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Recollections of Our
Trip Through The Barn Builders
Text: Luke 12:13-21
● Interestingly, Jesus has just finished challenging his followers about
hypocrisy and that nothing they do will remain hidden forever. He intimates
that their lives might soon be in jeopardy and that they are to learn to
trust a God who notices such things as the market price for sparrows and the
number of hairs you leave behind on the shower floor.
The man’s question seems
so inappropriate, as if he hadn’t really comprehended all that Jesus had
been trying to say. Like having your “reproductive” talk be immediately
followed up with a question about whether fish are able to hold their breath
underwater? Or, “Dad, have you ever
gotten to def-con level 6 on ‘World Annihilators’?”
● But Jesus doesn’t dismiss him because he knows that what’s at stake is not
just some undesignated funds, but a man’s soul.
Jesus knew that wealth was
the chief rival for our affections toward God. Jesus knew the very real
capacity for wealth to capture our hearts and order our lives. It’s why
Jesus said, “You can’t serve God and
mammon” (wealth: a way of personifying wealth as if it were a god)
Matthew 6:24. Jesus said, these are (2) conflicting approaches to
life that cannot co-exist.
● Jesus’ stories about God taking care of the lilies and birds were not
merely some “diversionary tactics” to get your mind off of your financial
quandary. It was meant to create an atmosphere of trust in a conflicting
environment of uncertainty and suspicion about the gods and their posture
toward humanity. Your God is “Father” who is aware and available.
● I realize that this often sounds like “sour-grapes”, especially coming
from a guy who lives in a borrowed house and has no foreseeable means of
retirement. I also realize that some of the animosity directed toward the
wealthy is fueled by my own covetousness, wishing it was me!
Americans have this
love-hate relationship with the wealthy. We want to know what they are
driving, where they’re living, what they’re wearing. Have you ever noticed
that they never produced a show called
“Lifestyles of the Middle Class”.
►Satisfaction
apparently has this way of eroding our memory [Deut.8:1-19]
An interesting phenomenon happens as the more self-sufficient we
believe ourselves to be:
Our recollections become
distorted; we not only forget things, we start remembering
things that never happened! We seem to recall that it was “our” talent, and
“our” personality, and “our” wisdom which ensured a favorable outcome.
►God’s
promise of provision is never meant to compensate for our over-extended
lives.
We all have to hear this story as the ‘barn builder’; we all have to
confront our tendencies toward over-indulgence and over-extending ourselves.
“A man’s life does not consist…”
● There are times in our lives when we just need to figure out
what we really want because the
frustration of not knowing what we want always leads us to the conclusion
that it’s “something else”. You realize, at this point, nothing could
possibly satisfy you, right?
Therefore, Jesus is
constantly warning us about valuing the wrong things; attaching the wrong
price tag to stuff (i.e. the Fall was not about humanity’s refusal to
worship, but worshipping the wrong things).
● The story intimates here that it’s not
the rich man’s entrepreneurial prowess or business savvy that allows him to
realize abundance. The climate and the conditions
have joined together in producing an abundant crop.
● There is no hint in this parable that the farmer
has done anything wrong. He hasn’t manipulated the market, he hasn’t
mistreated his workers. The parable suggests that he has realized an
abundant crop and now has more than he needs.
As they are listening, the
audience would assume that the abundance would be stored up to be used for
the good of the community (reminiscent of a familiar story of Joseph).
● But, he begins an “inner-monologue”.
“I will build bigger barns…”
This message seems so
irrelevant to our capitalistic society, doesn’t it? Isn’t that the point…
bigger buildings, bigger bank accounts, bigger profit margins, bigger
salaries,… how could Jesus seriously find fault with that?
● At the heart of our struggle with riches is the deep anxiety and
insecurity it produces. It makes us paranoid.
What began with a
seemingly innocent pursuit of sufficiency now turns into an obsession. We
become possessive and have to find ways of protecting and preserving what we
have accumulated. More stuff, more time and energy directed toward care and
protection. Bigger barns mean bigger maintenance expenses and more energy
directed toward care of the barn itself: meetings with accountants,
stressing about budget-overruns, etc.
● The conclusion that he reaches as a result of his monologue?
“Take it easy. Eat. Drink. Be happy,
and make sure to store up enough in reserve to maintain such a lifestyle”.
A scenario not unlike one
that many of us would envision for our own lives: determining that abundance
means we are pretty well set-up for the rest of our lives.
1 Timothy 6:6-10; 17-19 (read)
Paul says wealth is
deceitful because it doesn’t represent reality; deceitful because it
promises contentment, but leaves us with this insatiable appetite for more.
● Paul addresses not just wealth, but a “pre-occupation” with getting
wealthy. Apparently, it’s not even about ‘having’ wealth, but ‘longing to be
rich’.
“greed”
(Gr.) literally, “eager to hold”
So, for those who long to be rich, contentment is always held at arms
length; always just out of our reach.
“contentment”
(Gr.) literally, “sufficient”; it
is simply to believe that you have enough.
● Amidst the monologue, another voice is heard…“You fool.”
Here’s the issue with
foolishness…it’s easy not to notice. We lack the capacity to live
reflectively; we isolate ourselves from potentially receiving wise-guidance
(inner-monologue).
It’s usually only after we
‘see the film’ that we realize our foolishness, huh? Until that moment
comes, we are essentially un-teachable.
“You fool…”
Jesus’ short answer to his
current economic strategies.
In our system, this man would be celebrated as a shrewd businessman; in the
story Jesus tells, he’s referred to simply as a “fool”.
The man wasn’t called a fool because of his prosperity or because of his
planning for the future (Proverbs 6:6-8). He’s called a fool because he
fails to grasp reality; he is identified as a fool because his life has been
“self-directed”--he’s ordered his life as if God did not exist which has
caused him to reach all the wrong conclusions
(“The fool says in his heart, there is
no God…” Prov.14:1 ) God has no issues with us making plans, just making
plans without him.
“This very night you will die (your life will be required of you)”…
“required”--- same Gr. Word used for collecting on a loan.
~Life is not a possession, it’s a trust. One day
you’ll be called upon to give it back.
It’s like “Monopoly”. The
point is the accumulation of monies and properties so that it might be
leveraged to your advantage, right? But, when it’s all over, who gets what
you’ve gained? It all goes back in the box. It never really was yours in the
first place.
~Nothing combats presumption like being confronted
with death.
Death has this way of
interrupting our plans for life. There are just some things you cannot
‘forecast’. There are too many unseen variables.
Ecclesiastes 7:2 “Better to go to a
house of mourning than go to a house of feasting because death is the
destiny of every man; the living should take it to heart.”
Occasionally, it’s helpful and healthy to be confronted with our own
mortality; our limitations and the fallacy of control.
~How do you know when you
have enough? When does one cross the line from taking care of one’s self and
become a person of greed?
We all know that it cannot be quantified; that even if we had a definitive
number, it would not eliminate the problem because it’s not really an
accounting issue, it’s a heart issue!
Eccl. 5:10 “Those who love money will
never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true
happiness!” [this coming from a guy who knew a thing or two about
wealth).
~How does one move from greed and anxiety about
having enough?
Leviticus 19:9-10 “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to
the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not
go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen.
Leave them for the poor and the alien.”
● The custom allowed for the poor to follow the reapers in the field and
glean the fallen spears of grain. The reapers would often leave or drop
grain to be picked up by the poor. They were instructed not to harvest all
the way to the boundary markers of their property.
~Maybe knowing the boundaries of abundance allows us
to know when enough is enough and creates opportunity for others to benefit
from our increase.
● Jesus was not calling all of us to a life of voluntary poverty. He was
simply asking us to envision a world (a Kingdom) where gratitude and
generosity replaced self-sufficiency and greed; a world where paranoia and
insecurity could be overwhelmed by rest and trust in the loving provision of
a benevolent King, one that we were also to address as Father.
It’s not to minimize our talents or the wisdom in preparing for the
future, but to prevent us from obtaining everything that we want and
forfeiting our soul in the process.
Yes, it’s just that powerful. Yes,
it’s just that important.
● The beauty of the parables is that they don’t require that we point each
other out. Do you think that this guy who asked the question was the only
one that left that day feeling like a fool? |
