Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 13C, July 31, 2016, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of abundance, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

This morning we have a pair of scripture readings that take the cliché and inaccurate characterization of OT “god of wrath” and NT “god of love” and turn it on its head. Colossians warns of the wrath of God on those who are disobedient. But through the prophet Hosea, a compassionate and merciful Holy One is telling the story of falling in love with the “god strugglers” (which is what Israel literally means) when they were children. God fell in love with those children when they were in a tight spot, a bind, a narrow place (which is what Egypt literally means). God called those children, but the more God called, the more the children ran in the other direction. They kept giving their precious resources to the wrong gods (gods of everything BUT love); they kept offering their devotion to worthless causes, placing their hopes in idols or dummies. And yet, God knows that they will eventually come trembling back from the narrow place (Egypt) and the militarized place (Assyria) and God will return them to their homes.

Our lectionary provides two Hebrew Bible reading options. The other choice is from Ecclesiastes, [1] including the verse, “All was vanity and a chasing after wind.” That verse always reminds me of the most powerful deathbed awakenings I ever witnessed. Many years ago a Boston commercial real estate tycoon was just hours from crossing over from this life to the next. His cancer diagnosis and precipitous decline had completely enraged him. He was furious about the loss of control he was experiencing, maybe the first time in his life. I had been visiting him every week for several months at his adult child’s request. During my last visit with him, as I was saying goodbye, he beckoned me to come close, and whispered, “It’s all vanity, isn’t it?” I nodded. His face radiated with a peace that had eluded him during his many decades of striving. At that very moment, I heard angels shouting with joy, calling him and welcoming him home.

Our Gospel lesson assures us that one does not have to wait until the hour of our death to come home to God – to Love. Indeed, our Gospel lesson begs us not to wait. Today’s passage is bracketed by Jesus’ assurance to his followers not to worry. In the verses just before, Jesus says “don’t worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say when you are being accused, a spirit of holiness will be your teacher in the moment.” Remember, last week we heard Jesus’ promise that a spirit of holiness will be given to whoever asks, whoever seeks, whoever knocks.

Then someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” It seems like a reasonable enough request. In ancient cultures, as in modern ones, inheritance is an important component of ensuring wellbeing. [2] It’s not so different from Martha coming to Jesus and asking him to tell her sister Mary to help her with the important work of serving. It anticipates the story known as the Prodigal Son which comes a few chapters later. But according to Luke, Jesus always resists such triangulation with siblings! Jesus said to him, “Man, who appointed me your judge or arbitrator?” (He didn’t actually call him friend; the word Jesus used in this story isn’t as nice.) Then he said to the disciples, “Watch out! Guard against greed in all its forms; because one’s life is not in the abundance of possessions.”

Here is another one of many warnings in the Gospel of Luke about the negative effect possessions have on following Jesus. The storing or preserving of wealth, according to Luke, is incompatible with discipleship. The other Gospels are perhaps more spiritual in their presentation of Jesus’ teachings – but for Luke, it’s all about economics and concern for those who are poor. Jesus has warned against greed over and over – but now he’s going to tell them a little story about the improper use of wealth. Bernard Scott calls it the parable of “How to Mismanage a Miracle.” [3] And it’s kind of a funny Good News story — if you’re poor.

The story goes that there was a rich man whose property produced a bumper crop. Now everyone knows that a fantastic harvest, in other words, prosperity, is a gift from God. (At least, the people listening to Jesus know that.) The rich man finds himself with more than he had room for. “What do I do now?” he asked himself, “since my storage silos are already full.” Then he said, “I know! I’ll tear down my silos and build larger ones so I can store even more.” Now this is funny. And the humor draws his listeners in. The rich man in the story doesn’t build additional storage units – he tears down the existing ones. Jesus is poking fun at rich people’s tendency to get rid of old stuff and replace it with bigger new stuff with this absurd exaggeration. The disciples are laughing and shaking their heads at this point.

Then the rich man says to himself, “Self, you have plenty put away for years to come. Take it easy; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” Uh-oh. The disciples knew the common Greek philosophy phrase, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die” and its association with immoral behavior in the Jewish tradition. This is where God enters the story and says to the man, “Hey dummy! This very night your life will be demanded back from you.” It’s important to notice that in this story, God isn’t killing the rich man or even punishing him. God is just stating the reality that the man’s going to die. God is pointing out that the rich man has attempted to protect his life with his stockpile – and it’s not going to work.

Then God says, “All this stuff you’ve collected – whose will it be now?” Jesus’ disciples know the answer: it will go where it should have gone in the first place – to the wider community. According to the wisdom scripture they all know, the purpose of wealth is to serve the public need, the common good. God provides the miracle of abundance so that the community can be cared for. Attempts to amass and preserve private wealth are a misuse of God’s blessing. The miraculous nature of the harvest places demands on the rich man. It places on him an obligation to care for other people who do not have enough. That’s what it means to be rich towards God – providing for the needs of others – rich in Love.

The rich man has a social responsibility that he is neglecting. Accumulating wealth results in the impoverishment of others, because worldly goods are finite, not infinite. The rich man also forgets to acknowledge God’s existence – God’s hand in the abundant harvest. He is talking only to himself in this story about hoarding the abundance for his own pleasure and security. He is forgetting the existence of God. That’s idolatry. Actually, the word that God uses to address the man, the word that gets translated “fool,” in Greek carries the double meaning of not very smart, and of being inanimate – lifeless — like a statue or doll – or idol. So “hey dummy!” conveys the idea in English much better than “you fool!” And there are overtones of immorality as well.

We often think of Jesus’ teachings as innovative, but they are taken directly from traditional Hebrew Scripture. According to Bernard Brandon Scott, Jesus’ story equates the mismanagement of the miraculous harvest with idolatry — that is, not placing God first, before all else. “The identification of God’s [realm is] with community and the demand to provide for the needs of others…. Yet this caring for neighbor is not based upon a moralizing or sentimentalizing principle. Not to place community first violates the First Commandment; [it] is idolatry. No apocalyptic explosion will ride the world of evil; the parabolic [realm of God] exists only in the deeds of a loving community.” [4] God’s realm in Luke isn’t the after-life. It is only other-worldly in the sense that it’s very different from how this world generally operates.

So remember at the beginning I said that this story is kind of funny Good News if you’re poor? How should any of us who are not poor take it? Is there Good News here for us? I think so. I think this story is evidence of Jesus’ desire for fullness of life for everyone. I think this story is evidence that Jesus is trying to teach those of us with wealth from where it comes and to whom it belongs so that we, too, can be rich toward God, rich in Love.

I mentioned that this Gospel portion is bracketed. The verse immediately following our passage for this morning is: “Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Consider the ravens: they have neither storehouse or silo…consider the lilies…clothed in splendor. Do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink and do not keep worrying…strive instead for the realm of love, the rule of mercy, and these things will be given to you as well.” Open up the channel, the circuit of receiving and giving.

This past Friday, Hawaii public radio aired an interview with Naomi Shihab Nye in which she read one of her poems called “Red Brocade” about the rule of mercy and realm of love:

The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends
you don’t care.

Let’s go back to that.
Rice? Pine nuts?
Here, take the red brocade pillow.
My child will serve water
to your horse.

No, I was not busy when you came!
I was not preparing to be busy.
That’s the armor everyone put on
to pretend they had a purpose
in the world.

I refuse to be claimed.
Your plate is waiting.
We will snip fresh mint
into your tea.

Shihab Nye concluded the interview with this question: How much respect do we need to conjure up for everything we’re given – all the beauty around us, and for each others lives? A lot! [5] This message for today is: Beware of all kinds of greed. Your resources are a gift from God for you to share. Don’t mismanage the miracle! Be rich in God – which means rich in love. Love has been calling you since you were a child. Stop running away. Come out of the spot that is between a rock and a hard place. Come back from the militarized place and come home. Your plate is waiting.

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