Hosea
11:1-11
Colossians
3:1-11
Luke
12:13-21
A month ago today, we, Americans celebrated Independence
Day. No doubt we recalled the key words
of the Declaration of Independence: All people are created equal and have
certain inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
However, a closer look at the American cultural landscape 237 years after the
Founders framed those words, reveals to us the pursuit of
"happiness" has somehow morphed into the pursuit of decadence. If
happiness is about well-being and contentment, decadent living is about
the relentless pursuit of pleasure as the only intrinsic good in life. If
happiness is about having enough, decadent living is about never having enough.[i]
The late Henri Nouwen said, “Wealth takes away the sharp
edges of our moral sensitivities and allows a comfortable confusion about sin
and virtue”. The relentless pursuit of
pleasure and self-interest is evident today more than ever. Our recent economic crisis was the result of
hedonistic financial practices by lenders AND borrowers alike that used debt to
pursue personal pleasure. Our culture’s
obsessive pursuit of sex has contributed to a higher divorce rate, more broken
families and the objectification of men and women as objects rather than as
humans made in God’s image. We have an
obesity rate covering 35% of the population that continues to rise because of our
insatiable appetites. I read this rate
is expected to climb to around 44% by the year 2030. The dulled edges of our moral sensitivities have
made it difficult for us to distinguish what we want from what we need. The
pursuit of pleasure is leaving us broke, depressed, unfulfilled, numb and
broken. When is enough, enough?
There are few areas in the lives of modern day
Christians where help is needed more than in the issues dealing with material
possessions. Many of us want help in
discerning how we earn, invest and spend our money generously and
faithfully.
We find ourselves asking: how are we as Christians to deny the
temptations of materialism in our lives while living in a very, very material
world? How are we to live in the world
without being of the world? And what
does a life like this look like?
I.
The rich fool is not a
fool simply because he is rich in material wealth. He’s a fool because of his attitude toward
wealth, possessions and material things.
His problem is the misguided illusion that all his prosperity has
secured his future. The rich fool comes
up short for two reasons: he never saw beyond himself and he never saw beyond
this world.
He was aggressively
self-centered; there was nobody else he cared about, thought about, or talked
about. He lives completely for himself,
he talks to himself, he plans for himself, and he congratulates himself. He wants bigger storage barns for his own
ease and not for the community’s security.
He never thought to give any of his wealth away. It was all about him! Instead of denying himself in any way, he
aggressively affirmed himself; instead of finding his happiness in giving, he
tried to conserve it by keeping.
There is an old Roman
proverb that says, “Money is like sea-water; the more a person drinks it, the thirstier
they became”. When we do not deny and
limit our desires, this is the dangerous road we ride. This is the opposite of the life we are
called to live as Christ’s disciples.
Since he was unable to
see what existed beyond this world, the rich fool lived for today and for the
hopes and dreams of the human world. His
“investments” were made in treasures stored up on earth rather than in
treasures stored up in heaven. His focus
was on his time on earth. His hoarding
smacks of a person only trusting his own skill to supply his need. By grounding his life in his material
success, he makes an idol of himself. He
doesn’t need God. He’s turned away from
the true source of his being and integrity. He becomes disoriented, lost and it leads to
his demise.
II.
The great temptation we
face daily in our lives is idolatry. Jesus’
parable of the Rich Fool implies that anything that replaces God as a person’s
ultimate concern in life thrusts that individual into idolatry. Let’s not kid ourselves money has certainly
become a god we worship in our modern culture.
Seeking to be faithful stewards nonetheless helps us overcome the
temptation to become possessed by material possessions. Money is a god that does not satisfy.
Let’s look at it this
way: saving for future material needs is one component of proper stewardship of
God’s gifts to us. It must be balanced
with the purpose of giving glory to God and to care for one’s neighbor, to
provide for the poor and the marginalized, for those without access to the
world’s wealth or even to basic needs to survival. The rich fool has forgotten both the God who
caused the healthy annual crops to grow and the neighbor without access to that
bounty. What the man fails to realize is
that the "harvest" he enjoys doesn't come from his own efforts. Only
God makes the crops grow! The man is so focused on his own greed that he can't
see that God is the one who blessed him in the first place.
Anyone who has grown up here in Kilgore and/or in this
church has at one time or another heard the name Lou Della Crim. Mrs. Crim was a humble woman who attended our
church for many years. She never missed
a Sunday. From what I’ve read, on
December 27, 1931, Mrs. Crim was in worship when someone from her farm came
running into the sanctuary to tell her that oil was discovered on her property
and she should come home at once. She
didn’t go anywhere. She remained in
worship for the rest of the morning because she knew what was important in her life. The oil could wait! Her time with God was far more important,
meaningful and powerful. The oil could
wait! Her moral compass pointed true north
adhering to the words of Jesus, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed:
for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” (v.15) She was rich toward God and free to live in
the goodness of God.
III.
Mrs. Lou Della Crim and
so many others like her knew that the new life we accept to be a Christian is
not merely a matter of putting away vices and picking up virtues. Rather in Christ, we come to live life
differently. This is a renewal of the
whole self, not just the slight improvement of our parts. The author of Colossians writes about the
freedom of the baptized life. The
passage points us beyond the “things that are on earth” to “things that are
above”. It is in this spiritual freedom
that we are able to reject what harms us, surrender what possesses us and
relinquish what we idolize and be clothed with a new self, renewed in the image
of the Creator of the universe.
If there's any place
that the church can begin to be countercultural, it's here in the realm of
kingdom economics. It's clear, however, that we have to reconsider what it
means to be a church that pleases God. It's interesting that the recent
financial crisis happened in a country where, according to a poll by the Pew
Forum, 92 percent of Americans believe in God or a higher power. And yet, it
was in this country of God-fearers that self-focused self-indulgence got the
ball rolling on a worldwide economic meltdown. People love to claim that we are
a "Christian nation," but the reality is that while we might
cognitively believe in God, our financial practices don't reflect that belief.
We consume more and more of the world's resources and give less and less of our
abundance to people and issues that matter to God. Instead of the biblical
standard of tithing, 10 percent of income, the percentage of income that people
in U.S. churches give is 2.56 percent on average. If we're going to change the
world, then we need to be the first ones to open up the barns!
How can our churches begin to challenge the decadence of
our communities? Can we stop building bigger houses and worship
"barns" and instead offer the bounty of God's blessing on us to our
hurting neighbors? Are there ways that we can provide opportunities for people
to learn how to use their money to please God and, as a result, to live happier
lives themselves? I want to challenge the prevailing assumptions of our culture
and invite every one of us into new ways of thinking and being that reflect
God's kingdom economics.
It's clear that the pursuit of pleasure doesn't lead to
happiness. The old adage, "He who
dies with the most toys, wins," is a great lie. The rich fool found out that, in the end, you
can’t take it with you.
[i] Bob Kaylor, Senior Writer @ www.homileticsonline.com, and Senior Minister of the Park City United Methodist Church in Park City, Utah.
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