Darla Blatnik
Second Presbyterian Church
Sermons: August 5, 2007

"Storing Up Treasures"

Today, we finish our three part lectionary series that has included, so far, one story and two parables from Luke. As has been the case with the scripture the last two weeks, Jesus often told stories that appeared simple, that used fairly common situations. Jesus’ stories, however, are far from simple or their lessons clear in meaning. One 20^th century theologian described the function of such stories as "’leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.’"^[1] I think that, over the last two weeks, the parable of the Good Samaritan, the story of Mary and Martha and the parable of the persistent man have served to tease us into active thought.

We’ve had to work to understand what Jesus means when, right after the parable of the Samaritan whose selfless actions exemplify the command to love neighbor, Jesus tells the busy Martha that she needs only one thing and that Mary has chosen the better part by sitting at his feet. And, it wasn’t easy to understand the meaning of the parable of a persistent man getting what he wanted that Jesus wedged in between teaching the disciples the Lord’s Prayer and telling them to ask, to search and they would receive.

When we distilled these stories down, however, what was left was the essence of discipleship. We didn’t get the specific answers that we so often want to answer all our questions about exactly how we are to live as disciples. We did, however, learn that our answers our found in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, a relationship that is ours through the Holy Spirit.

And, now this week, we hear a similar message, in a different, perhaps more difficult context. This week Jesus reinforces the basic, fundamental message that our devotion needs to be to God. What makes the context a bit more difficult, at least for me, is that today, Jesus asks us to look at our relationship with God in light of the role of possessions play in our lives.

The lesson about possessions or wealth needs come as no surprise to us. Mother Mary first sang about the reversal of fortune that would be heralded by her yet unborn child. And, then we heard Jesus’ own words, his first public words defining his divine call, "to bring good news to the poor, . . . release to the captives, . . . sight to the blind," freedom to the oppressed (Luke 4:18). The theme, the conclusion that our focus as disciples is not on worldly wealth or possessions, therefore, comes as no surprise. Nevertheless, I suggest that it’s not an easy lesson to hear and it’s even a more difficult lesson to apply in our lives.

With that by way of introduction, let’s turn to this morning’s passage. It begins as one of the crowd asks Jesus to correct an injustice in the laws of inheritance. Jesus refuses to interfere responding instead with a warning to the crowd, "’Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed: for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’"

This warning sets the stage for Jesus’ parable that follows:

"The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸Then 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. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ²⁰But 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?’ ²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Well, this parable does its job. It teases the mind all right. Here we have a man who had done well. Hard work, good soil and in time he has more crops and goods than he can even store. Yet, before he is able to enjoy the fruits of his labors, he dies. God calls this man a fool. It’s not that God accuses him of any wrongdoing, no graft or theft; no mistreatment of workers. Yet God calls him a fool.

A fool? Easily, I can see myself and many whom I respect in some of the facts of the story: hard work, planning, being careful, saving enough so that, among other things:

• our families will be o.k. if something happens to us;
• our children can go to college;
• we can pay for that wedding;
• we can enjoy our retirement; or simply,
• we can always be able to support ourselves – food, shelter, health care - nothing more, nothing extravagant.

So, what is Jesus saying to us about possessions in terms of living both realistic lives and faithful lives? Is it wrong to work hard, to save? Is it wrong to provide for our future and to plan to enjoy the fruits of our labors? What is Jesus warning us about here in terms of possessions?

Well, as we have done the last two weeks, we are going to unpack this story and see what we find. First, we’ll look a bit closer at Jesus’ introductory warning and then more carefully at the details of the story – both what Jesus says and doesn’t say as he tells us about the rich man.

First, the warning – "’Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions’" (Luke 12:15). In the Greek, "greed" can also be translated as "covetousness" or "excess" or "a desire to have more and more."^[2] In English, "greed" is further defined this way:

excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves　- reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)　(WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University).

Greed – no matter what translation or definition, it’s not very attractive, was even named as one of the seven "deadlies" in early church instruction. Obviously, the problem is as old as the Bible and is significant enough to have been specifically named in Jesus’ teachings.

So what’s the danger? Jesus tells us: "’one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’" It’s not necessarily that possessions, in and of them selves, are the deadly sin. Yet, we need not minimize the danger inherent in possessions. We need not too easily dismiss other warnings such as "[t]hose who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it" (Luke 17:33). One of the Pauline letters even calls "greed" idolatry (Col. 3:5) – the worship of something other than the one God.

The danger arises when possessions - acquiring them, keeping them, "storing them up" - become the focus of our lives. Jesus calls the farmer a fool, not because of his possessions, per se, but because the farmer had failed to understand what life is all about. The farmer’s life was pretty much all about himself. He reminds me of those funny seagulls in the Disney film, Finding Nemo. You may remember the gulls squawking, "mine, mine, mine!"

Now, remember the farmer’s words, "’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, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry’" (Luke 12:18-19). "I, I, I," "mine, mine, mine." Where is God, where is neighbor? There is no mention of the farmer sharing his bounty. There is no thanksgiving to God, much less a recognition of the most basic truth that all the farmer has, including his own life, is God’s gift to him.^[3]

The farmer is a fool because he didn’t have the one thing, the better part, the "it" that is essential, the answer to life’s questions. The farmer had worked hard in his fields, but had not worked hard on a relationship with God. For the farmer, life was about his crops, his barns (and even bigger barns at that), about his needs and desires. Life was about storing up treasures that would last for many years allowing him to relax, to eat, drink and be merry (Luke 12:19).

Reportedly,

Henry Ford once asked an associate about his life goals. The man replied that his goal was to make a million dollars. A few days later Ford gave the man a pair of glasses made out of two silver dollars. He told the man to put them on and asked what he could see. "Nothing," the man said. "The dollars are in the way." Ford told him that he wanted to teach him a lesson: If his only goal was dollars, he would miss a host of greater opportunities. He should invest himself in serving others, not simply in making money.^[4]

Jesus warns us, not about possessions in and of themselves, but in allowing them to blind us. Jesus warns about those "who store up treasures for themselves" and remain poor toward God and neighbor, to paraphrase the last verse from today’s passage. Jesus doesn’t say that we all need to be devoted to a life of poverty. Jesus and his disciples relied on the generosity of those with possessions, many of whom were women, to support their ministry. Jesus is clearly saying, however, to be very careful because possession can be very dangerous in our lives of discipleship. They can all too easily seduce and trick us into serving them instead of serving God, to loving them instead of God and our neighbor.

It’s sort of like maintaining a healthy weight. Food isn’t the enemy. It’s deciding how much is enough so that the body stays alive and healthy, yet doesn’t become over sated to the point of disease. So how much is enough to store up before we cross the line into idolatry – that is before we love our possessions more than God? And, how much is enough to share to fulfill the commandment to love our neighbor?

Love of God and neighbor, what is enough; when are we storing up too much, giving too little? We do have some guidance, some standards of sorts. The Bible talks about tithing - giving 10% of the crop to the temple for the priests and the needy (See Genesis 14:20, Deut. 12:17) and about gleaning – leaving some of the crop in the field for the widows and orphans to gather (Lev. 23:22). And, even our own standard of living compared with the rest of the world gives us a sort of guideline about what is enough. We take for granted so many things like clean water, electricity, education, adequate food, that are luxuries in many, if not most, parts of the world.

There is, however, no set formula, no dollar amount to tell us when we are keeping too much and sharing too little. There is no obvious line in the sand that tells us when we have crossed into the realm of storing up too much for ourselves and not being rich toward God. Once again, I’m afraid that we don’t find the answer in terms of a one, two, three or in terms of a formula or a clear line of demarcation. We find the answer in terms of the love and trust developed from a relationship with God. Once again, the answer, if you still want to think of it that way, is found as we develop a relationship with the living God through community, worship, prayer, service and study.

We must never stop asking the questions. We need to continue asking what is enough, what is too little. We need to continue scrutinizing the role of possessions in our lives. And, the stronger the relationship with God becomes, the more willing we will be to listen to the voice that tells us when enough is enough for our barns, the voice that tells us when we are becoming rich in a store of treasures for ourselves "but are not rich toward God" (Luke 12:21).

"Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."          Ephesians 3:20-21