Fifthteenth Sunday in Trinity:
Scripture: Luke 12:13-21, Ecclesiasticus 5:1-10
"Is Greed a Poor Man’s Vice?"
The lessons appointed for today have three things in common. First of all, both contain teaching from men who were named Jesus. Jesus ben Sirach composed the passage from the apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus in the first lesson, and Jesus ben Joseph delivered the teaching contained in Luke’s gospel. The second thing these lessons have in common is the idea of greed or covetousness. The third thing these passage have in common relates to those of gathered here today: the subject of greed does not seem particularly applicable to me, or to any of the rest of us here today, especially the words of Jesus from Luke’s gospel.
Jesus specifically warns against covetousness, against greed, against the idea that our life consists in the abundance of things which we possess. So also, Jesus ben Sirach warns us in the opening words of this reading, “Set not your heart upon your possessions.”
The problem in contemplating teaching like this — especially the passage from Luke’s gospel -- is easy to spot – what does it have to do with me? I don’t even HAVE any barns, and if I DID have any, I wouldn’t have anything to PUT in them.
Because we are a small group here today, because we all know one another well, we all know that all of us here today are NOT the kind of people with bulging barns and piles of goods lying around until we build more barns to put them in. If there were some wealthy, prosperous, barn-owning folks in our parish, the message I would bring you would be somewhat different than what you’re about to hear; and if I were the priest of a parish of people like Bill Gates and Michael Forbes and Warren Buffet or the heads of Fortune 500 companies – well, the message from these readings would probably reflect that audience.
But, here we are – just us ORDINARY folks, at the time of our lives when the financial pressures are very real, the financial needs are more or less constant, the financial future is at best blank, and at worst it’s pretty gloomy. It’s a simple thing, and an understandable mistake, to suppose that Jesus’ teaching here is only for those people with big barns and the need to build more of them. Certainly his words apply to those kind of people; but they also apply to YOU AND ME, we who have no barns, and nothing to put in them at the end of a pay period.
To see Jesus’ point more clearly, it is important to notice first of all what Jesus does not say.
First of all, Jesus does not say that it was evil for the rich man to be rich. He does not say that the rich man was wrong to acquire the abundance of goods. Indeed, Jesus puts into God’s mouth the admission that the man’s own industry had a hand in producing the goods. He’s a farmer, and farmers do not just sit around doing nothing while the land produces an abundance of fruit. It must be cultivated. Work goes into the production of agricultural produce. And so God candidly acknowledges “those things which thou has provided,” at the end of the parable.
In the Old Testament, the acquisition of goods was always an expectation that one had from following wisdom.
Whatever else God may bestow as a blessing, one of his blessings was to prosper those he is pleased with. In Proverbs 3:16ff, for example, we read this: 16 Long life is in [wisdom’s] right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. 17 Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.
In Chapter 24 of Proverbs we read this: 3Through wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established; 4By knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches.”
So, it is NOT the mere acquisition of goods that Jesus points to. Instead, he is warning us about our attitude toward the goods themselves.
The acquisition of goods always poses a temptation, a kind of trap. No one has to fall into the trap, but many do. And, the ones who most obviously fall into the trap are those with an abundance of goods. It’s really easy to see the trap and how they have stepped into it. This is the very example which Jesus sets before the crowd. What is the trap? And how do people step into it?
The trap is named by Jesus ben Sirach when he warns us “Set not your heart upon your possessions.” Our Lord points to the same trap when he tells the crowd, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” If we think that our lives – its quality, its security, its comforts and all the rest, are a function of whether or not we possess various things in sufficient quantities – well, in that case, we have stepped into the trap. We have believed a lie about the universe and about ourselves.
And, what is the result of stepping into that trap? The most devastating result is this: that we take our eyes off the one thing upon which our life indeed DOES depend – God himself. He is the one who has determined that we shall have any life at all. He is the one who determines when and how the life we have here in this world shall end. He is the one who determines whether or not we shall have eternal life with him in heaven or eternal death in hell. If we wish to set our hearts on the thing on which our lives depend – it must be on God, who holds life and death in his hands for all of us.
But, the man who sets his heart upon his goods, as if these were the things on which his life depends, he has not only set his heart upon a mirage, he has turned his heart away from the only one on whom his life depends.
Notice what the rich man in Jesus’ parable says to himself: “ I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry."
He thinks that his life depends on the quantity of his goods, and he forgets that his life depends, instead, on the mercy of his creator. And so, God says, “You fool! This night your life will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ Of course the rich man had a hand in providing the wealth, but he also forgot what the Psalmist sang in Psalm 24:1 – The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.” It all belongs to God, and what we suppose is our own ownership is actually a stewardship we have from the God who owns it all by virtue of having created it. And, God owns the people like the rich man. He is rich because God has committed into his hands all the possessions which the rich man owns. But, the rich man has forgotten that he is a steward. He forgets that he is responsible for his wealth, and that he is responsible to the true owner of the riches.
This is a good place to make a point about people who do NOT have possessions in abundance, people like you and me. We are not immune from the rich man’s mistake, just because we lack an abundance of goods. We can make the very same mistake even if we have no goods at all. Consider the fellow, for example, who prompted Jesus’ teaching on this occasion.
Then one from the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
First of all, Jesus insists that he has no jurisdiction in the matter. But, then Jesus zeros in on something which is REALLY operating in this man’s request – it is not an injustice from a frustrated entitlement; rather it’s the man’s covetousness, his idea that his life is diminished because he does not possess the goods which he thinks are his by right. You see, it IS possible for those who do NOT possess goods to be covetous about the goods they DO NOT possess. You don’t have to HAVE wealth to be greedy. You can LACK wealth and be greedy. You can BE POOR and be greedy. All you need to be greedy is to do what Jesus warns against – to set your heart on the possession of goods, whether you ALREADY have them, or perhaps simply WANT to AQUIRE them.
Very well, then. There is the trap, and there is an example – two examples, in fact, of people who step into the trap: someone who lacks goods and covets them, and another someone who has an abundance of goods and covets them. How do we avoid the trap? Jesus tells us one way when he says this:
"So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
How is a man “rich toward God?” What do you suppose that means? If you wanted to do something this week so that God could say, “This man has been rich toward Me,” what would you be doing? You might do a lot of things, but probably the most elementary thing you could do is to give something back to God from what he has given you. If he has given you a little, you cannot give much. The widow whom Jesus praised as giving more than anyone gave only two mites. But she had very, very little to begin with. What made her rich toward God was that she acknowledged her stewardship in the most concrete way possible – by giving back what had first been given to her, even though what she had been given was very small to begin with.
The book of Proverbs, in chapter 19, tells us that
17 He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD,
And He will pay back what he has given.
That is an utterly striking idea – that one could loan something God, that God could, in effect, borrow from his own creatures! But, that’s what happens when we give to those in need. We are God’s stewards of whatever it is that God has committed into our keeping, and when we give to the needy, we are doing what God everywhere declares that he wants to do – to provide for the widow and orphans, to bless the downtrodden and oppressed. When we do that with what God has given us, we are, in effect, lending to God. And, God is not cheesey or stingy regarding his debts. Indeed, God is so averse to maintaining a debt, that he not only repays it, he gives a generous interest payment in the bargain. That is why Solomon, in chapter 3 of Proverbs writes this:
Honor the LORD with your possessions,
And with the first fruits of all your increase;
So your barns will be filled with plenty,
And your vats will overflow with new wine.
I don’t know if this can be construed as a promise which God is obligated to perform in every instance. But, it is certainly what Solomon saw in the lives of some of the wealthy men he knew. It’s NOT the way to understand the fortunes of every wealthy man, for some are wealthy here on earth and are greedy. But, some are wealthy here on earth, because they are diligent to acknowledge their Master, from whom they have received any and everything they possess. And they acknowledge their Master by giving away to those who lack what they have been given in abundance. They lend to the Lord, and the Lord pays them back with interest.
And, we must not think that those who depart this life in poverty are bad stewards, or unfaithful stewards, for at the judgment, they may turn out to be the richest men of all, with riches that never pass away. They could very well be the ones who have turned all their earthly goods into imperishable wealth.
The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, said it best: "There is one way [to avoid greed], and there is no other under heaven. If those who gain all they can, and save all they can, will likewise give all they can, then the more they gain, the more they will grow in grace, and the more treasure they will lay up in heaven."
Wesley practiced what he preached too. All of his adult life he lived on 28 British pounds a year and gave away the rest. Over his life time Wesley’s salary went from 30 to 60 to go to 120 pounds, but anything over 28 pounds he gave away. At his death the only possessions John Wesley left behind were two silver tea spoons and an overcoat.
I wonder what his account in the Heavenly bank looks like today? The mind boggles.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
