Sermon
Even though today's scripture lesson does not mention the word money, often this particular story is used on Stewardship Sunday in many churches. The scripture today mentions a family inheritance, which is probably about money. Jesus mentions greed, abundance, possessions, crops, goods and treasures, but not money.
It's not a giant leap for us to understand why we have made this about money over the years. While there are a few ways to be greedy, (as Jesus says, 'Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;') when we think of someone who is greedy, we often talk about their financial accumulations. So let's hear a few stories about money and its effects on the world.
In Zimbabwe, the current finance minister is trying to stave off an economic crisis by minting a new gold coin to take the place of their current currency, the US dollar and the Zim dollar, which are decreasing in value. Everyday people will never be able to afford this new coin and it will be purchased by investors and rich members of society. Zimbabwe is no stranger to economic crises. In 2015 the country famous for just printing more money, had to print $1 trillion paper money. Writing about another previous “economic freefall” an npr interview says at one point in 2009, “inflation was a mind-boggling 200 million percent. Shoppers had to carry the colorful bank notes, in billion- and trillion-dollar denominations, in bags to pay for basics.”
Speaking about our current oil prices, Heather Cox Richardson wrote yesterday about oil company profits saying, “Exxon's rate of income was $2,245.62 every second of every day for the past 92 days; Chevron made $1,462.11 per second. Together, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies are expected to announce $60 billion in profits for the past three months.” (Heather Cox Richardson, July 30, 2022) Having that kind of money is one end of the spectrum.
Needing money is another end of the spectrum. “According to the report by the 2022 National Low Income Housing Coalition, in order to afford a standard two-bedroom apartment in the San Francisco area — which includes Marin and San Mateo counties — a renter would need to make $61.50 an hour; similarly in Santa Clara County, $55.15 an hour; In Alameda and Contra Costa counties, one would have to make $43.73 an hour.” (Source)
From Zimbabwe to the Bay Area, from global concerns to local concerns, getting through life has a lot to do with money. People say money rules, money is everything, money is power, money means I'm better than you. While those things may be true on some level in some places somewhere, we know they are not absolutely true. While every definition of greed that I looked up mentioned money, there were other parts of the definition that related to the kinds of greed that Jesus was talking about.
Every definition included the phrase “uncontrolled longing for” whatever the thing we wanted was. Uncontrolled longing for money; for power; for material possessions; land; food; or status. The Wikipedia definition also included the added commentary, “Greed has been identified as undesirable throughout known human history because it creates behavior-conflict between personal and social goals.”
There is the important point. It's not the money that's the problem. It's not the fact that someone is rich that is the problem. If whatever we call “treasure” is leading to behavior that conflicts with larger social goals we need to question it.
The man who first approached Jesus to be the arbitrator in his family inheritance issue, ran up to Jesus while Jesus was speaking to a crowd. Well, that's just kind of rude, and kind of selfish, but Jesus uses the moment to speak to the crowd and to us about the deeper question the man had. The warning Jesus gave was about greed of any kind. About that longing we have that overtakes any concern we have about others. Listen to how many times the man in the parable says the word “I.”
Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger 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.'
Maybe Jesus would have preferred this:
“The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, 'This abundance must be the work of God because it wasn't me who made my crops so abundant this year. Thank you Lord, for this bounty.' Then he said, “I will do this: I will go to my neighbors who have empty barns, and there I will share all of my grain and my goods. And we will celebrate the goodness of God that will allow us to have ample goods laid up for many years; Together we will relax and look for opportunities to assure that all communities are able to eat, drink and be merry.”
The DRSV – Deb Revised Standard Version will be out soon.
This complete lack of awareness of anyone outside of himself, even of God, leads this rich man not into the delight of the abundance of God, but leads him to circle continually into himself. To make this scripture lesson be only about money eliminates the opportunity to understand that really this lesson is about trust.
The uncontrollable longing that leads to behaviors that conflict with social goals is a sign that we have difficulty trusting, not just God but the people and communities with whom we share our lives. That longing stems from a fear that if I don't do it, it won't get done. If I don't save, I won't have later. If I don't think of everything, anything bad will be my fault. If I don't save that person over there who needs saving, no one else will. I'm the only one that can – solve my problems, solve others problems, fix what's broken around me – that leaves out so many important things. It leaves out the surprise we enjoy when someone else has an idea, it leaves out the relief we feel when a difficulty becomes easier, it leaves out the biggest theme of our faith – trusting God.
Not to say that any of this is easy. Patricia Lull, a commentator I read, wrote that “The capacity to trust in God can deepen only as other matters lessen their grip in our lives.” (Patricia Lull, FW)
You will have read in AUGUST@Bethany that Session and the Board of Trustees will meet
in August to discuss the financial questions that are a part of the narrative Mission Study that the Presbytery needs. While they are specifically financial questions, they are at the heart of it, questions about trust, needs, mission, theology, our call as a congregation – not our call as the loudest voices, the one's who give the most money, the one's who have been here the longest. The community of Bethany as it is now and as we hope it to be in the future. Money conversations are never just about money.
The rich man toiled on the land, saved his abundance for himself, and was himself eating, drinking and living happily. The rich man did not include God or his community in his vision of his current circumstances or his vision of what to do next. For the rich man, his abundance was not an opportunity, it was a burden. He was storing up his treasures for himself instead of being rich toward God.
I invite us to reflect for a moment on two things. For what do you toil? What does it mean to be rich toward God -- am I already, what would it take?
This is a community question and an individual question. What are we working toward here at Bethany? In our individual lives, for what have we toiled? Do we celebrate the abundance of God, or are we entitled to an abundance because it was accomplished by of our own efforts?
While we may think that there is only one right answer – we celebrate the abundance of God, we never do anything on our own, “without God we are nothing.” But the fact is, it's not that simple. We should be proud of many things that we do and the strength it takes to be resilient, keep going, getting through trouble spots in our lives, that we have done on our own. Here on earth, in our human bodies, we know what being on our own feels like, and it's okay to celebrate the strengths that we have. Doing something on our own, does not mean being alone. That's a truth that we can trust.
Let's pray,