“And Jesus said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops? 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 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? So, it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
– Luke 12:15-20
How’s your 401K looking these days? It’s been better? Sure. It’s been worse. Did you know the average American between the age of 65-75 has just under $70,000 in savings? The younger one gets, the lower the amount saved. When my father died suddenly in 1987 at the age of 56… five months after he’d paid off his thirty-year mortgage… he had a $20,000 life insurance policy, and a retirement account with the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) that my mother received monthly payments from for 21 years… and a Social Security check which allowed her to maintain her humble but lover of God lifestyle until the day she died.
I didn’t grow up in a home with bigger and better barns. My parents had no barns… and yet… I now live in a two-story home in which the house I grew up in could fit on the bottom half of the first floor… a house that served well my parents, me and four siblings… and a grandmother… all in three bedrooms and one bathroom. On Sunday mornings we all had to stand in line.
This story in Luke’s gospel is called “the parable of the rich young fool…” when a man in the crowd called out to Jesus to assist in a dispute over the family inheritance … a story Cyril of Alexandria said was the sad saga of a man blind with wealth… but having no character…he does not look to the future… he does not raise his eyes to God… he does not cherish a love for the poor… instead he says… relax, eat, drink and enjoy yourself… Do you know anyone like that?
What is it that makes us rich? What is that others might say about you if this is your last day… and this very night your soul is required of you? What will be reported about your soul?… You can google it… and you might be surprised at the answer… what does it mean to be rich toward God?’ It actually has nothing to do with barns or bigger barns… or cars in the driveway, or number of rental properties, or bitcoin balances or in my case coffee mugs, T-shirts, CD’s and shelves full of books! It is more about the necessities of life… things like love and family, companionship and friendship… good physical and mental health… safety and security… contentment and passion… the qualities and values of our lives we use words to describe… because the ancient way of drawing pictures to describe those things never came close enough to do the job.
It is a well-known fact that when people come to the final days of their lives, they begin to fully understand what is truly important in life and thus begin to give away personal possessions to those around them… behavior worth noticing for the good of all… and yet the minimalist utilitarian posture of the next generation indicates they will not have to work so hard at this…
Jesus had no barns and no need of bigger barns… as when he died on the cross… the only thing he owned were the clothes on his back… and the soldiers gambled for those… yet he was and remains… ‘king of the universe…’ owner of everything in the cosmos… giving his life away for us all…God’s sacrifice for how we should be and aren’t… an inheritance none of us need fight over… an eternal life in the presence of the one who showed us all how to live well. Faith matters.
