“Acquisitions”

(Luke 12:13-21)

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But Jesus said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”  And he said to them, “Take care!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”  Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly.  And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’  Then 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.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’  But 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?’  So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

            I meet with a group of clergywomen friends who are spending the month of August preaching using a theme of game shows.  Now, I’m stepping away from these planning sessions because, much as that may sound like fun, it’s just not me.  A game show series would sound inauthentic coming from me in the pulpit.  Sorry if you think it sounds like a good idea, but we’re not doin’ it here this month.  I bring it up because they sent out a questionnaire preparing for their week of Family Feud, and in that questionnaire was the question: “What message of Jesus makes people most uncomfortable?”  I think that today’s Gospel lesson could be one of the top answers to that query.

            A few years back I read a book entitled, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.  It is about the time following her husband’s death and really is a great read. 

            One of the things that the author highlights in her book is how so many folks say, “I was just going along in my ordinary routine, and this tragedy happened.”  It could have been the sudden death of a dear one or it could have been the discovery of a terminal illness or a profound change in life.  “Everything was normal until….”

            Our main character in today’s text has done everything that we are supposed to do.  He was well-to-do, and his “land had produced abundantly” so he built lots of storage for the crops.  That done, he knew that he had prepared for a secure future on this earth.  He decided he could “relax, eat, drink and be merry.”  Everything was going along just fine until…

            God said to him in this parable: “You fool!  Tonight you die!  And your barnful of goods, who gets it?”

            The Message version of the Bible ties up the loose ends beautifully: it says “That’s what happens when we fill our barns with Self and not with God.”

            The problem is that the world’s way is exactly that: we are told to fill our barns with Self.  We Americans who are middle class and above learn very quickly that security on this earth needs to be our first priority, so we’re told to structure everything around our own personal wellbeing.  We are completely convinced that with enough assets we can protect ourselves and our loved ones; we can keep them safe and sound, and, in doing so, we kind of forget that death will eventually come to all of us.  We forget that no amount of accumulated wealth will ensure happiness and security.  Now, we know better than this, right?  We’ve all heard this maxim: “The only sure things in life are taxes, change and death.”

            But this security thing occupies our thoughts, and it fills all the empty spots in our lives with Self rather than with God.  It can take us over if we let it.  And so, the rich farmer, when he had a windfall year with his crops, instead of sharing and making sure that his community was fed as well, he built those extra barns so that he could save it all for himself. 

So, guess what?  In the midst of ordinary life, all of the sudden, it was his time to die that very night.  About that barnful of goods: it didn’t change the reality of his death nor the outcome of the story.  He wasn’t taking it with him.…

            We’ve all heard stories of how families fracture in the midst of wills and inheritances and trusts.  Patriarchs and matriarchs may think they have planned for any eventuality, but as I read on a sampler in an old attorney’s office in Wellington, “You don’t really know someone until you have gone through Probate with them.” 

That’s how today’s text begins this conversation.  Someone in the crowd came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”  That’s when Jesus began the discussion about greed and ultimately told the parable that you heard. 

            The lesson is clear in this text that even when we lose everything in this world, we are only devastated if we have lost God and each other.  As Winston Churchill wisely said, “We make a living by what we get.  We make a life by what we give.”  What is profoundly important is our relationship with God and our care for one another.  If accumulating possessions becomes our priority and if that is what gives meaning to our lives, we risk great emptiness. 

The risk to loving God and each other is very great if we spend our time obsessing over the accumulation of possessions.  Today’s parable illustrates how focusing on acquisitions can get in the way of our relationship with God and in living the way that God wants us to live.

            This lesson doesn’t threaten our eternal destiny so much as it demands that we look at ourselves, at what, in our heart of hearts, is motivating us, what is giving power and meaning to our existence?  Is it fear, is it possessions, is it security, is it control, or is it God and the care for those around us?  …We know what the right answer is.

            None of us knows when our time of death will come.  THAT’S today’s lesson along with the admonition of being “rich toward God and each other.” 

            This is a big lesson for us all, not just those who are sitting on extensive assets.  I know that I get all nervous and filled with anxiety when the latest issue of the AARP magazine comes out with the many pages dedicated to financial preparation for retirement.  And then I get all anxious because I know that Rick and I have not been all that responsible in that preparation—not as good as most (but understand that we’re fine).  This topic really keeps us all in a state of nervousness and wringing our hands about having “enough” set aside for ourselves—enough in the barn. 

            The discussions these days of Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid just raise that anxiety level.  And we end up taking our eyes away from our relationship with God and our connection with each other.  We forget about those who have had no opportunity to build assets nor enough barns to hold them.  These discussions truly keep us focused only on ourselves, and we forget about God and each other.  This is not what Jesus intends for our lives. 

            So, friends, let’s put our money where our mouths are, let’s put our treasure where our hearts are, and our hearts where they belong—with God.  Amen.