8th Sunday After Pentecost
S. Pentecost 8.22 “Build Back Bigger?” Luke 12:13-21
I knew this guy (it was back in the 80’s) who won some sorta speech contest at college. It was one of those old, east-coast, high-tone finishing schools with a name mildly impressive to the easily impressed. Back then, the guy had a girlfriend (lovely girl, whom he later married). But the girl’s mother did not think highly of her daughter’s beau—though he came from a good family that had some money. Nor did his future mother-in-law think much of the school my friend attended—because it didn’t have a business program or an engineering school (like NC State does 😉 mom thought it was all flash and no substance, and that the young man (though undeniably charming, and kinda cute) would amount to little studying dusty, old books in obscure dead languages with practically zero relevance to the problems of a modern world where engineering and business are the only courses a promising young man can plausibly pursue.
The speech contest the guy won was somewhat prestigious, I suppose, and had a cash prize that amounted to about a year’s college tuition. Nothing to sneeze at, but nothing you could retire on, either. Still, his girlfriend thought perhaps this achievement would impress her mother, make her think more highly of her boyfriend’s prospects.
Her mother kinda sniffed at the news. “Hmm. That’s nice, dear. What’s he going to do with the money?” The girl had not anticipated this line of questioning. She paused, then admitted, reluctantly, “Uhm, well… so far, he’s just bought a lot of CDs” At this, the girl’s mother’s countenance brightened, considerably. She went, “Well, dear; CDs are a good investment” (it was the 80’s. CDs—Certificates of Deposit—paid about 8% interest a year). “That’s nothing to sniff at; encouraging to hear.” The girl frowned and replied, “Uh, no, mom; not those kind of CDs—Compact Disc CD’s; they’re records!—mostly Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and a pretty good chunk of the Rolling Stones’ back catalog from the early 70’s.”
And mom’s low impression of her future son-in-law was… confirmed, and, I don’t think, ever has recovered…
Now, undoubtedly, my friend’s mother-in-law would have had a much higher opinion of the gentleman Jesus tells us about in our Gospel this morning. A practical man, pursuing something useful—like farming, real estate, and commodities—and doing extremely well for himself and his family (he had, I believe, both an engineering degree from State and an MBA ;-). And he was doing so well for himself and his family, that the only question keeping him up at night was how to store and wisely invest all his loot…
I’m fairly sure my friend’s mother-in-law would have endorsed the “build back bigger [barns] program our rich gentleman pursues in our Gospel today. I think most, today, would find this guy’s strategy completely admirable (commodities, real estate are good hedges on inflation, right?). Anyway; a highly marriageable man for our daughters. (“Fathers, be good to your daughters/ daughters will love like you do…”)
But, what is Jesus’ view of the “build back bigger” [barns] approach to wealth management? Hmm…? He does not seem quite as impressed with the guy as my friend’s mother-in-law…
Yes, it’s a sound strategy, insofar as it allows the man to relax for many years, eat, drink, travel, and be merry. The good life every right thinking American longs for. But God says to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Ouch! Harsh! Jesus!
I have my doubts about Jesus, sometimes, I must confess to you. Passages like this make me wonder about him—whether he really is an American? If he understands and fully appreciates the American Way life, the city set on a hill and all that? American Exceptionalism. Capitalism—its bountiful glories. Property rights. The Constitution. Baseball. Free Agency. So many fine, American things Jesus doesn’t seem exactly jiggy about…
Maybe you have your doubts about Jesus, too, but you’re afraid to voice them? Afraid you might look bad? Well, have no fear. This is a safe place. You’re among friends here; plus, I’m a trained professional representative of Jesus. I can explain all these worries away—if you need me to…
I mean, Abraham was a very rich dude; a shrewd, uh… negotiator as we heard just last week. He had a shekel or two socked away and knew something about real estate and commodities. David, Solomon, ditto. 1 percenters, all. They made today’s hedge funders look like paupers with limited imaginations and prospects. And God was the one who made America great in the first place and gave us exceptions to all those niggling little rules that bind lesser nations, right?
Uhm, well…
It’s like this: there’s treasure, and then there’s treasure—earthly and heavenly. There’s doing well for yourself and there’s doing well with God. And while there is nothing wrong with the former (the earthly treasures and real estate) they are nothing, compared to the heavenly. And sometimes, they come in conflict…
Jesus says something, somewhere else (I think it’s in the bible?) like: you can’t serve God and mammon (“Whaaat? Pastor! I’m really doubting this guy is an American! He certainly doesn’t sound like a Republican!). He says (actually insists) that you just can’t have two masters. Either mammon is your master or God is Master of your domain…
Now, here’s the thing with Abraham, David, Solomon (also: Peter, James, and John seemed to be doing pretty well for themselves with their fishing business): They seem to have their cake and eat it too; but how? Well, it’s how the deal with the old question: “you can only take one thing with you to a desert island where you’re stranded for God-knows-how-long; so, which will it be: will you take your CDs? Or, your Lutheran Service Book (or a sat phone)?
OK, the sat phone seems practical—because then you can call for help. But… sat phones can be fragile; say it gets bashed, totally ruined in the shipwreck? Then, it’s either CDs (records or investments, your pick) or the hymnal? Here’s the trick: Abraham & Co. don’t think about the question for one second. Because, they don’t take anything to their desert islands! God provides; besides: they have the Divine Service by heart, imprinted on their souls, so they can go anywhere, with no baggage— live in a palace, a hut, desert island. It’s all fine, for them.
‘Cause their treasure’s in heaven and heaven comes to them in the Divine Service every Lord’s Day (and, for them, every day is the Lord’s Day!). Doesn’t matter what shore they wash up on—a tent in Mamre, a palace in Jerusalem, government house Babylon, a hovel in the hinterlands, or the Metropol Hotel. Their treasure isn’t bounded by barns (big or small); even heaven itself can’t contain it…
Here’s what makes them all rich: “something very like adoration: some kind of quite disinterested self-abandonment to an object which securely claimed this by simply being the object it was; as we are taught in the Prayer Book to ‘give thanks to God for his great glory’, as if we owed him more thanks for being what he necessarily is than for any particular benefit he confers upon us…” (Lewis; Surprised by Joy)
So what’s our conclusion? It’s not how much (or how little) stuff you have on earth that makes you rich. The real treasure is heavenly—being right with God, rich toward him. A matter of soul, not mere flesh. My old friend’s treasure wasn’t stuff he had; it’s what he listened to. As for him then, so, now, for you, the music of Heaven plays. I’d get a load of that. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.