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Who Asked Jesus Anyway?!

(Text: Luke 12:13-21)

(Gary W. Charles, Cove Presbyterian Church, Covesville, VA, 7-31-2016)

          As a general practice, it is wise to stay out of family squabbles, especially ones involving money. Hats off to Jesus for doing just that! In today’s text, an angry brother comes to Jesus asking for help with a family financial dispute. Obviously, this angry brother is not the executor of the estate, so he comes to Jesus to side with him and set matters right: “Tell my brother to stop hoarding the inheritance and give me what is rightfully mine.”

          That seems a fair enough request. Jesus, though, proves more annoying than helpful. He does not rush to the fix the family problem. Instead, he gives the begrudged brother a lecture. He warns him not to get caught in the trap of greed and cautions him that life does not consist of the number of our possessions.

That is not the answer that the angry brother is looking for from Jesus. And, to make matters worse, Jesus goes on to tell the angry brother a long, ponderous story. It is a tale about a farmer, who Jesus gives the nickname, “the rich fool.”

At first glance, the nickname seems ridiculous. In the great American story, the farmer is no fool; he is “Mr. Success.” He has done what I have been taught to do since childhood. Excel. Be successful. Accumulate enough for a rainy day, a snowy day, even a long stretch of sunny days.  The farmer has built a fortune for his retirement. No family members will need to care for him. He is independent now and he will be independent all his days, thanks to a huge nest egg that he has amassed.  

          The farmer can even quote Scripture to justify his action. After all, the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Joseph tells the Pharaoh to build lots of barns to stock up for seven lean years ahead. Nor does Jesus portray the farmer as a crooked businessman who has gained his riches illegally by bilking others and skipping out on his bills. He is not someone who has made his wealth by ripping others off. In fact, most of us would call him financially prudent and admirable. So, why does the successful, financially prudent businessman get nicknamed, “rich fool” by none other than Jesus?

In full disclosure, preachers absolutely love this parable, especially as the leaves turn their autumn colors and churches start to solicit funds for the next year’s budget. Preachers cite the closing punch line of the parable with vigor:  “But 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?'” What usually follows then is the preacher extolling members of the congregation to stop building barns, after all, they preach, “Your money will do you no good in the grave, so spread it around and let me tell how to make a huge check out to the church!”

That preacher riff on the parable is not at all uncommon, but I suggest it is also not that helpful. Like most parables of Jesus, this ones goes far deeper than a biblical prop for churches and pastors who are anxious to meet a budget.

The real problem with the farmer in this parable is that he has a very serious pronoun problem. “The relentless use of the first person pronouns ‘I’ and ‘my’ betray a preoccupation with self,” writes Lutheran pastor and professor, David Lose. “There is no thought to using the abundance to help others, no expression of gratitude for his good fortune, no recognition of God at all. The farmer has fallen prey to worshiping the most popular of gods: the Unholy Trinity of ‘me, myself, and I’. This leads to, and is most likely caused by, a second mistake. He is not foolish because he makes provision for the future; he is foolish because he believes that by his wealth he can secure his future: ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry’."

Just out of Seminary, I was called to serve a fine church in Wilmington, North Carolina. The hardest pastoral visit I made every few months was to a dirt poor retired railroad worker with severe emphysema. He had no family and his house was an absolute wreck. If I was honest with myself, I felt sorry for the man. He was so restricted and he had so little.

There was an uncomfortable ritual that ended each visit. This gentleman would go to his desk, open the top drawer, and pull out a bunch of church offering envelopes with a check in each one. He would then bundle them together with a rubber band, hand them to me, and ask that I give them to the church treasurer.

I hated that ritual at the end of every visit. So one day, I decided to try to write a different ending to our visits. I told him, “Sir, the church budget is really strong right now. Many people are even ahead in their giving from what we expected. It seems like you need this money more than the church does right now, so thank you but why don’t you keep it and use it for yourself.” Many years later, I cringe when I hear myself saying these words, but I was young, if that is any excuse.

After I invited this man to keep his money, he spoke and spoke, for the first time, without struggling for every breath. He looked at me without as much as a pause and said, “Young man, never deny someone the privilege of returning to the Lord a portion of what the Lord has given him.” I had no response. I took the offering envelopes and crawled to the car.

The angry brother, the rich fool in Jesus’ parable, and the young preacher in Wilmington, N.C. never understood what a dirt poor retired railroad worker knew beyond a shadow of a doubt. All good gifts, our intellect, our family, the good earth, and the list goes on, are gifts that God gives us to steward but never to own, to share, but never to hoard, to sow seeds for others, but never to harvest only for ourselves. More stuff does not secure our future, says Jesus, even if it is our rightful due to inherit it.

Throughout the course of my ministry, I have come to know and love many rich women and men, a few of whom also had a good bit of money, all of whom enjoyed giving and living for others with wild abandon.

I wonder whatever happened to that angry brother. Did he get his rightful inheritance? When he did, did it calm him down and make him dance with glee? Or did it leave him counting each coin wondering why he got less than the brother who was the executor of the estate? Did he ever once think about investing his energy in helping others and sharing with others what he already had? Did he ever pause to thank God for the very gift of life?

I wonder what Jesus would say to affluent America today when thousands go to bed hungry each night while political rhetoric is never about them. I wonder what Jesus would say when thousands in America live on the streets or in shelters, like the Central Night Shelter in Atlanta, where we housed 90 men every night, while it is the rare political leader who uses her political capital to advocate for affordable housing.  I wonder what Jesus would say when the fastest growing industry in many states in our country is private prisons, while there is little political will to rethink our criminal justice system.

The angry young brother wants more, wants his rightful due. Jesus asks the angry brother what he is doing with all that he already has. Many angry Americans want more than what we have. Jesus asks each one of us what we are doing with what we already have.

Well, who asked Jesus anyway?!     

AMEN