The Sermon Text —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 toward God."

Not long ago I was meeting with a person who had just read the New Testament for the first time. I asked her what surprised her. Her answer was quick and decisive. "I have been surprised that Jesus didn’t talk more about religion. I thought that was what the Bible was about. Instead, he talks most of the time about things that happen every day."

I said, "What do you mean by religion?"

She said, "You know – churchy stuff –when to go and what to do when you go."

The woman was right. Jesus didn’t talk a lot about religion. He talked about God. He talked about faith. He didn’t talk a lot about church, or churchy things. Neither did Paul. For Jesus, faith was about how we live our lives, how we deal with life issues, such as people, friendships, business, health, children, food and money, that which consumes our time and energy every day.

Health is very important for us and for Jesus. Nearly one third of the stories in the New Testament about Jesus concern health and healing. As in our time, the wealthy had far better access to health care than did the poor in the first century. Jesus changed that. His healing tended to be directed to those whose need was greatest -- the poor. Since it was a major issue for Jesus, it stands to reason that followers of Jesus have an affinity for health concerns. Health Care is not just an economic or physical issue, for Christians it is a spiritual issue. When John’s disciples asked Jesus if he was the Messiah, he answered, "Go, tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, and lepers are cleaned." Healing is kingdom work.

Jesus spoke frequently about friendship. He admonished us to get along with each other, not just those who are good to us, but those who are not. Turning enemies into friends is a major theme, as is being kind to strangers – something we deal with every day.

The New Testament has lots of stories about eating. I believe that only two miracles are reported in all four gospels, the resurrection and the time Jesus fed 5,000 men plus women and children. In the Old Testament God fed the children of Israel in the desert with manna. Jesus fed people with five loaves and two fish. Both were signs of the kingdom. The words of Ghandi could well be the words of Jesus: "Bread for me is a physical problem; bread for my hungry neighbor is a spiritual problem."

Later Paul, who echoed many of the teachings of Jesus, made a similar point. When the congregation in Corinth was gathering for a meal, some of them ate while others did not, Paul told them they were rupturing the body of Christ. In essence he said, "We are all one family. We all fast or we all eat. If you don’t understand sharing your bread, you will not understand the grace of God."

Jesus taught about marriage, and its importance. He also spoke about the place of children in God’s world. Inviting children to be a part of God’s family is a kingdom issue. Here is what he said, Let the little children come, and don’t forbid them, for such belongs the kingdom of God. Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall not enter it. Our attitude toward children reflects our attitude toward God.

As you can see the concern of Jesus was for issues that define our lives. Money is one of those. Jesus talks more about money than he does about sex. The church reverses that. Jesus believes that our attitude toward money is as crucial as our attitude toward prayer. Both shape our relationship with God. Prayer has to do with our communication with God. Money has to do with our priorities. If we have our priorities all mixed up, then it is very difficult to connect with God.

Jesus is not opposed to people having money. He is opposed to our letting money dominate our lives. In and of themselves material possessions are reflections of creation. They all come from a gracious God. Jesus calls the rich farmer in our story a fool not because he tries to increase his holdings, but because he allows himself to believe that life is better because he has more. He says to his soul, "Man, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made. Now you can retire and live the good life." "Life," Jesus said, "does not consist in the abundance of our possessions."

Wealth is seductive. It makes you believe that you are smarter, than you really are. It makes you believe that you are secure. Wealth is suppose to take care of you, but people with large amounts of wealth often find the tables are reversed. They have to take care of their money. Wealth changes the way we order our lives. It too frequently causes us to see the world distorted, like a funny mirror at a carnival.

Our possessions do not give security. They cannot protect us or comforts us. The moment we begin to think we have it made because we have things, God says: YOU FOOL. That form of wealth is idolatrous. Consider the lives of such wealthy women as Paris Hilton, Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan. How secure are they?

This past week we all spent a good deal of time reading and watching how Minneapolis responded to the collapse of the I-35W bridge. Life gets sorted out in a hurry doesn’t it? I suspect that the folks standing near the bridge didn’t spend a lot of time talking about their salaries, or their investments.

I found myself thinking of 9-11 all over again. There were many similarities. One of them was that for all the tragedy, there were some amazingly positive stories that surfaced. A large number of heroes emerged. A policewoman on her day off made numerous underwater trips looking for people. Police, red cross workers, medical personnel sprinted to the scene to do what they could, and ordinary citizens.

The one who caught my attention was the day camp counselor, Jeremy Hernandez, whose "quick thinking" made the difference on that school bus full of children. One mother said, "I don't know what he was thinking. It must have been something really good." Jeremy busted open the backdoor of the bus and told everyone to get out.

A truck driver, Gary Babineau was driving a truck in front of the bus when the collapse occurred. After recovering from his momentary shock, Babineau climbed out of his truck and rushed to help the kids in the school bus behind him. Babineau and others on the bridge picked up a few of the children and carried them to a safe distance."We didn't know at the time if they could walk, and we didn't want to chance it at the time that they might have a broken bone," he said.

The day the bridge went down I had been studying this Bible lesson. All day I had been reading these words, "Life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions." The whole world seemed to agree.

Money is a gift from God. It is a gift that is intended to help us do such important things as love, care, and celebrate with others. It is, however, a gift that belongs to the lower order. Paul writes to the people in Colossae, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth."

We need money to live, but it should not be our all consuming desire. It is not a gift from above. That means money doesn’t last, nor do the things it can purchase. They will either corrode or rust. Nor does money save us, or renew us. God saves and renews.

Our future is secure not because we own a lot of stuff, but because Christ loves us, forgives us, and claims us as his own. Our security is not in things, but in our families, and our friendships.

A reminder to all of you Harry Potter fans...this same point is made in the Harry Potter series. What really matters is not the gold that is stored in Gringotts. What really matters is love, friendship, loyalty, laughter, joy, and family. Mother-love is far more important than gold. Not only do the good guys have loving mothers – Lily Potter gives her life to save her son, and Molly Weasley, the mild manner mother of the large Weasley clan, turns into a mother bear when the lives of her children are threatened. There is no surprise there, but we discover that even Narcissa Malfoy – who belongs to a sinister family – risks her master’s wrath to save her son.

Was Jesus rich or poor? It depends on how we define rich, right? Mark tells us he had a home (Mark 2:1). His real wealth was the love of his mother, his heavenly Father who saved him, and his friends. Equally important, he lived with a purpose. In other words, he had the essentials. He allowed the mysterious, always surprising will of God to be the center of his existence. He devaluated money by giving it away and teaching others to do the same.

If we find his life not only attractive, but life giving, if we want the peace and contentment he had, then we are invited to emulate his quiet way, a way that doesn’t count wealth with a calculator. Amen

 © 2007