Tag Archives: greed

Generosity and Connection: The Antidote to Greed and Despair [OR The Parable of the Rich Fool] Luke 12:13-22, Ecclesiastes and Psalm 49

**sermon art: Generosity by Stig Lofnes (~1960 – present) oil on canvas

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on July 31, 2022

[sermon begins after two Bible readings; Psalm 49 is at the end of the sermon]

Luke 12:13-22 Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus,] “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” 16Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull 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, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

12I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, 13applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. 14I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

2:18I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me 19—and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? 23For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.

[sermon begins]

Last Sunday, Pastor Ann preached about the audacity of this congregation to live life on Jesus’ terms and not just on our own.[1] To live and pray and serve as Jesus did. To imagine what could be done with the empty land just down the hill from this sanctuary as part of our strategic planning. To vote as a congregation to partner with Habitat for Humanity Metro Denver to build affordable townhomes. Pastor Ann preached about that over four-year process and the persistence of the congregation that culminated in the rezoning vote at the next day’s Denver City Council meeting. I’m very excited to report that this past Monday, Denver City Council voted unanimously to rezone, 13-0.[2]

At the City Council meeting, Pastor Ann and Council President Michael Zumwalt testified on behalf of the rezoning alongside one of our neighbors representing the South Hilltop Neighborhood Association, alongside our partners from Habitat for Humanity Metro Denver. Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer adder her enthusiastic remarks about the congregation and the process it took to get here. There is A LOT of excitement in the City of Denver about this Affordable Housing! (My sermon copies include a link to check it out.) It’s unique to have the neighborhood association, the developer (Habitat), AND a faith community working together towards a shared goal of housing – so that, as Pastor Ann preached, “people we haven’t met yet will have a safe and decent place to call home.”

Homes come in all shapes and sizes. Multifamily homes like apartments and condos. Single family homes from the tiny to the towering. Common denominators shared by all homes are money and people. People need homes and money to sustain them whether they’re rented or owned. We often talk about money as if it’s a disconnected thing. Money’s over there while people are over there. The two topics get disconnected as if one has nothing to do with the other.

I wonder if this could be why Jesus gets right to the point when he talks about money. People and money are as connected as it gets and Jesus focuses on connecting people with God and each other. Like today’s Gospel reading from Luke about the disputed inheritance and Jesus’ parable about the rich fool. It was normal for a younger brother to bring inheritance questions to their rabbis who could settle a dispute.[3] He was likely a younger brother because there was a norm in estate law of the time that either kept the estate fully intact by the oldest son OR that allotted the older brother a double-share with the younger brother receiving a third – much like the younger brother in the Prodigal son parable[4] who received one-third of his father’s estate.[5] Somehow Jesus was on to the younger son’s greedy motives because he answered his question with the parable about the greed of the rich fool.

Even Jesus’ easy parables aren’t easy. At face value, the parable of the rich fool is kind of simple. Simply interpreted: Greed is bad; and so is the man who builds the bigger barn. So what if the man builds a bigger barn? It’s HIS grain. He can do what he wants with grain produced on his land. But the reality of parables is that they have layers, layers that wrap around listeners and pull us in. Pull us in and shine light on our own lives by the parable. Here’s a layer. Building a bigger barn focuses on HIS wealth, himself and no one else. He’s not simply a rich fool, he’s also a lonely one. His bigger barn builds walls not only around his grain but between himself and his community. He dies alone with no one to give it to. Missing the chance to bless God by blessing others.

Greed as a topic is difficult. No one enjoys self-examination on the greed spectrum. It’s made extra difficult because we humans have a survival instinct that trips us up. This is one reason that the empty tomb of resurrection is helpful. The empty tomb is the end of the story promised through the cross of Christ. Because we know the end is rich in God’s promise, we’re free to examine the middle of the story; our own stories through the lens of the parable of the rich fool.

His greed is one example of self-preservation run amok. He has so much grain at his disposal that his bigger barn turns into his only idea. The rich fool is in an echo chamber of his own making. He turns only to himself about what to do with all his grain. Once he decides to build a bigger barn, he tells his soul to relax, eat, drink, and be merry. He doesn’t talk with his workers, his community, or God. And he curves in on himself even further by taking his own advice. And then he dies alone, curved around his wealth yet unable to take it with him.

Jesus often convicts his listeners, showing them how curved in on themselves they’ve become. Turned inward and, therefore, turned away from God. And turned inward and turned away from neighbors. Jesus attempts to turn the younger son, who is worried about his inheritance, outwards. The parable about the man who builds the bigger barn can be heard as Jesus’ attempt to wake up that younger son along with everyone else who is listening in, and live life on Jesus’ terms and not our own. Jesus’ terms include right-sizing ourselves alongside everyone else. As his mother Mary sang in her Magnificat earlier in Luke, “Bringing down the powerful…and lifting up the lowly.”[6] Leveling and strengthening the connections between each other as a meaningful way to live before any of us flat lines.

Last weekend, a lot of my time was spent with families who were saying goodbye to loved ones who had died. When we celebrate someone’s life, we often say quite a bit about the person who died. We remember them and we remember God’s promises to them. I often remind people during the welcome that as we celebrate the person who died, funerals can also bring up other losses in our lives, allowing grief a sacred space and time. With each funeral, as I listen to the stories about the person who died, it makes me grateful for the ways that I knew that person, grateful for other people in my life who have died, and grateful for the precious fragility of my own life and the people I love.

In Ecclesiastes, the writer known as the Teacher reflects on mortality. In the verses read today, the Teacher is almost cynical about the transience of life. Here one minute, gone the next. The Hebrew word for vanities is “hebel,” meaning breath or vapor.[7] “All is vapor…and a chasing after the wind,” says the Teacher who reminds us what really matters about life. The Psalm is nicely paired with both Ecclesiastes and the parable in getting us to think about the value of life. The parable reveals the value of life in the tragedy of the rich fool who wastes his life by spending abundant wealth only himself, the psalmist reflects the value of life in a matter-of-fact way – you’re mortal and finite so you can either trust God or trust self and wealth; and Ecclesiastes edges toward the cynical before the Teacher turns the book towards hope in later verses.[8]

The value of life is worth wrangling through hard conversations, intense prayer, and careful thinking. Figuring out how to spend our moments and our money makes at least the attempt to align our lives on Jesus’ terms, focusing on life with our short spans of life together here. Encouraging each other along the way lest we fall into despair or turn inwards on ourselves and lose sight of each other and of God. One of the gifts of being part of a faith community is the gift of reminding each other to uncurl from inward turning. Christ unleashes us from the perils of self-preservation at the expense of our neighbors by reminding us that we belong to each other and to God, inspiring generosity as the very antidote to greed and connection as the antidote to despair. In the very next verses after our Luke reading, Jesus tells his followers not to worry. Next week we’ll hear a few of these verses as Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, for it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Reminding us once more that out of God’s generosity comes our own. Thanks be to God, and amen.

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[1] Watch Ann Hultquist’s powerful sermon here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKgPQP8TXbM

[2] Listen to those 32 minutes about the rezoning vote of the Denver City Council meeting here: https://denver.granicus.com/player/clip/14946?meta_id=1105979

[3] Niveen Saras, Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church of Wausau, Wausau, WI. Commentary on Luke 12:13-21 for WorkingPreacher.org

[4] Luke 15:11-16

[5] Saras, Ibid.

[6] Luke 1:52

[7] J. Blake Couey, Associate Professor of Religion, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota. Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18-3/commentary-on-ecclesiastes-12-12-14-218-23-5

[8] Matthew L. Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. Sermon Brainwave Podcast: #855 8th Sunday after Pentecost. https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/855-8th-sunday-after-pentecost-ord-18c-july-31-2022

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Psalm 49:1-12

Hear this, all you peoples; give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

2both low and high, rich and poor together.

3My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.

4I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp.

5Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me,

6those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?

7Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life, there is no price one can give to God for it.

8For the ransom of life is costly, and can never suffice

9that one should live on forever and never see the grave.

10When we look at the wise, they die; fool and dolt perish together and leave their wealth to others.

11Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they named lands their own.

12Mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish.

“You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Barn [OR What If Political Conventions Began With Confession]  Luke 12:12-21 [22-31] and Colossians 3:1-11

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on July 31, 2016

[sermon begins after 2 Bible readings]

Luke 12:12-21 [22-31]  Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ 14But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ 15And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ 16Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” 18Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull 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, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’  22 He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!25And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?*26If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;* yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31Instead, strive for his* kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Colossians 3:1-11   So if 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 is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). 6On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.*7These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.* 8But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive* language from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices10and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. 11In that renewal*there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

[sermon begins]

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve watched bits and pieces of two political parties’ national conventions.  All the way around, it’s a big dose of presidential candidates, the people who support them, and their view of the world and America’s place in it.  One of the things I’ve been wondering is what the conventions would look like if they followed the traditional Lutheran worship liturgy.  “Liturgy” means the work of the people and there are a lot of people working pretty hard at those conventions.  At the very least, they’re already standing and sitting at intervals.  It’s a place to start.

Following the liturgy idea, what would it look like for political conventions to open with a confession?   Imagine people saying together:

“…we have sinned by our fault, by our own fault, by our own grievous fault, in thought word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone…”

The thing is, we know because we confess week-after-week, that this is only part of the confession and forgiveness liturgy.  But imagine the conventions opening with that kind of confession – starting the conversation from the point of being convicted.  I know, I get it.  Confession and media hype don’t go hand-in-hand.  But there is something appealing about the idea.

Jesus is talking to thousands of people in the Bible story today.  Thousands of people.  Just a few verses before these thousands converge on him, he quietly teaches his disciples the Lord’s Prayer.  Pastor Ann preached these verses last Sunday and talked about our God who listens when we pray.  I had a conversation with someone during the week about the comfort we experience in the liturgy and the Lord’s Prayer.  Sometimes this comfort is disrupted by a powerful conviction.  The conviction of being on the wrong road with some part of life.  A conviction that comes through the liturgy’s familiar words of scripture, prayer, and hymns.  Convicted.

Pastor Tim Keller says, “If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.”[1]  I like Pastor Keller’s thought about God disagreeing with us. This disagreement is softer language for being convicted.  But who is right if God disagrees with us?  I’m going to guess God.

The Bible story in Luke is convicting.  A man from the crowd yells out to Jesus. The man wants his help to settle an inheritance dispute with his brother.  Jesus side-steps his question and speaks to the crowd:

Listen to verse 15: “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’”[2]

Jesus warns them against all kinds of greed.  You name it and you can be greedy for it – money, power, things, time, information, degrees, etc.  There’s all kinds of greed but Jesus takes a moment to name one in particular – the abundance of possessions – and tells a story about a man and his crops.  The man’s land produced abundantly.  He looks at the crops and starts talking to himself.  Something along the lines of “self, you’re gonna need a bigger barn.”[3]  Once this is settled, he updates his soul on the latest goings on.  “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for you for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”[4]

Apparently God has had enough of listening to the man speak only to himself, a first-person universe that includes only the man.[5]  In just three verses, he uses the personal pronoun “I” six times and the personal possessive “my” four times. Then, God calls him a “fool.”

A little background to this parable about the man and his barn in the 12th chapter of Luke.  In the middle of the 10th chapter, Jesus and a lawyer get clear about the priority of loving God and loving neighbor as yourself with the parable of the Good Samaritan.[6]  At the beginning of Luke’s 11th chapter, the Lord’s Prayer is taught by Jesus to his disciples, including praying regularly for God’s kingdom come and our daily bread.[7]  Now, in chapter 12, Luke tells the Parable of the Barn Man.  A couple things to note here.  Wealth and saving for the future do not seem to be the issue.  What does seem to be an issue is the Rich Fool’s first-person universe and the perversion of wealth and savings into greed.

Over the last few decades, wealth around the world has shifted to an ever shrinking percentage of people worldwide.[8]  Think “Roaring ‘20s.”  I’ve wondered about this shift of wealth and track its impact on the most vulnerable people in the world.  I’ve also wondered how the most vulnerable will react as it becomes more and more difficult to feed and raise their families.  I’ve wondered about civil unrest and the price that is paid in blood by the most vulnerable.  You don’t have to think very far back into history to see this at work.[9]  Although, for now, it seems that the presidential primaries have become a way to voice discontent.

Closer to home in the City of Denver, gentrification is out-pricing many urban families who move beyond the city limits along with the next rent increase. Many have lived in Denver for generations.  While a few schools are bursting at the seams, Denver Public Schools is anticipating a decreased enrollment, in part, because of this gentrification.[10]   It’s close to home for us as a congregation and community with some of us facing this very real possibility in our own families.

Human greed functions in every kind of economic system.  Capitalism is no different in that regard to socialism or communism.  There is also no pure form of economic system.[11]  For example, America’s capitalism includes taxation that pays for roads, emergency services, schools, and Social Security. Regardless, as the primary economic system, capitalism can cloak greed in a respectability that makes it difficult to begin a conversation about it.

Conversation partners are sadly lacking in today’s parable.  The man talks only to himself as he plans and builds.  This is where the church has something to offer.  Jesus says to be on guard against all kinds of greed and then tells this parable.  We are conscripted as conversation partners through the gospel.

As conversation partners through the gospel, we begin at the end – FREE.  Made free by Christ, hidden IN Christ as the Colossians reading reminds us.[12]  Already belonging to God beyond those pesky categories of Greek or Jew, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free;[13] and well beyond Independent, Libertarian, Democrat, Republican, and Green.  This freedom in Christ means that fingers don’t point outward first – finding a soul on which to throw the greedy label.  We point those fingers at ourselves.

Pointing our fingers at ourselves, we have a chance of seeing where we store up treasures for ourselves but are not rich toward God.[14]  Where we love possessions and money more than we love God and our neighbor.  Let’s start there this week with that level of honesty.  That greed no longer bankrupt our relationships with God and neighbor; that the gifts of mercy and generosity take hold through our baptisms.[15]  Trusting God’s final word of mercy through the death of Jesus, we find ourselves and our neighbors valued by God beyond anything any of us may possess.

By the power of the Holy Spirit through your baptism, may you be clothed with the new self, “which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.”[16]

May God’s abundant grace free you from that which binds you. In the name of Christ (+), amen.

 

[1] Tim Keller (b. 1950 – present). https://twitter.com/timkellernyc/status/510458013606739968

[2] Luke12:15

[3] A nod to Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb’s screenplay for the movie Jaws (Universal: 1975).

[4] Luke 12:19

[5] Matt Skinner used this phrase in Sermon Brainwave podcast for Luke 12:13-21 on WorkingPreacher.org for July 31, 2016.  http://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx?podcast_id=784

[6] Luke 10:25-37 – Parable of the Good Samaritan

[7] Luke 11:1-4 – The Lord’s Prayer

[8] CHAD STONEDANILO TRISIARLOC SHERMAN, AND EMILY HORTON. “A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends of Income Inequality.” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, July 29, 2016.  http://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality

[9] For example, The French Revolution

[10] Melanie Asmar. “Enrollment Drop Will Leave 100s of Teachers Jobless.” The Colorado Independent: March 16, 2016.  http://www.coloradoindependent.com/158050/enrollment-drop-will-leave-100s-of-denver-teachers-jobless

[11] American Government: 13b. “Comparing Economic Systems.” http://www.ushistory.org/gov/13b.asp

[12] Colossians 3:3

[13] Colossians 3:11

[14] Luke 12:21

[15] Romans 12:8

[16] Colossians 3:10