Move Lightly

Sermon for Proper 13  August 4-5 2007  CtK Move – Lightly  Luke 12:13-21

Greeting

Leisurely. Large. Loaded.

snapshot of today’s average American: Statistical Abstract of the United States for 2007.

          1300 page report by the US Census Bureau

What does it reveal?

We’re media saturated.

          10 hours a day:  watching TV, surfing, reading or listening to music

It adds up quickly.

We’re fat.

          2/3 are overweight

          1/3 medically obese

Contrast with the WHO – estimate that 1/3 well fed, 1/3 underfed, 1/3 starving

Mission Trip in 2006 to Cambodia.

          Fat Water:  There no one will drink bottled water

          Americans don’t drink the tab water – brown – looks and smells gross

          They won’t drink bottled – because they believe it makes us fat!

The census report notes:

We drink an average of a gallon of sada week

½ gallon each of milk, bottled water, coffee & beer

That would be half the daily calorie allowance

It adds up quickly.

We’re rich.

          ½ of US household owned stocks & mutual funds in 2005.       

          Good news – people are saving

                   Yet still a contrast when 1 in 6 live on less than $1 a day

          Average American net worth in 2000 144,000

          Avg Indian 1,100  - Indonesian 1,400

Another examples

2004     American bought 2.1 billion pairs of imported shoes (7 pairs per man,w,child)

Or

13 billion was spent by US and European Union on Perfume – would satisfy the sanitation and food requirements.

It adds up Quickly!

The report makes the average American look like the a fat, rich fool.

Of course, I think we have trouble seeing ourselves in this information.

We think of ourselves as poor, not that fat and wise!

Unless the Census Bureau is lying to us, we must realize that we are the most over consuming people on God’s earth.

We’re a culture of stuffed bodies and barns.

Wait - Stuffed barns. Where have we heard that before?

Oh, right. In this text, right here where Jesus takes up the issue of greed and accumulation after someone asks him to play arbitrator in a family inheritance squabble (v. 13).

Jesus then tells the story of a rich man – so much in the harvest

He says – I will build larger barns

He does it – ready to kick back

God comes . .. well you know the story.

I think if we are honest – this parable makes us just a little bit uncomfortable.

We think of the rich man as Donald trump or Bill Gates, yet according the research – this man is really much more like you and me.  He is 30lbs overweight and watching TV on a new plasma set with high def!

The parable is about us – isn’t it?

That’s why it is more comfortable if the rich man is Gates or Trump.

OK – think with me for just a minute what has been one of the fastest growing businesses in the US?  What is going up faster than walmarts?  U store its!  - Aren’t they really off-site barns to store our stuff in?

Isn’t the American dream really the myth of acquisition?

This led to a whole bunch of questions – questions I am not sure I want to answer:

When is the last time you could not afford something you needed and not just wanted?

How many times have you been unable to provide a meal to their families for the day?

Have you ever struggled to buy a gift for someone who seems to have everything?

Or have you ever caught yourself being envious of the nicer car, home or clothes of someone else when you aren’t lacking any of those things?

I can stop with the philosophical questions now – can’t I?

Ok – how about some more focus on the text.

          How about the word greed?

The greek dictionary says “(1) "A strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions or to possess more things than other people have, all irrespective of need." The word is usually translated with greed, avarice, or covetousness.

If greed is a desire to get more -- then there is never a point where a greedy person has enough. Greed can never be satisfied. It is always looking to get more.

Note also that Paul, using related words, calls greed "idolatry": (Ep 5:5, Co 3:5)

During all the furor over "The Church and Human Sexuality" draft from the ELCA, a pastor suggested to his  adult study class, that what may be just as needed is a statement on "The Church and Human Greed." What would such a statement say? There certainly are more biblical texts about greed than about human sexuality (especially homosexuality). Some relevant texts and brief comments on human greed.

The issue it seems isn’t the stuff – having stuff isn’t evil

          Our challenge becomes when it is like an addiction – we must have more!

A lot of our storing up of treasures starts in our keeping up with the Joneses. We must choose to reject comparisons that lead to desires for the newer and nicer.

In Death by Suburb, Christian author David L Goetz discusses how comparison fuels accumulation in the suburban life: “The suburbs seem to promote a kind of vigilance on the possessions of others. It seems to be more than just good old-fashioned coveting … it’s ubiquitous, heightened vigilance — roving eyes, like a sentinel — eternally on point to compare myself to those I perceive have more than I do. I’m always weighing my immortality symbols against others.”

This is what Jesus is warning against when he says to “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed” (v. 15). He knows the appetite for more is subtle, so he says be intentional in looking out for it.

The Western life of success and excess needs a theological adjustment. The problem with the rich fool in this parable is not that he was wealthy or that he had a great harvest. The problem is that he did not understand the spiritual reality behind all he had. He’s like Sean in Boiler Room, the movie (see below), who says that he has a strong work ethic, but no ethics in his work.

The Bible is consistent in the theme that:

• we are given to — so that we might give to others;
• we are blessed — so that we might be a blessing;
• we are loved — so that we might love;
• we are reconciled — so that we might reconcile;
• we are forgiven — so that we might forgive.

The problem with greed and accumulation is that rich fools — then and now — forget that blessings are intended to be used to bless others.

Our well-fed, sedentary, affluent lifestyle can lead us away from being “rich toward God” (v. 21). But the message of Jesus is that we are blessed to be a blessing. Leave the bigger barns to the rich fools of the parables and the rich fools of the census and commit to being better at sharing than at storing

Florence Ferrier about a social worker in poverty-stricken Appalachia. It's called "We Ain't Poor!

The Sheldons were a large family in severe financial distress after a series of misfortunes. The help they received was not adequate, yet they managed their meager income with ingenuity -- and without complaint.

One fall day I visited the Sheldons in the ramshackle rented house they lived in at the edge of the woods. Despite a painful physical handicap, Mr. Sheldon had shot and butchered a bear which strayed into their yard once too often. The meat had been processed into all the big canning jars they could find or swap for. There would be meat in their diet even during the worst of the winter when their fuel costs were high.

Mr. Sheldon offered me a jar of bear meat. I hesitated to accept it, but the giver met my unspoken resistance firmly. "Now you just have to take this. We want you to have it. We don't have much, that's a fact; but we ain't poor!"

I couldn't resist asking, "What's the difference?" His answer proved unforgettable.

"When you can give something away, even when you don't have much, then you ain't poor. When you don't feel easy giving something away even if you got more'n you need, then you're poor, whether you know it or not."

I accepted and enjoyed their gift and treasured that lesson in living. In time, I saw it as a spiritual lesson, too. Knowing that all we have is provided by the Father, it seems ungracious to doubt that our needs will be met without our clinging to every morsel.

When I feel myself resisting an urge to share what's mine -- or when I see someone sharing freely from the little he has -- I remember Mr. Sheldon saying, "We ain't poor!"

We are challenged by Jesus to move into the world – for the sake of mission – and everything that leads us astray, distracts or weighs down must be shed -  Yet the shedding of these things is nothing compared to the blood shed for us – for life.

CHILDREN’S MESSAGE—Treasures—So my question for you today is, “Do you have any treasures?” What are they? (take some ideas) So we have some treasured toys, a couple of bikes, a swing set, and a big bin of Legos. What else? What’s most valuable for you in your life? (take some more ideas) Yes...when we think about it, what we really treasure are people, experiences, and relation­ships. That’s the stuff that makes our lives rich and full. That’s the stuff that makes us rich toward God, because God gave us one another. Let’s pray. (Pray with the kids and sing the children’s song together as they return to their seats.)