A Rich Inheritance

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 1, 2010, the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Jesus is teaching; he has become a very popular rabbi. The crowds love him, and one of the reasons the masses love him so much is because the elite aristocratic leadership hates him. The oppressed people of any time and place will agree; if you’re ticking off the oppressors you must be doing something right.

Jesus has just scolded the Pharisees for tithing mint, rue and herbs of all kinds, neglecting justice and the love of God. When the scribes object, saying that they are “injured” by what Jesus says, he says, “Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.” The leaders of the people protect their place, they protect their status, instead of doing what their vocation calls them to do, and Jesus is not amused.

In the midst of the oppression against the disciples of the Lord, Jesus promises his followers that they need not worry. When the time comes, when they are called to account for their lives and defend themselves; they are not to worry about what they are to say for the Holy Spirit will give them the words for that very hour.

Jesus does what Henry Emerson Fosdick calls the goal of the gospel and the goal of every good preacher who brings the gospel; to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. This is when someone in the crowd comes and says to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

Effective public speaking has a flow, a rhythm to it which helps bring the message. Boy, you want to talk about a buzz kill? It is so rude to interrupt Jesus while he is on a roll.

Jesus knows that the issues of wealth, riches, and inheritance are important, but they are not his to be decided. It reminds me of when Jethro tells Moses to appoint judges to look after the small stuff so that when a big case arises he will be fresh and ready to tackle it. Jesus answers the supplicant, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Jesus doesn’t settle the dispute; rather he becomes the anti-Gordon Gecko warning that greed is not good.

Paul takes this discourse on riches and wealth in general to the next level in his letter to the Colossians. Often, in Paul’s letters the things he writes are specifically addressed to what is happening in that community at that moment. Reading his letters is like reading the answers to questions that we never hear. So when Paul tells the church “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” he offers this word because someone has asked for an interpretation on a specific question of earthly wealth.

Honestly, it is likely that Paul received a question similar to the one at the beginning of our reading from Luke this morning. Someone has asked Jesus and now Paul about earthly wealth and both of them answer that life is more than the stuff we own. They certainly go against the expression that “whoever dies with the most toys wins.” Paul goes on to remind the people of the church at Colossae that we have died, and our life is hidden (buried) with Christ in God. Paul lifts Christ crucified and we are the body of Christ. As the people and the body of Christ, when we are revealed with him, we will be revealed with him in glory.

In true Pauline fashion, he minces no words telling the church how to be crucified in Christ rather than in the world. He tells us to “Put to death whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).” He continues telling us we “must get rid of all such things--anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.”

On the more positive side, he tells us that we need to seek the things from above. He tells us that in our life in Christ we have been clothed with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. Paul tells us what is not Godly and then speaks of the immeasurable joys of being the body of Christ.

It makes petty whining about earthly inheritance small potatoes.

So this is when you might expect me to tie Paul’s warnings and instructions into the life of the Parable of the Rich Farmer in our gospel reading this morning. On the contrary, I will do nothing of the sort.

Of all of the attributes we can ascribe to the farmer, Jesus does not ascribe any of Paul’s sins to him. He seems to have put to death fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry. He has apparently gotten rid of anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth, and all such things. The farmer is not “that guy” from Colossians.

If the farmer seems too good to be true, he is. Let’s just remember that he’s a character in a parable, not a real person. He’s a literary device, not flesh and bone.

So the parable begins, “The land of a rich man produced abundantly.” There is a whole lot going on in this one little sentence that we need to unpack before going forward. Those who know what it takes to succeed in agriculture know that an abundant harvest is not product of lazy farmer. Even if the farmer is someone who has a staff of overseers and workers, an abundant harvest is not the product of someone who sits around all day drinking iced tea and wondering what the poor people are doing.

This mythical land owner appears to be endowed with all of the best qualities of what we call the protestant work ethic. He is hard working and diligent. He is wise; a long term planner and strategic thinker. He saves, he doesn’t squander his wealth. He doesn’t seek to go out and buy the best new toys from the first century Monkey-Ward catalog, he is ready to build new barns and store his crop for many years. Even if he was just lucky; even if he had great seed, prepared soil, favorable weather, and the best luck in the world; chance favors the prepared and he was definitely prepared.

Reflecting on the bounty, he tells his soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” This rich farmer has just made a major deposit in his ancient Individual Retirement Account and life is good. He is a small business owner who has done all of the right things. As soon as he makes a new place for his stuff he’ll be ready to take a breather. His earthly debts are paid off and he is ready to take a little time with his family. That’s the plan, a plan that would make any investment specialist proud. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. Friends, let’s face it, this guy could not be more typically American unless he baked an apple pie and invented the hot dog.

This is where we come to the harsh reality. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry is found in the Old Testament books of Ecclesiastes and Isaiah[1] where it isn’t a blessing. It’s a foreboding of impending doom. The mistake that he has made is that he has received a great blessing and chosen to sit on his hands and on his wealth.

Resting on his laurels watching the world go by sitting on the veranda in his porch swing is not the life God calls him to live. This is not the life we are called to live either. Our call is not to rest on God’s blessings; our call is to do God’s will with these blessings.

Another way to say this is that he isn’t bad in as many words, but he isn’t seeking what Paul calls “the things from above.”

William Sloane Coffin warns preachers against doing something which is very tempting at this moment. He tells you and reminds me that the preacher’s job is not to tell you what to do, but to remind you who you are, in this case, agents and stewards of God’s bounty.[2] Then he reminds us that riches per se are not the enemy.

Good and bad come from the use of riches, not the riches themselves. To the ancient Greeks, riches were seen as blessings from the Gods. The Greek word for “riches” shares the same root as the words “fill” and “full.” Riches, the filling of the barn if you will, were seen as a blessing from God. Still, riches were not to be confused with the blessings of God. Things like “wealth of wisdom” or “wealth of grace” were not promised in these riches.[3]

In truth, riches help liberate people allowing the rich farmer to go to the city gates and help rule the city. Riches used properly can make a ruler beyond corruption. Think of it this way, what’s the use of offering a man with barns of grain a loaf of bread to rule in your favor? Riches properly used allow freedom for the rulers at the gate to seek justice instead of greater wealth for themselves.

Dare I say that this is a difference between God’s intended use of wealth and our experiences with the ways of notoriously wealthy people today? Shoot, I have deleted a full paragraph about this very difference between responsible use of riches and the greedy seeking of greater wealth and could have written another paragraph for every robber baron who ever lived. Instead, I’ll share an old joke.

Once upon a time there was a rich man, a man who gained and increased his wealth without concern for the people around him. Shortly before his death, he decided that he was going to take it with him. He told his wife to take two pillowcases, fill them with money, and put them in the attic above his bed. This way, when he died, he would grab the pillowcases on the way and take his riches with him. Well, the woman did as her husband asked and a couple of weeks later, he passed peacefully in his own bed.

A couple of weeks later, the man’s wife returned to the attic to put some of her husband’s things away. There, she saw the two pillowcases still filled with the money as he had requested. She looked at the pillowcases and said to herself, “I knew I should have put them in the basement.”

It’s not riches, but our attitude toward riches, the way we use riches that is important. The rich farmer in the parable is the man who embodies the American dream, but with one fatal flaw. He wanted to use his riches, the bountiful gifts of a gracious God, for his own comfort instead of for God’s kingdom. When we trust our lives to the security of riches instead of the richness of God, we trust in something that is fleeting.

As the farmer learns, life can be over in a flash. Our lives can be demanded of us in any given moment. When this happens, Jesus asks, “Who will receive the blessings that have been trusted to you?” One blessing will last; the other will become dust in the wind. We have received so many blessings, and often they are squandered on things that don’t last until the next season.

In the end, there is only one answer to the question of inheritance, the root of the question that begins our gospel reading today. In that time and place the only way to insure gaining an inheritance was to be a son of the father. In the eternal realm, the only way for us to insure our rich inheritance is by being a child of the Father, a child of God. Ours is not to squirrel away the blessings we have received into new barns because these riches are fleeting. We are to seek the greater blessings, the blessings of God. We are not to store up treasures for ourselves but are to be rich in the blessings of God.

I will finish by sharing one more thing I read in Coffin’s writings, “It seems to say that what counts is not how much you give, but how much you have left after you give.”[4] When we give from our earthly and our God given stores, what remains is what God gives, what Paul calls “the things from above.” In giving our earthly riches, we share as the heirs to a rich inheritance that only God can offer. One day our very lives will be asked of us, and on that day we will fully know the rich inheritance that no one will ever be able to take away.

[1] Ecclesiastes 8:15, Isaiah 2:13
[2] Coffin, William Sloane. “The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, The Riverside Years.” Volume 2. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, page 195.
[3] Kittel, Gerhardt. “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.” Volume vi. Pages 319-320.
[4] Ibid, Coffin.