RICH TOWARDS GOD

A sermon by George R. Pasley

Colossians 3:1-11; Gospel Luke 12:13-21 

The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.

I’ve seen good ground, and the good crops it can sometimes produce.

Some seasons, in parts of the west, the fields produce in excess, the grain silos fill quickly, and the farmer cooperatives and the grain buyers need to store the surplus wheat in huge piles on the ground, until some of it can be sold and moved.

That’s the kind of problem the certain rich farmer had- it was a problem of abundance, like the problem you might have if you catch more salmon than you have room for in your freezer.

So the rich man tore down his barns, and built bigger ones.

That makes sense to me, but Jesus called him a fool.

Why?

His mistake was in not being rich towards God after the land had been good to him. But his FOOLISHNESS was in his vision. He was looking at what he had, and not at whose he was.

This is an ethical parable, and it demands that we ask, “Okay, what do we do?”

So I’ll tell you.

Don’t build an extra barn, don’t convert that old bedroom into a storage room, don’t put up shelves in the basement.

Instead, box all of your extra stuff up and bring it to the church rummage sale.

Well, that’s a very good idea, and I hope you’ll do it- but it misses the point. Being rich towards God is not about what you do, it’s about the way you look at life.

I’m going to sum up that way of looking at life in three words: Gratitude, Generosity and Trust.

We need to start with gratitude, and let’s start with the certain rich farmer. Notice that Jesus said the LAND produced a good crop.

Believe me, there are good farmers and not so good. I think I saw more than my share of not-so-good ones when I was shearing sheep. But Jesus said it was the LAND which produced a good crop, not the farmer.

Most good farmers would agree. In fact, one agronomist- that’s a scientist who specializes in what the soil will produce- said that the universe supplies 95% of all the energies required to produce a bumper crop of wheat. The farmer supplies on 5 %.

Even at our best, we humans are only responsible for small portion of our success. I won’t mention that most of the time we are not at our best!

Gratitude means looking at your life and seeing what God has done for you, whatever it is. But it means more.

Gratitude means looking at your life and knowing God is not through yet. But it means more.

Gratitude will express itself in joy. Sometimes the joy will be spontaneous, because you cannot help yourself. But sometimes it will be deliberate, because you don’t feel like it but you know that gratitude expects it.

But gratitude will lead to something else, because gratitude recognizes that the source of life’s goodness is from outside ourselves.

That something else is generosity.

Three weeks ago we read about a stranger who was generous towards a man he found lying beside the road. Jesus told that story, and followed with the instruction to “Do likewise.”

Two weeks ago we read about a woman, Martha, distracted and losing focus but the story began with this description of Martha: “she opened her home up to them.”

Last week we read about Hosea, and how his marriage to an unfaithful woman was a metaphor for God’s relationship to us: no matter the depth of our sin, God’s love exceeds it.

Those are examples of generosity.

My cousin’s husband, Jim, is a generous man. Anytime someone compliments him on his tie, he takes it off on the spot and gives it to them. Generosity appreciates the gift of compliment, and returns it with something that will be enjoyed.

I know of a man back in Kansas. His wife left him. I don’t know why she left him, and maybe she had good reason. But he’s a farmer and he works hard and he has a family to feed.

So once, at an evening social, I saw an act of generosity. Another farm wife, Melinda, prepared a large box of food ready to eat, and sent it home with the man, no questions asked.

Guess what? The man was grateful, deeply so. Gratitude gave birth to generosity, which was born again as gratitude.

Once, on the city bus, I saw a poor woman fumbling in her pockets trying to find her last dollar bill, and before she could find it the man behind her- a man I knew as homeless- reached around her and handed fare for her to the driver.

It was only a dollar, not much these days, not even for a homeless man. But it was generous because it was more than a dollar- it was thoughtfulness and compassion and empathy.

There’s not a one of us here who would have to think hard to find three examples of generosity that we witnessed in the last week.

Generosity is Emma staying after church to gather up bulletins and other scraps of paper.

Generosity is Paul coming early to church to mop the floor.

Generosity is Chandra and Dawn conspiring across several thousand miles of separation to sing song for God this week.

We know what it is- each small act of generosity is a tiny reflection of the generosity of Jesus, who dies for us and raises us up with him, giving us new life. 

The rich farmer in the parable had stored up a huge surplus of grain, with every intention of spending it on himself. His goal was to eat, drink and be merry. He gave no thought to anybody else.

There was an injustice in Jesus’ time. The rich were becoming richer, the poor were becoming poorer, and a lot of it had to do with land and wheat.

People who heard the story knew people who had sold their land to pay their bills, and they new rich landowners who were buying up land, raising more wheat, and building bigger barns. The land was a gift from God, and they knew people who were losing that gift.

The man who interrupted Jesus asked for justice- for help in getting his brother to do what was right. One scholar points out that Jesus NEVER interfered in personal squabbles, and he didn’t. But in this story that he told in response, he seems to say: do more than what is right. Be generous.

But being rich towards God goes beyond gratitude and even generosity. What God really wants is something that’s harder to give- TRUST.

Trust is hard.

Do you trust God to fill your life with joy even if it’s not filled with what you most desire?

Do you trust God with the future of the church?

Do you trust God to wipe away your tears SOME DAY, even though they hurt so much RIGHT NOW?

Do you trust God when none of the standard answers seem to apply?

Those are questions I find myself asking myself almost every week, and almost every time my answers come up short, because trust is hard- especially if you’ve cultivated a habit of pessimism.

But I’m not going to be too hard on myself, and neither should you.

The bible says Abraham trusted God, and it was credited to him as righteousness BUT there were plenty of times when trust was too hard and Abraham took another path.

The bible says Elijah was God’s friend, and that he rode off into heaven on a chariot. BUT there was one time out on that mountain, before the earthquake wind and fire when Elijah was pretty darned certain that God had abandoned him.

In fact, the bible quotes Jesus as asking God, “Why have you forsaken me?”

Trust IS hard, and maybe that’s why God values it so much.

But here’s what else it is: it’s a decision, and it’s a practice.

Over and over, we decide to trust even though it’s hard.

And every time we do, we’re being rich towards God.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.