Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday after Easter 5 – 2020

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.