The Shepherd’s Voice

There Was A Rich Man

Readings for Sunday, August 1^st

Ecc 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23
Ps 49:1-12
Col 3:1-11
Lk 12:13-21

There was a rich man…..
In our gospel lesson today Jesus talks about a rich land owner who is fortunate to be blessed by abundant crops. As a farmer, you pray that God will send the rain at the right time. You pray that God will bring out the sun so the crops will grow and mature. You pray that God will bless the work so that the harvest is plentiful.

There is nothing wrong with this. The land owner seems to blessed, so much so that he asks himself, “What should I do?” That’s a logical question for any of us that is being blessed by good business, by customers coming to buy our products, we thank God for that kind of prosperity. It is good. The logical question was “What should I do?”

So far the rich man is performing well. There’s no indication that he is not honest, not hard working, not a good planner for the future and his own future security. It sounds like he is wise about preparing for the future he says, “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.”

This is good, may it be so for Good Shepherd. May God bless us with many visitors, with many people who God may be calling to be in this community of faith. We pray for visitors, we pray for people who wish to come, we pray that they will be blessed and then be a blessing to others. There is nothing wrong with God’s blessing of prosperity.

However, we need to take a closer look at our story to see what went so terribly wrong. When we look carefully at this story, in fact all three scripture readings today have similar elements, we see there are choices being made, some good, some not so good. There are three elements I want to deal with in regards to God’s call on our lives.

• Focus – What is the focus – not the Unholy Trinity of “me, myself, and I.”
• Failure – Jesus called this rich man a fool
• Faith – Stay focused not on failure, but on faith.

From Jesus’ perspective we need to stay focused on the right stuff, not failure, but faith.

Look at the text, starting in verse 17 – , “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18Then 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. 19And I will say to my soul,”

What’s obvious about these statements? The focus of the rich man is on himself. What do we call this kind of person, narcissistic, right? Narcissism is a personality disorder characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, a need for admiration, and extreme self-involvement.

I think at times all of us have a little streak of narcissism within us. In our country, our secular culture we are always being told to get a better car than the Jones’, we need a better house than the Jones’, wear better perfume and clothes than the Jones’ you deserve it. Everywhere you look there is a steady stream of advertising continually feeding our ego this ongoing message of dissatisfaction.
Someone asked John D. Rockefeller (of all people) “How much wealth does it take to satisfy a person?” He replied, “Just a little bit more.” The Romans had a proverb: “Money is like sea water; the more you drink, the thirstier you become.”

When our focus is not on God, not on the ideals and principles that Jesus taught while on earth we can get very sidetracked.

Henry Ford once asked an associate about his life goals. The man replied that his goal was to make a million dollars. A few days later Ford gave the man a pair of glasses made with two silver dollars for lenses. He told the man to put them on and asked what he could see. “Nothing,” the man said. “The dollars are in the way.” Ford told him that he wanted to teach him a lesson: If his only goal was dollars, he would miss a host of greater opportunities. He should invest himself in serving others, not simply in making money.

When focus is on money, when our main line of vision is on the Unholy Trinity of “me, myself, and I, we cannot be successful in God’s kingdom. It’s impossible.

Jesus calls this rich man a fool because he failed to focus on the right future. Jesus said, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you.” This man lost focus.

Acquiring wealth can be intoxicating. It’s a very subtle way for Satan to turn our heart away from God. Wealth is not wrong in itself, however, what we do with our wealth, whether we use it for good or for evil is a decision we make.

This rich man just built bigger barns, he was preparing for retirement, that’s ok isn’t it? We all need to prepare for retirement someday. The rich man said, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”

Jesus said, “You fool! this very night your life will be lost and you failed to store up for yourself treasures in heaven.”

There is an old, old story about a very wealthy man who died and went to heaven. An angel guided him on a tour of the celestial city. He came to a magnificent home. “Who lives there?” asked the wealthy man. “Oh,” the angel answered, “on earth he was your gardener.” The rich man got excited. If this was the way gardeners live, just think of the kind of mansion in which he would spend eternity.
They came to an even more magnificent abode. “Whose is this?” asked the rich man, almost overwhelmed. The angel answered, “She spent her life as a missionary.” The rich man was really getting excited now.
Finally they came to a tiny eight-by-eight shack with no windows and only a piece of cloth for the door. It was the poorest home the rich man had ever seen. “This is your home,” said the angel. The wealthy man was flabbergasted. “I don’t understand. The other homes were so beautiful. Why is my home so tiny and rundown?”
The angel smiled sadly. “I’m sorry,” he said, “We did all we could with what you sent us to work with.”

The rich man lost focus and failed because he had faith in the wrong thing.

In our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossian Church he said, 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Paul is passing along the same advice that Jesus gives us in our gospel lesson.

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Being able to do this is a matter of faith.

There was a rich man who lost focus, failed in his mission, he did not have faith in God’s promises.

Now maybe you are saying to yourself, well I’m not a rich man or a rich woman. Perhaps most of us think of ourselves in that vain, however, let’s try to put this in perspective just for a moment.

From the standpoint of material wealth, we Americans have difficulty realizing how rich we are. Robert Heilbroner, who has written dozens of books on the subject of the economy, suggest that we go through a little mental exercise that will help us count our blessings. Imagine doing the following, and you will see how daily life is for more than a billion people in the world. Some say half the world lives this way.

1. Take out all the furniture in your home except for one table and a couple of chairs. Use blanket and pads for beds.
2. Take away all of your clothing except for your oldest dress or suit, shirt or blouse. Leave only one pair of shoes.
3. Empty the pantry and the refrigerator except for a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a few potatoes, some onions, and a dish of dried beans.
4. Dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, and remove all the electrical wiring in your house.
5. Take away the house itself and move the family into the tool shed.
6. Place your “house” in a shantytown.
7. Cancel all subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, and book clubs. This is no great loss because now none of you can read anyway.
8. Leave only one radio for the whole shantytown.
9. Move the nearest hospital or clinic ten miles away and put a midwife in charge instead of a doctor.
10. Throw away your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, and insurance policies. Leave the family a cash hoard of ten dollars.
11. Give the head of the family a few acres to cultivate on which he can raise a few hundred dollars of cash crops, of which one third will go to the landlord and one tenth to the money lenders.
12. Lop off twenty-five or more years in your life expectancy.

By comparison how rich we are! And with our wealth comes responsibility. We should use it wisely, not be wasteful, and help others.

Paul again from Colossians addresses spiritual degradation and lack of focus. “8But now you must get rid of all such things — anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.”

Our God wants us to stay focused not on our failures, but faith. We need to be careful not to get caught up in secular ways of the world. So far, we’ve talked about God’s expectation, the law, this what God demands of us, stay focused.

Paul said it this way, “6On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. Jesus said it this way, “21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

How do we store up treasures in heaven? How do we become renewed in the image of the creator? Faith – Accept God’s grace. It is grace through faith that allows us to being renewed in the image of the creator. How, faith comes through hearing God’s Word proclaimed. (Rom 10:17)

God has called us through baptism, through listening to God’s Word, through prayer, through worship, through singing, through being sanctified, through receiving bread and wine at God’s table of grace.

The good thing is these things we do, the actions we take keep us connected to God and they also keep our focus on God. It’s not magic, what we believe in we make time for. Focus not on failure, but on faith.

People that go on mission trips to serve others, people who spend time visiting or helping others, people who are active in serving in the church usually stay focused on God and God sanctifies and preserves them in the one true faith. Pay it forward, don’t be a fool!

Amen

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