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And he told them this parable:
The ground of a certain rich man produced
a good crop. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have
no place to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what
I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones,
and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll
say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for
many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’” But
God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will
be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have
prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with anyone
who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.
(Luke 12:16-21)
“My, my, my,” my mother would scold me.
“How could you?” she’d say! Or one of the first words our
grandchild learned: “Mine, mine, mine,” she’d exclaim. What
if we learned to say “God’s, God’s, God’s” instead? The
kingdom might be a little closer. Sounds a little bit like
God in this parable: “My, my, my. How could you be so
selfish when I want you to be rich towards me?” Hear the “I”
in this parable—my grain, my goods, my barn. What’ll I do?
“I will build,” I say. To which God replies, “Fool”…but more
about that tonight at SNA. Can’t you just hear God saying to
the rich fool, “Mine, mine, mine.” As the psalmist puts it:
“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world,
and those who live in it.” (PS 24:1)
One vivid example of this parable that we
have stored up too much stuff, is my own. Recently I
rearranged my office; some of you thought I was downsized
when you saw all my stuff in the hall while my office was
being re-carpeted. In this office renovation process I
removed five filing cabinets full of stuff and I threw it
out. Do you know that I don’t miss whatever I was storing
up, and it has freed me up to go forward in ministry.
We live in a society, as John Indermark
says, of storehouse builders. It has been reported in the
press that according to the Self Storage Association, a
trade group charged with monitoring such things, the country
now possesses 1.9 billion square feet of personal storage
space outside the home. A whole industry has grown up to
take care of our stuff. Whither the attic? The basement? The
garage? Well, as the amount of outside storage space has
grown, so has the average size of the American house. The
National Association of Home Builders reports that the
average size of the American house grew from 1,660 square
feet in 1973 to 2,400 square feet in 2004. So houses got
bigger, average family sizes got smaller, and yet we still
need to tack on almost 2 billion square feet of extra space
to store our stuff.
In 1984 I was comfortably residing in a
McMansion with 4,800 square feet of space. In our downsizing
move to seminary and an 1,800 square foot house, we were
able to get rid of stuff and seemingly our standard of
living did not suffer one iota. You know that’s what rummage
sales (or as the British say, jumble sales) are all about.
One only has to experience our phenomenal twice-yearly
rummage sales here to understand about storing stuff.
Graciously, we do in fact use it to be rich towards God by
recycling it to people who need our stuff more than we do.
Yet I do not see any donor’s standard of living being
diminished by their generosity. This parable is not about
making you feel guilty, but rather understanding your
abundance.
Another example of whether we have too
much stuff was my experience with Hurricane Andrew when I
was in Florida. The Methodist Church led the way through
UMCOR and set up trailers in the devastated areas with food
and clothing donated by generous persons from all over the
country. By the time the relief effort had ended weeks
later, there were two 18 wheelers of clothes left over after
people who had needed the clothes and stuff had already
taken what they needed. Do we have too much stuff? What do
you think?
The experience in our parking lot for
Katrina was much the same as we filled an 18 wheeler with
our stuff and none of us were worse off for the effort. The
marvelous StreetThreads ministry shows once again how
much excess stuff we have beyond our own needs. We are being
rich towards God.
Another example of how we as a church
community are being rich towards God is our collective “out
the door giving” through this church. In 2007, over $800,000
was sent to 104 different ministries and agencies who help
God’s people around the world. These are the facts of what
it means to be rich towards God.
R. Sargent Shriver, in his commencement
address to the graduating class at Yale in 1994, made this
prophetic statement. He invited the students to break all
their mirrors. “Yes, indeed, shatter the glass. In our
society that is so self-absorbed, begin to look less at
yourself and more at each other. Learn more about the face
of your neighbor, and less about your own.” In other words,
move away from your “I” centeredness and use your eyes to
see your neighbor in order to say “Aye, aye” to God’s
invitation to be rich towards him.
UNICEF has surveyed 21 of the most
developed nations to measure how kids related to other kids,
spent time with parents, used alcohol and or/drugs, and
perceived their own happiness. (A new industry of happiness
measurement is 2007’s gift to our culture.) The U.S.
finished next to the bottom in the survey. UNICEF’S
operating thesis was that “stable, supportive family and
social relationships are far more important to kids’ well
being than how much expensive junk they have piled up in
their rooms.”
Reminds
me of the ad a few years back which trumpeted: “The person
with the most toys wins.”
William
Falk of The Week magazine (3-2-07) editorialized on
these findings:
It would be comforting to shrug off the
report as pure anti-American bunkum. But as the parent of a
teen and a tween, I cannot. I’ve seen first hand the
emptiness that haunts so many middle class kids. From an
early age, they are taught that life is a pitiless pursuit
of individual gratification and success, requiring
above-average brains and above average looks. There is no
sense of context, or community, or higher purpose. It’s
hardly surprising that so many of them are taking
anti-depressants, ADHD meds, or other pills. Many more hide
their sadness in eating disorders, drugs, or meaningless
hookups. In our rush to give our children everything, I’m
afraid we have forgotten to help them answer a question that
won’t be ignored: What is this all for?
Simple answer: Life is for God. This is
what calls us as a Christian community to offer our kids an
alternative to show what it is to be rich towards God—for
example, the Ghana mission trip, the Penny Project, youth
mission trips to Detroit, Red Bird, Sneedville, Katrina
relief and Habitat for Humanity, to name a few.
But the real proof to me came in an
experience I had when serving a church in Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida. I was attending a stewardship conference in our
diocese. In my small breakout group were people from St.
Agnes Church, an old, large, inner city church in the
Liberty City section, one of the poorest areas in Miami, the
scene of riots a few years earlier. We were having a
conversation about our upcoming finance campaigns. My church
habitually struggled with its budget. Very little went for
mission even though the congregation consisted of a large
group of affluent members as we were located on the water in
one of the nicest areas of Ft. Lauderdale. The most familiar
phrase in our leadership discussions was, “We can’t do that;
there is no money in the budget, we can barely pay our
bills.” We were one of the wealthiest congregations in our
diocese yet felt poor, never seemingly having enough.
On the other hand, we listened to the
representatives from St. Agnes where the wealthiest
parishioner made $40,000 a year and a significant segment of
their congregation was on welfare and unemployed. They were
telling the story of all the ministries they were funding
from their budget with pledges from their members. They
were operating a 24/7 homeless shelter and food kitchen, a
counseling center, a job placement service, programs for
teen mothers, English as a second language—the list of
ministries seemed endless and astonishing given the
perceived poverty in the congregation compared to ours. I
felt put to shame. Why did I feel that way? Where we saw
scarcity in the midst of our wealth, they saw abundance in
the midst of their poverty.
God invites us to see abundance, not
scarcity. God invites us to eye his people and say “Aye,
aye” instead of “Me, me!” Think of the wonderful synergy we
create when you look at two ends of Woodward—Cass Community
and First Church—who individually and together demonstrate a
can-do attitude in being rich towards God.
How do you know where you stand in this
parable? Well, just turn to your checkbook and calendar,
your spiritual diaries. This is where the spiritual rubber
meets the road. Just this morning in the Free Press
there was an ad for Huntington Bank with the headline: “Your
checkbook says a lot about you.” Amen! Your checks tell your
priorities. Is the first check you write for God’s work or
does it come from the leftovers? Are those calendar entries
about God’s work, whether with a client, a colleague, a
student or family member? Hear these words of Holy
Scripture: “Some give freely, yet grow all the richer;
others withhold what is due, and only suffer want.”
(PV11:24)
As I reflect on this parable, I am drawn
to a journal I wrote sixteen years ago while on a retreat in
Cuernavaca, Mexico. During this retreat I visited a shanty
town behind the rail yard in the center city where I
encountered unexpected hospitality in a “home” situated
amidst open sewers and the makeshift hovels of corrugated
tin and scrounged materials. This home was one room
illumined by a bare light bulb housing a dog, pig, assorted
fowl and a young child. I was welcomed with open arms, a
joyous smile, and given a flower by the woman who lived
there and who proudly showed off her neat and clean home to
me. It was clear she was proud of it and cared for it. An
entry in my journal for January 21, 1992, written after we
had spent several days among the poorest of the poor in this
shanty town, reads as follows: “At home we have incredible
material wealth, but have become spiritually impoverished in
the pursuit of that wealth. Here I see that the people are
materially impoverished, yet are spiritually rich.”
“Honor the Lord with your substance and
with the first fruits of your produce.” (PV 3:9)
“Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be
wise enough to desist.” (PV 23:4)
I’d like to close with an old Jewish
folktale about two brothers who were rich towards God. In
Solomon’s folktale, two brothers live in nearby valleys and
are both farmers. The older brother lives alone and the
younger brother has a wife and children. One year they have
an exceptional harvest. The younger brother decides to bring
three of his twenty bags of grain to his older sibling since
he is concerned that his brother will have no one to care
for him when he is old. He travels to his brother’s barn at
night and deposits the three bags, but he is surprised when
the following morning when he sees that he still has twenty
bags in his barn. He makes a similar trip the following
night, and discovers the three bags have again been replaced
by the next morning. On the third, exceptionally clear
night, he scales the top of the hill and discovers his older
brother with three bags on his own donkey. He was bringing
three bags to his younger brother each night since he knew
he had a family to feed. They realize that their love and
concern for each other had led them to the same generous
action. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
In our parable and this story of the two
brothers, we are not talking about depriving oneself and
one’s family, only discerning our real needs measured
against our stuff and then being rich towards God.
God is asking us to use our eyes and see
his people. In Navy parlance, we are being invited to salute
God’s invitation to be rich towards him. Aye, Aye, Sir!
Which “Aye, Eye, I” are you?
* * * * * *
Fool Supplement
Being a Fool for Christ
Sunday Night Alive
February 17, 2008
Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of
you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he
should become a fool so that he may become wise. For the
wisdom of the world is foolishness in God’s eyes. We are
fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ. (I
Corinthians 3:18-19; 4:10)
Fools in one setting can be wise in
another. For Paul, the fools in the world’s eyes are wise in
God’s eyes. For Jesus, the wise in the world’s eyes are
fools in God’s eyes.
What then does it mean to be a fool for
Christ? Business power suit? Clown suit?
Business person consumed by the tasks of
the day, oblivious to the fact that it is about to rain? Or
fool watching the skies and preparing for rain?
Rich man with an abundant harvest who
hoards it for himself, or a fool who is rich towards God?
In literature, the jester
is symbolic of common sense and honesty. In King Lear, the
court jester is a character used for insight and advice on
the part of the monarch, taking advantage of his license to
mock and speak freely to dispense frank observations and
highlight the folly of his monarch. This presents a clashing
irony as a “greater” man could dispense the same advice and
find himself being detained in the dungeons or even
executed. Only as the lowliest member of the court can the
jester be the monarch’s most useful adviser.
UNICEF has surveyed 21 of the most
developed nations to measure how kids related to other kids,
spent time with parents, used alcohol and or/drugs, and
perceived their own happiness. (A new industry of happiness
measurement is 2007’s gift to our culture.) The U.S.
finished next to the bottom in the survey. UNICEF’S
operating thesis was that “stable, supportive family and
social relationships are far more important to kids’ well
being than how much expensive junk they have piled up in
their rooms.”
Reminds
me of the ad a few years back which trumpeted: “The person
with the most toys wins.”
William
Falk of The Week magazine (3-2-07) editorialized on
these findings:
It would be comforting to shrug off the
report as pure anti-American bunkum. But as the parent of a
teen and a tween, I cannot. I’ve seen first hand the
emptiness that haunts so many middle class kids. From an
early age, they are taught that life is a pitiless pursuit
of individual gratification and success, requiring
above-average brains and above average looks. There is no
sense of context, or community, or higher purpose. It’s
hardly surprising that so many of them are taking
anti-depressants, ADHD meds, or other pills. Many more hide
their sadness in eating disorders, drugs, or meaningless
hookups. In our rush to give our children everything, I’m
afraid we have forgotten to help them answer a question that
won’t be ignored: What is this all for?
Simple answer: Life is
for God. Who is wise? Who is foolish? The one who gathers as
much as he/she can? Or the one who is rich towards God?
Closer to home, who are the fools for
Christ?
Those college students who choose to go
on a spring break mission trip instead of Mexico? Instead of
an “eat, drink and be merry” bacchanal?
Stay-at-home dads?
Lockheed story, refusing to fund a
company who bribes foreign politicians to get orders?
Those who quit their jobs over ethical lapses?
Being called to be an associate and not
the senior, a Fellowship Hall conversation?
Nathan confronting David about his
grandiose plans for building the Temple and his affair with
Bathsheba and subsequent murder of Uriah?
I’d like to close with an old Jewish
folktale about two brothers who were rich towards God. In
Solomon’s folktale, two brothers live in nearby valleys and
are both farmers. The older brother lives alone and the
younger brother has a wife and children. One year they have
an exceptional harvest. The younger brother decides to bring
three of his twenty bags of grain to his older sibling since
he is concerned that his brother will have no one to care
for him when he is old. He travels to his brother’s barn at
night and deposits the three bags, but he is surprised the
following morning when he sees that he still has twenty bags
in his barn. He makes a similar trip the following night,
and discovers the three bags have again been replaced by the
next morning. On the third, exceptionally clear night, he
scales the top of the hill and discovers his older brother
with three bags on his own donkey. He was bringing three
bags to his younger brother each night since he knew he had
a family to feed. They realize that their love and concern
for each other had led them to the same generous action.
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
What
are your examples of fools for Christ? How have you been a
fool for Christ? |
