You can't take it with you

Is it measured by the size of one's paycheck, or the date of one's retirement, or fooling the boss, or getting out of a school assignment, or...whatever?

In the three verses of the farmer's speech, we hear the words “I, me, my, and self” more than a dozen times!

For him, “the good life” is tied up with his personal comfort and ease, which we work so hard to achieve.

The Lord pronounces a harsh judgment on the farmer, and on us: “You fool!”

At first hearing, perhaps this does not sound quite fair.

It sounds like the farmer is just being prudent, building bigger barns to contain the extra crops.

But that is a secondary problem.

The first focus here is the fact that the farmer is completely self-absorbed.

He is thinking only about himself; he has no care, time, or thought for his community!

And that makes him a fool indeed.

“With my crops, I will take my ease.”

He forgot the first lesson about stewardship, hasn't he?

They are not his crops, are they?

They belong to God, who has entrusted them to him for specific purposes, for the glory of God and the care and feeding of his family and his community.

It was St. Ambrose who in the 4^th century observed that the man already had bigger barns, in the mouths of the hungry around him!

We are not talking about prudent care for himself.

That has already been handled; the man was rich before he received these bonus crops, he had already laid away what was really needed for himself and family and for paying his tithe.

These crops were all extra, beyond that.

He thought that taking care of himself was the essence of the good life, but Jesus pronounces that foolish, and instead points to the care of the whole community, which the man thought foolish.

Which is it? Either the farmer is a fool, or else Jesus is.

What were his choices?

--He could have ignored his extra crops, and let them rot in the field.

--He could have sold them and wasted the profit in riotous living.

--He could have shared them with the needy.

--But he chose the fourth option, which was simply to store it all for himself.

All around him were empty stomachs crying out to be filled with the good things entrusted to him, and empty lives desperately needing the fellowship and personal care which he has the time and ability to share.

All he can think about is hanging onto it all himself, and thereby shows himself to be a “fool”, an empty shell of a person himself.

A further implication of his foolish and empty life is his indifference to God.

It is a practical atheism.

He just isn't concerned about God at all.

He ignores God, the most insulting thing that one could do.

One might have a gracious faith, and heaven will rejoice.

One could have a difficult time with faith, arguing with God, having fits of doubt, and god will be patient.

But when one has a total disregard for God, then one is a fool, and night will come when that person's life is required like a bank foreclosing on a bad loan.

This is what is so troublesome about the empty pews in our and so many other churches.

Places might be temporarily vacant when one is having an argument with God, or with someone else in the congregation.

These situations call for patience, forgiveness, repentance, and looking for fresh ways to bridge the gap.

But most of the empty seats are from sloth and indifference to God, and also ignoring the needs of the congregation and community.

We need to start at the beginning, just like the church in the first century, and go out into a society with all sorts of false religions and make converts from indifference to zeal.

With gentle persistence we need to let people in on the news that makes an eternal difference, to fill the only barn that will not burn, and to challenge each other in how best to use the many gifts which God has entrusted to us.

One might start with a simple case, and move to more difficult ones:

--When we have extra in our garden, do we let it rot, or do we get it to St. Anthony's, or share it with a grumpy neighbor?

--Do we offer a little time and energy to help with Daniel's closet, or do we simply throw away clothing that we don't judge fashionable enough?

--Do we invite a friend or neighbor to join us here, or ignore them?

The questions go on and on, affecting every corner of our lives.

Will we be ephron or aphron, wise or foolish, enjoying a truly good and useful life, or living as an empty shell?

Back at the beginning of the story, before the parable, a man came to Jesus and asked him to make his brother divide their inheritance properly.

Jesus refused, telling him that he had not come to be a divider.

We are mystified by Jesus' response, until we realize that Jesus saw through the man's complaint.

It was not about justice, but about breaking the bonds that should hold brothers together, and Jesus will not do that; he is among us as a reconciler, not a divider.

The man was being driven by his own greed, not by love of God or concern for justice for his brother.

There is a current craze on TV about “tiny houses”, and one might think “Oh how noble, making do with less, etc.”

Even the advertisement for the show makes it clear, though, that the motivation for building the tiny house is not so that they make do with less or have time and resources to aid their neighbor, but so that they can spend more money on “experiences.”

It is just ordinary human greed moved over to a new objective.

“Take heed, and beware of every kind of insatiable desire. For life for a person does not consist in the surpluses of his possessions.”

As Jesus' words work and struggle with us, let all say Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.