As a word of judgment against selfishness, this text is unequivocal. It opens
with the account of two brothers quarreling over an inheritance. Jesus is
asked to referee the situation, as was the custom for rabbis, but He soundly
refuses. After all, who can judge whose greed is right?
However, Jesus does use the incident as another opportunity to revisit one
of the central truths of Kingdom life. God and materialism will never occupy
the throne of your life at the same time. It's one or the other.
Verse 15 is really the heart of the passage. It's a proverb: "Be on your
guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance
of his possessions." Illustrating this truth, Jesus tells the story of
a rich man who forgot that principle, and it cost him everything. He experienced
the pain of progress.
Actually this story starts out pretty well. The man worked hard, invested
well, and it paid off. There was a bumper crop. He had a great year. He even
asked the right question, "What shall I do?" Unfortunately, the
farmer was focused on self. In fact, it's interesting how often the pronoun
"I" arises in this narrative. He asked the right question but came
up with the wrong answer. His answer was essentially, "I need to make
the most of this progress. I need to embrace it, save it, hoard it, hold on
to it." Truthfully, this man doesn't do anything that is not highly valued
and honored in our society. This is the way we live.
The answer comes in verse 21 and continues into the next section. It involves
embracing a whole new perspective on life, one that includes simplicity, generosity,
and margin. The answers are not difficult. There are simple, God-given ways
to resist the pain of progress and find the margin, the space in life that
leaves room for the most important things of all.
Even though we could list the "answers," the response called for
is something even deeper than changes in lifestyle. Somewhere inside of us
there has to come a decision to embrace change. There isn't a great conference
to attend or an awesome book to read that will make simplicity of life happen.
It's a matter of taking God at His word and trusting your life to His way
of doing things. With this foundation in mind, we can talk about specific
things that bring margin into one's life. Things like: resisting the schedule
of daily life as it is accepted today by spending time alone with God, keeping
true sabbath, giving away significant portions of our resource (including
our money), reducing our stuff, and most of all, nurturing relationships.
(For a full manuscript of this sermon, go to www.preachersmagazine.org.)
People are keenly aware that for all of the progress in our society, there
is a pain associated with that progress. The technology that was supposed
to save us so much time in fact costs us more time in setting it up, maintaining
it, and sometimes even using it. We are not really flourishing under the gifts
of modernity as we might have expected.
This sermon might begin with a "poke in the eye." That is, by helping
people to admit just how jam-packed and sometimes out of control our lives
have really become. Our so-called progress has brought most of us to the point
that we are like what Henri Nouwen described as "overpacked suitcases,
bulging at the edges, ready to burst open" (Making All Things New).
The congregation needs to see that this rich man described by Jesus is no
different from most of them. This man behaved in ways that are venerated by
our culture and mimicked by most of us if we are honest. This disequilibrium
of facing what a mess we are in can provide the openness for people to hear
the sane and simple word of Jesus: "Be on guard against all kinds of
greed; for your life does not consist in the abundance of riches" (Luke
12:15, author's paraphrase).
