Luke 12"13-21 "Money Makes the World Go Round"

If you are going to take the Gospel of Luke seriously, then you had better be prepared for some lessons in economics. I know that Jesus did not probe the depths of Keynesian theory, nor did he lecture on supply and demand, capitalism, or socialism.

However, as a Jewish rabbi, Jesus - more often than we sometimes care to admit – did discuss economics from the perspective of the God’s kingdom. Through parable and sermon, he taught his listeners about how money and possessions relate to God’s purposes for the world and humankind.

It is in the Gospel of Luke that we encounter so many stories about the haves and the have nots. Each of the other three Gospels certainly has a few such passages, but in Luke they abound.

It is in Luke that we find not only stories and sayings shared by the other Gospels, such as the Widow’s Mite and references to selling all you have and giving it to the poor. We also find stories unique to Luke, such as the Rich Man and Lazarus and today’s Scripture reading, the Parable of the Rich Fool. The writer of Luke seems at times almost obsessed with the theme of wealth and how we choose to handle our money and finances.

So, you see, you can not get through Luke’s gospel here in church without talking about money. You just can’t! The Gospel writer would be terribly frustrated to learn that in many congregations, the only time we mention the “M” word is when the stewardship pledge campaign rolls around each fall, and all good pastors realize that their salaries may be in jeopardy if they do not talk about money. Money and our use of it is about as integral to the Gospel of Luke as money and our use of it is integral to, well, to our every day lives. Talk about the Bible being relevant!

So do not blame me that on this lovely summer Sunday we are focusing on a particularly uncomfortable story that begins with a random question on property inheritance, a question raised by someone in the crowd who in his quest for an answer interrupted Jesus as he taught. I mean, here was the rabbi talking about spiritual things, eternal things, when this young man, who clearly had more temporal things on his mind, shouted out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divvy up the family inheritance. Believe me when I say that I did not get my fair share.”

“Hey,” said Jesus. “I am not a property attorney. Nor am I a mediator. And I am certainly not an economics teacher – at least not your brand of economics.

All I can say is this: beware of greed, for it leads to a dangerous path. It is insidious and eats away at you. Let me give it to you straight: Life is not defined by what you have – your possessions - even when you have a lot. Now – I am not saying that possessions are bad. They just do not say anything about who you really are.

It may seem like money makes the world go round, Jesus continued, but it really does not. Trust me when I say that there are more important things to have a lot of – like compassion, like the courage to see that justice prevails, and, most of all, like love.

And the people in the crowd shrugged their shoulders and scratched their heads and looked genuinely confused – mostly because they did not have many possessions to begin with and also because everything around them seemed to indicate that money, in fact, did make the world go round.

So, as he was wont to do to make his point clear, Jesus told a story and, in the telling, artfully moved from talking about money (which the young man in the crowd was concerned about) to discussing attitudes about money (which the young man should have been concerned about).

The story featured a farmer who finally had a good year. The rains had fallen. The sun had shone. The harvest was a bumper crop. As he looked out over his amber fields of grain, the farmer rubbed his hands together gleefully because all his hard work had finally paid off. He was genuinely happy because the life of a farmer is hard and so dependent on factors – like weather – outside his control.

Proudly, he thought to himself – my barn is not big enough to hold all of this grain. What to do? What to do? I know. I will tear down the old one and build something bigger to store it all – maybe a warehouse even. I can put a lot of stuff in a warehouse. Whoopee! I have got it made in the shade for the next few years. Time to kick off my shoes, put my feet up, eat, drink, and be merry!

However, in spite of the farmer’s good upstanding Protestant work ethic, God – who interestingly enough never speaks out directly in any of Jesus’ parables in this Gospel – called the man a fool. God did not say that he was bad, mind you, because he was dishonest. Nor did God say that he was morally corrupt because he was insatiably greedy.

God called him a fool. Why? Perhaps because the farmer did not realize how empty and lonely his life really was – all stored away in his warehouse. Perhaps because, as the old saying goes, you can not take it with you – so why treat it like you can.

It is like a reporter who asked a young Wall Street broker on the fast track what his chief goal was in life.

"To make my first million dollars by the time I am 28," was the answer.

"Then what?" the reporter continued.

"Well, I suppose I would like to become a multi-millionaire."

The reporter pressed on. "Then what?"

Beginning to get a bit irritated, the broker said, "I want to have a family and enough money to retire at 40 and travel around the world."

"Then what?"

Exasperated, the would-be multi-millionaire said, "Well, like everyone else, I guess someday I will die!"

Like the rich man in Jesus' story, the difficulty with the young broker was not that he desired to have possessions -- it was that his desire for possessions had him. He wanted more of what, by any reasonable standard, he already had enough of. And, besides that, everything was mine, mine, mine. My barn, my possessions, my first million.

Jesus' warning is strong. "Watch closely! Be on your guard! When your desire for things gets its claws into your life, it can lead you down a very dangerous road!"

Advice that perhaps we should at least take note of since the fastest growing industry in our country is the storage industry – warehouses, just like the ones the farmer intended to build to hold all his stuff.

And then Jesus summed it up by saying that those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich in the things of God in the end are, indeed, fools.

Fools for believing in a culture that regularly tells us, as Luther Seminary professor David Lose writes, “that we don't have enough. Television commercials, billboards, and the internet all not only tell us that we are insufficient, incomplete, and not quite right on our own, but they also promise us that if we only buy the product they're pushing – be it a tube of toothpaste, new laptop, or better car – then we will be complete. Our culture unequivocally equates consumption with satisfaction, possessions with happiness, and material wealth with the good life.” And that, says God, is foolish.

What is wise is to remember this:

God won't ask what kind of car you drove - God will ask how many people you drove who needed a ride.

God won't ask the square footage of your home - God will ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

God won't ask what social class you were in - God will ask what kind of "class" you displayed.

God won't ask what your highest salary was - God will ask if you compromised your character to get it.

God won't ask what you did to help yourself - God will ask what you did to help others.

God won’t ask how many times your deeds matched your words - God will ask how many times they didn’t.

The truth of this parable lies in a profound recognition of this viral wisdom. When all is said and done, money does not make the world go round.

A very rich man died and left his inheritance equally to his two sons. Now one son had married young in life and had a large and happy family. The other was still a bachelor.

The night after the division of the estate the single man sat thinking in his living room. "Why did my father make such a mistake? Here's my brother, with all those mouths to feed, so many to provide for. While I'm quite comfortable, I've got more than I could ever use. Why divide the estate equally?"

The other brother, when the children were tucked in bed, mused: "Why would my father divide the estate equally? Here I am, surrounded by a loving family, while my brother sits alone over in his house. I have my family to care for me, while he will need financial security for his future. Why divide the estate equally?"

So each man resolved on that very night to place the majority of his inheritance in a suitcase and hide it where the other brother would find it. And in their random act of kindness, they met between their two homes and, realizing what each had intended, fell into one another's arms, meeting in love as their father had hoped they might.

I have a small plaque in my kitchen that I bought at Weston Priory many years ago. It says, “The best things in life aren’t things.”

And we know that. We really do. We know that money alone does not make the world go round. We know that love and compassion and justice lie at the root of God’s economic system. We know all that – but sometimes, through a parable like this one about the Rich Fool, it helps to be reminded.

Rev. Nancy Foran is pastor of the Raymond Village Community Church, Raymond, Maine



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