12 May 2020
Text: Luke 12:13-34
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Christ is
risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Our
Lord’s Parable of the Rich Fool is a bit of a paradox.
For
there are many passages of Scripture that implore us to be wise and save money
for a rainy day. By saving money, we
prepare for the lean times, like when an unexpected pandemic or injury makes it
impossible to work for a while. Without
pondering our Lord’s parable, we may conclude that saving money is in and of
itself evil.
But
what does our Lord actually say is the problem?
It is “the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” For notice the attitude of our “rich fool.” After tearing down his barns to build bigger
ones, he then undoes his diligence by squandering his abundance: “Soul, you
have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” Of course, as the preacher in Ecclesiastes
teaches us, there is a time for relaxing, for eating, for drinking, and for
being merry. But there is also a time
for industry, for fasting, for abstinence, and for being serious. There is also a time for charity and
generosity, a time for looking to the needs of others.
We
do not see this in our “rich fool.” His
whole life is focused on himself, his creature comforts, and his pleasure. His life is one of narcissism and
hedonism. He is indeed “not rich toward God,”
as he has no concern for the spiritual. He
is a materialist in the true sense of the world, a believer that the only
things that matter are material, things of this world, matter that can be
measured.
But
he is a fool, because there is more to life than the material. There is indeed the looming reality that our
souls will be required of us by God. It
may even be “this night.” And when we
die, our material possessions mean nothing. We will not be judged by how many toys we
have, by how much money we have accumulated, or how big our barns and houses are.
And so we must repent of the sin of
laying up treasure for our pleasure, but not being “rich toward God.”
What
does it mean to be “rich toward God”? It
means not only supporting our church and looking out for the poor with our
wealth, it also means living in the reality that we are not just bodies, but
souls; that we are indeed moving toward a new heaven and a new earth, in which all
of the material of this fallen world will pass away. And so our life in Christ – in which the
material of water and bread and wine bear the Word of God and bring us to
forgiveness, life, and salvation – is our central motivator. In such a life well lived, love of God and of
neighbor augments a healthy love of self, unlike our “rich fool”, who only
loved himself.
Instead
of a rich fool feeding our own desires, let us strive to be wise, redeemed by
grace to be rich toward God and a blessing to our neighbors! “For where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.” Amen.
Christ is
risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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