Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Happy Father's Day.
Please pray with me, God, our Eternal Father, who made earth and in all it contains today we thank you for the gift of fathers and the men who have fathered us as mentors and guides.
Amen.
The reading is from Proverbs 28:25 and Luke 12:13 21. You can follow along in your pew Bible his proud heart stirreth up strife but he pulleth his trust in the Lord, shall make me fat.
And one of the company said unto him, master, speak to me, brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.
And he said unto him, man, who made me the judge or the divider over you?
And he said unto them, take heed and beware of covenants, for the man's life can covet not in abundance of things which he possessed.
And he spoke a parable unto them, saying, the ground of the certain rich man brought forth plentiful.
And he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruit.
And he said, this will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will bestow all my fruits and my goods.
And I will say, my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years taking thy ease.
Eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee.
Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?
So is he that delayeth of treasure for him, and is not rich towards God.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thank be to God.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: This is the second in a sermon series on the seven deadly vices or sins.
And grateful to have Linda Pecor, Pam King, and also Josiah Marroquin preaching sermons. In this series, we'll be examining not only the vice or sin among those seven deadly vices or sins, we'll also be looking at the alternative to that. What constitutes a life free from that vice, you might say. And if you want to read a book to accompany this sermon series, I can recommend one. One first recommended to me by Pam King, It's Elizabeth Oldfield's work fully tending to the soul in turbulent times.
She explores each of the classic vices or sins, and then for each of them, she outlines some virtue or practice or way of being that marks a soul not trapped in a vice, but one fully alive.
One's life or soul. Depending on how you translate Zoe, one's life life consists of more than an abundance of possessions. That's how Jesus words are translated in your pew Bibles. A life does not consist of Merely an abundance of possessions, he warns. And if that's what you think will make you fully alive, you're chasing fool's gold. Don't let greed deceive you, he warns. Don't let it creep into your heart and mind. Remember, your life, your soul, are so much more than an abundance of possessions.
More than 50 years ago, the American environmental scientist Donella Meadows noted the damage, unrestrained production and marketing of consumer goods not only posed for the environment, but for people's psychological state.
She wrote, people need identity, community, challenge, acknowledgement, love and joy.
To try to fill those needs with material things is to set up an unquenchable appetite for false solutions to real and never satisfied problems.
Or, as Jesus put it hundreds of years later, in this story from Luke's Gospel, your soul or life, or Zoe, is more than merely an abundance of possessions. If you look to possessions to fill it, you will come up and empty.
And as Jesus so often does, he tells a parable to illustrate his point. He says, there once was a rich man who owned land, and the land produced such a great yield he didn't know where to store it all. And he thought to himself, what should I do, for I have no place to store my crops Already, Already.
This story is tragic. Even before the man loses his life, do you notice who he's talking to here? He's talking to himself.
A question like that, what do I do with this abundance of goods that should have support and wisdom and a community, a neighborhood, a sense of God's will, all of that should surround a person in wrestling with that big a question. But instead we see a man already at the very beginning of Jesus story, who's so estranged from God, from neighbor, from his community, that he has only himself to talk to.
The issue of greed, we note, it doesn't just impact the self, which it does here, it also impacts that self's relationship with neighbor and God and creation from which that abundance came. We see in the story a man severed from that Thomas Aquinas once wrote how greed is a sin directly against one's neighbor, since one person cannot overabound in external riches without another person lacking them.
And years before Aquinas, the Greek philosopher Plato presented greed or pleonexia. That's the word used in today's passage from Luke. Greed or pleonexia, he wrote, was the very opposite of justice.
Justice, he wrote, was each person getting their due, everyone getting their due. And the reason greed or pleonexia challenged that is it focused attention on just one person's. Wants and needs and desires and ignored, then justice. And justice is what should mark a vibrant society.
You notice who else the man doesn't consult with in today's passage as he thinks of what to do with this abundance of riches. He doesn't consult with his neighbor, and he doesn't pray.
He doesn't look to God. He doesn't say God. I'm wrestling with this question. Would you help me? Maybe? Could you reveal to me a sense of your guidance, of your will, of your presence in this?
No. This man doesn't have neighbor or God or even family in his consciousness.
We hear him have a dialogue with himself, Self. The rich man says, what should I do for I have no place to store all my crops? Well, the man's self replies, why don't you just pull down your barns and make bigger ones? Oh, the self replies, that's a great idea. Okay, why don't we do it? And it's this community that isn't a community.
It's one person.
But then the self says, then I can say to you, self, that you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat and drink and be merry.
But is that a life?
Is that a life? Study after study shows that human beings don't thrive in isolation. We're social creatures, I would argue. We're spiritual creatures. We need meaning, purpose, a sense of our source, of what we're about, and of who made us and why we thrive in rich relationship with others, community, with creation and with our God. And if this person has only the hope of himself to enjoy riches with, what kind of life, Zoe? What kind of a soul is that?
This is a painting that many believe is Rembrandt's depiction of the rich man of Luke 12. And I love how Rembrandt imagines this rich man in isolation. The man has stockpiles of possessions and coins below him and fancy clothing. But his right hand, which we presume has been using to grasp at material goods, now blocks the light from shining on anything but those possessions. All he sees is stuff, and yet that stuff has formed a kind of wall around him, leaving the world outside his vision in darkness. What a lonely portrait Rembrandt paints and that Jesus painted in telling this story.
Long before Rembrandt, this Russian artist, painted this depiction of the plight of the rich man. Up in the right, to the left, are workers on the fields. And up in the far corner, up to the left, is a depiction of the God of creation.
We see the man on the right with plenty of Possessions with wealth, with plenty of food, with fine clothing. But he is alone, separated by that gray wall. And over there are people who are working the land. And yes, we can see them bending over the weight of that work, but they still have community.
They're out in creation. God is up in the sky looking down on them. And the man is alone, separate from that vibrant life and that mix of relationships right outside his door. And yet it is on those relationships he doesn't seem to recognize. He is dependent.
The man's a tragic figure long before his life comes to an end.
The American painter Jim Jagnett from Austin, Texas, imagined the parable this way. He pictured all sorts of consumer goods on the outside or frame of the picture. And then inside, we see two different homes. On the left is a rich man with only death as his companion, and a kind of desert landscape around a huge house, but no community, no vibrant Zoe or life. And to the right is a much smaller home, but in it we see the light and riches of community.
A contrast that artist seems to say, this looks more like life, not an abundance of possessions.
Now, I'll be the first person to tell you, there are a whole host of material goods that a person, a family, actually needs to go about their life today.
There really are things that we need.
After losing my house and belongings to the Eaton fire, I realized immediately, oh, wow, I've now got two articles of clothing. I have the clothes that I was wearing when that happened. Black jeans and a long sleeve shirt and gray shoes. And I had my clergy robe because it survived. It was in my office, and I thought, yeah, sure, I could wear that clergy robe out to the grocery store.
I could wear it to the gym, I could wear it on a hike, but it would get in the way, and it might just draw a little attention to me that I might not necessarily be looking for. I needed clothing, and not only did I need clothing, but I needed a fair amount of clothing. You know, you need your church clothes, you need your work clothes, you need your workout clothes. There's a variety of different clothes that we need. I was asked to officiate wedding. I thought, oh, wow, I need a suit. There actually are a number of items of clothing that we need, and I'm so grateful for those who passed on clothing to me. I'm grateful, I have to say, to Nordstrom Rack, who had a discount for fire survivors. And I would often see another pastor there, Harlan Redmond, who was also taking advantage of that alongside me. We got to build up our wardrobes together.
But I'll tell you, as I have been rebuilding my wardrobe even this morning, I'm now starting to witness in my own heart and frankly, in my closet, what I experienced before the fires. And that is, yes, I have needs when it comes to clothing, real needs. But at what point am I veering into that fraught terrain that has been called stuffication, too muchness, or what Jesus and Plato referred to as pleonexia, that is avarice or greed, of having too much above and beyond what I need and that could benefit my neighbor. Instead, be on guard. Jesus warns against all kinds of pleonexia, a good word for me in a time of rebuilding and reaccumulation to remember what life is about. And it's not an abundance of possessions in my closet, though some is absolutely necessary. Elizabeth Oldfield observes that the thrust of Scripture's teaching on money and material goods is simply that they represent a useful tool, but a terrible master.
Possessions, financial wealth, great tool, terrible master.
So how do we keep these tools from becoming our master? How do we acknowledge and honor our needs while at the same time following Jesus's call to guard against all kinds of greed?
And to answer that question, we have the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have the good news proclaimed by our Savior, that the kingdom of heaven has come near. And that kingdom is like a field where things thousands gathered and bread and fish are distributed to all, so that not only does everyone have need, but there are baskets of goods that are left over afterwards. It looks like a lavish wedding to which people are invited. And even those out on the street are welcomed in even the down and out. It looks like the chief tax collector in Jericho named Zacchaeus, who climbs a sycamore tree when Jesus was coming to town. And when Jesus calls him by name and says, zacchaeus, I'm staying at your house tonight. What does Zacchaeus do up on that sycamore tree? He says, I will give half my possessions to the poor and repay anyone. I've cheated four times that amount.
And Jesus says at that moment, salvation, salvation has come to this house.
Zacchaeus wealth no longer distanced himself from his neighbor, including that neighbor he had cheated. Now he was introduced to life with Christ. Life with a savior who knows us by name, life with others, marked by relationships of redistribution, of sharing and cherishing the bonds of community. Zacchaeus has this epiphany atop a sycamore tree, a tie to God's gracious gift of creation.
He sees what he has if he just receive it. Community with those People he had separated himself from with his fraudulent practices and over accumulation. Rich community with the Savior who's come to town and said I'm staying at your house now. Zacchaeus knows life abundant.
Elizabeth Oldfield tells of a prayer she speaks over and over again and I offer it to you. She prays. God help me receive the gifts I have already been given. God help me receive the gifts I have already been given.
What are those gifts? Life with Christ.
Life with one another as a community. Life with our neighbor that we are called to bless and that can in turn bless us. The goodness of creation, breath in our lungs. All of this is ours, God. May we have eyes to see it. And failing to recognize it, failing to see what the gift represents. That it seems to me, is where greed can creep in and we think, oh, I can fill it with these material goods and that can leave us lost and alone.
Some of you know, my daughter Lucy is spending this summer in New York City and I'm thrilled she's going to get that picture, that experience of New York City. Frankly, I'm kind of hoping it will make her want to return to la, that it won't be so wonderful. But we'll see.
But I was struck and deeply saddened by this story of a New York City resident called George Ball, a story that was featured in the New York Times.
This is the apartment of George Ball, apartment 23 on the 79th street building in Queens.
When George died, nobody knew about it for days.
A Neighbor finally called 911 when he noticed a smell coming from the apartment. Police tried unsuccessfully to locate any family or friends and not one person could be found.
Stuffication.
Stuffication is a term coined by James Walman to describe how possessions can literally suffocate us, close us off from life.
Maybe that's why life, Jesus says, does not consist of an abundance of possessions.
What would have made the story of this rich man more like that of Zacchaeus? What would have given it a happy ending of salvation and connection with others is had this rich man recognized what he already had and a practice that could help this rich man, that can help us today in living in to those relationships God has given us with God, one another with the earth is that simple age old practice of generosity.
Generosity. Had the rich man in Jesus parable used just some of those possessions to benefit others, he would have known instead how sharing that can build the stuff of Zoe, of the soul of life, giving that's part of life, abundant. It's like letting go of material capital and Then receiving in turn, social capital, rich connections and that.
That's the good stuff.
The other day I went biking from the Santa Fe Dam recreation area. And while it was great to be outside and travel along the San Gabriel River, I also realized how fun it was to do that on a bike. I had been given.
Rex and Kate McDaniels had given me a bike after the fires and it was awesome. It was a nicer bike than frankly I've ever had, than even before the fires. But then to think about them as I rode.
I received a mandolin after the fires from a musician, Joel Parkman, also a deacon who also lost instruments to the fire. He received this mandolin from a musician's benevolence fund. He passed it on to me. Chess is enjoying it right now, but Chess, I'm looking for that back now. I need my mandolin. I got one in the office, but I need that second. So I'll look forward to receiving that. I promise to keep sharing it. If you want to borrow a mandolin, please let me know.
Oldfield describes this kind of circle of generosity that she knows at her church as a kind of crowbar for the hard crust of stuff I'm always attempting to armor myself with that regular practice of giving away helps us remember, oh, that's the good stuff.
Not just this stuff we hold.
And I'll leave you with a practice that Oldfield said was game changing in her own life.
She talks about that challenge we all face of navigating what do I actually need? And we have needs and when am I veering into greed? And a helpful tool, she notes for self examination, for trying to examine her own conscience in life and to do that in community. She lifts up is that ancient Christian practice of tithing.
She notes how tithing helps her keep her eye on the expansionist tendencies of her concept of need, how that can grow if we're not careful. Giving a tenth of her household's income to charity is a kind of exercise of those generosity muscles.
If I believe myself to be a generous person, she thinks maybe tithing is a good way to examine that. Am I actually being as generous as I think I am? And if not, time to get in shape, time to get to the gym.
And she also notes how tithing gives her a stake in and with community.
She writes, our tithe pays for the practical things we need as a church. Staff, salaries, maintaining the building, covering the bills. It also helps fund the parents and toddlers group, the debt advice center and the food bank.
Some goes toward a local knife crime prevention charity. And refugee support and the practice of giving as a community alongside others also contributing feels important.
It makes it less about me, oldfield writes, and my virtue, and more about a family, a household trying to be oriented outward.
We feel a collective sense of ownership to this thing we're all supporting. And because it's in theory based on a percentage, not an amount, the poorest are doing their part as much as the richest.
Well, friends, may you know and enjoy the riches of what you've already been given.
May you know the wealth of life with Christ life present now by the power of the Holy Spirit. May you know community with others as the Church Christ has given us. May you know the gift of your neighbor you're called to bless and can be a blessing in turn to you. May you know the abundance of creation we're called to enjoy and called to protect. And with whatever goods or monetary riches you may possess, may you know the abundant life marked by the very opposite of pleonexia. May you know the riches, the riches of a life marked by generosity that is life abundant. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, amen.
