Year C
Luke 12:13-21
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
We Can Sing Praises
In 2010, following the traumatic, devastating earthquake in Haiti, many of the people who went to help the residents were stunned by what they saw. These people had lost everything. Their city lay in rubble. Many of them had lost their families. And many had lost limbs to the crush of rock. Yet volunteers did not see people who were depressed and angry. Rather, over and over again they heard joyful singing. The people where singing praises to God in thanks for being saved. They were grateful God had spared them and they were alive. The volunteers could not understand. Having lost everything, how could they sing? They sang because they knew what is important—not big houses or the abundance of things. They knew they were rich in God’s love and grace. They gave “thanks to the Lord because he is good, because his faithful love lasts forever.”
I saw this same dynamic every time I traveled to the Dominican Republic to participate in building the Episcopal Church there. There were, and I’m sure still are, people who live on several dollars a week and they more thankful and happy than many people I knew here in the states. I suspect God must get very frustrated with our inability to be thankful for all that God does for us. There is a story that I remember from Sunday school. A person was being shown around God’s workshop. In one large room angels were bustling about, receiving basket after basket and stacking them everywhere. “This,” the tour guide explained, “is where prayer requests are received.” They then continue down the long hallway, finally coming to a small, quiet room and in the room sat one angel with a small box on the desk. “And this room, the tour guide explained, is where we receive prayers of thanksgiving.” We do have a tendency to be much more eager to ask God for help than we are to say thank you.
The texts today offer us a contrast in the quality of life between those who go their own way and those who live mindful of the goodness of God. One of the saddest things in life, I believe, is the inability to appreciate God’s goodness. Those who are wise are able to discern the ways God has been faithful. To see the goodness of God requires the habit of remembering the ways God continues to bless God’s people. In Hosea, God recalls the punishment that the people have endured in the past in the destruction of Admah and Zeboiim and realizes that, in spite of Israel’s disobedience, God cannot destroy again. Using wonderful images, God reminds them and us, that God is our loving, long-suffering, faithful parent.
Paul places before us contrasting images, old and new, earthly and heavenly, to help us understand what it means to be raised with Christ. We are challenged to put aside the way we were and live into our new being. Can we leave behind our anger and greed? Greed continues to be the theme in the Gospel which causes most of us to wince a bit. This is the gospel passage that hurts especially here in America. At the center of this parable is a person who is more concerned with storing excess riches than with striving for the things of God’s kingdom. This parable paints a vivid image of the dangers of wealth for its own sake. Those who have possessions in abundance risk the sin of greed: “enough” is never enough, “more is only to be horded, and “I, me, and mine” matter more than anyone else even God. This focus on self, will keep us from being “rich toward God” and rich toward others.
Our natural tendency toward greed stands in striking contrast to God’s goodness and care for rich and poor alike, as well as what appropriate stewardship of our possessions should look like. The farmer stands as a negative example for the followers of Jesus: if you want to know how not to live as a disciple, just be like this farmer. Yet, those of us hearing this story may think, what’s so wrong with storing away the overrun of crop? Aren’t we supposed to save for a rainy day and squirrel away funds for retirement? And doesn’t this man deserve to “eat, drink, and be merry” in celebration of his extreme good fortune?
To be sure, there is nothing wrong with celebrating good fortune and saving for the future is proper stewardship. However, if our storing is not balanced with giving thanks to God and caring for the poor and marginalized, of which we note that the man in the parable does not demonstrate and who has become so focused on self, he has forgotten both the God who caused the earth’s bounty and the neighbor who does not have access to that bounty. Good stewardship requires both returning to God and trusting in God’s goodness by showing care for our neighbor.
Money matters often reveal the true heart of a person, and a church, because money is always about more than money. Our spending, saving, and general attitude toward material wealth are all tied up with emotions and memories. I’ve always tried to save and I believe it goes back to my childhood of watching my mother struggle to provide for our family. Jesus in this text today is letting us know in the starkest terms that our capacity to trust in God will deepen only as other matters lessen their hold in our lives which is not easy for us to do. It is something we have to work at every day. As Paul reminds us, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” By setting our minds on the things of God, through studying scripture, prayer and service we become rich toward God and we learn we can sing praises in whatever life throws at us because “Christ is all and in all”.
When we are not setting our minds on the things of God, we are left to drift in ways that can lead us away from God and God’s purpose for us. Today, we are being asked to reflect carefully about what we want and why we want it; not only in our personal lives but in the life of church. Are our desires and standards for what is enough driven by a determination to store up treasures of our own pleasure or by our understanding of God’s goodness and blessings, and our true purpose in life? Instead of banking on more and larger storage barns, God invites all into the eternal life of God’s love and mercy. To live in Christ is to live a life of thanksgiving and gratitude, knowing that life and possessions are a gift of God to help us grow in faith and service to Christ.