Fool for the Money
Luke 12:13-21
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 a 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.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then 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. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, 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 they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’
There once was a woman who lived a spiteful life. She was just plain mean—a woman who had little care for anyone but herself. All her life she treated people spitefully. Those she saw beneath her she denigrated and treated shamefully. Those whom she believed to be above her she criticized and treated disdainfully, thinking that they were just snobs. And then she died.
She found herself in a large room without walls, and at the center was a man sitting at a desk. It was St. Peter. As she approached him, he welcomed her, pulled out a scroll, which was the scroll of her life, and read. As he read, he kept muttering: “Tsk, tsk. Oh my! Hmmmm. You really weren’t a very nice person, were you? Did you ever do anything caring for anyone in your whole life?” The woman thought for a while and said, “I gave a carrot to a beggar once.”
St. Peter said, “Well, then, the power of love in that small carrot will carry you to heaven.” Out of his pocket he pulled a golden carrot and gave it to her. As she held it in her hand, it began to float heavenward. Grasping the carrot, it slowly lifted her off the ground. Amazed by the power of the carrot, her eyes were transfixed on it as it lifted her. A man walking by saw her rising to heaven, and he grabbed the hem of her skirt. Soon, he was being lifted to heaven. Then another man grabbed the first man’s foot, and he too was rising. Soon, twenty people were rising to heaven on the power of the love in that one carrot.
After a while, the woman looked down and saw all the people rising to heaven with her. Brushing the first man’s hand off her hem, she yelled, “Off! All of you, off! This is my carrot!” Obsessed with getting rid of all the people, she let go of the carrot. And all came crashing down to earth. It’s amazing what one act of love can do. It’s equally amazing what a life of selfishness and greed can do.
So, when you die, how will you be judged by God, St. Peter, the angels, or whomever else is there to judge? When we die, what do you think matters most to God about our lives? Do you think that God cares most that we have a good heart? If your answer is yes, then what tangible evidence in our lives would show that our heart was good? What could we point to as evidence of our good heart that God would say, “Yes, you have been a good and faithful servant?” You see, it’s not enough just to have a good heart. We also have to have good actions.
Do you think that God cares most that we believed in God? Listening to people who’ve walked away from the church, I hear them say, “I expect to go to heaven. I believe in God.” Do you think that when we come face to face with God, and God asks, “What did you do with your life?” that our saying, “Well, I believed in you” is sufficient? To me that’s like our asking our son or daughter, “Were you good in school today,” and she or he replies, “Well, I believe in you.” Is that the kind of response God wants?
Do you think that God cares most about us doing good deeds? What if we did good deeds for the wrong reasons? What if we cared about others, but did so only so that when we could get to heaven when we die? Is God content with that?
Substitute yourself for the rich fool. How will God judge you?
Our passage for today is so central to what Jesus taught, yet it’s a lesson that modern Americans have a hard time with. We have a hard time with any teachings that seems to mix money with spirituality. We resist it, wanting to be spiritual while avoiding soiling our spirituality with crass talk about money. The problem is that Jesus talks about money a lot, and especially about what the relationship between money and faith is.
For instance, if you were going to guess how much of Jesus’ teachings deal with money and what we do with it, what would your guess be? Would it surprise you to know that he spends almost 40% of his time teaching about money? Let me share with you a couple of Jesus’ critical teachings. He says, “He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” The whole idea of his teaching here is stated so succinctly by one of the phrases of our capital campaign: not equal gifts, but equal sacrifices. Jesus is saying that it’s not so important how much we give, but how much we are willing to sacrifice for God.
Jesus also says in his Sermon on the Mount, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He is very clearly saying that what we spend our money on, and what we give our money to, demonstrates the extent to which our heart is in Christ.
I always think about these passages whenever I hear people say that we are a Christian nation. If we are, I’m not sure we’re all that Christian. Why? Because I’m not sure how well our Capitalist culture fits with Jesus’ teachings. Now, before you sic Alan Greenspan and Dick Cheney on me for being un-American, hear me out.
I wanted to look at the connection between Capitalism and Christianity, so my first question was, what are the pillars of Capitalism? Well, I began my inquiry by looking the term “Capitalism” up on one of my favorite websites, Wikipedia. After reading fifteen pages of material on Capitalism, I distilled it down to this definition: Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of wealth, are privately owned for the purpose of generating profits through free trade, which allows for the accumulation of wealth and security.
So, what’s wrong with this idea? Nothing, if you only look at the positive side. The positive side is that capitalism allows for the production of so much that has benefitted all of humanity. It is a system that allows for great creativity, ingenuity, and the creation of things that make human life wonderful. Through it we get knowledge, technology, healthier food, greater medicine, and so much more that I, personally, love… like iPods. Whatever flaws Capitalism has, there is no other economic system that comes close to what Capitalism offers.
So, what’s wrong with it? A lot, if you look at Capitalism’s negatives. Unfortunately, Capitalism is also a system that gives rise to monumental selfishness, self-indulgence, greed, indifference toward the poor, and becoming like the woman in our story, who cared more about herself than about anyone else. I’m not here to lambast Capitalism so much as I want to make the point that as Christians we are called to more than Capitalism. I believe we can be Capitalistic Christians, but only if we balance our Capitalism with the pillars of Christianity. What are they? I believe that there are many, many pillars, but among them are faith, hope, love, kindness, generosity, and contentment. And I believe that it is the last one that leads to all the others. Let me finish with a story that captures this idea.
There was a man who spent his life complaining to God, and begging God for everything. Finally, God got sick of the man and told him, “Okay, I’ve had enough. I’m going to give you three wishes. After that, no more!” “Really?” the man replied. “I can get anything I want?” “Absolutely, but after that no more,” said God.
The man thought long and hard, and finally said to God, “Well, I’m embarrassed to admit this, but my wife has gotten to be a bit of an old hag. I mean, she nags me all the time and isn’t quite the looker she used to be. Do you think you can get rid of my wife?” God said, “No problem – wife’s gone.” With that, she died. The man felt a bit guilty for feeling so relieved at the death of his wife, but then he thought about how he could now find a much younger wife.
Over the next few days at the funeral home and the funeral, the man began to have second thoughts. So many people came up to him and extolled virtues of his dead wife that he began to realize what a good woman she was after all. “She did take care of me,” he said. “In fact, I miss her terribly.” He went back to God and said, “God, I hate to ask you this, but could I have my wife back again? She really wasn’t so bad after all.” “Absolutely,” God said. “Wish number two fulfilled. Only one more.”
The man didn’t know what to ask for his final wish. He consulted some friends. One said to him, “Ask for wealth. With money, you can do anything.” “What good is money without immortality,” said another. “Ask for immortality.” “What good is immortality without health,” said another. “Ask for good health.”
The man couldn’t decide. One year, two years, five years, ten years passed. Finally, God said to him, “Aren’t you ever going to ask for your final wish?” The man said, “God, I don’t know what to ask for. Could you tell me what to ask for?” God laughed and said, “Ask to be content with and appreciate everything in life. If you do this, everything else will take care of itself.” The man did this, and was happy for the rest of his life (from Anthony de Mello, Walking on Water).
When we learn to be content with what we have, and to appreciate it and be thankful, it is amazing how much we begin to sense God all around us. We see life as full of blessings instead of woes. We see life as full of God instead of misery. We see life as full or possibility instead of impediments. We see life as an opportunity to take what we have and share it with others.
So, let me end with a question. How is God going to judge you when you die?
As a rich fool, or as a foolish giver?
Amen.
