Luke 12:13-21
Money. There, I said it. Probably the most taboo word in church these days, but now it’s out there. Money. Wealth. Riches. Yup, this morning we’re going there.
I’ll tell you right off the bat, though, that wherever you think we’re going, we’re not. And I say that because the more I got into looking at what the Bible actually says about money and wealth and riches––about “possessions”––the more I realized how wrong my assumptions about what the Bible says have been.
I was all ready to preach a sermon about the Bible condemning the rich, like we hear from the prophets and from Mary in her Magnificat, but it turns out there are rich people in the Bible that are clearly blessed by God. In the book of Ruth, we have the landowner Boaz who is so rich he owns multiple fields and can afford to hire labourers to help him harvest. In the Gospels we have Zacchaeus the tax-collector, who is never once condemned for his wealth, and we have Joseph of Arimathea, who took the body of Jesus down from the cross and laid it in his own personal tomb, a sign of wealth for sure. And in the book of Acts, we have Lydia, a merchant of purple cloth, which means she sold cloth to royalty––there’s no way she was poor––who becomes a Christian and helps Paul and the apostles through her wealth. To my great surprise, it turns out that the Bible as a whole is not anti-rich.
I also thought the Bible was pro-socialist, or pro-communist, or pro-communalist, however you want to take that word. After all, in the book of Acts, it says very clearly that the Christians of the very early church took everything they had and sold it, and kept the money in a common pot. Those who didn’t, who continued to hold private property, fell down dead. Pretty clear pro-socialist stance.
But it turns out that’s only in Acts. The Hebrew Bible assumes that people own property privately, without making it an issue, and in the New Testament, in Paul’s letters, it’s clear that he relates to various Christians, such as Dorcas and Cornelius, who have their own property and don’t sell it. Many of God’s people buy and sell things, and participate in the economy in ways we would describe as “capitalist.” Which, honestly, was a shock to me. The Bible’s position on wealth and possessions is diverse, to say the least.
So what are to make of today’s parable, then? What, exactly, is Jesus going on about with this rich man and his barns?
Well, there are two things we’re supposed to be paying attention to here. The first is the way this parable is introduced. “Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” That’s a weird statement. Why wouldn’t this man talk to his own brother himself? Why did he need Jesus to “tell” his brother what to do? Didn’t they have a good enough relationship? Or is it possible that the argument over family money had disrupted the relationship between this man and his brother? It wouldn’t the first, or last, time that an inheritance has done that to siblings. The first thing we’re supposed to notice is the set-up here that money can negatively impact our relationships.
The second thing we’re supposed to notice is the way the rich man in the parable talks. Did you notice how he always uses the first person singular? “I have no place to store my crops. I will build larger [barns], and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul.”
This is also a weird way to speak. You see, this individualistic way of thinking did not actually exist in Biblical times. Throughout the more than two thousand years of culture that the Bible covers, there was no such thing as individual existence. Society was entirely communal. The family was the central unit, not the individual. There was no such thing as a rich individual. There were certainly rich households, but they included other family members, particularly children, and parents, and also the servants and the labourers.
And so we are supposed to notice that the rich man is speaking as an individual. His sin, if you want to call it that, is not that he’s rich, but that he isn’t thinking communally. He isn’t planning for the future of his children, he isn’t consulting his neighbours to see if they are in need, he isn’t even talking about paying his labourers bonuses for their work. Storing grain isn’t even the problem. Joseph, from the book of Genesis, stored grain for seven years, but this man is no Joseph. Joseph did it for the good of the people of Egypt. The rich man is doing it only for himself. He doesn’t care about the people around him, he doesn’t give them a single thought.
And so God says, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Whose? Nobody’s. The implication is that this man has no one in his life, no family, no friends, no neighbours. No relationships with any else. He has been so obsessed with his grain, and his barns, and his riches that he hasn’t worked to cultivate the “us” in his life. He has nobody to share his possessions with, because his relationship with his possessions have, in the end, possessed him.
And so this is what the Bible is saying to us, and it is actually pretty consistent in this respect––money, wealth, riches, possessions––they have power, and particularly, they have power over us––over our lives and over our relationships.
Maybe this is something you’ve experienced. Maybe money keeps you awake at night worrying about it. Maybe your credit card bill makes you afraid to look at it. Maybe you have mortgage payments, or car loans, or both, that keep you in a job that makes you miserable because you need to make those payments. Maybe you have so many possessions that the thought of moving fills you with dread whenever you contemplate packing it all up. (I know that feeling well...) Maybe you’ve gotten in an argument with someone about money––whether it was because someone owed you money or because they tried to use money to control you––and your relationship has never been the same.
And so this is what the Bible tells us, and this is what our experiences tell us. Our possessions have the power to possess us. And it makes us ashamed. Nobody likes to say, “I’m bad with money.” Or “my spending is out of control.” Nobody likes to admit that we are incompetent about this fundamental part of our lives. We feel ashamed. Maybe that’s why we never talk about money in church.
We have to, though. We have to talk about money in church because, for one thing, it’s killing us. It’s not about being rich or being poor. Worries over money are correlated to increasing suicide rates amongst Baby Boomers and the middle-class. Financial instability is serious. Wealth and riches can become a god in our lives, one that demands that we sacrifice everything to it, especially our well-being and our relationships. And unlike our true God, it offers no mercy.
We also have to talk about the power of money in church because there is hope. God offers us hope. That’s not to say that God can reduce our debt––honestly, if you’re in that kind of situation, you need to talk to a financial professional who can help you pay off your debt, and to a therapist who can help you untangle your relationship with money. But God does offer us a way of reframing how we can think about money and wealth, about possessions, in a way that can be life-giving, to us and to those around us. Money and wealth and riches do not have to cause us regret or to think of ourselves as fools on our deathbed. Instead, God offers us hope through a different way of relating to riches. Which is to share it. To spread it around.
That’s what we do with power. We spread it around so that lots of people can have it, so that no one person becomes obsessed with it. And that’s what God calls us to do with whatever makes us feel powerful, whether that’s material goods, or knowledge, or influence. We spread it around, for the good of the community. Whether you are rich in money, or in education, or in relationships, or in time, God calls you to freely share that with those you see in need. Doesn’t matter who it is––it can be people close to you or people on the other side of the world. God just calls you to share it. In truth, that’s why God gave you these things in the first place. For the good of the community.
God does this, and encourages us to do this, because this is how we have control over our possessions and our riches. This is how God frees us from being possessed by our possessions. This is why Christ calls the rich young man in Matthew to sell all he has and give to the poor––not because wealth is bad, but because this man’s wealth had taken him over. This is why Jesus warned today’s man, whose relationship with his brother was suffering because of their inheritance, not to build barns for just himself. Because even if he got the inheritance, he would die alone and a fool. Jesus is telling the man to let the argument over the inheritance go. To build his relationship with his brother, not build another barn. The point of what we have––our selves, our time, and our possessions, signs of God’s gracious love––is to use it for others, so that it does not use us.
Now this may not sound immediately like Good News. But if you have ever felt trapped by your things and have wondered how to escape, if you have ever felt guilty about what you have and worried what, as a Christian, you should be doing about it, if you have ever thought about your wealth, or lack thereof, and felt despair, know that God offers a new way of thinking. God does not cast the rich aside simply because they are rich. Instead, God offers new life to all, a life without regret, when we share the riches we have with others, as God has shared them with us. In this way, we are rich towards God, who is rich towards us. And this is Good News. Thanks be to God. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment