All or Nothing, or Some
Text: Luke 12:13-21
Title: All or Nothing, or Some?
Thesis: Jesus warns us of greed and self-security, which draw us away from living in the kingdom of God.
Time: Christmas Eve, C
Think about all the material goods you own. Now, if you had to give up one of your possessions, what would you give up? A seminary professor posed that challenge to our class one time. After a few minutes for us to ponder, he then invited us go around the room and tell the class what we would give up. There were several common answers, “I would have a hard time giving up my house. Being homeless would be difficult.” “My car –I don’t know how I could give up my car and still get to work and the grocery store and other places that I need to go.” One student said he would have a hard time giving up his fishing boat as he loved to fish. We all have possessions we can’t seem to do without, be it a roof over our heads or a car to drive so we can get from place to place. Some possessions make life more enjoyable, like a fishing boat.
I saw a bumper sticker on a car recently that critiques the consumerism of many Americans. It read, “Born, Consume, Die,” as if the three facts of life are to be born, to consume things, and then to die. In thinking of that bumper sticker, it’s true we are consumers. There’s a reason why businesses spend a lot of money on advertising to promote their products. But as humans we consume more than fast food hamburgers and computers from electronic stores. What else do we consume? We consume knowledge. We consume love. We consume friendship and companionship. We consume the experiences of life and the emotions of happiness and joy, and sorrow and laughter.
In Luke 12, Jesus points out that as consumers our first priority is not to consume the things of the world. Rather, we are to first pile high a mound of heavenly riches. Jesus says in verse 20, “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?’” That is when you die, what happens to all your earthly possessions? You don’t take them to heaven when you die. You never see a U-Haul following a hearse. Jesus then goes on, “So it with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
What leads Jesus to say this is he is teaching a large crowd about how God takes care of our earthly needs. Not to worry, for God will provide. It gets a man in the crowd to thinking. My brother owes me a lot of money. When dad died, he didn’t even give me one red cent. I’m entitled to something, why should he get all the inheritance, just because he’s the oldest son. I’ve worked just as hard as he did, I’m entitled to something. He speaks up in verse 13, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” How does Jesus respond? He gives a parable about accumulating earthly possessions that ends with his, “What happens to all the stuff when we die? We don’t take it with us. Instead, we should have as top priority the things of heaven.
A lady by the name of Leslie Hindman once had as a job divvying out people's possessions after they passed away. She was the president of a large Midwestern auction firm. Each year she auctioned off millions of dollars worth of decorative arts and home furnishings from the estates of the wealthy. She sold everything from expensive luxury cars to original Van Gogh paintings to antique black lacquered desks that sold at the pound of the auctioneer’s gavel for tens of thousands of dollars. Nevertheless, auctioning off expensive possessions made material things one of the least of her priorities. She said in an interview, “I see people fighting about their stuff all the time. You realize life is not about possessions.” She had several experiences in her career that led her to disdain material things. Once she was hired to hold an auction in the modest home of a suburban family whose mother had recently died. At the auction, the siblings bid against each other for their mother’s humble possessions, scarcely exchanging a word to one another. Their mother’s possessions she left behind divided the family. It sound’s something like this man who speaks out to Jesus, “Tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”
In another situation, Hindman auctioned off the belongings of an elderly woman who saved everything, but had no children to whom to leave her possessions. The woman had a lifetime of diaries, Hindman tried to donate the diaries to historical societies, but none wanted them . . . she saved them for a couple of years but finally threw them out. The woman sounds something like the person in Jesus’ parable who spends a lifetime accumulating, building bigger barns, saving more for the years to come. And what of her worldly possessions? Hindman concluded in her interview, “I save absolutely nothing.”
There is in Jesus’ response to the man who asks for his share of the inheritance something about the greed that creeps in when our eyes are fixated on worldly goods. Jesus even says in verse 15, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Of course there are some people who are hard-nosed, Mr. Scrooge type persons who care only about themselves and greed is what they can collect for themselves. But there are some for whom greed happens more subtly. It happens to them when they forget their potential and their place in the kingdom of God, and instead fixating on what they can gain in the world, or how much they can accumulate to make their lives more secure.
For example, Stephen Boyd in his book The Men We Long To Be [p. 20] tells a true story about a successful lawyer who he calls Bob. Bob first enters college with the dream of some day becoming a social-work lawyer. Bob is told, if he really wants to make a difference, then he needs to become a junior partner and then a senior partner. After a career of higher paying advances the dream of social-work law slips further and further away, taking Bob away from fulfilling his dream. Boyd writes how Bob breaks down in a men’s meeting, feeling totally alienated from his wife, his dream of being a social-work lawyer, and feeling his missed out on his life’s dream. Greed is something pushed on us from the world’s perspective. The world has little concept of a God who becomes human and sacrifices and dies for others. The world has little concept of a Jesus who tells his followers to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow him. The world has little concept of people who live to serve others, even at the expense of giving up some of their own worldly possessions so others can have enough, too. The world has little concept of heavenly treasures, that are eternal, never rust or fade or decay.
Today, we can keep our priorities on kingdom treasures. As we give of our prayers, our presence, our gifts and our service we are keeping our priorities in check. As we do our part to ensure the people of our community, our city, our state and our world have enough so that they can also live, we are keeping our priorities in check. Today, let us have the mindset Jesus taught that God will provide what we need. And let us not become distracted, thinking of earthly things. Instead, let us stay focused on the treasures that yet await us, piling higher and higher as we live as God’s people.