FIRST READING Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26
1Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 12I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. 18I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. 24There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
PSALM Psalm 100
1 Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. 2 Know this: The Lord himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. 3 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise; give thanks to him and call upon his Name. 4 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures from age to age.
SECOND READING Colossians 3:1-11
1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
GOSPEL Luke 12:13-21
13Someone in the crowd said to {Jesus}, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
FINANCIAL FOOLISHNESS
Comedian Jack Benny, from TV’s Golden age, had a skit which illustrated how we place money ahead of everything. He’s walking down the street when suddenly he’s approached by an armed robber, “Your money or your life!” There’s a long pause. Jack does nothing. The robber impatiently queried, “Well?” Jack replied, “Don’t rush me, I’m thinking it over.”
This morning I’d like to take a few moments and consider our money and our life. In our gospel lesson for this morning, Jesus had something to say about both these subjects. The background for our story is an incident that occurred in Galilee as Jesus was teaching to a large crowd. A young man called out from the crowd and said: “Rabbi, tell my brother to divide the inheritance of our father.” Now, Jewish law clearly prescribed that at the death of a father, the elder son received 2/3 of the inheritance, and the young son received 1/3. But there was a reason for this. The elder son now has the responsibility of taking case of his mother and the family household. But this fact doesn’t seem to be of concern to the complaining brother.
This is obviously a younger son who is grouchy about the inherent unfairness of it all. He feels that he’s somehow entitled to more. So he takes his case to someone outside the family hoping he’ll end up with a larger share. But as he quickly finds, Jesus isn’t about to get involved in civil law matters. The truth remains: nothing will divide family quicker than dividing up an estate. So it was then, and so it is now. Jesus refused to get involved in a petty family squabble.
However, Jesus was concerned with the larger implications of this issue; the preoccupation with the things of this world. He said: Beware of greed, for life does not consist of things possessed. The sum total of a person’s life is more than their net worth. Yet we don’t seem to grasp this concept. For one reason or another, most people today are concerned about money. It’s estimated that 40% of the marriages that fail, are the result of conflict over finances. And more tragically, financial difficulties are behind a troubling rise in suicide among 40- to 64-year-olds over the past 15 years, according to new research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Suicide rates have risen about 40 percent since 1999 among Americans in midlife and older, with a sharp rise since 2007, federal health statistics show.
Colleges also report that students are forsaking the study of Liberal Arts for courses in accounting, engineering, and business. Newspapers are devoting entire sections to the subject of money. People, who just a few years ago were financially illiterate, are now following with great interest the rates on Certificates of deposit, Money Market accounts, 401Ks and more. I know that part of my marital counseling many times, includes urging the young couple to sit down with a financial planner early in their marriage and map out a strategy for achieving their financial goals. I even take a few minutes to talk with them about other financial instruments like life insurance, long term care insurance and considering starting college funds early in their lives together.
Of course, some people are concerned about money almost to the point of desperation. A mail carrier tells of greeting a four-year-old boy who had planted himself firmly in front of his family’s mailbox and wouldn’t budge. With his feet spread wide and his arms folded, he told the mail carrier firmly, “My mom says she can’t take any more bills.” I can certainly appreciate the sentiment here! All of us it seems today are concerned, for one reason or another, about money. Jesus knew that. It was no different 2,000 years ago. That’s why He had so much to say on the subject.
Money, like it or not, is an important part of our lives. Indeed, Jesus noted that we will control our money or it will control us. It will either be a blessing to us or a curse. Consider today’s story about a rich man whose land brought forth so bountifully that he didn’t know what to do with the surplus. Most of us would love to have that problem. The man chose to resolved his problem this way, “I will pull down my barns,” he said, “and build larger ones; and there I will store all of my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink be merry.” You know the conclusion of the story. That very night God came to him and called him a “fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Then Jesus adds, “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Isn’t it interesting that God should call him a fool not a sinner, not a reprobate but a fool? And we have to be very careful here. God doesn’t use the term fool lightly. In Matthew 5:22 Jesus said, “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” So we need to see the seriousness of this statement. We need to pay special attention to this story.
Scholars assure us that parables are generally designed to make a single point. But Jesus using the term “fool” here suggests all sorts of things to me. Probably not all of them relate to this rich man, but they do relate to some men and women I’ve known. First, it would be good to consider that the Rich Man may have paid too high a price physically, emotionally and spiritually for his great wealth. This is certainly a possibility.
People have been known to sacrifice their health, their marriage, their relationship with their children, their respect and reputation in the community-people have been known to create all kinds of havoc in their lives in the race to grab the almighty dollar. Consider, if you will, the many who have occupations in the entertainment industry. Most recently the music artist Prince.
Prince Rogers Nelson was a stellar success, a gifted musician and a tremendous entertainer. Yet he, like many others, including Michael Jackson, ended up taking their own lives with alcohol and drugs. They had it all-money, fame, celebrity status-yet they paid a terrible price for their success. They, like the Rich Man, never thought they would be meeting their maker, sooner rather than later. In this parable, it’s obvious that the Rich Man thought he had many years left. Maybe, as we sometimes say, he worked himself to an early grave.
Eric Butterworth, in his book UNITY OF ALL LIFE, tells a somewhat complicated but very revealing story of two men. It’s a fictitious story, about two men with very different lives and desires. The first was very wealthy but in poor health. The other was quite robust but very poor. The two men were envious of one another. The wealthy man would’ve given anything for a healthy body. The poor man would’ve given anything to be rich. It just so happens that there was a world famous surgeon who could give them both what they longed for. He had perfected a technique for doing brain transplants. They were the perfect candidates. The wealthy man gave the poor man all of his wealth for the poor man’s robust body by just swapping their brains. But this isn’t the end of the story. The operation was a complete success.
Now the formerly poor man was surrounded by wealth, but he didn’t know how to use it. He squandered it on both foolish pleasure and bad investments. Soon he was poor again. However, the sickly body that he had received in the brain transplant became healthy again because he wasn’t burdened with stress and anxiety. Meanwhile the formerly wealthy man with his new robust body began to accumulate wealth again because he knew the principles for making money and he exercised discipline in his spending. Soon he was wealthy again, but the stress and anxiety that he subjected himself to took its toll on his body. Soon he was racked with aches and pains. So, both men ended up right back where they started-one wealthy with a sickly body; the other financially impoverished but with excellent health. It’s an interesting story and there’s so much of real life in it.
Maybe the rich man in our parable was so obsessed with making money that he sacrificed his health or something equally as important to obtain it. That would make him foolish wouldn’t it? That’s one possibility. There’s also a second possibility. Maybe the rich man had put off really living until it was too late. That little trilogy is so appropriate here-making a living, making a killing, then making a life. That’s the way many people perceive the progression that life must take.
At first we’re satisfied with just making a living. But as our income rises, so do our perceived needs. We need a bigger house, a more luxurious car, a better school for the children. Network television gets so boring. We must have the newest electronic devices and, of course, a membership in the health club. We find ourselves needing more and more. So we have to increase the financial goals we once set for ourselves.
We find that we want the kind of life “so worldy, so welcome” as the Master Card ads portray. That means that it’s not enough to make a living. We need to make a killing. Someday, we say, when the children are grown, and the mortgage is paid, and all of our goals have been reached, we’ll think about making a life. But what if it’s too late when you finally get around to making a life? Wouldn’t that be sad? Wouldn’t that be foolish?
Our rich friend surveys all that he has and he says to his soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid away for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry….It makes me wonder if he had put off living waiting for a tomorrow that never came. That would indeed be foolish. Here all these goods were laid up and somebody else would enjoy them. Suddenly the vanity statements made by Solomon in our First Reading for today make more sense. (Ecc. 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-26) But there’s also a third possibility here. Maybe God called him foolish because he never understood how to get the most joy from his wealth.
What could we do with our money that would give us the greatest feeling we’ve ever had? I sincerely believe that you and I could get more joy from life if we learned to take charitable giving more seriously. How much would it mean to you personally to save one child’s life this morning? And before anyone jumps to any conclusions, I’m not getting you ready for a special offering. This congregation is a generous crowd! But for just a few moments think about it.
How much would it be worth-five dollars, a hundred, a thousand? Suppose you could take some bills out of your wallet and put them into an envelope and know that somewhere in the world you had saved one little child’s life? Wouldn’t that make this one of the greatest days in your whole life? I believe if we would just think about it, we would do more, not out of guilt, but out of gladness.
Now I am, by no means, trying to make anyone feel guilty. However, we do have to admit that we are blessed! And when we look around, there are others who have so little. We know there’s a tremendous need out in this world. Someone put it like this: “Suppose the world were reduced to a global village of one hundred people. Eighty of them would be unable to read, only one of those people would have a college education, fifty would be suffering from malnutrition, and eighty would be found living in houses unfit for human habitation.
In this same village of one hundred, six would be Americans who have one half of the entire income of the village, leaving the remaining ninety-four to exist on the other fifty percent.” We are blessed to live, quite literally, in the land of opportunity. God has blessed us in so many ways. Wealth, health care, education, freedom to openly worship God and freely express ourselves and so much more. Again I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty. But if Jesus were to be talking about us, would He call us foolish?
The reality is there; the more luxuries we have, the less they bring us happiness. But to know that we have made a real difference in someone’s life, that could bring unimaginable joy. That’s the third reason God may have called him foolish. He may have never understood how his wealth could bring him the most joy. There’s also a
fourth possibility. It seems to be the one that Jesus had in mind.
The rich man may have been foolish because he didn’t take into consideration his accountability to God. I think this is the central point that Jesus was making with this parable. Consider His concluding remarks: “So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Many people today are what I would call functional agnostics. That is, they may believe in the existence of God, but it makes no real difference in the way they live their lives. They have no sense of their own personal accountability.
The question we need to be asking ourselves is, what does it mean to be “rich towards God?” Protestants, I believe, have a real bind at this point. We believe that salvation is only by grace through faith and not by works. We have a difficult time when it comes to personal accountability. There have been cruel monsters throughout history who have claimed to be believers. Are they not accountable for their barbaric behavior? Doesn’t it make sense that the God who granted us the great gift of life, who gave us talent and abilities and opportunities, should also hold us accountable for the use to which we put them? Wouldn’t it be foolish to assume otherwise?
There’s an old story about a very wealthy man who died and went to heaven. An angel guided him on a tour of the celestial city. He came to a magnificent home. “Who lives there?” asked the wealthy man. “Oh,” the angel answered, “on earth he was your gardener.” The rich man got excited. If this was the way gardeners live, just think of the kind of mansion in which he would spend eternity. They came to an even more magnificent abode. “Who’s is this?” asked the rich man almost overwhelmed. The angel answered, “She spent her life as a missionary.” The rich man was really getting excited now. Finally, they came to a tiny eighty-by eight shack with no window and only a piece of cloth for a door. It was the most modest home the rich man had ever seen. “This is your home,” said the angel. The wealthy man was flabbergasted. “I don’t understand. The other homes were so beautiful. Why is my home so tiny?” The angel smiled sadly, “I’m sorry,” he said, “We did all we could with what you sent us to work with.”
God called the Rich Man a fool. Maybe he paid too high a price for his wealth. Perhaps he put off living until it was too late. It could be that this poor rich man never understood that money could never bring us joy until we use it to show love for another. Or, it may be that he simply never realized that ultimately he was accountable for everything in his life-including how he used his money. Bonhoeffer, who you’ll be hearing more from in the fall, I think summed it up best when it comes to wealth and possessions. He said, “The main concern isn’t whether or not [we] have worldly goods, but that [we] should possess goods as if [we] didn’t possess them and inwardly [we] should be free of them. [We] should not set our hearts on them.”
So how is our financial planning? Could we possibly be making the same mistakes as the Rich Man? We need to remember that all good gifts come from God (Jam. 1:17) and we’re accountable to Him (Rom. 14:12) for how we use them. Maybe the way we view and handle our blessings isn’t so much a matter of being sinful. Perhaps, we’re just being foolish.
Amen