“The Spirit of Generosity”
Luke 12:13-21
When I try and get my head around what the poor people in the Ukraine must be enduring and dealing with it is more than I can comprehend.
I can’t imagine having a foreign power invade my country, shooting missiles into my neighborhood, blowing up the buildings in my city, killing my neighbors, colleagues, family members and friends.
What would it be like to have my electricity cut off by bombs, my access to drinking water destroyed by missiles?
What would it be like to watch my children starve, and to see my friends suffer in ways that are unimaginable?
It must be absolutely horrific.
But it is happening to people just like me and you right now--at this very moment in the year 2022.
And then I think about what we have in America.
We are not being invaded by a ruthless dictator who cares nothing about our lives—who actually wants us out of his way so that he can have our land, our resources, whatever it is that drives him to do what he is doing.
Most of us have running water, electricity, food to eat and even air conditioning that provides us an escape from actually having to endure the sweltering summer heat.
And yet, so many of us continue to be very stressed and upset about many things.
We complain about the price of gasoline or not being able to find our favorite brand of whatever we want on the grocery store shelves due to some supply chain issue.
But for most of us—these things don’t really make much of—if any difference to our overall quality of life.
We complain about things which would mean nothing to us if we didn’t have so much.
We spend our time stressing out about First World Problems while others go without the basic necessities of what people need in order to simply live.
I am guilty of this, how about you?
An interesting thing happened during the time we were all living in basically complete quarantine due to fear of the Covid-19 virus.
We stopped arguing about some of the sideline issues that used to take up so much our time and resources.
But now that things have gotten back to a more comfortable place, the divisions and arguments have returned.
Why do we seem to need to find things to fight about, be miserable about, be stressed about?
I don’t know.
One thing seems to be for sure: money, comfort and ease don’t get to the root cause of our problems.
They don’t fill whatever void or voids we have in our lives.
They don’t fix our brokenness.
They don’t save us from unhappiness and from want for something more, something else.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning Jesus is in the middle of a serious discussion in front of what we are told is a huge “crowd” that had “gathered.”
There were so many people scrambling after Jesus that it says they were “trampling on one another.”
And in the middle of this important lesson Jesus is giving “someone in the crowd” interrupts Him with something that is, shall we say, “way off topic.”
He says: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
This one is really way out of left field.
But Jesus uses it for a teaching opportunity because at its core it is about SOMETHING DEEPER that we all struggle with.
It’s about something that puts a wedge between us, and our ability to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.
It’s about something that moves in the opposite direction of how we are to live our lives.
It’s about something that is more dangerous, perhaps, than almost anything else in all the world.
It is the cause of wars.
Family disputes.
Murder.
Divorce.
And a general coldness toward the rest of humanity…and much, much more.
And that “something” is called GREED!
And greed is one of those words that by definition simply has no positive meaning.
I mean, most of us will agree that this is true—at least on the surface of things—right?
But when we walk out the doors of this church building, our lives tell a different story, do they not?
I mean, to some extent, we are all preoccupied by the pursuit of stuff.
So, when Jesus says “life does not consist in an abundance of possessions,” how many of us really live as if we believe this?
I mean, we will most likely nod our heads in agreement and none of us will probably go so far as to say “greed is healthy,” but as a people we seem to spend much of our time trying to get more and more and more!
By the way we live our lives, what we focus our time and energy on…it would actually seem as if we really do believe that our lives consist in the abundance of our possessions!
This is stepping on my toes a bit.
How about you?
This is why many who hear the parable we are looking at this morning may wonder: “Why is the rich farmer called a fool?”
I mean, we could easily argue that the rich man is a wise and responsible person.
He has a thriving farming business.
His land has produced such an abundance of crops that he doesn’t have enough room in his barns to store it all.
What a “good” problem to have, right?
“What shall I do?” he wonders to himself, “I have no place to store my crops.”
Then a lightbulb goes off above his head: “This is what I’ll do.
I will tear down by barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.
And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.
Take life easy: eat, drink and be merry.”
Hey, that’s an awesome idea isn’t it?
What a good business man he is!
He has won the game of life.
But, not so fast.
There is one thing he has forgotten.
He is not truly the master of his own destiny.
“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?’”
And Jesus ends with: “This is how it will be with whoever stores things up for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Could it be that the rich farmer is a fool NOT because he is wealthy or because he saves for the future, but because he appears to only live for himself, and because he thinks he can make his life secure with his possessions?
Is he a fool because he has more grain than he could ever hope to use, yet he seems to have no thought of sharing it with others?
Is he a fool because he only lives for himself when his neighbors and maybe even his extended family are suffering and perhaps going without enough grain to feed themselves?
Like the rich farmer, many of us are tempted to think that having large amounts of money and possessions will make us secure and perhaps—more generous.
But we never seem to quite feel that we have enough.
And wealth and property can easily drive a wedge between us and God…
…between us and our neighbors, or in the case of the brothers fighting over their inheritance at the beginning of our Gospel Lesson for this morning—between us and our family.
It’s not that God doesn’t want us to save for retirement or future needs.
It’s not that God doesn’t want us to “eat, drink and be merry” and enjoy what God has given us.
We know from the Gospels that Jesus spent lots of time eating and drinking with people and enjoying life.
But He was also clear about what was truly important.
So, maybe it’s about priorities.
Maybe it’s about WHO is truly God in our lives.
Maybe it’s about how we invest our lives and the gifts God has given us.
Maybe it’s about how our lives are fundamentally aligned: toward ourselves and our passing desires or toward God and our neighbor.
As a pastor I have heard lots of different regrets by people who are near the end of their lives, but there is one regret I have never heard.
I have never heard anyone say, “I wish I hadn’t given so much away. I wish I had kept more for myself.”
Science tells us that what makes human beings truly happy in life is when we help other human beings.
And I believe the reason for this is because this is the way God created us to live.
And we rebel against the reason we have been created when we hoard, turn a blind eye to those in need and keep what God blesses us with to ourselves.
And this makes us unhappy.
It’s all upside down, isn’t it?
It’s in giving that we truly receive.
This isn’t just some pretty little saying.
It is true.
I always tell people who are thinking about volunteering to help with the Food Pantry that they will never walk away from a Food Pantry day thinking, “I wish I hadn’t done that today.”
It is just as important to our spiritual and physical well-being that we love and help our neighbors as it is to those whom we help.
It’s just the way it is.
In the parable Jesus tells God confronts the rich landowner with the most chilling words: “This very night your life will be demanded from you.”
Are we listening?
What would change about our financial lives and our priorities if we really believed this?
What would we do differently if we believed that God does in fact demand our lives from us every single day, in every single way?
Because He does, doesn’t He?
The call to take up my cross and follow Him is a daily, hourly, minute by minute call.
And life is so short.
And the stakes are so high.
Be “rich toward God,” this parable instructs us.
Let’s be brave and really wrestle with what this invitation means.
Let us pray:
Jesus, how patient You are with us as we struggle with our earthly desires.
We want more and more.
We look with envy at what others seem to have—better homes, better jobs, better ways of living.
Help us, instead to be grateful for what we have, and to seek out ways to serve You by serving and loving others.
Lord, help us to be rich toward you.
Replace our greediness with Your Spirit of generosity and selfless love.
For Your’s is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
