Year C
Luke 12:13-21
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Hearts Set On the Kingdom of God
Idolatry in the scriptures is giving something or someone other than God the highest priority in our lives. This can be our job, our house, our family, our stuff or our money and yet the scriptures tell us that through Christ we are freed from the bondage to whatever enslaves us. Thanks be to God divine faithfulness is not worked out on our own because we would all fail. God’s Spirit empowers us to resist because God still loves us. The prophet Hosea today reminds us that God’s love is everlasting despite our turning away from God to idols. God had delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt and given them a new home in Canaan, and still they descended deeper and deeper into idolatry. In spite of their giving other things than God a higher priority in their lives and refusing to repent, God could not stop loving God’s people.
Paul in his letter to the Colossians warns the people of Colossae that they were drifting away from the true gospel. Like the Israelites in the time of Hosea, they were risking their souls by listening to false teachers who were leading them astray. Paul warned his readers that they must keep their focus, set their minds on the things above rather than the earthly things that can easily become their idols. To remain faithful to the gospel. Jesus reminds us in his Parable of the Rich Fool today that our idols often come in the form of earthly things. We may accumulate a great deal of this world’s goods but they will do us little good when one day God says, You fool! This very night your life is being demanded from you. To who will get what you have prepared for yourself!” The answer was clear. The rich man had put his trust in things and was not rich toward God.
It is been said that 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 out of two silver dollars. 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, to teach him a lesson that if his only goal was dollars, he would miss a whole host of greater opportunities. He should invest himself in serving others, not simply in making money and yet, if we are truthful, doesn’t this come with the territory of capitalism, for we are continually encouraged to want more, to get what’s bigger, to buy what’s better, new and improved.
It comes with the territory of America, for we have “the pursuit of happiness” woven into our very fabric. It comes with the territory of being sinful human beings, for our selfishness naturally drives us to want more and better. We instinctively want more and better for ourselves and not necessarily for anyone else. So ambition comes with the territory and because ambition comes with the territory for most of us, this teaching today from Jesus is a challenge for us, for it challenges us self-centered, selfish individuals, to strive for the highest priority which should be trust in God, to be rich toward God. We are to remember that good things come from God and not from ourselves. To live in Christ is to live a life of thanksgiving, gratitude, and caring for others.
The background for the gospel text today is an incident that occurred in Galilee as Jesus was teaching to a large crowd. A young man called out from the crowd and said: “Rabbi, tell my brother to divide the inheritance of our father with me.” Now, Jewish law clearly prescribed that at the death of a father, the elder son received 2/3 of the inheritance, and the young son received 1/3. This is obviously a younger son who is complaining about the unfairness of it all. Nothing will divide siblings, families, more than dividing up an estate, you have to be determined led by love to not let this happen. Jesus refused to get involved in this petty family squabble. He was however concerned with the larger implications of being preoccupied with the things, the idols of this world. He said, “Beware of greed, for life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
He then illustrated this point by telling a parable or story. Stories invite us to become participants in the lesson, and in this case, we see a wise landowner respond to an abundant harvest with plans to preserve that harvest and enjoy the fruits of his labor. We think, what is wrong with that? There is nothing wrong with working for a living and managing wealth responsibly. Yet, the issue here is that this man could think of nothing else, he is plunged into the trap of idolatry, an idolatry that is idolized by the culture. He showed no gratitude for his good fortune and he did not think of using it in any way but for himself. The most important thing in his life was having a barn full of wealth. Jesus’ parable demonstrates the uselessness of that kind of a life.
This uselessness or futility of materialism is one of the most prominent themes in Jesus’ teachings because it’s not hard to see how we invest ourselves in the temporal things of this world instead of being rich toward God. In the passage following today’s text Jesus tells his disciples “Seek first God’s kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” The point is that “God has given us something better to do with our lives than just to accumulate material wealth.” If we seek that purpose and live for it, our lives will be genuinely enriched. It is a matter of deciding what we will invest our lives in, and what we will commit them to. Then it is a matter of asking: what are the things most important to God?
It will not be hard for us to figure this out if we take the teachings of Jesus seriously. We are to invest our lives in loving God through Jesus and loving neighbor. It’s not always about us. There is a wider perspective, and a more divine peace that should motivate us as God’s people. As Paul says, seek “the things that are above, not things that are on earth.” Having been baptized in Christ it is time to put away the things of death, including those actions accepted by the world as normal. Jesus’ message is “Live now what matters forever.” Live on earth what’s happening in heaven” because at any moment our lives can be cut short. We are to cloth ourselves with the new self and “set our heart on God’s kingdom and all these other things will be given us as well.”