue: “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, and be merry.’”  In the carefully curated narrative of a proud, self-made man, Jesus sees an isolated, insecure soul who has forgotten human connection, forgotten God’s generosity and provision, forgotten that possession is not stewardship, and forgotten that in the face of Death (the great equalizer) we are all naked paupers but for the grace of God.”

I wonder what our money, possessions, wealth, or our pursuit of any of those things might say about each of us? From what are we trying to hide? What are we avoiding by trying to store and hoard more? What are we attempting to comfort by buying more stuff? What are we attempting to conceal, from ourselves, our neighbor and our God that God is actually desiring to be seen, to be comforted, to be healed?

It is really easy for us to call out greed (which as Paul mentions in his letter today is idolotry—putting our trust or faith in an idol, something not God) on the large scale. I think of this as seeing the speck in your sibling’s eye, but ignoring the plank in your own. I encourage us to also explore, seek out, reveal the small-scale greed in our selves—even if its well meaning or unconsciously done, like the man hoping to ease a family argument. I for one know that when I get stressed about the weight of the world, its really easy for me to think I am easing that concern by doing some frivolous online shopping—for things I think will make my situation better, but really just add to the excess of possessions I already have. I get stuck in the scarcity mindset of “I don’t have enough, or the right things” rather than trusting the abundance that God has already given me, that I am and have enough.

Or we can think of it this way: why have you have found yourself in the midst of this community at Trinity? I imagine it is not solely because of this tremendous building, or the candlesticks, or the wood carvings at the altar, or the Prayground spaces in the sanctuary. Those may have been part of the reasons you arrived. But I will bet some of the money that Jesus doesn’t want me to stow away for myself that those things aren’t what made you stay. I would hope that is because of the relationships you have or are building, the sense of hospitality, and belonging and welcome you have experienced here, the community that checks in on you when you are absent. Those kind of things have no price point, cannot be store away in a barn.

The parable and our Gospel today ends with a call to be rich towards God…Which is great, if there were a clear understanding of what that means. I want to offer today the chunk of Luke that comes between this week’s reading and next week’s reading. It’s a section of text that might be familiar to you, but it’s one we never hear in the lectionary cycle. But taken with the Gospel passage today, “these two passages form mirror images of improper and proper relationship to the Earth and its bounty.”

He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith! And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that seek all these things, and your Father knows that you need them Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

With the contrast of these passages, we are given a clue, and understanding of what it is to live richly towards God. We are presented with the hope of abundance, rather than the despair of scarcity. We are invited to release our worry and our anxieties and pick up trust and the freedom that accompanies such trust. To be rich towards God is to build our muscles of trust for God, to stop putting wealth and materials and possessions in between us and God; to allow the other things in which we put our faith to fall away. Hope and abundance are what God desires for us to pursuit and enact. God is inviting us to this way of being—perhaps with a bit of tough love, some boundaries—when so much is at stake for us, his beloved children.

Lord of abundance, you demand our life entire and whole: lead us out from prisons of greed to a place of riches uncontained and always new; through Jesus Christ, our common wealth. Amen.