“The Joy of Being Rich…”

Luke 12:13-21

Well, our bags are packed, the car is loaded full of stuff, and just as soon as we can break free from church today – after celebrating the life of Katie Ellibee this afternoon - Sandy and I will be headed north to New England for a few weeks of vacation.

This annual northward trek continues a Singley family tradition of taking just about everything we own, cramming it into the family car, and basically transferring it all from one location to another. When we were a much younger family, and our children were small, the car was usually the smallest, cheapest one you could buy. And into that circus-sized vehicle, we’d stuff a ton of belongings – porta-cribs, automatic baby swings, changing tables, Peter’s Big Wheel and Bethany’s Snuggle-Egg, every toy the kids ever owned – whether in working condition or not. And once we squeezed the last of the stuff into the car, we’d somehow wedge the kids in, car seats and all, plus the two cats – Brandy and Leroy (one of which rode on my right shoulder and the other on my left) – plus our female dog Walter who was the dumbest dog who ever lived. And off we would go to camp, tires just about flattened by the load, knowing that the cats would soon start whining the way cats do, the kids would start crying because of the whining of the cats, and Walter the female Wonder Dog – sooner or later – would get upset because of all that cat-whining and kid-crying, and throw up all over the back seat – kids and all.

And today, Sandy and I are continuing that tradition of moving all our stuff from one place to another. We humans are nothing, if not creatures of habit. Yes, our kids are now grown and on their own, and Brandy, Leroy and Walter the Female Wonder Dog have all gone on to heaven where I’m sure they are still whining and throwing up on people. But, over the years, we have accumulated a lot more stuff to replace both kids, cats, dogs and things. And as we leave today, I’m sure Sandy and I will take up the ancient refrain, “Honey, I think we need a bigger car!”

Now the man in Jesus’ story today had a similar problem. He didn’t need a bigger car, but rather, he needed bigger barns. And he needed them because he was awash in God’s wonderful blessings. He was a farmer, and God had blessed him richly. There was a bumper crop that summer, and he had no more space to store it all. So he thought about what to do. And like any good American capitalist worth his salt, this farmer immediately knew that he needed more warehouse space. So he went out and got a loan from the Small Business Administration, and with that money had the old barns torn down, and new bigger ones built. And when all his bumper crop of stuff was safely tucked away, he smiled to himself. At last he was a happy man! And he said to his soul, “Soul, now you have ample goods laid up for many years to come. Relax! Eat, drink and be merry!”

And he would have, except for the fact that that very night, the farmer died.

Now Jesus told this story because it’s sort of funny and Jesus loved funny stories. I mean, the idea of a person thinking that his soul would be nourished and fed by devoting his efforts to accumulating material possessions, only to kick the bucket before he ever got to enjoy it all, is one of those stories poor peasants in the Middle East of that day would howl at with raucous laughter. But not only did Jesus tell this story to get the attention of those listening to him, but also because Jesus well understood that the most insidious illness in the lives of human beings is not cancer, or heart disease, or any of the things you might ordinarily expect. No, Jesus realized and often spoke about the fact that the most destructive disease of all is something called greed. Physical ailments do not affect everyone, and when they do, they can often be diagnosed and sometimes treated. But greed is another matter. It infects the oldest among us and the youngest among us, the strongest and the weakest. Greed holds us all in its icy, destructive grip.

The word greed in the Bible is often translated as covetousness. To covet is a violation of one of life’s ten most important laws – the tenth commandment. But we are not talking about a mere violation of a code here. Rather, what Jesus is trying to say is that covetousness is one of those diseases that will kill people. To covet is to desire more than one needs. And I would offer my own little definition of what covetousness means: to covet is to use your wealth unwisely.

One of the things I like about this story is the fact that Jesus does not say a single bad thing about being rich. The farmer in the story is a man blessed by God. In the world of that time, everyone knew that a bumper crop was no accident – it was a gift from heaven. And so, if you and I happen to be people upon whom good times have fallen, and life has been generous to us, and our blessings are many, don’t feel guilty about it! Rather, give thanks, rejoice, for all good gifts come from God.

No, Jesus is not some wild-eyed radical who finds joy in railing against people of means. Rather, Jesus is simply pointing out that when wealth and covetousness come together in a person’s life, it kills the human soul.

One of my favorite TV sketches is one from the old Jack Benny Show. Jack, of course, had the reputation of being extremely cheap and unwilling to part with a buck. So in this little skit, a gun-wielding bandit sneaks up on Jack Benny, and yells, “Your money or your life!” There is a long, long pause. Again, the bandit says, “Mister, I said, ‘Your money or your life!’”

And Jack Benny throws up his hands and says, “I’m thinking, I’m thinking!”

Covetousness does that to you. It converts your thinking into believing that the accumulation and maintenance of wealth or power or possessions is, in fact, the purpose of life itself – the food that nourishes the soul. It can make you distort your whole understanding of what life really means. And once it has redefined your sense of what life is, it gets on with the business of starving you - and those around you - to death.

Catholic priest, sociologist and author Andrew Greeley illustrates this with a cute vacation story:

Once upon a time there was a daddy who had made a lot of money in the stock market (he had also made a lot of money in the commodity markets too). For every dollar he had invested in 1994, he now had five dollars. Starting with a rather modest amount of money, he had become a millionaire. However, he was not the kind of person who could make his investments and stick with them because he knew that in the long run they would continue to grow. Quite the contrary, he was a real investor, that is to say, he bought and sold stocks almost every day to make money even more rapidly than did the ordinary investor who left it to his brokers and advisers to watch the daily opportunities. Our hero earned his living - and it was a good one - in other areas. However, he became obsessed with the daily fluctuations in the market. He exulted when his holdings went up, and grew depressed when they went down. He called up the DJA on his computer several times every day and then explored his portfolio in detail. Well, he went on vacation with his family and of course brought his laptop along. It happened to be one of those times when the DJA rose and fell like the tides. So he spent most of his daylight hours on his laptop. As a result he wasted his vacation, even though the weather was beautiful every day, the lake was warm, the winds were light, and everyone else in his family had a wonderful time.

Do you see the sad irony in that simple, homey story? How many times has covetousness caused us to pay more attention to the gathering of stuff than to life itself? Drinking in the beauty of the day. Enjoying the lake. Spending time with the family. Laughing with the kids.

You see, covetousness makes us crazy! It tries to convince us that stuff is what life is all about. That accumulating is equivalent to living. That material possession is the food that nourishes the soul.

The farmer said to his soul, “Soul, NOW we can relax. NOW we can eat, drink, and be merry.” But, of course, it never happened. Because that very night, the farmer LOST his soul.

And some of us have lost our souls, too.

That’s right, we’ve lost our souls, even though we’re still walking and breathing.

I’ve seen it happen so many times in the lives of career-minded folks who really thought that greater success would be the food that would nourish the soul of their family, only to find that they lost their families on the way to success. I’ve seen it happen in the need some of us have to achieve power by always being right, and making others always feel wrong, and it ends up dismantling friendships. I’ve seen it happen in retirement when a person devotes all his time to pursuing his own interests – and in the process becomes physically, emotionally, and spiritually unable to love his neighbor as himself. He becomes mean to waiters and workmen. She becomes rude at public meetings. They look out with disdain at others less fortunate than themselves and refuse to help. Covetousness makes us lose our souls.

Have you lost yours? Is your soul slipping away?

What a terrible tragedy to use the gifts God has provided – so unwisely.

But Jesus doesn’t just leave it there with a warning about the dangers incurred by letting greed become our soul-food. Instead, Jesus shows us a better way. A way to use our wealth, our possessions, our blessings – wisely.

And Jesus describes it this way: learn to be rich toward God!

You see, one of the fundamental beliefs of the Christian Faith is that all blessings come from God. I once thought that the worst Christmas gift anybody ever gave me was a sleeve of golf balls with my name on them. I hated them not because of the golf balls themselves, but because every time I lost one, someone I knew would find it! And bring it back! With laughter!

But now I realize, that while those golf balls had my name on them, they really didn’t belong to me. They had been made out of materials that came from the earth God created, engineered by minds that God conceived, crafted and shaped by tools and hands that originated in the thoughts of God. There is nothing in this world that ultimately belongs to me. Not even golf balls with my name on them!

So if everything belongs to God, and God grants us the opportunity – through gifts of intelligence, and ambition, and dexterity, and skill, and sometimes even sheer luck – to receive them into our lives, how does God intend us to use them?

Well, by being rich toward God!

By using what we’ve received to love our wives, and husbands, and children, and neighbors, and even strangers. St. Ambrose, the pastor of the church in Milan 1600 years ago said of this farmer in Luke 12: “you have barns to fill already – the bosoms of the needy, the houses of the widows, the mouths of orphans and infants.”

And what St. Ambrose said to his people more than 400 years ago, certainly must be said here in a blessed place like Tellico Village in 2004. We have barns yet to fill – the bosoms of the needy, the houses of the widows, the mouths of orphans and infants.

Can you imagine how the world could be changed if you let your barns be large enough to satisfy your own needs, and then you took what was left over, and – instead of storing it away for some future use that may never come – you invested it in God’s purposes?

Jesus taught that this way of living is true soul food! It brings you alive! And makes you happy! And fills your life with purpose and meaning!

All good gifts come from God!

Friends, go this week, and be generous toward God and others!