Rich Toward God

Luke 12:13–21 tells of a man who tears down his barns to build bigger ones—only to discover that life is more than what we store. In this sermon, we trade isolation for community, fear for connection, and hear Jesus’ call to be ‘rich toward God’ by sharing what we have and building longer tables.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

You're listening to The Word on Baker Street, a podcast from Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Bakersfield, California. Each week we share the good news of God's love through the sermons from our Sunday worship. Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome here.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

The Holy Gospel according to Luke.

unknown 0:19

Glory to you, O Lord.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me. But he said to him, Friend, who set me to be judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, Take care, be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. And then he told them this parable. And he thought to himself, What should I do? For I have no place to store my crops. And then he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and I will build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, You fool. This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will those be? And so it is with those who store up treasures for themselves, but are not rich toward God. The gospel of the Lord. Let us pray. Gracious God, may these words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you on this day. Amen. For those of you that don't know, I live in Tehachepi. And I mentioned this because you probably wouldn't believe this story if you thought that it happened here in Bakersfield. So last Sunday, when I was done with everything here at church, etc., I went to Costco and I stopped up on lots of different food items, especially for the family, you know, yogurt and lunch meat and cereals and and uh just all the stuff my I've got two teenage boys and they're hungry. So, but it's all kind of the normal stuff. And I get home and and I I put everything in our garage. And our garage is, it's not, we don't keep our cars in there. It's a it's kind of a pantry workshop uh storage space for us. Well, that night my dogs start just losing their minds. They're just barking and barking, just crazy barking, and I was so tired I did not get up. And actually, I'm not sure what I would have done had I gotten up because a bear had ripped off the garage door and was just tearing up the garage for food, right? And uh I mean he didn't just get all of the food out of the refrigerator, went through the refrigerator and dug everything out and and uh things off the shelves, and in case you're wondering, bears really love lunch meat and yogurt. High fiber cereal, not so much. So this last week when I read the scripture, I just I laughed out loud at the line uh and who and the things you have prepared, whose will those be? And I thought, the bears. It will all go to the bears. And so it is with those who store up treasures. And the thing is about this parable is that I know it's it's about me. I seriously, if you come into my office, you would think that I collect those pop figure things, or like these boxes with pop culture things in them. I mean, there's probably 200 in my office. I don't collect them. I don't, but they still have this kind of way of finding me. And if you're able to look past all of those, though, you will see that I am actually waist deep in treasures that I know will not save me. But it also doesn't stop me from desiring more. Like, you know, I've got three guitars on the wall and three more at home, and I just told Gina, I want a Gibson and a Martin. The thing is, we live in a culture that sees nothing wrong with this. In fact, our culture depends on it. And Jesus has a bit to say about that today. In this lesson, that this huge crowd has gathered, and someone asked, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. And in those days, it actually was common for a teacher of the law or a rabbi to settle inheritance disputes among family members. But but Jesus, he's like, he's not gonna have any of this. He basically tells a guy that he's greedy and sends him on his way. But first, he tells him this story about treasure. There's this guy, a farmer, who is accumulating a great deal of wealth for himself. And I do think it's important to recognize here that he's not portrayed as a bad guy. Uh, he didn't get his abundant crops from taking advantage of somebody else. And he's he's not really even being all that greedy. He's he's just saving up for the future. And he actually seems to be somewhat surprised at his good fortune. And he's he's making, I mean, really, what looks like some good, reasonable plans to uh reap this abundant harvest and make sure that his future is stable. But so what's wrong here? Why would the punchline of this story be, you fool? So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God. To be clear, I have heard way too many sermons on this text that try to guilt people into giving over their savings to the church. I've been guilted into it myself. It is a sad, unfortunate manipulation of Christ's words. And I hope that in the future, if you ever hear something like that, you will recognize it for what it is: greed. So I think it's still, I think it's easy to think that this parable is simply about money. But considering that inheritance squabble that was dividing the family, I think it goes a lot deeper. To the very heart of what Jesus' message is about love and community. I mean, notice the farmer's consistent focus throughout the conversation that he has with himself. What should I do? For I have no place to store my crops. I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and I will store my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul. There is this relentless use of the first person pronouns, I and my, and there is absolutely no thought of using the abundance to help others. No expression of gratitude for his good fortune, either to God or to those who may have helped with his crop, no recognition of anything but himself. He's having this conversation to himself about himself and only himself. There's no evidence that there is anyone else in his life, anyone else he should care about, anyone else who might have contributed to this abundant harvest, or anyone else who could benefit from the harvest. Instead, when he's confronted with this huge blessing, all he can think about is what he should do to make sure that he gets the most of it so that he can live comfortably into his old age. The farmer clearly believes that he doesn't need anybody. He depends on no one. He believes he can go it alone. And that's foolish. That's what's foolish here. You fool, he has he has separated himself from everybody, including God, and while he can dream of a life that is far off into the future, there are no guarantees. And that's something we know all too well. You know, there's a lot of stories in the Bible that about people that are separated from community, especially people who are separated because of some kind of illness that made them unfit to be a member of society. And in those stories, Jesus heals them and then restores them both to health and to community. But the guy in our story today, this guy who built all these barns, brought his separation and isolation onto himself, and he isn't asking for anything different. You know, and it all makes me wonder then about that closing line. So it will be with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God. And what does being rich toward God look like? And can we be rich towards God without also first being rich towards others? And Martin Luther said, God needs neither our good works nor our wealth, but our neighbor does. Now, at its core, this parable is about community, the community where we we find and give sustenance, the community where we find and give comfort and help, a community where we experience life with God. And we need this message. And not merely we as a church, as a congregation, but we as a nation and as a world. Because there are a lot of messages out there right now about how we should not trust one another. Messages about how the world is increasingly dangerous and they and them are causing all of the trouble. Messages about how we should be increasingly afraid. The fear is palatable. And that kind of fear will not lead us forward, it won't lead us to God. The words, fear not, do not be afraid. You don't worry. These words are all over the Bible. More than 365 times you can you can get a fear not for every day of the year. And it's not simply to inspire some kind of heroic moment of courage, but to make it easier for us to turn to one another with our fears, easier for us to turn to one another with our hopes and our dreams, and easier for us to turn to one another with our needs so that we can form community. Time and again, the Bible warns us against fear because it's hard to care for your neighbor and create community when we're afraid. And don't get me wrong, community is not easy. It means putting up with people that we disagree with and people who challenge our opinions and push our buttons and talk too much or not enough and show up late and forget birthdays and vote differently than us and hold grudges and say the wrong thing at the wrong time and stir up all the stuff that we thought we had already healed from. I mean, it opens opening our lives to people who have disappointed us. It means asking for forgiveness and offering it, even when it's hard. It means risking vulnerability and knowing full well that we might get hurt again. Yeah, that's exactly what God wants for us. And not this life of safety behind barn doors, but a life of relationship, a life of community. And I think that the farmer in our story, who was rich in possessions, but absolutely dirt poor in relationships, never got that message. And that's the real heartbreak of this story. It's not the barns, not the surplus, not even the death. It's when the harvest came in and the good thing happened, there was no one to share it with. No laughter around the table, no neighbors stopping by to say thank you, no community gathering to bless the hands that sowed and reaped. Just one man talking to himself about himself until the only voice left was God's. We don't need bigger barns. We need longer tables. We don't need to store up more stuff. We need to pour out more love. Because that's what makes us rich toward God. What we share. It's about the depth of our compassion. It's not about how many plans we've made for someday. It's about how we show up for people today. Barbara Brown Taylor put it this way: if you have to be greedy, then be greedy for love. Be greedy for justice and wisdom and significance. That way, when it comes to show God what is in your treasure chest, there won't be any doubt in your minds that you are rich, rich, rich. That's the kind of richness we are called to. A richness of connection, a richness of mercy, a richness of community. And it's why we show up for one another when the diagnosis comes in. Or why we bring cookies and casseroles and share grief together. It's why we forgive and try again and build something more lasting than barns. Our garage doors. We build belonging. And as we build belonging, we see God. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Thanks for listening to the Word on Baker Street. If this message has spoken to you, share it with a friend. More sermons and reflections can be found at Emmanuel Bakersfield.org. May God's grace and peace be with you today and always.