21 This is
the way it will be for those who hoard things for themselves and aren't rich
toward God.
Saving
was valued in my family. I
remember going to the Credit Union and opening up a savings account when I was
in elementary school. My parents
talked about the account they had there--saving for my brother’s and my college
education. I remember my parents
saving for the family vacations we took in the summer. When my mom got a paid part-time job, I
remember her saving her paychecks to buy my Dad a roll-top desk. No longer would he have to spread out
papers, books, and notebooks on the kitchen table each night after supper. Instead, he would have a place of his
own to continue his studies. Saving was valued in my family. And my brother and I wanted recognition
for our saving efforts--you know, a pat on the back. So, for a couple of years, he and I had a competition--who
could save the most from allowance, birthday, and Christmas money. Now that’s when our saving began to get
a little extreme. For as each of
us ramped up our determination to win the competition we began not to spend our
money--not on presents for others, not items of necessity for ourselves, not to
help someone in need. That is saving to an extreme.
A few
of years ago, flipping through the TV channels, I came across a show titled “Hoarders.” The camera crew entered a home in which
there were tight paths from one room to the next. On either side of the paths were stacks and stacks of
stuff--all kinds of stuff. Floor
to ceiling, there was stuff. The
homeowner was a hoarder--gathering, collecting, keeping, saving stuff. She could not let go of it. It was crowding her out of her home. Hoarding was consuming her time and her
energy. It was interfering with her
life--her job, her play, and her relationships. Watching the show, I wondered why does she hold onto these
things? Does she think it adds to the
quality of her life? Have you ever
known someone who took saving to an extreme?
21 This is the way it will be for those who hoard
things for themselves and aren't rich toward God. In today’s scripture, Jesus warns his audience--and
us--against saving to an extreme--to the extreme that interferes with our
relationship with God and with others. He warns us not to be bound by greed. 15 Then Jesus said to them, "Watch out!
Guard yourself against all kinds of greed. After all, one's life isn't
determined by one's possessions, even when someone is very wealthy."
Then
he proceeds to tell a parable, a story that invites its listeners to enter into
a different reality and see from a different perspective--perhaps to see from
God’s perspective. 16 . . .
"A certain rich man's land produced a bountiful crop. 17 He
said to himself, What will I do? I have no place to store my harvest! 18
Then he thought, Here's what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger
ones. That's where I'll store all my grain and goods. Did
you hear those personal pronouns? “My barns,
my grain, my goods.” The rich man plans “to expand his storage facilities in
order to preserve all his surpluses for himself.”[1] “There is no mention of employees, who
have done and will do the work . . . only my
crop, my barn, my grain, my goods and my soul.”[2] He does not display any “awareness that
the bumper crop is a gift from God”[3]
or that he might be responsible for using that bounty as God directs.[4]
His greed clouds his perspective.
He thinks only of himself.
He does not realize his life is intertwined with the lives of others as
well as with God.
19 I'll say to myself, You have stored up plenty of
goods, enough for several years. Take it easy! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. In the Middle East, then and now, village
people make important decisions only after long discussions with their family
and friends.[5] But this man discusses with
himself. He appears to have no
family or friends. Has his greed severed his connections with God and with his
fellow humans?
20 But God said to him, ‘Fool, tonight you will die.
Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?' God does not call the rich man
evil, wicked, or perverse. But God
does call him foolish. He’s
foolish because he lacks perspective.
Self-absorbed and self-concerned, the rich man has been acting as if he
is autonomous, as if he controls his destiny, as if it was through his own efforts
alone that he has what he has. Self-absorbed
and self-concerned, he has forgotten the men and women who labored in his
fields and those who will work to tear down the old and build the new barns. He lacks their perspective. They depend on him to sell or share the
bounty of his fields.
Self-absorbed and self-concerned, he has forgotten God who made the
fertile earth, who sent the nourishing rain, who set the life-giving sun in the
sky. He lacks perspective, for he forgets about death--the eternal
equalizer--through whom his “plans become null and void.”[6]
If he is as disconnected from others as it sounds, then no one
will mourn him or miss him. He reminds me of Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.
21 This is the way it will be for those who hoard
things for themselves and aren't rich toward God." Jesus holds the rich man in this parable up as a negative
example. Jesus says to his listeners, “If you want to be my disciple, then don’t
be like this man.” Like the
hoarder on TV who loses sight of everything but the stuff, the rich man in the
parable has lost sight. He lost
sight of his connections--with God and with those around him, especially with those
in need. He failed to recognize
his bounty as a gift from God to be used for God’s good purposes. He took saving to the extreme.
Jesus
told this parable to a crowd in which there were probably no rich
bystanders.
So the message in this parable extends to
all--the people in the crowd--the poor, the landless peasants, and the skilled
laborers--as well as to us today.
21 This is the way it will be for those who hoard
things for themselves and aren't rich toward God." Now what exactly does it mean to be rich
toward God? In the scriptures
surrounding this text, scriptures we have pondered in the last few weeks, we
get insights. “Being rich toward God means using our resources for the benefit
of a neighbor in need, as the Good Samaritan did (10:25 - 37). Being rich
toward God means intentionally listening to Jesus’ word, as Mary did (10:38 -
42)[7]
much to her sister Martha’s consternation. Being rich toward God means
prayerfully trusting that God will provide what we need for life (11: 1 - 13; 12:
22 - 31). Being rich toward God means giving alms as a means of establishing a
lasting treasure in heaven (12: 32 - 34).”[8]
That’s in the scripture following today’s text.
Being
rich toward God means building up relationships rather than building up walls
of stuff. Being rich toward God
means tearing down our ego walls, tearing down our barns of fear, so we can
grasp the hands of others in need.
Being rich toward God means submitting our lives, our plans, ourselves
to God. Being rich toward God
leads to abundant life.
[1]
Kenneth E. Bailey. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008, p. 300.
[2]
Bailey, 304.
[4]
Bailey, 304.
[5]
Bailey, 303.
[6]
Thomas W. Walker. Luke. Interpretation Bible Studies
series. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001, p. 60
[7] Richard
P. Carlson, “Luke 12: 13 -
21: Exegetical Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol.
3. Edited by David L. Bartlett and
Barbara Brown Taylor.
Louisville: Westminster
John Knox Press, 2010, p. 315.
[8]
Carlson, 315.
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