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“When is enough enough?”
Proverbs 11:24-31 / 1 John
3:11-18 / Luke 12:8-21
Pastor Thomas Hall
he librarians are worried about
us. They’ve been eyeing me checking out all the books in their library on
“sin:” I have this huge stack of books like, Whatever Became of Sin?,
The Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome, The Addiction of Sin, The Seven
Deadly Sins Made Easy. So they wonder if maybe I’m helping you all to sin
more skillfully. Well, it’s true that we are spending our Lenten season
exploring the “Seven Deadly Sins.” We’ve discovered that while sin in general
can wound our relationship with God and neighbor, we’ve also learned that all
sin is not equal.
Some sins are
so damaging, they spiral out and impact our lives and communities in much more
dangerous ways. Some sins have deep hooks that not only wound us, but they
imbed their hooks deep within our personality and bind us. So far, we’ve
discovered for instance, that pride paralyzes us, that envy not only wants the
grass that is greener on the other side, but wants to torch the greener grass if
it can’t have it. The deadly sin of anger kills 8,000 of us each year and puts
a million of us in wheelchairs. And sloth is not laziness, but a decision not
to love, not to get involved, but to play it self and mind our own business.
But that’s
only half the story. We’ve also looked at the saving grace of Jesus. Only
Jesus can truly save us from our sins.
So we come
this morning to the sacred cow of America: avarice. The Bible has much to say
about the “stuff” that drives us.
You may be
surprised that God has always intended for his people to have wealth! God has
always given the wealth of the earth to his people for their enjoyment. But
here is the catch: they in turn, are required never to forget who have them
that wealth.
Take
Deuteronomy for example. God says,
When you have eaten and had
all you want, when you have built fine houses to live in, when you have seen
your flocks and herds increase, your silver and gold abound and all your
possessions grow great, do not become proud of heart.
Do not forget your God who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery: who guided
you through this vast and dreadful wilderness, a land of fiery serpents . . .
who provided you water and fed you with manna . . . Beware of saying in your
heart, “My own strength and the might of my own hand won this power for me.
Remember the LORD your God: it was he who gave you this strength to gain
wealth. Be sure that if you forget the LORD your God, if you follow other gods,
if you serve them and bow down before them—I warn you this day—you will most
certainly perish.
So, throughout
the Old Testament, wealth and riches may be a sign of God’s blessing, but can
quickly cause God’s wrath. What is at stake is our faithfulness. Will we be
faithful to God in all of our abundance?
Let’s think
about the Gospel lesson this morning. Some Joe is moderately successful. Maybe
he finds a niche in the business food chain. Makes some real bucks over night.
That’s okay. Wealth isn’t a curse, it’s a blessing—depending on our
relationship to it. In the story here’s what happens. The new Fortune 500 guy
on the block makes a corporate decision: let’s expand! Let’s buy more real
estate and build, build, build! That’s okay, too. It’s good to grow one’s
business.
So what’s the
problem, then? Well, listen in as this rich guy talks to himself: “Self,
I’m proud of you. You did it! You’ve got enough stuff stashed away to do you
for a long time. Recline, dine, wine, shine!” So the guy wants to spend
the rest of his life poolside. But God interrupts the first week of his good
life to say, “You nitwit—at this very moment your goods are putting the screw on
your soul.”
The problem is
not wealth, not in growing your investments or in planning your retirement, but
what wealth can do to us when our possessions possess us.
Two clues
about this fat cat: first, he lacks a sense of legacy; that is, he has no
vision beyond the immediate. He never saw beyond this world. Second, this is
the only parable of Jesus that is so full of, “I” and “me” . . . “my” and
“mine.”
Listen in on
another conversation.
“What are you
going with your life?”
“Oh, I’m going
to go to college and really learn business.”
“And then?”
“Well, then
I’m going to set up a practice.”
“And then?”
“Oh well, then
I’ll make an excellent salary.”
“And then?”
“What’s with
the ‘and then’ stuff? Well, I suppose I’ll be able to take early retirement and
enjoy traveling, maybe; I’ll live on my money.”
“And then?”
“Well, I
suppose I’ll die someday.”
“And then?”
Someday, we
will be this rich person; and God’s going to ask us, “where did we go with your
life? What have you done with
Your time,
your
talent,
your skills,
your treasure?”
So Jesus ends
up his little story about the rich guy with some these words: “This very night
you must surrender your life; your soul is required of you!”
I now want to
make a special announcement for all of those who are not rich enough for this
story to apply to their lives. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says,
“For all things are yours,
everything belongs to you, Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world. Life and death, the
present and the future, all of this belongs to you. For you belong to Christ
and Christ to God.”
Paul says all
things are yours! That means real estate! Your property line runs 25,000
miles in every direction; the sun and moon and stars—are yours too.
and the laws of high tide and low
tide are yours too.
All of the
mountains
and valleys
and orchards
and forests
and vineyards
are yours.
All things are yours—life. All of its
births,
and senility are yours.
All of its nearly six billion
people and languages and dialects. All of its
cannibals
headhunters,
its dictators,
assassins,
terrorists,
and thieves are yours.
All of its presidents,
governments,
and illiterates.
All of its invalids, deaf, dumb, blind, lame are
yours. All of its preachers and its 1.9 billion Christians are yours.
All things are yours, even death. All of
its release from pain are yours. All of its safe lying down to sleep at night
and safe waking up in the morning are yours.
All of its angels and archangels
and the great
cloud of witnesses that surround you.
All the understanding of things
never understood,
all the wonder,
the love, the praise, the adoration are ours,
all the peace
that passes understanding is yours.
All things are yours, things present. All
the status quo is yours. All the tension between first and second and third
worlds is yours. All the Middle East situation is yours. All the tension in
Bosnia, Ireland, and Central Africa is yours.
All the racism is yours:
slums,
hard-core
unemployable are yours.
and beauty
are yours.
All the churches, hospitals, and libraries and
national parks are yours.
All things are yours, things to come.
All peace on earth
and good will among all human beings are yours.
All life and
liberty and the pursuit of happiness are yours.
All quietness and
confidence forever are yours.
In short, all things
are yours, for you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.
You see, you and I,
we are the rich guy in Jesus’ parable. We are very rich with God’s blessing.
And it is the power of the saving grace of Jesus to help us rewrite the
parable. The question what will your story tell? What are you going to do with
your wealth? Amen.
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