“Life Consists in the Abundance of What We Have Given Away” Sermon July 31, 2016

“Life Consists in the Abundance of What We Have Given Away”
Sermon, Year C, Proper 13, July 31, 2016
© Rev. David J. Huber 2016
Plymouth UCC, Eau Claire, WI
Focus Scripture: Luke 12:13-21




Jesus finishes here, after his parable, with the words, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Now, I could say, and I’m sure many have before me who have taken this text and said, “Therefore every dollar that you keep to yourself and don’t give to the church, God will hold against you.” Or put it the other way around, and say that “For every dollar you give to the church, God will hold in your favor.”

But I don’t think Jesus is talking about institutional giving. And I don’t think that God holds against us or in favor of us just because we give or don’t give a certain amount to the church. I don’t think that’s a good way to look at God.

I think that when Jesus says, “Be rich toward God” he isn’t talking about being generous to God’s institutions, which in Jesus’ time would have been the Temple in Jerusalem; and would be nowadays the Church, or temples, or mosques, or wherever God’s people gather. We have record of Jesus at other times being critical of the greed of the Temple, just as Luther and later reformers were critical of the greed of the Church. Even churches can be greedy and fall to that sinful temptation. Even the institutions that are of God can be greedy and fall into that bad side of idolatry of money and things.

So I do not think that this is a stewardship parable in the sense of giving to the institution. This is not saying that you must give to God by giving to the institution.

But it is a stewardship parable in terms of our relationship to money and our relationship to things, which relationships are - ultimately - about our relationships to people. Our relationships to our neighbors and our neighborhood. Our relationship to money and/or things very much informs how, then, we relate to the people around us and how we relate to God.

Jesus asks us to be rich toward God.

I don’t think he’s just talking about money or things, either. Being rich toward God is also our attitude toward life. Be rich in attitude to God. I think there is a good reason that the people who put together the lectionary readings for each Sunday paired this parable with Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

Paul says some words about what it could look like to live rich toward God. Paul says, “Set your minds on things above.” Meaning, set your minds on godly things, heavenly things. Though please let me say that this is an okay metaphor, but it’s an unfortunate metaphor that we are stuck with, to think always of God as “above” or up. God is also here, and also below. Above, here, and below. It is unfortunate metaphor to think of God as above. Maybe, if we thought more about God being here, and of God being below with the destitute, the poor, the homeless, the addicted, those who are the underclass of society… if we thought more of God also as below and here, instead of just above, maybe we would notice and care for our neighbors a lot more than we do.

Set your mind on godly things, Paul says, and let go of the ungodly. He speaks mostly of the ungodly in this passage: impurity, evil desires, greed (which he also calls “idolatry”), disobedience, abusive language, malice. He says to embrace the godly. He doesn’t list the godly here, but he does in his letter to the Galatians when he talks about the spirit fruit: goodness, self-control, kindness, love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness. That is how we can be rich toward God. That is what it is to be rich toward God. By showing the spirit fruit and letting go of the other things, enjoyable as they might be at times, especially in certain moments. Using abusive language, or being angry, or slandering… sometimes those can feel sooo good, but Paul says, let go of that and replace it with godly riches, which are the spirit fruit. Replace with goodness, generosity, faithfulness, love…

The man in the parable tore down his buildings to build bigger storehouses for his crops. His crops were his capital, his valuables, his treasure. Even though his previous storehouses were clearly enough to live on, which we know because he is still alive. But now he has an abundance and says, “Well, then I must tear down what I have and build bigger ones because now i have more stuff.” Gotta have a place for our stuff. Like the great George Carlin routine about how we like our stuff and ever search for room to store it. To say, “God has blessed me so much, I had to get a second (or third) storage unit” as though it is some kind of competition that he who has the most storage units at the end is the winner. The one who collects the most is the winner.

I think you’ve missed the understanding of what it means to be blessed, because, fool, this night your life is demanded of you.

What good are those extra storehouses. What good is it to keep all of that abundance for yourself. Why do that?

In the context of this parable, Jesus is offering it as a response to this man’s demand that Jesus tell his brother to divide his inheritance. A couple weeks ago we had Jesus at Martha’s house and she’s doing all the work while Mary listens to Jesus. Martha comes out and tells Jesus, “Say something to Mary! Please, tell her that she has to help me!” An instance of trying to get Jesus involved in a domestic dispute. And here, in today’s lesson, is another domestic dispute. “Jesus, I was you to intervene on my behalf with my brother. Tell him to split our inheritance.”

So it begins, really, about relationships. The relationship between these two brothers, and the relationship at least this man who speaks and his relationship with money. The whole Luke passage begins and ends with relationships. It really is not about money per se. What is our relationship with money and with one another?

Jesus begins with saying, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” The man in the parable had an abundance of possessions and yet his life was taken away. What do you think he might have missed in life? What lesson he might have missed? Or what parts of life did he miss because he had this attitude? What did he miss in life?

Do we want to be that person?

Do you want to be that person?

What is it to be more attached to a thing, than to the people around you? What does that say about our values as people, as a church, as a community?

As I have grown older and marginally wiser, I hope, and I hope becoming a better disciple over the years, a better follower of Jesus over the years, I’ve come to a few conclusions of life related to this parable. Some of my attitudes toward money and things, and even the way that I live, have changed.

One less is that I learned I really don’t need a lot of stuff. I used to think that I did need a lot of stuff. I would collect things, spend my money and time on stuff that I found later really didn’t matter so much. I don’t need to have a lot of stuff. I still have too much, but I am trying to reduce as best as I can.

In letting go of things, now, much of what I have left are the things that are more valuable and important to me. So now I have art that means something to me. That either I bought while on a trip, or I know the artist, or some kind of attachment to the art or the mementos that I pick up on trips. I used to just buy a pile of souvenirs to bring home for the sake of having a pile of souvenirs, many of which I never really looked at again but for some reason I would collect all of them. Now when I go somewhere, I maybe buy one or two things that really say something about that experience or that trip that I can display or put in a place where I can see them, or that I actually use them. Something other than putting them in a box and putting them in a closet. Nicer things and things that mean something to me because of the memory they bring and the story behind them.

A second thing I’ve learned is that letting go of things is really quite freeing. Physical things, like knick knacks, toys, souvenirs, money, or letting go of the things that Paul was talking about. Letting go of the pride, the anger, the abusive language. I made a new year’s resolution a couple years ago to try not to be so sarcastic or divisive online in my comments to people. If I am going to say something, let it be something that builds or helps the conversation and isn’t just mean, firing off my anger, or a nasty retort, or a sarcastic something or other. Letting go of the abusive language, and letting go of things as well.

I talked about storage units before. I say that as one that has had a storage unit in down in Sparta for 20-some years. When I moved to New York to go to seminary, I could take a small amount. I was going to live in a dorm, but I had been living on my own so I had a kitchen full of equipment and furniture and other things that I wouldn’t need in NYC. And I thought I’d be coming right back after graduation, but I didn’t. I stayed in New York for another ten years. So by the time I came back to Wisconsin, I had new and better furniture, and better kitchen equipment, and other things. So other than my bicycle, I haven’t needed anything that I had in storage so I left it untouched. But I’m trying to empty it out now.

I was down there a few weeks ago and brought six boxes of stuff back with me. Out of those six boxes there was one board game that I wanted, and some mementos from my fraternity. The rest of the stuff was nothing that means anything to me. Computer books that were totally outdated. Loading supplies that I don’t need because I don’t hunt any more. Collectible glasses that meant so much to me at one time, but don’t really mean anything to me any more. Things in there that can go to someone for whom it will have meaning, or give to the thrift sale here, or give away. Some items that are collectibles that can go on ebay. But stuff to be let go.

There is a lot of freedom in letting go of things. To not let those things rule us. Whether physical things or stuff like our pride, our egos, our traditions, our ideas…

The third thing that I’ve learned is that I don’t bring into my life any more things that I don’t plan to use. I think I’ve used this example before, but I’ll say it again. For so much of my mother’s life she wanted a set of china. Totally understandable. She grew up in incredible poverty, had so little, and the china was a symbol of having “made it” or at least of having gotten out of poverty. So I can see her desire for having china. But once she finally got a set, she was so afraid of breaking it, that we used it only twice. And she did not even display it - it sat in her fancy dishware cabinet, behind closed doors, unseen and unused.

I don’t bring things into my life that I don’t plan to use or that I am afraid of breaking or that I am afraid of losing. I don’t want my possessions to have that power over me. If I’m afraid of it breaking, then I won’t get it. Or if I am afraid of losing it, or someone taking it, then I won’t have it. I don’t want those to have that much power over me. I don’t want to store up treasures for me, but instead want to be rich toward God. I am certainly not in any perfect, or anywhere near as good as I would like to be, but that is the value that I try to keep before me.

As your pastor, I want you to do that as well.

As people of God, as a church, I want us to do that as well. To keep that value before us, that life consists not in the abundance of possessions, but in the abundance of what we have given away.

Amen.